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Confession

As a child, I grew up in an Irish Catholic farming community. My identity was shaped, in part, by the degree to which I entered into that community. When I walked with the neighbour children to catch the school bus, we were just a bunch of farm kids. We shared that aspect of life. But when we got off the bus, some differences surfaced. They went to one school, I went to another. They went to mass every day, I didn’t. They didn't eat meat on Fridays, I did. They went to confession on Saturday evenings, I didn’t. I believe that my own negative perception of confession began there. It was a short jump from knowing I didn’t have to confess my sins to a priest for forgiveness to thinking that I should never confess my sins to another human.

The most direct Bible passage dealing with confessing our sins to each other is the one where James directs his readers to "Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much." (James 5:16) The context suggests that sin can lead to physical ailments and that confession of that sin and prayer support can bring healing and freedom. Paul comes at the issue from the other side in his letter to the Galatians. He wrote, "if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ." (Galatians 6:1-2 NIV) Here Paul shows that Christians have the responsibility of restoring and supporting those whose sin has come into the open.

Bringing your own sin into the open is never a comfortable situation, but several passages note its importance. Proverbs 28:13 says, "Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy." (ESV) Note in particular that confession and repentance go together. When we confess and abandon our sin we will find mercy. However, when we hide our sin, we are seldom motivated to repent of it. It seems to take some level of public knowledge to motivate us to repent. That "public knowledge" may be as minimal as one other person knowing, but I know from experience that even one other person's knowing of my weakness motivates me to forsake it.

This would probably be a good place to mention that when I talk about confession here, I am not talking about confession to God for pardon. I have in mind confessing our sin to another person. I believe that person should be a wise, discrete, mature Christian. Much harm can be done by being too public about private matters, yet we can easily remain trapped in sin if we don't get it out there at least in some limited way.

There are many good reasons to practice this discipline. It will help us develop personal humility. Few things humble our pride like confessing our sin to someone else. It reminds us of the grim fact that we are sinners and depend entirely on God's grace to have any hope at all for the future.

Confession also helps us to develop transparency. It is wonderfully freeing to know that no hidden sin lurks in the shadows to bring you shame. If someone thinks they have uncovered some secret sin in your life, it is comforting to have another person who can step forward and say, "I knew about that and we're working together on defeating it."

Personal transparency not only allows us to live authentically, it encourages others to live authentically. When Christians pretend to be perfect, it makes the rest of us flawed souls think that we are great failures who must hide our sin to be accepted. When others know of our weaknesses, they are free to seek help for theirs.

There are some dangers are associated with confession. Some of us can engage in confession to draw attention to ourselves. We don't confess to impress. We confess to experience forgiveness. Some of us can use confession to legitimize self-obsession. We don't confess to obsess. We confess to experience freedom. Some of us find confession a handy tool for deflecting blame with words like "I've done it again. He (or she) did that thing (or said those words) and I just reacted. We don't confess to assess blame. We confess to take ownership of our sin so we can deal with it.

Understand that nothing can be hidden from God and most things cannot be hidden from those closest to us. Search your heart and discover the sin there, so you can confess it. Invite someone close to you to point out the weaknesses to which you are blind, so you can deal with them as well. Ask God to shine His light into your life to identify anything that offends Him, so you can clear those things out of the way. Once you have been cleansed and forgiven, commit to living that way. Confess your sin as soon as you become aware of it. Commit to calling sin what it is - we have so many polite words for specific sins. We mislead or deceive instead of lying. We borrow instead of stealing. We have an affair instead of committing adultery. Use the ugly words for sins. It'll help you remember to avoid them. Give up pretending that sin is an option for you. Finally, accept the seriousness of confession - false or superficial confession without repentance is pointless.

Ron Hughes
© June 2008