Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
In the larger context of James 5, the passage reads:
Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.
My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
It would appear clear from the passage that we are commanded to confess our sins to each other – but can we? Do we? Are we “allowed to” in the sense that we can actually acknowledge that we are still not yet “perfect” and that we still have sins that we need to confess and from which we need to be cleansed?
In another post, I discussed a recent Keryx ministry weekend at a Michigan prison and a talk that I was assigned to present. In that talk, after much examination of conscience, I confessed a sin to the listeners – 26 prisoners and about 20 volunteers. It was not easy. It was not easy watching men who are friends of mine have their eyes well up with tears as I was confessing. Does not the passage above, though, charge us to do this? So they can pray for me?
Do our churches and our fellowship gatherings allow us opportunity to do this? Without condemnation or fear of reprisal? We read this passage and 
nod in affirmation, but how is our application? Is the Christian given license to sin? of course not. Is the Christian perfect – without sin – as long as he is on earth? No (see 1 John 1:8-10). If we match up the passage from James with the passage from 1 John (and many others, such as Paul stating was still being perfected in Philippians 3), then we all have sin that needs to be confessed and prayed for.
We can tend to be accomplished at shaking our heads and going “tsk, tsk” at another’s sins while denying our own. A regular examination in our own spiritual mirror is a good thing. There seems to be a sense that within the church, these are things we just plain don’t talk about – we will talk about “sins” in very general terms or “my sins” in very general terms. Confession – specific confession – is a whole ‘nother matter. Addressing specific sins in our own lives is indeed not easy, but it is biblical. Do we – the people of God – allow our brothers and sisters to obey the Word of God? James 5:16? 1 Cor. 5 is about those within the church who do not confess and desire to repent and have people pray for them – do we not need to make the avenue for this to actually HAPPEN available?
Confession, prayer and healing. These are good things, right?
