“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<\/em>” (James 5:16).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
There used to be a site on the Internet called DailyConfession that advertised itself as “the only place in the world that you can go to truly confess your sin (or sins), your transgressions, your humanity, in complete anonymity<\/strong>.” The site was extremely popular. Apparently, it was comforting for many folks to think that they could confess their sins without actually having to let it be known to anyone who knew them that they had committed the sins!<\/p>\n
There is a reluctance within us when it comes to confessing our faults. We think that it will cause others to perceive us as weak, sinful, or hypocritical. We may imagine that we are alone in having committed the embarrassing deeds, spoken the foolish words, or thought the shameful thoughts that haunt our consciences. Such anonymous arrangements (cf. the Catholic Church confessional) have been devised to circumvent the problem of being stigmatized as a result of admitting to sin, but fail to alleviate the real problem – the problem of sin sickness! We need to readjust our thinking. In Psalms 32:1-6, David recognizes that the great blessing of forgiveness, which releases a sinner from the guilty anguish of body and soul, can only be attained through confession. Healing comes through confession. He writes, “I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,’ and You forgave the iniquity of my sin<\/em>.”<\/p>\n
What does confessing sin really indicate about a person – a sinful life or a godly life? Hypocrisy or sincerity? What do we think of David the Confessor? Do we conclude that he is weak, sinful, and hypocritical because he confessed? No. He was those things before he confessed. His confession lays claim to his forgiveness and marks him as a man after God’s own heart.<\/p>\n
You see, the terrible things that we fear others may discover about us if we confess are, in fact, the things they pretty much already know about us. Our temptations and our sins are “common to man<\/em>” (I Corinthians 10:13; I John 1:8-10; Romans 3:10, 23). Our failings are not unique. Hiding sins only makes our hypocrisy more obvious to others!<\/p>\n
The Bible teaches that confessing sins results in joy and in the ability to lead others to the Lord so that their sins might be forgiven as well. That’s what King David anticipated upon confessing the sin that he had committed with Bathsheba. After acknowledging it, he prays, “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted to You<\/em>” (Psalms 51:12-13).<\/p>\n
It reminds me of a story I read about a professed Christian who had been stealing from his employer. His conscience began to bother him, and he realized that the only way he would find relief was to confess his actions and offer to make amends. But he was reluctant. His boss was very worldly, and he worried that confessing would ruin any chance of ever bringing the man to Christ. But finally, he worked up enough courage to tell his boss everything. His employer’s reaction was unexpected. The man looked at his thieving employee strangely, and then said something like this, “I always did think you were just a hypocrite, but now I begin to feel there’s something in this Christianity after all. Any religion that would make a dishonest workman come back and confess that he had been stealing, and offer to settle things, must be worth having.” So, what kind of people confess their sins? The answer is simple. Godly people seeking forgiveness are the ones who confess their sins. And it’s the admitted sinners who actually make the greatest evangelists! Just ask the apostle Paul (I Timothy 1:12-16).<\/p>\n
I have read that Prussian king Frederick the Great was once touring a Berlin prison. The prisoners fell on their knees before him to proclaim their innocence, all hoping to be set free – except for one man, who remained silent.<\/p>\n
Frederick called to him, “Why are you here?”<\/p>\n
“Armed robbery, Your Majesty,” was the reply.<\/p>\n
“And are you guilty?”<\/p>\n
“Yes indeed, Your Majesty, I deserve my punishment.”<\/p>\n
Frederick then summoned the jailer and ordered him, “Release this guilty wretch at once. I will not have him kept in this prison where he will corrupt all the fine, innocent people who occupy it.”<\/p>\n
Jesus can free you, but only if you can admit that you’re guilty. Jesus can heal you, but only if you can admit that you’re sick. Jesus said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick… For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance<\/em>” (Matthew 9:12-13).<\/p>\n
“He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy<\/em>” (Proverbs 28:13).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Steve Klein via\u00a0Biblical Insights, Vol. 15 No. 2, February 2015 “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). There used to be a site on the Internet called DailyConfession that advertised itself as “the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[51,179],"class_list":["post-88600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-confession","tag-sin"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":42298,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/am-i-obligated-to-confess-mortal-sins-i-didnt-know-were-wrong\/","url_meta":{"origin":88600,"position":0},"title":"Am I obligated to confess mortal sins I didn’t know were wrong?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 23, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a question about not confessing sins. As a kid, I really only thought mortal sins were things like not killing people, not stealing from people, not cheating on your wife, etc. I didn't really know about other mortal sins at that time. To be a mortal sin,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49257,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-achan-punished-because-he-did-not-confess-his-sin-to-joshua\/","url_meta":{"origin":88600,"position":1},"title":"Was Achan punished because he did not confess his sin to Joshua?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 7, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Can somebody be punished for not telling their leaders about the sin they have committed, like how Achan was punished for not telling Moses about his sin until God found him out? Answer: \"But the children of Israel committed a trespass regarding the accursed things, for Achan the son\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28599,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-should-i-say-to-confess-my-fornication\/","url_meta":{"origin":88600,"position":2},"title":"What should I say to confess my fornication?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 22, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I need help with words to ask God and my church and my parents for forgiveness of my fornication. I know I have sinned. I allowed myself to get caught up and I need to ask for forgiveness. I want to write it because I can't stop crying, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":60048,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-i-need-to-confess-to-the-person-i-lusted-after\/","url_meta":{"origin":88600,"position":3},"title":"Do I need to confess to the person I lusted after?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 22, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Do I have to confess my lustful thoughts to the person I lusted after? I'm dealing with the sin of lust (and the commonly related sinful behavior linked to it). I know I need to repent of this, ask God for forgiveness, and cut it out of my life.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":67761,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-i-need-to-confess-everything-i-did-wrong-constantly\/","url_meta":{"origin":88600,"position":4},"title":"Do I need to confess everything I did wrong constantly?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 23, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a question that I am struggling to find an answer to. A few days ago, I confessed to my family about my past sins. We were able to pray, and we are now in the process of healing. Lately, I have remembered some other things I have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33266,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-i-need-to-confess-to-everyone-that-i-wronged\/","url_meta":{"origin":88600,"position":5},"title":"Do I need to confess to everyone that I wronged?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 16, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In the past, because I had heard the phrase \"the confession needs to be as public as the sin,\"\u00a0 I became very busy spending much time thinking of times I had sinned in front of others.\u00a0 I then would write them a note, message them, talk to them, etc.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88600\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}