Confess your sins one to another

James 5:16 NLT
[16] Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.

https://bible.com/bible/116/jas.5.16.NLT

I think the church as a whole does a poor job of providing a place where people, especially men, can be open and transparent with the sin and weaknesses in their lives; especially with issues of sexual immorality. The Bible tells us to confess our sins to one another and pray for one another. How often do we do this?

Growing up in the Catholic Church, we did this regularly, going to confession and telling our sins to the priest, behind the veil, inside the confessional booth. But it became more of a religious ritual than an opportunity to find comfort and support in the midst of sinful habits that have gripped one’s soul.

If the church as a whole did a better job of creating an environment where men have the opportunity to tell another brother(s) they are really struggling in an area, like pornography and everything that goes with that, so many men would be set free from the vice grip of pornography. It becomes a trap in their own minds, ruled and policed by the demons of guilt, shame and fear. Sexual immorality and compulsive behaviors are more prevalent among Christian men (and some women)than we realize or are willing to admit. We can and must do a better job.

Men, for the most part, will keep this sort of stuff to themselves. It’s very hard for others to see this sort of problem in a man’s life. It’s not as obvious as taking drugs or consuming alcohol. Even gambling addiction or food addiction can be seen more clearly.

Every other sin we commit is outside of the body, but those who commit sexual immorality are sinning against their own flesh, and it comes from a God given and  ordained purpose within our natural bodies. God gave us sexual desires for the purpose of procreation and fulfillment of our roles within marriage; a monogamous relationship between a man and a woman, which is the complete image of God, celebrated in the figurative language between Christ and His body, the church !