James 5:15-17 NIV
And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven.
[16] Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
[17] Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.
Christ has opened the way for us to go directly to God for forgiveness. But confessing our sins to each other still has an important place in the life of the church. By “righteous person,” James isn’t talking about sinless people but rather those who can effectively pray for others because they have confessed their own sins and are in right relationship with God. This verse points us toward several important scriptural principles related to confession:
(1) If we have sinned against an individual, we must ask that person to forgive us.
(2) If our sin has affected the church, we must confess it publicly.
(3) If we need loving support as we struggle with a sin, we should confess the sin to those who are able to provide that support.
(4) If, after confessing a private sin to God, we still don’t feel his forgiveness, we may wish to confess the sin to a fellow believer to receive assurance of God’s pardon. In Christ’s kingdom, every believer is a priest to other believers
1 Peter 2:9 NIV
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
Christians sometimes speak of “the priesthood of all believers.” In Old Testament times, people did not approach God directly. A priest acted as an intermediary between God and sinful human beings. With Christ’s victory on the cross, that pattern changed. Now we can come directly into God’s presence without fear (Hebrews 4:16), and we are given the responsibility of bringing others to him also (2 Corinthians 5:18-21). When we are united with Christ as members of his body, we join in his priestly work of reconciling God and humanity.
Under Gods command 