The Dangers and Duty of Confessing Sin to One Another

“Open Confession is good for the soul,” or so the maxim goes. Perhaps it might also be said, “Open Confession is  good for your relationship with God and men.” While Scripture supports both of these statements, there is something of a haze that lays across the surface of the meaning of such statements in Scripture as, “Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed” (James 5:16). Is James speaking of going around and confessing any sin that you can point to in your life to just about anyone you are in fellowship with in the church so that they will pray for you? Or, does he have in mind the practice of “keeping short accounts” with the brethren? Does he mean going to an offended brother or sister and asking forgiveness for a particular sin that was committed against them? Or, as the context might indicate, is James instructing  individuals in the congregation to come to the elders and confess particular sins of a scandalous nature in order to be healed of a sickness with which they had been chastened by God? While we may not come to a completely settled agreement on the precise meaning of James 5:16, there are 2 dangers and 3 applications of our duty that we should be able to agree upon when reflecting on this subject.   Continue at Nicholas T. Batzig

Confessing Our Sins Together

In a chapter on confession and communion in Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes that “he who is alone with his sin is utterly alone. . . . But it is the grace of the gospel, which is so hard for the pious to understand, that confronts us with the truth and says: You are a sinner, a great, desperate sinner; now come as the sinner you are, to the God who loves you.”

I’m sure that most of us agree with Bonhoeffer that the confession of sin, grounded in the gospel, is a vital component of our personal spirituality. But we get a little uncomfortable when it comes to corporate dimensions of confession. It’s not too threatening to engage in silent confession when the liturgy calls us to do so in the weekend service, but when it comes to times of confession in small-group settings, we often settle for less-indicting statements like “I’m struggling with . . .” Even then, we have the gnawing sense that our vague, toothless non-confessions aren’t fulfilling the exhortation of James 5:16, “Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed.”   Continue at Ryan Griffith

Hope in the Struggle with Sin and Self — A.W. Pink

“He who is really honest with himself and has had his eyes opened in some degree to see the awful sinfulness of self, and who is becoming more and more acquainted with that sink of iniquity, that mass of corruption which still indwells him, often feels that sin more completely rules him now than ever it did before. When he longs to trust God with all his heart, unbelief seems to paralyze him. When he wishes to be completely surrendered to God’s blessed will, murmurings and rebellion surge within him. When he would spend an hour in meditating on the things of God, evil imaginations harass him. When he desires to be more humble, pride seeks to fill him. When he would pray, his mind wanders. The more he fights against these sins, the further off victory seems to be. To him it appears that sin is very much the master of him, and Satan tells him that his profession is vain. What shall we say to such a dear soul who is deeply exercised over this problem?…   Continue at Eric T. Young

Caring Enough to Wonder if What Just Happened, Happened

Mark Driscoll’s recent apology has provided for some thoughtful and edifying discussion.

And as we discuss, it’s best for us to remember a few things: We need to love and pray for him. We need to remember that we’re not omniscient. And we need to hope for the best and pray accordingly.

And in doing so, the church as the opportunity to grow from this. Questions are being raised. Ideas are being circulated. But there have been too many erroneous assertions and objections in the mix.

Here are a few categorically unhelpful ideas buzzing throughout evangelicalism regarding the Driscoll apology:

1. “Concern for the genuineness of one’s repentance is equivalent to a refusal to forgive.”

Continue at Eric Davis

The Hidden Life of Prayer

Table of Contents

Chapter 1, The Life of Prayer.
Chapter 2, The Equipment.
Chapter 3, The Direction of the Mind.
Chapter 4, The Engagement: Worship.
Chapter 5, The Engagement: Confession.
Chapter 6, The Engagement: Request.
Chapter 7, The Hidden Riches of the Secret Place.
Chapter 8, The Open Recompense.
Footnotes, Footnotes to all chapters.
Copyright

HT: Monergism

Do I Need to Ask God for Forgiveness?

That question sounds radical, I know. But bear with me and hear me out. For all of my Christian life, when I’ve sinned I’ve asked the Lord to forgive me. And observing the landscape I know I’m not alone. How many of you do that when you sin? Lord, please forgive me. I’ve been thinking about this for a while and examining this concept against the breadth of scripture and have come to the conclusion that maybe asking forgiveness is not the best approach.

Why do I say this? Consider these verses:

“In Him [Christ] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to his grace, which he lavished on us in all wisdom and insight” (Ephesians 1:7-8)

“Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in the newness of life” (Romans 6:3-4)

As a believer, I am united to Christ through the Holy Spirit (cf 1 Corinthians 12:13; Galatians 3:27). And if I am united to him, then Ephesians indicates that in Christ is the forgiveness of sins.  Meaning, the forgiveness is already there. But here’s the passage that really got me to thinking about this... Continue at Lisa Robinson

How Do You Know When Someone Is Repentant?

