How do you feel about confessing sin?

[MakingAChange2018]

I want to pose a question to my fellow believers.

What are your thoughts on confessing sin outside of confession to the Lord? It's obvious to me that when you hurt someone else and they are aware of it then you need to go to them and reconcile.

How do you feel about sins committed against someone that they were not affected by at all? These things I have confessed to the Lord and I have repented from these behaviors, but am I right to not go to these people? They have not been harmed in any way but let's just say I was not respectful of them or their privacy because of lust. I endeavor to never do these things again.

I appreciate the answers I receive.

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

I want to pose a question to my fellow believers.

What are your thoughts on confessing sin outside of confession to the Lord? It's obvious to me that when you hurt someone else and they are aware of it then you need to go to them and reconcile.

How do you feel about sins committed against someone that they were not affected by at all? These things I have confessed to the Lord and I have repented from these behaviors, but am I right to not go to these people? They have not been harmed in any way but let's just say I was not respectful of them or their privacy because of lust. I endeavor to never do these things again.

I appreciate the answers I receive.

Where your sin just affects you and God, I would limit your confession to Him. Others don't need to see the skeletons in your closet. We have some very judgmental and legalistic people around so the less they know about your shortcoming and failures the better.

But if you have done something that has hurt another person, then that is the time when you try and reconcile with that person. If the person has a forgiving nature, then all that is hurt by the confession is your pride. But if the person is not a forgiving person, you have done your best and you are off the hook, and he or she is on God's hook for being unforgiving. You cannot demand forgiveness from others, but God says to those people that if they will not forgive their brothers and sisters in Christ when they are wronged, then God will not forgive them. The parable of the unforgiving servant who was forgiven a debt he could never repay, and who went to a fellow servant who owed a few dollars and had him put in prison. When the first creditor found out about it, he reversed his decision put the unforgiving servant to the tormentors until the whole debt was paid.

God has forgiven us a debt we could never repay. If we don't forgive others, then God will cancel the transaction and require us to pay the whole debt to Him. This would mean losing our salvation if we don't forgive others who wrong us. The best way I know how to forgive another person who has wronged me, is to pray for their salvation if they are not saved, and for God's blessing on their lives if they are Christians.

 

[Unveiled Artist]

I want to pose a question to my fellow believers.

What are your thoughts on confessing sin outside of confession to the Lord? It's obvious to me that when you hurt someone else and they are aware of it then you need to go to them and reconcile.

How do you feel about sins committed against someone that they were not affected by at all? These things I have confessed to the Lord and I have repented from these behaviors, but am I right to not go to these people? They have not been harmed in any way but let's just say I was not respectful of them or their privacy because of lust. I endeavor to never do these things again.

I appreciate the answers I receive.

Crude analogy.

Say you hurt a family member. To make it right in your family, you go to three people (depending on one's culture). You go to the one you hurt and make amends. You go to your family to say you are sorry to the family as a whole. You go to god to mend everything spiritually so that your apology to the other and family is a reflection of your apology to god.

Once you have apologized to other, family, and god (repentence), you do something for god to make physical ammends. Say in prayer or say helping someone else.

Confession is a complex way of repenting not only to god but the people you hurt and your family in christ.

-1 corinthians: 12-26 (harming the body)
-Luke 17:3 (Responsibility to the body)
-Acts 3:19 (Repent to god)
-Matt. 6:12–15 (Forgive others)

 

[MakingAChange2018]

These are great insights and pretty much in line with my feelings. I appreciate it.

 

[ViaCrucis]

I want to pose a question to my fellow believers.

What are your thoughts on confessing sin outside of confession to the Lord? It's obvious to me that when you hurt someone else and they are aware of it then you need to go to them and reconcile.

How do you feel about sins committed against someone that they were not affected by at all? These things I have confessed to the Lord and I have repented from these behaviors, but am I right to not go to these people? They have not been harmed in any way but let's just say I was not respectful of them or their privacy because of lust. I endeavor to never do these things again.

I appreciate the answers I receive.

St. James says we are to confess our sins to one another. And Christ personally gave His apostles the authority to pronounce forgiveness of sins, which is the basis of historic Christian Confession and Absolution; both corporate and private.

We should freely confess our sins--whether to God in private prayer and devotion, to our pastor, or when we have personally injured another we ought to confess our sins to them and seek reconciliation; after all Jesus says that if we are bringing our offering but have injured our brother we should set aside the offering and make reconciliation first.

Repentance is part and parcel of Christian living. And that repentance is more than merely saying, "Sorry, God", it is about true remorse and grief over our sin, and a desire to restore broken relationships with our fellow human beings whom we have caused injury. It is a daily struggle of the Christian being, as Lutherans say, simul iustus et peccator: both saint and sinner; the struggle and turmoil between the old man and the new, between who we are and are called to be in Jesus, and our broken, sinful self that remains while in this mortal life. Repentance, or metanoia in Greek, means a change of mind; it is about thinking differently, restructuring how we see ourselves and others in light of God's love. True repentance ought to make us grieve over our sin, not because we feel "guilty" before God, but because we have hurt others and we are called to love others freely and unconditionally. When we fail to love others as we ought, we can freely confess our sins to God knowing that we are forgiven by Him on Christ's account, and we make amends with our neighbor because that is God's will for us to live.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[Dave-W]

What are your thoughts on confessing sin outside of confession to the Lord? It's obvious to me that when you hurt someone else and they are aware of it then you need to go to them and reconcile.

James 5:16
Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.​

There is no command to only confess to God.

 

[Kristen Davis]

I want to pose a question to my fellow believers.

What are your thoughts on confessing sin outside of confession to the Lord? It's obvious to me that when you hurt someone else and they are aware of it then you need to go to them and reconcile.

How do you feel about sins committed against someone that they were not affected by at all? These things I have confessed to the Lord and I have repented from these behaviors, but am I right to not go to these people? They have not been harmed in any way but let's just say I was not respectful of them or their privacy because of lust. I endeavor to never do these things again.

I appreciate the answers I receive.

Well confessing sin is confessing to the lord and you do not need to go to them to reconcile your differences. By praying for one another you are automatically reconciling your differences because you are agreeing to be at peace with your enemies. As far as the other person having no effect by the way you defrauded them that's ok because at least you care to change and become a better you.