If you fall back upon 1 John 1:9 then read the entire first chapter: he is writing WITNESSING to the agnostics... the second chapter he begins, My Little Children where the focus is upon the believer.
That was interesting, to go back to this familiar chapter, and then try to see it that way. But we are to confess our more noticeable sins here and now to our Father in heaven, you and me, as believers, when the sins are more serious so that they weigh on our conscience. When we do, we are forgiven, and the guilt disappears. Praise God!
For smaller things though, we are to remember what Christ said to us, and how he taught us to pray also in the Lord's Prayer -- that we are forgiven as we forgive others. And in the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant, we learn the reality of this, the fact of it, and the correct fullness -- to forgive from our heart.
Starting in the Lord's Prayer, and continuing --
...
12And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
a
but deliver us from the evil one.
b ’
14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
It's such a sharp and clear instruction -- we get forgiven
if we forgive others from the heart.