How do you know when someone is repentant? In his helpful little book Church Discipline, Jonathan Leeman offers some guidance:

A few verses before Jesus’ instruction in Matthew 18 about church discipline, he provides us with help for determining whether an individual is characteristically repentant: would the person be willing to cut off a hand or tear out an eye rather than repeat the sin (Matt. 18:8-9)? That is to say, is he or she willing to do whatever it takes to fight against the sin? Repenting people, typically, are zealous about casting off their sin. That’s what God’s Spirit does inside of them. When this happens, one can expect to see a willingness to accept outside counsel. A willingness to inconvenience their schedules. A willingness to confess embarrassing things. A willingness to make financial sacrifices or lose friends or end relationships. (p. 72)

These are good indicators, and I believe we can add a few more.

Here are 12 signs we have a genuinely repentant heart:

1. We name our sin as sin and do not spin it or excuse it, and further, we demonstrate “godly sorrow,” which is to say, a grief chiefly about the sin itself, not just a grief about being caught or having to deal with the consequences of sin.

2. We actually confessed before we were caught or the circumstantial consequences of our sin caught up with us.   Continue at Jared C. Wilson

What Every Pastor Must Hear and Confess

If your ministry relationships will be healthy in God's sight, you must commit to intentionally planting good seeds into the soil of those relationships. This will take understanding, commitment, discipline, and perseverance. Galatians 5:13ff is very helpful here. Paul delineates this relational lifestyle this way: "Serve one another in love" (Genesis 5:13). Then he says something startling: "The entire law is summed up in a single command: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" If you had written the words, "The entire law is summed up in a single command," what would you have written next? I would have written, "Love God above all else." But, shockingly, that is not what Paul writes. Instead he says, "Love your neighbor as yourself." How does love of neighbor summarize all that God calls us to? The answer is both simple and profound. Those who love God above all else will love their neighbor as they love themselves.

This is a diagnostic insight into ministry relationships that every pastor needs to hear. The problem in our ministry relationships is not first that we don't love one another enough; no, the problem is that we don't love God enough, and because we don't love God enough, we don't love one another as we should. Could it be that we are so busy loving ourselves and making sure that others "love" us in the way that we want to be loved, that we have little time and energy left to love them as we should? Could it be that we are so busy working to co-opt the other into the service of our wants, needs, and feelings that we are too distracted to notice all the opportunities to love that every day gives us, and too busy making sure that we are loved to do anything about these opportunities even if we noticed them? Why does this happen? It happens because we have replaced love of God and rest in his care with love of self and the anxiety of "neediness."  Continue at Paul Tripp

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Call It What God Calls It

One of the hardest parts of living the Christian life is honesty. When I talk about honesty I am not so much talking about lying about things as mislabeling things.

Let me give you an example. I have been sick with some strange bug for a few days now. In the midst of this I have noticed far more grumpiness, shortness and impatience. I also feel lazy and a lot of self-pity. During this time I found myself not speaking with the appropriate tone and tenderness to some people close to me. Shortly thereafter I went to talk to them about it. My aim was an apology through confession and repentance.

But what happened? I gave them something like this:

I’m sorry for my tone yesterday. I have been sick and grumpy lately. I haven’t really been able to sleep and so I’m a little short.

As I was talking I remembered that I was convicted of sin but yet I am confessing the symptoms and implications of my illness. It is not a sin to be sick or to not get enough sleep. But, it is sin to be unkind and impatient. Keep Reading...

The Anatomy of Repentance

Two things emerge from Calvin's ruminations on the matter:

1.) It is within the province of piety to implore God for forgiveness and spiritual restoration through the employment of the totality of the faculties of our souls even when His covenant promises assure us of such benefits, as this is a recognition of the utter deplorability of our sin and His holiness.

2.) As human beings, we are creatures of our physical senses, and are naturally of the disposition to waver in faith. Therefore, God has mercifully and graciously provided us with physical signs and seals of His favor and fatherly love, communicated through the Sacraments. Read the rest HERE

7 Counterfeits of Repentance

1. Religious Repentance
2. Pagan Repentance
3. Worldly Sorrow
4. Mere Confession
5. Blame Shifting
6. Minimizing
7. Excuse Making

Read the rest HERE

Confessionism: Abusing 1 John 1:9

The Scriptures and Confessions

How to Train Your Church Not to Take Anything Seriously

See Also How to Train Your People to Laugh at Anything

The Practice of Confession

Why I love Spurgeon: "much of my former obduracy remains"