Today’s sermon looks at the final chapter in Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s little book ‘Life Together’, which talks about confessing our sins to each other (James 5:16). While this practice may seem foreign to many Christians today, it is one of the foundations of most revivals throughout history. At the GAFCON conference in Kenya in 2013, delegates were told of the revival taking place in Africa, which was marked by Christians confessing their sins.
Now we may point to how we confess our sins as a congregation every Sunday at Earlwood Anglican. We may also confess our sins privately in our daily prayers. Both practices are good and right for Christians to do; but this is not the kind of confession taking place in the East African Revival. The practice of African Christians has been to confess their sins TO ONE ANOTHER. The revival started, and has been propagated ever since, by Christians finding 1 or 2 other people to read the Bible and pray with regularly. At the same time, they confess their sins to each other, asking for prayer and accountability in fighting their particular sins.
While revivals are first and foremost a work of God, through an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, it makes perfect sense for confession to be a foundational aspect of revivals. Those most passionate about calling people to turn from their Sin are likely to be those who are using every weapon in their armoury to defeat their own sin.
While this practice takes enormous humility and courage, it also helps us take the fight against sin seriously. The last thing Satan wants is for Christians to bring their secret sins out into the light. Let’s take away Satan’s power over us in this by finding 1 or 2 trusted Christian friends that we can mutually confess our sins to, and help each other to put to death the sin in our life.
