21/02/2024
GIVING CONFESSION
Not only is it true that 'we love, because He first loved us,' but we are enabled to make confession only and especially because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). The evidence of mercy and grace sparks a contrite heart and allows confession to flow. We are drawn to Him as Hosea tells us,
'with cords of compassion, with the bands of love' (Hos. 11:4).
We come with hopeful hearts, for the One we are coming to waits for us like the father of the prodigal who saw his son when he was still a great way off and in compassion ran and embraced him and welcomed him back (Luke 15:20). His greatest delight is to forgive. He calls His light-filled creatures of heaven into celebration whenever one person makes confession.
What do we do? St Alphonsus Liguori writes, 'For a good confession three things are necessary: an examination of conscience, sorrow, and a determination to avoid sin.'
"An examination of conscience. This is a time, as
Douglas Steere writes, 'where a soul comes under the gaze of GOD and where in His silent and loving Presence this soul is pierced to the quick and becomes conscious of the things that must be forgiven and put right before it can continue to love One whose care has been so constant.'
We are inviting GOD to move upon the heart and show us areas that need His forgiving and healing touch.
In this experience of opening ourselves to the 'gaze of GOD' we must be prepared to deal with definite sins. A generalised confession may save us from humiliation and shame, but it will not ignite inner healing. The people who came to Jesus came with obvious, specific sins, and they were forgiven for each one.
It is far too easy to avoid our real guilt in a general confession. In our confession we bring concrete sins. By calling them concrete, however, I do not mean only outward sins. I mean definite sins, the sins of the heart - pride, avarice, anger, fear - as well as the sins of the flesh - sloth, gluttony, adultery, murder.
Perhaps we will be drawn to the method Luther used in which he sought to examine himself on the basis of the Ten Commandments. We may be led to another approach altogether.
In our desire to be specific we must not, however, run to the opposite danger of being unduly concerned to rout out every last detail in our lives. With profound common sense Francis de Sales counsels, 'Do not feel worried if you do not remember all your little peccadilloes in confession, for as you often fall imperceptibly, so you are often raised up imperceptibly."
'Sorrow' is necessary to a good confession. Sorrow as it relates to confession is not primarily an emotion, though emotion may be involved. It is an abhorrence at having committed the sin, a deep regret at having offended the heart of the Father.
Sorrow is an issue of the will before it is an issue of the emotions. In fact, being sorrowful in the emotions without a godly sorrow in the will destroys the confession.
“Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death” - 2 Corinthians 7:10
In his writings to the early church in Corinth, the apostle Paul delivered harsh truths and important wisdom about what it truly meant to live as a Christ-follower, and he acknowledged later that these truths might have hurt some people’s feelings.
But, Paul said, he ultimately was glad they felt distress, for it brought them to a place of spiritual healing and health—a place of repentance.
Godly sorrow is a good thing, Paul indicated, something to be desired and cultivated, not something to avoid. What is godly sorrow? What does it mean to have the godly sorrow mentioned by Paul in 2 Corinthians 7:10?
The original Greek here for godly sorrow is theon lypē, according to Strong’s Greek Concordance, which means “GOD’s grief” or the grief, pain, sorrow, or affliction of GOD—that is, the sorrow belonging to, exhibited by, and felt by GOD Himself. We know GOD is good, faultless, holy, and right.
Therefore, the sort of sorrow GOD feels is perfect sorrow, a sorrow that encompasses all elements and aspects of the situation. It is a sorrow fully in line with His plan and His way.
Indeed, Paul went on to say, the godly sorrow these people experienced brought repentance and, therefore, salvation.
“See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done,” Paul wrote.
“At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter. So even though I wrote to you, it was neither on account of the one who did the wrong nor on account of the injured party, but rather that before GOD you could see for yourselves how devoted to us you are. By all this we are encouraged” (2 Corinthians 7:11-13).
The Message Bible interprets this godly sorrow as “distress that drives us to GOD,” steering us back on the right track so we can stay in alignment with GOD’s will and glory.
What's the Difference between GODly Sorrow and Worldly Sorrow?
But Paul notes there is another kind of sorrow, one that does not bring about repentance and salvation but, instead, brings death. That sorrow is called worldly sorrow.
If godly sorrow is perfect sorrow, the kind of righteous and holy sorrow GOD feels, then worldly sorrow is imperfect, fleeting—of the world. The Greek word translated as “worldly” is kosmou, or its root, kosmos, which Strong’s Greek Concordance defines as order, the world, or having to do with worldly affairs.
Paul and other apostles make a distinction between this world and God’s Kingdom. While Genesis tells us GOD created this world and loves all its inhabitants, He allows the world itself to run on its own accord, and we receive free will to choose how we wish to live and who we wish to follow. The world is what we leave behind when we become Christians.
As it says in Isaiah 55:6-9, “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our GOD, for he will freely pardon. ‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’”
'A determination to avoid sin' is the third essential for a good confession. In the Discipline of confession we ask GOD to give us a yearning for holy living, a hatred for unholy living. John Wesley once said: 'Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but GOD . . . such alone will shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of heaven on earth.
It is the will to be delivered from sin that we seek from God as we prepare to make confession. We must desire to be conquered and ruled by GOD, or if we do not desire it, to desire to desire it. Such a desire is a gracious gift from GOD. The seeking of this gift is one of the preliminaries for confessing to a brother or sister.
Does all this sound complicated? Do you fear you might miss one of the points and thus render everything ineffectual? It is usually much more complicated in the analysis than in the experience.
Remember the heart of the Father; he is like a shepherd who will risk anything to find that one lost sheep. We do not have to make GOD willing to forgive. In fact, it is GOD who is working to make us willing to seek his forgiveness.
One further note on the preparation for confession; there must be a definite termination point in the self-examination process.
Otherwise, we can easily fall into a permanent habit of self-condemnation. Confession begins in sorrow, but it ends in joy. There is celebration in the forgiveness of sins because it results in a genuinely changed life.
Then there is the practical matter of to whom we should go to confess. It is quite correct theologically to say that every Christian believer can receive the confession of another, but not every Christian believer will have sufficient empathy and understanding or maturity.
Though it is unfortunate, it is a fact of life that some people seem unable to keep a confidence. Others are disqualified because they would be horrified at the revealing of certain sins. Still others, not understanding the nature and value of confession, would shrug it off with a "That's not so bad.' Fortunately, many people do understand
