Mind

Confession of Your Sins to One Another: Why Would You Want to do That?

by Bob McCluskey on April 18, 2010

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“Confession” popped up in a discussion last week.  In the New Testament book of James we read this admonition:  “…confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed.”  James 5:16    Based on many discussions I have heard, and my own personal experience, I am pretty sure that obeying this biblical order regarding confession is something that most Christians find pretty terrifying. In fact, it may be fair to say that most don’t practice confession unless we absolutely have to.

Some Christians have devised interesting ways to minimize the discomfort of confession. Some interpret “one another” to mean only professional clergy. The practice of setting aside a formal time and place for confession of sins to a professional minister perhaps minimizes the threat to the sinner that public confession or confession among the laity provokes.  Lately I have even seen “on-line” confession sites, where you can leave your confessions for some completely unknown entity.  Nevertheless, I believe that the Bible calls for confession of sins between laypeople and, on occasion, publicly before the entire congregation.  That is the assumption that will underlie my comments here.

Some of you know that I am a person who is never satisfied with merely knowing what is expected of me.  I have to know why!  Maybe that’s why I had so much trouble as a young boy, as a student and as a soldier.  Now, I want to know why in the world God would want me to confess my sins to other Christians?  Here are some possible reasons:

  • To keep me humble.  It has been my experience that most Christians claim that they want to be humble, but none of them want to be humiliated.  If I understand the process of humility correctly, humiliation is part of it.  Confession is an acknowledgment that God is God and I am not.
  • To be accountable.  Confessing sin is a way of saying, “This is an area of life that I can’t be trusted in.”  When I keep my sin a secret, it is clear that I don’t want any help with it.  When I confess it, I become accountable to others, which is itself a powerful deterrent to the sin as I move forward in life.
  • To dis-empower the sin in my life.  When I confess my sin I not only deter it by becoming accountable to others, I start to dis-empower it.  Secrets are powerful.  That which is revealed can be treated.
  • To be punished by guilt and shame.  Some would hold that a purpose of demanding confession is to focus guilt and shame on the sinner.  I strongly disagree with this position based on my understanding of God’s grace.  In fact, in Biblical terms, confession is intended by God to have the opposite effect on guilt and shame for the sinner:  “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  I John 1:9
  • Perhaps the most important function of the confession of our sin to others is to minister to them. Nothing isolates Christians spiritually and emotionally like secret sin.  The attempt to avoid looking bad robs us of the ability to rid ourselves of the very thing that can eventually destroy us from the inside out and prevent our sanctification.  When we participate in a Christian culture that values looking good more than developing goodness we rob those whom we are supposed to help of the ability to be healed themselves.  I have a Christian friend who is a personal counselor.  He often says that one of the most basic human needs is to know that we are not alone.  When we choose to live in a society that gives lip service to honesty and then lies in order to conceal secret sin, we all feel alone and irreconcilably isolated, because we all stumble into sin at times.  The struggle to live the Christian life is about the mind, and secrecy is a sign that we are losing the struggle.

The bottom line:  The confession of sin to one another is not optional.  It can be painful and humiliating.  Nevertheless, it is not optional because God loves us and knows that confession is the key to healing.  It is healing not just for us but for those who are looking to us for the way to freedom and happiness.  When we sin we can try to conceal it and get mired in it, or we can confess it and move on to forgiveness and righteousness.

In my next post I will continue this theme with a true story that will probably shock you and yet will surely impress you with the power of human grace, expressed through confession.  If you want to be sure to get it, please subscribe using the form on this page.  Soon!

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It’s about the mind!

by Bob McCluskey on December 20, 2009

In his letter to the Roman church Paul lays out a fairly simple but comprehensive explanation of God’s relationship to humankind. It goes like this:

  • We don’t want to acknowledge God’s authority over us so we reject Him.
  • God allows us to choose to be without Him and to reap the consequences of doing so.
  • Nevertheless, God continues to love us, reveals His love to us, and provides a way for us to return to Him.
  • If we return to Him, our relationship with Him is restored.

This is the point at which I want to begin these discussions.

We call God “God” because we have to use a name that signifies a person whose characteristics are without limit and are indefinable. Another way of attempting to describe God would be to say that He is “perfect” in every way. He doesn’t have any flaws and He is incapable of anything less than total and complete “goodness.” (“A god” could also be capable of total and complete “badness,” but that’s not the God I’m talking about.)

Now “hold on to your hat” because I’m going to try to explain the startling consequence of being restored to a relationship with a perfect God.

The most important thing to know is that a perfect God can’t have a relationship with an imperfect person. I am aware that this kind of language is uncommon in modern society. It is uncommon in the Christian church for that matter.

I am willing to start this discussion about sanctification by defending my statement that a perfect God can’t have a relationship with a perfect person, and I will divert to that discussion if there is a genuine demand for it.  However, I would rather get to the more important fact that God has solved this problem already!

In fact, God not only restored our spiritual relationship with him, he restored our moral and legal relationships, as well. In short, we can have a relationship with a perfect God because we ourselves are perfect!

At this point I’m aware that, despite my warning, a lot of hats have just been blown off.  In preparation for writing this journal entry I read dozens of comments by Christians about their standing with God. The vast majority of them said something like, “God is perfect but I am imperfect.”  We can argue at length about the semantics of statements like this in an attempt to get Christians off the theological hook.  We can speculate that they are just talking about “the flesh” as opposed to the spirit.  We can recognize that common humility requires us to allow that we are still just “sinners saved by grace.”  We can note that this kind of statement is so common in Christian circles today that people don’t really think about it.

Nevertheless, these sorts of statements can indicate several possible things about the Christians who make them:

  • They are more preoccupied with their imperfections than they are their incredible eternal standing with God.
  • They are being deliberately deceived about what God expects and empowers them to do.
  • They don’t want to be accountable for the implications of being perfect.
  • They are so beat up or faithless that they don’t believe that God can deal with their flesh.
  • They are so self-centered that they think their imperfections are more important than God’s call on them.
  • They are just clueless and don’t think about the Christian life at all.

These possibilities all have one thing in common. They are all bad.

So, here’s what Paul said to the new Roman believers as they embarked on the Christian life:

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (12:2, New International Version)

Note that the first part of the order, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world,” requires the Christian to do something or, more accurately, to stop doing something. The second part requires the Christian to allow God to do something to him/her, “…be transformed.” This is good news!  This is the best kind of willpower; you bring the will and God brings the power!

If we are going to take this trip down the rocky road together it seems to me that we will have to accept some things

  • That we have something called a mind.
  • That, as a result of our separation from God, something is wrong with it; it needs to be “renewed.”
  • That as our minds are renewed, our lives will be transformed.
  • That as our lives are transformed, we will be able to figure out and do God’s will.

If you want to come along with me, let’s go! If you want to participate in the discussion, comments and questions are welcome!  I plan to write several times a week, and I’ll try to answer any responses asap!

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