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Confession is an attribute of fellowship; it functions only within true fellowship. In confession we let trusted others know
our deepest weaknesses and failures. This nourishes our faith in God’s provision for our needs through his people, increases
our sense of being loved, and brings out our humility before our brothers and sisters. We let close friends know who we really
are, not holding back anything important, but, ideally, allowing complete transparency. We lay down the burden of hiding and
pretending, the burden of throwing up ‘fake masks’ that hide the real who-we-are. Pretending, too, takes up a
lot more energy than just being real. We engage in and are engaged by others in the great discipline of confession.
(James 5:16 NKJV) 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.
We must accept the fact that unconfessed sin is a special kind of burden or obstruction in the psychological as well as the
physical realities of the believer’s life. The discipline of confession removes that heavy burden.
Confession also helps us to avoid sin:
(Prov 28:13 NASB) He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, But he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion.
Persisting in sin within a close community – not to mention the fellowship of a transparent Body of Christ – is
unsupportable unless it is hidden. It is said that confession is good for the soul but bad for the reputation, and a bad reputation
makes life more difficult in relation to those close to us. But closeness and confession force out evildoing. Nothing is more
supportive of right behavior than open truth.
Confession enables friends to pray for specific problems and to do those things that may be most helpful and redemptive to
the one confessing. Confession alone makes deep fellowship possible, and the lack of it explains much of the superficial and
shallow quality of relationships so commonly found in our churches today.
We could skip onto the next discipline, but we’d be skipping a crucial element to confession: restitution. Restitution
– or amends or reimbursement – can be thought of as a discipline all on its own! It is difficult not to rectify
wrong done once it is confessed and known widely. Now we know not all sin calls for restitution, but it is unthinkable that
one would confess to stealing clothes from J.C. Penny, and never return them! It is unthinkable that someone would confess
to harming another person’s reputation, and then not do anything to help that person’s reputation. Our in-borne
integrity, a force within our God-given personality, requires restitution. It’s not a pleasant experiences, but it strengthens
our will to do what is right, and can be a very powerful discipline.
Careful: confession can be easily abused, and for its effective use it requires considerable experience and maturity. How
many stale, watered-down, immature confessions have turned to gossip and back-stabbing and black-mailing? From my personal
experience, far too many.
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