1another :: confession

We continue with the 1another series. hope you are finding it worth your while. Remember to check Danny’s post each day as he and I are co-blogging this series.

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. James 5:16

We are confronted here with a passage of scripture worth meditating deeply on. A great, largely unrecognized, truth exists in this verse and in its surrounding context. That is, there is a very real power in the verbalized confession of sin and in the prayers of the saints (believers).

In fact, I feel a bit irresponsible talking about this verse without talking about 13-20 where James explores many more facets of the church as a people of prayer so be sure to read that on your own. Today, we will cover the first part of this verse, tomorrow the latter.

I digress. Let’s talk about the first part of this verse. Confess your sins to one another. This is probably, along with fasting, the most overlooked command of scripture among protestants in our time. When you hear confession your mind either wanders to the confessional booths of the Catholic church, or to the last 5 minutes of your favorite TV crime show where the criminal finally reveals what happened.

Yet it remains a 1another command. Confess your sin. why? Because there is great victory in bringing sin out into the open where it can no longer eat away at you in private. Confession to another is what helps you maintain a correct perspective on the grace of Jesus Christ given to you. When you confess, you acknowledge you have disobeyed God in some way. This acknowledges God as your authority whom you are a servant of. And you dont offer some sort of gift to God when you confess. All you have is your acknowledgement of sin and your repentant heart. yes repentance must come with confession.

Deitrich Bonhoeffer, one of my favorite authors, talks about confession in his book Life Together. Read below

In confession the break-through to community takes place. Sin demands to have a man by himself. It withdraws him from the community. The more isolated a person is, the more destructive will be the power of sin over him, and the more deeply he becomes involved in it, the more disastrous is his isolation. Sin wants to remain unknown. It shuns the light. In the darkness of the unexpressed it poisons the whole being of a person. But in confession the light of the gospel breaks into the darkness and seclusion of the heart….

Since the confession of sin is made in the presence of a Christian brother, the last stronghold to self-justification is abandoned. The sinner surrenders. The expressed, acknowledged sin has lost all its power.

I could go on and qoute the whole chapter. You should read it. Suffice it to say, I know beneath your pride is fear of being exposed as a sinner among the righteous. This however is a lie from hell. You are instead a sinner among sinners who are all made righteous by the grace of Jesus.

How? Again, this is why we have SummitLIFE groups. And to our group leaders, make confession a part of your prayer time together. Break up into groups of 3 (SINGLE GENDER PLEASE) and offer a time to confess sin together. And as you do dont say “thats okay man” but instead say “praise God you are not enslaved to that sin and that God doesnt love you less for it. Praise God for the gospel. believe the gospel that you are forgiven” or something like that.

If you are not in a SummitLIFE group….I think you know.

1another :: encourage

Today’s post comes from our newest small groups staff guy, Craig Eggleton. See Danny’s post on serving one another here.

Who doesn’t like encouragement?  Everyone needs a little “‘ata boy or ‘ata girl,” every now and again.  But encouragement often times calls for something deeper and heartier than a pat on the back or a cheerleader in your corner.  Taking a snapshot look at the Scriptures in continuing in the “one another” series, let’s look at what the Word say about encouraging one another.

1 Thessalonians 5:11
Therefore comfort one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.

There are 3 principles I would like you to consider when meditating on this verse.

