James 5:16 Confess your faults one to another

Luther's epistle of straw strikes again. Only, though, if you read it through flesh-colored glasses... ha ha ha...

Jas 5:16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

"Confess your faults one to another" is taken to mean different things.

These church fathers are not on board with the greedy-eyed moralists looking for ammunition against their fellow man:

Augustine, bishop of Hippo:
'Why should I expose the wounds of my soul before men? It is the Holy Spirit who remits sins; man is unable to do so for he stands in the same need or in the same position as he who comes to him for the remedy.'

Chrysostom:
'It is not necessary that anyone should witness your confession. Recognize your iniquities and let God alone, without anyone knowing, hear your repentance. I exhort and entreat you to confess your sins to God. I do not tell you to reveal them to men; God alone sees your heart.
Confess your sins daily in prayer - who can make us doubt to act this way? I do not urge you to go and confess your sins to a man who is a sinner like yourselves, who might despise you if you were to relate to him your faults. But confess them to God who is able to forgive them.'

Basil, bishop of Caesarea:
'I do not make a spectacle before the world to confess with my mouth;
I shut my eyes and make my confession in the privacy of my heart. Only before Thee, oh my God, do I allow my sins to escape. Thou alone art their witness.'

Here's is John Gill on this verse:

"Jas 5:16 Confess your faults one to another,.... Which must be understood of sins committed against one another; which should be acknowledged, and repentance for them declared, in order to mutual forgiveness and reconciliation; and this is necessary at all times, and especially on beds of affliction, and when death and eternity seem near approaching: wherefore this makes nothing for auricular confession, used by the Papists; which is of all sins, whereas this is only of such by which men offend one another; that is made to priests, but this is made by the saints to one another, by the offending party to him that is offended, for reconciliation, whereby a good end is answered; whereas there is none by the other, and very often bad consequences follow."

From another commentary, Jamieson, Fausset, Brown:

"faults — your falls and offenses, in relation to one another. The word is not the same as sins. Mat_5:23, Mat_5:24; Luk_17:4, illustrate the precept here."

Me: I.e. it is not man's business to know if you killed your neighbor's barking dog or if you had an affair with a stewardess or if you, a man, wore women's clothing one night. All such confessions being fodder for every un-self-aware, immature, moralizer in your particular group you are confessing before to revile you silently and openly once they feel they have a justified opportunity to revile you openly.

Lastly, here is Calvin's take which is more nuanced. At first I didn't agree with it, but upon reflection I don't think he is disagreeing with anything written above:

"This passage, I know, is explained by many as referring to the reconciling of offenses; for they who wish to return to favor must necessarily know first their own faults and confess them. For hence it comes, that hatreds take root, yea, and increase and become irreconcilable, because every one perniciously defends his own cause. Many therefore think that James points out here the way of brotherly reconciliation, that is, by mutual acknowledgment of sins. But as it has been said, his object was different; for he connects mutual prayer with mutual confession; by which he intimates that confession avails for this end, that we may be helped as to God by the prayers of our brethren; for they who know our necessities, are stimulated to pray that they may assist us; but they to whom our diseases are unknown are more tardy to bring us help."

What Calvin is saying is it is more than mere offenses to other individuals we should confess to our fellow Christians, it really is our general sins or things we need the prayers of our fellow believers to help us overcome. Yet Calvin doesn't say a person needs to unload the dump truck of their past lives, but in a voluntary way if there is a specific problem let others know so they can pray for you. That's how I read Calvin here.

Ultimately sin is between you and God. Confession to humans always has a self-indulgent aspect to it too, which obviates against the reading of the James verse that says Christians must confess sins to their fellow believers. The word of God does not propose impractical, juvenile behavior.

I will add that confession to other humans also has an inherent dynamic of making deviancy more acceptable in ways that works itself through an immature group subversively. And there really is no such thing as a mature group.