Confession and the Double Minded-Man

“Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed.” (James 5:16)

I recently had a conversation with a friend in which he expressed deep skepticism at the thought of confessing his sins to anyone but God. “God alone can forgive,” he objected. But while I believe God’s forgiveness is an important end of confession, I don’t believe confession is only about forgiveness. Confession, the Christian discipline of admitting sin to another, is also about healing the divide in us. It’s about bringing into one the person that we are and the person we claim to be.

James was written to address this problem. The theme of the Double Minded-Man or what in the Greek he literally calls the two-spirited man plays in almost every passage of this little book. James calls attention to the double-minded man in his introduction, exposing him in those who wrestle between faith and doubt.

James 1:6-8
“But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”

Next James turns to those who claim that God is tempting them to sin. James wants them to make no mistake. Their own duality is what is driving them to sin. “God cannot be tempted by evil, and Himself does not tempt anyone” because unlike us he is One and the same in all his ways.

James 1:17
“Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.”

The theme of our divided selves continues throughout the rest of James.

James 1:22
“But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.”

James 2:1
“My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.”

James 2:14
“What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?”

James 3:10
“From the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? Can a fig tree, my brethren produce olives, or a vineproduce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh.”

James 3:17
“But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy…

James 4:7-8
Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

James 4:12
But above all, my brethren, do not swear either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath; but your yes is to be yes, and your no, no, so that you may not fall into judgment

James statement on confession at the end of his little letter thus becomes extremely important for understanding how we fix the problem of the divided self. Through the act of confession we take an active step in eradicating the divide. Confession wips away our masks and leaves standing naked and exposed before our God who is One and the church who is was made in his image.