Perspective Can Help
Perspective Can Help
Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
—James 5:16
One very important factor in the equation of success or failure in life begins with the word perspective. That is, how we approach different situations, depending on an accurate (or inaccurate) perspective of what’s occurring. James spoke of two important actions for believers that happen in two different directions and so require two different perspectives. One is the horizontal perspective and the command to “confess your trespasses to one another.” The other is the vertical perspective and the command to “pray for one another.” One action is to be directed outward in the direction of our friends, and the other, upward toward God.
THE HORIZONTAL PERSPECTIVE
When James said we should confess our sins and shortcomings to others, he was not advocating our going from one person to another filling them in on all the sordid details of moments we wish we could redo. In the dispensation of grace in which we now live, we don’t have to go through anyone or to anyone with our sin. We are privileged to be able to go straight to God, through the Lord Jesus Christ, with any and all our needs. However, at times, in order to be right with God, we need to be right with each other. In other words, to be right vertically, we must be right horizontally.
When we sin against God alone, we are to go to Him privately in prayer and ask Him to forgive us. This private confession is for those sins that no one needs to know about. These sins need to be confessed, but only to God.
Sometimes, however, we have sinned against another person. On these occasions we are to go to him or her personally and ask forgiveness. This is personal confession. Jesus said, “If you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift” (Matthew 5:23–24). When we sin against another person, God will lay it on our hearts to make the relationship right. Personal confession can be difficult. Our general tendency is to see the wrong in the other person and often be blind to our own faults. Some of us struggle to admit even to ourselves that we have sinned against another, much less go and admit it to that person. But healing comes when we confess our trespasses to one another. Confession breaks down barriers between us and has a liberating effect on us as much as on the person we wronged.
This horizontal perspective results in horizontal action, specifically confession and restoration, and one of the most vital ministries we believers should practice is the ministry of restoration. (It is, after all, never too late for a new beginning.) As Jesus Himself said, “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother” (Matthew 18:15). And the apostle Paul also called us to look horizontally: “If a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted” (Galatians 6:1). Keeping a horizontal perspective in life will keep us accountable to one another as we journey through this world.
THE VERTICAL PERSPECTIVE
Having called us to confess our sins to one another, James then, in the same sentence, turned our attention from the horizontal to the vertical, saying, “Pray for one another.” One of the highest privileges of the Christian life is to lift our friends before the throne of grace and intercede on their behalf. It is very difficult, if not impossible, to hold something against someone if we are earnestly praying for that person daily. And with the verb tenses, James was indicating that we should make a constant practice of praying for one another.
Praying for one another means consciously seeking God’s will for that person in the circumstances of his or her life. Jesus encouraged us, saying, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7). If we know His will in a matter, we are to simply present a petition. We ask—and His promise is “it will be given to you.”
At certain times we may not be confident about exactly what His will in a matter is. On these occasions we are to press a petition before Him. Jesus said, “Seek.” This is a deeper level of prayer that demands an intense search for God’s will. He does not want to veil His will from us, and He promises that if we keep seeking, we “will find.”
Then at other times we are quite sure of God’s overall will in a matter, but for some reason we do not see the details that will lead us to a specific answer. What are we to do in such times? We are to persist in our petition. We are to knock, and the verb tense indicates we are not to quit; instead, we are to keep on knocking. And, again, we have His promise: “It will be opened to you.”
Perspective is vital in Christian living. And to live a strong and healthy Christian life, we need to be tuned in to relationships on the horizontal plane as well as the vertical.
Just Do It! “Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another.” Sometimes our sins are private in nature. At other times our sins are personal: we have hurt or offended someone else. And sometimes a person is guilty of public sin that damages the entire body of Christ. If your sin is private, keep it that way. There is no need to confess it to anyone else. Simply go to God in repentance and confession, for “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us” (1 John 1:9). If your sin is personal, then confess it not only to God, but also to the person you offended. But you’re not done yet: seek reconciliation. If your sin is public in nature, at times you may need an honest confession and a public apology from a truly repentant heart.
Here is the good news: “The blood of Jesus Christ [God’s] Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7, emphasis added). Remember, it’s never too late for a new beginning!
From the book
