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The Discipline of Confession
The Discipline of Confession
Pastor Richard Hovey
Pastor Richard Hovey
"The confession of evil works is the first beginning of good works."
"The confession of evil works is the first beginning of good works."
St. Augustine
St. Augustine
Defining Confession
Defining Confession
“Confession is a discipline that functions within fellowship. In it we let trusted others know our deepest weakness and failures. . . Thus we let some friends in Christ know who we really are . . . allowing complete transparency. We lay down the burden of hiding and pretending, which normally takes up such a dreadful amount of human energy. We engage and are engaged by others in the most profound depths of the soul. . . . Confession alone makes deep fellowship possible, and the lack of it explains much of the superficial quality found in our church associations. What, though, makes confession bearable? Fellowship. There is an essential reciprocity between these two disciplines."
“Confession is a discipline that functions within fellowship. In it we let trusted others know our deepest weakness and failures. . . Thus we let some friends in Christ know who we really are . . . allowing complete transparency. We lay down the burden of hiding and pretending, which normally takes up such a dreadful amount of human energy. We engage and are engaged by others in the most profound depths of the soul. . . . Confession alone makes deep fellowship possible, and the lack of it explains much of the superficial quality found in our church associations. What, though, makes confession bearable? Fellowship. There is an essential reciprocity between these two disciplines."
Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines
“In the discipline of confession we ask God to give us a yearning for holy living, a hatred for unholy living. . . . 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. . . . 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.”
“In the discipline of confession we ask God to give us a yearning for holy living, a hatred for unholy living. . . . 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. . . . 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.”
Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline
Practicing Confession
Practicing Confession
“For a good confession three things are necessary: an examination of conscience, sorrow, and a determination to avoid sin.”
“For a good confession three things are necessary: an examination of conscience, sorrow, and a determination to avoid sin.”
St. Alphonsus Liguori
St. Alphonsus Liguori
Examination of Conscience: ask God to reveal to you areas of your life that need his forgiveness and healing touch.
Let your confession be specific (it is perhaps easier to make a general confession like asking God to forgive us for the wrong things we have done; rather, mention the specific things you have done wrong which need God's grace and forgiveness.
In mentioning specific sins, remember that there are sins of commission (actions we should not have taken) and sins of omission (actions we should have taken).
Sorrow: this is not primarily an emotion but an abhorrence for having committed evil, a sense of regret for having offended the heart of God.
You may prayer that God allows you to more fully sense the weight of your sin.
Determination to avoid sin: in confession we are seeking a yearning for holy living and a distaste for unholy living. In this way, while we are seeking forgiveness we are also seek transformation - a transformation of our desire to sin into desire for holiness.
Gordon Smith has noted: “True conviction of sin moves past sorrow over the consequences of sin to a deep desire and resolve to turn from sin, to repudiate it, to move contrary to it."
I would add one more important piece to the practice of confession, that being Confess to others. We often see our confession of sin (at least in the particulars) to be between us and God. Scripture actually calls us to confession with one another.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer advises: "“The root of all sin is pride . . . Confession in the presence of a brother (or sister) is the profoundest kind of humiliation."
Resources
Resources
Confession: A Practical Guide by Adele Calhoun
Breaking Through to Community by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
“The New Testament church seems to have assumed that if a brother or sister has some sickness or other affliction, it might have been due to a sin that was separating that person from the full flow of the redeeming life. . . . We must accept the fact that unconfessed sin us 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 and absolution removes that burden."
“The New Testament church seems to have assumed that if a brother or sister has some sickness or other affliction, it might have been due to a sin that was separating that person from the full flow of the redeeming life. . . . We must accept the fact that unconfessed sin us 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 and absolution removes that burden."
Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines
Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines
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