Is Confession of Sins to Men Biblical?

Throughout America, Christians are called to confess their sins to each other, as a practical outflow of an accountability group or small group. But is this practice biblical? Why do we confess our sins to each other? One of the main passages used to teach the practice of confessing your sins to your fellow believers, regardless of their involvement in the situation or their being sinned against, is the first part of James 5:16, “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another…” But there is a context to that verse that has been sorely ignored. It is my belief that James is not calling for a general confession of sin between believers on a regular basis but rather that he has limited this confession to those who are sick and to them alone.

James Chapter 5 Notes – Winterim with Dr. Moo

Here’s my notes on the last chapter of James (chapter 5) from my winterim class with Dr. Douglas Moo. You can download them in pdf format or view them in plain text here on the blog.

James Chapter 4 Notes – Winterim with Dr. Moo

Here’s chapter 4 of James from my winterim class with Dr. Douglas Moo. You can download them in pdf format or view them in plain text here on the blog.

James Chapter 3 Notes – Winterim with Dr. Moo

Here’s chapter 3 of James from my winterim class with Dr. Douglas Moo. You can download them in pdf format or view them in plain text here on the blog.

James Chapter 2 Notes – Winterim with Dr. Moo

Here’s chapter 2 of James from my winterim class with Dr. Douglas Moo.
You can download them in pdf format or view them in html here on the blog.

James Chapter 1 Notes – Winterim with Dr. Moo

I thought I would post my notes from my James winterim at seminary on here in case anyone is interested. They are in “commentary” format, verse by verse. So far it has been an interesting class, and I will probably post some more collected thoughts later on.

You can download the notes in pdf format as well, it’s a bit more manageable that way for sure. Or you can view them in html format here on the blog.

“James” by Richard Bauckham Book Review

I just finished reading this book for the upcoming winterim at my seminary. The full title is “James: Wisdom of James , disciple of Jesus the sage”

To be honest, the book was a bit dry for my taste, though the prologue and end had some interesting parts. Most of the book was obsessed with trying to figure out correlations between the style with which James wrote and other people in history. Even his content was compared with others. For me, not really all that helpful, or important. But it was interesting looking at some of the old writings of Jewish history that I had never read before.