1. The encouragement the writer is referring to is motivated by Verse 9: For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ
   Take notice of the “therefore” at the beginning of the verse.  What becomes apparent is that this particular text is fundamentally built upon some truth the writer has just previously mentioned.  Look back at verse 9 and find that the encouragement is motivated by the truth that believers have obtained and continue to obtain salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Do not look over this point too quickly as something you may have already grasped, for I believe in this life we will never be at the point of fully grasping everything Christ has saved us from.   Verse 10 further amplifies a believer’s encouragement in the Lord that whether in life or in death, we will live together with Him.
2. Encouragement must take place in the context of a community.
   In order to fulfill the command “comfort one another and build up one another,” a believer needs to be plugged into a healthy and vibrant group of fellow believers.   Comforting one another calls for more than the typical shake of the hand and pat on the back during the normal greeting time at the Sunday worship meetings.  This type of comfort is vocal in nature, requiring the community of believers to express the truths of Christ salvation and the assurance of His communion with the saints.  Building one another up calls us to embolden each other in the truth; spurring each other on to obedience and healthy Christian growth.  The way the Summit Church has chosen for such community to take place is within our Summit Life groups.  We feel that being a part of a Summit Life group is vitally important to the spiritual growth and well being of every member of the Summit which is why we go on and on about how crucial it is for each member of the Summit to make every effort to plug into a small group in his or her area.  You can get into a SummitLIFE group on January 18th at GroupLink.
3. Encouragement is a continual, ongoing practice
   The writer of Thessalonians affirmed the original recipient of their conduct of encouragement in the faith but still found it necessary to command them to continue in the practice.  What we as believers can take from this principle is that we ought to make it our habit to always “comfort one another and build up one another” in the truth of Christ’s salvation on behalf of His saints.  We can never say within ourselves that we have arrived or have attained his quota of encouragement in the faith.  Therefore, encouragement is an ongoing command for the community of believers.

1Another :: love

This week The Connections Guy and I are doing a series of blogposts where we will be discussing what “being the church” really looks like in a 21st century context. To do this, we will be discussing the “one another” commands found in the New Testament and talking about how those principles translate into practicing church. Why?

1. We are going through a “why the church” type series in our Sunday services called cannonball.
2. We find most people, ourselves included, have an extremely difficult time figuring out how to practice “church” without it resulting in good old fashion legalism

These will not be exhaustive, because we have other stuff to do as well, but hopefully helpful for small group leaders & members at the Summit, as well as readers at large, and readers at all other sizes.

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34-35

Toss aside introductory comments and lets jump right in. I hope you catch the gravity of this statement Jesus makes here. The setting: they just finished “last supper.” Jesus has just washed his disciples feet, and subsequently announced to them that one of them will betray him. He goes outside, and his next words to them are these words about loving one another. This is an immensely intense moment in his teaching relationship with his disciples and this is the command he gives them.
Love one another. What a simple yet profound command. If the church today practiced this simple command as best it could, what would the perception of christianity be today? Would there be a generation of 20 & 30 somethings who abandoned their “faith” when they left home at 18 because all they can relate church to is hypocrisy? I believe there are believers in the local church who do genuinely want to love one another but they lack tangible direction to carrying that out. How do we love one another as Jesus commanded and not as we feel is right?

just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. Sacrificial love is to be the marker of the church. Do not let the significance of this statement get lost on you. This is the heart of the church. It is a simple explanation of the gospel-centered life. AS YOU HAVE BEEN LOVED, so love one another. Do not love out of guilt, force, coersion, or any other motivation, love out of worshipful response to the gospel. Implication? if you have trouble loving other christians in your church, you do not understand the gospel. simple and true. This deserves meditating on. Are you practicing sacrificial love in your church? Or are you just hanging out with those you like?

Ok, catch what he says next for it is the implication of the church loving one another: By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

WHOA! Follow as I quote a great pastor who quotes a great theologian:
“Do you see how high the stakes really are? Do you grasp why we can’t settle for anything less than Jesus’ dream for community? the credibility of the gospel is at stake! As Francis Schaeffer rightly said “Our relationship with each other is the criterion the world uses to judge whether our message is truthful – Christian community is the final apologetic.”  – Andy Stanley in Creating Community (44)

We cannot be a church who loves Jesus, loves the world, but is just not that concerned about loving one another. The world will see through it and we will be an incredibly unhealthy church. So here is my challenge to you. Are you in a SummitLIFE group where you can practice this extremely important command of Christ? If you aren’t, get in one on GroupLink Sunday, January 18th. If you aren’t at the Summit, ask a pastor for a place to get connected to a small group of believers.