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. (James 5:16 KJV)
Adam Clarke’s Commentary
Confess your faults one to another: This is a good instruction for Christians looking to maintain close relationships with fellow believers. Confessing our faults to others can help us stay humble and vigilant. We naturally wish that our friends, especially Christian friends, would think well of us. When we confess to them our offenses, which without the confession, they could never have known, we feel humbled and are kept from self-applause. This motivates us to pray and strive not to repeat our errors, preventing further embarrassment from admitting our weakness, fickleness, or infidelity to our fellow Christians.
This passage does not instruct believers to confess their faults to priests or elders in order to receive forgiveness or penance. Instead, it suggests that members of the Church should confess their faults to each other. Therefore, the practice of auricular confession to a priest, as done in the Roman Catholic Church, is not supported by this passage. If this practice were based on this passage, it would imply that priests should also confess their sins to the congregation, creating a two-way confession process between priests and followers.
William Burkitt
Confess your faults one to another. Confessing private injuries to each other helps the sick person make peace with their neighbor and God. The practice of auricular confession by the Papists is based on this idea, but the text does not specifically mention confessing to a priest. If it did, then priests should also confess to the people, as the duty of confessing is mutual according to the text.
Bp. Tomline
Confess your faults one to another. Penance in the Roman Catholic church is totally different from the Gospel doctrine of repentance, which consists of an inward sorrow for past sins and a firm resolve to amend them in the future. There is no foundation for this pretended sacrament in Scripture: priests are not empowered to dispense absolution upon their own judgment, nor are we commanded to confess our sins to them.
St. James indeed says, “Confess your faults to one another;” but priests are not mentioned here, and the word “faults” suggests that this precept refers to a mutual confession of offenses committed between Christians. This passage does not, however, indicate the necessity of auricular confession or priestly absolution.
Even though there is no biblical evidence to support auricular confession to priests or to consider penance a sacrament, confessing sins to God is an essential duty, and confessions to priests or church leaders may sometimes be helpful, as they lead to effectual repentance. Confession of sin may ease the pain of a wounded conscience if a contrite sinner unburdens his mind to his spiritual leader or fellow Christian and receives advice and consolation.
His scruples may be removed and his good resolutions confirmed. As a result, he may be able to work out his salvation through a life of active virtue and through humble faith in the Lord Jesus, who came into the world to “call sinners to repentance.”