“God’s forgiveness of us and our forgiveness of one another are quite different (since God is God, and we are merely private individuals, and sinners besides), yet both are conditional upon repentance. If a brother who has sinned against us refuses to repent, we should not forgive him. Does this startle you?”

What does biblical confession mean and involve?

I recently posted something on the social media about a pastor and his public fall from grace, and his later public confession of sin. That generated a lot of discussion and debate, so I wrote a whole article on the matter.

But when I posted snippets of that article on the social media, even more comments and back and forth discussion took place. Some wondered if public confession was needed, or how we are to understand it. Thus this second piece on the subject. Let me first share some of the replies I had made on this – or at least thought about making – and then share some thoughts of others.

Part of the reason disagreement can arise on these matters is the obvious fact that Protestants and Catholics differ on what confession is and/or what it should involve. We of course do not have a Sacrament of Penance and so on. But it is not my aim here to discuss all the pros and cons of whether confessing one’s sin to a priest is the way to proceed (although this matter will be raised a bit later on).

A main reason for this piece is the fact that Protestants can differ on the issue of public sin and where public confession comes in.

Read More