FROM THE PASTOR’S HEART
OP / ED BY DR. ROBERT KENNEDY
Some time ago, I read a line in a blog that said, “We do not need to dump off our problems on other people and add to their load.”
This is an excellent piece of advice that everyone needs to heed, but I would say especially by those on social media who hang all their “dirty linens” in public view. One church member who is often on Facebook (Meta) was talking to me, and made me aware that if I want to know the private lives of some of the people I am not hearing from, I can go on Facebook. There, they tell everything without any reserve. Yes, advice is being given these days about “How to create a Facebook Confession Page.” I am not advising it, but this is how it goes.
Step 1: Log in to your Facebook account.
Step 2: Click on Create a page as you create normal pages.
Step 3: Select Cause or Community and then write the name of the page (such as confession).
Step 4: Click on Get Started. Next, you have to update your page cover picture and page profile pic as you wish.
Step 5: Invite your friends and family members to like the page. Everything is done with the Facebook page; you need to link it with the Anonymous form.
Life has changed, one might say; confessions used to be made in the private space, except for cases like the Pharisees, who liked to stand on street corners or in the synagogues shouting their prayers. When Jesus commented on their hypocritical behavior, he instructed, “But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” (Matthew 6:6)
The point is that confessions to God are well-wrought when done in the private spaces of prayer rooms. The change began in the historical the Middle Ages when priesthood power became so all-encompassing that church folks were told to confess all to their priests. The people went with their lists and spoke to the priests at a confessional box through a little window. Then came our contemporary times of the ubiquitous reality TV shows such as Phil Donahue, Oprah Winfrey, Maury Povich, etc., where confessions were/are taken into public view.
In many cases, the confessions consist(ed) of the most bizarre shock dramas in relationships, public rants, fighting, fake tears, etc. The camera cut is/would be done just when viewers are/were at the height of their emotions. People call it being transparent when they “tell all” of what is/would be better if it is/were done in private. But the intent is/has not been to call upon God for repentance and transformation, but to create drama.
Having said the above, we might ask, what did the writer of the book of James mean when he instructed the members of his congregation to “Confess your faults to one another”? (James 5:16). Did he mean the kind of “dramatic tell-all” described on Facebook, social media or Reality TV, or as was/is done in the confessional boxes to priests? Let’s be serious. I do not think he meant that.
To clarify, the instruction or verse in its context is speaking of being in a sick room with an individual weighed down with guilt. Such a one is instructed to confess their sins (which may have caused the sickness) to the elders who are to pray for them so that they may be healed. That is NOT teaching public confessions of sins. It is regrettable that the verse has been taken out of its context and has led to the kind of false practices that are in vogue today.
I suggest that the reading of the text in the King James Version helps to make a distinction between confessing our sins to one another and our faults. Some commentators have argued that “sins” and “faults” are two different words in Greek. The word for “sin” is translated from the word hamartia, while the word for “fault” is paraptoma and is translated as “fault, trespass, offense, fall.” I do not want to make too much of such distinctions, since paraptoma might also be translated as a special kind of sin, but let me argue that “faults” are not “sins”; they are the weaknesses, the propensities that we have that can lead us to fall into the bondage of sin. We do well to make our faults known to our trusted accountability partners who can help to guide us, that is, caution us, correct us, help us, or remind us of the resources that we might use to not fall into sin.
The rule for dealing with a fault is to confess it, and ask God to help us transform it. Do not nurture any fault that might appear in your character.
The rule for the confession of sin, is to confess to God, and if we sin against others, we should make things right and be reconciled with the persons we have directly sinned against by confessing and making it known to them (Matthew 5:23, 22). Get rid of bitterness, grudges, gossip, and other sins of the heart and mouth. The rule of confession to one another is to confess your sin and tell only those who are directly involved as long as it does not cause even more damage to the parties involved. Keep things between yourself and God.
If a sin is private, then handle it privately; if it is public, then handle it publicly. But there is no need to go on TV or Facebook or some other public media to broadcast it. More damage is being done through these public confessions than one might desire.
The bottom line is that we must make sure that our confessions are sincere and get us into the right relationship with those against whom we have sinned. And most significant of all, is to ensure that our relationship with God is right because, in the final analysis, all sins are against God.
