CONFESSION
OF SIN

If we confess our sins, he [God] is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

The Bible, 1 John 1:9

Admission of wrongdoing is not an admission of weakness, but a sign of strength.

Author unknown

Confess your sins, not your neighbors’.

Author unknown

While anyone can admit to themselves they were wrong, the true test is admission to someone else.

Author unknown

The confession of evil works is the first beginning of good works.

Augustine of Hippo

At the earlier Methodist class meetings, members were expected every week to answer some extremely personal questions, such as the following: Have you experienced any particular temptations during the past week? How did you react or respond to those temptations? Is there anything you are trying to keep secret, and, if so, what? At this point, the modern Christian swallows hard! We are often coated with a thick layer of reserve and modesty which covers “a multitude of sins” – usually our own. Significantly, James 5:16–20, the original context of that phrase, is the passage which urges, “Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.”

Michael Griffiths

We must lay before Him what is in us, not what ought to be in us.

C.S. Lewis

The final contribution of religious faith to freedom is the freedom to confess our sins; the freedom to admit that we sit under the ultimate judgment of God.

Ursula W. Niebuhr

In case our sins have been public and scandalous, both reason and the practice of the Christian Church do require that when men have publicly offended they should give public satisfaction and open testimony of their repentance.

John Tillotson

The best of what we do and are, Just God, forgive!

William Wordsworth