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Note 1.
Psalm 51:4-5,7,9,14 Against You, You only, have
I sinned, And done this evil in Your sight; That You may be found just when
You speak, And blameless when You judge. [5] Behold, I was brought forth in
iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me. [7] Purge me with
hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than
snow. [9] Hide Your face from my sins, And blot out all my iniquities.
[14] Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, The God of my
salvation, And my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness.
Psalm 32:5-6 I acknowledged my sin to You,
And my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, "I will confess my
transgressions to the LORD," And You forgave the iniquity of my sin.
Selah [6] For this cause everyone who is godly shall pray to You In a
time when You may be found; Surely in a flood of great waters They shall not
come near him.
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Note 2.
Proverbs 28:13 He who covers his sins will not
prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness.
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Note 3.
James 5:16 Confess your trespasses to one
another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective,
fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
Luke 17:3-4 "Take heed to yourselves. If
your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.
{4} "And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and
seven times in a day returns to you, saying, 'I repent,' you shall forgive
him."
Joshua 7:19 Now Joshua said to Achan, "My son,
I beg you, give glory to the LORD God of Israel, and make confession to
Him, and tell me now what you have done; do not hide it from
me."
Psalm 51 throughout.
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Note 4.
2 Corinthians 2:8 Therefore I urge you to reaffirm
your love to him.
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Here's what the Calvinist Westminster Confession
of Faith says on the subject. The Scripture verses are in the original:
XV.vi. As every man is bound to make private confession of his sins to God,
praying for the pardon thereof,[1] upon which, and
the forsaking of them, he shall find mercy;[2] so,
he that scandalizeth his brother, or the Church of Christ, ought to be
willing, by a private or publick confession, and sorrow for his sin, to
declare his repentance to those that are offended,[3]
who are thereupon to be reconciled to him and in love to receive him.[4]
Confession is said to be the most important step in the "12 steps."
Just to review, here are the 12 steps:
1. We admitted we were powerless over [our addiction] -- that our lives had
become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to
sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as
we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of
ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact
nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make
amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do
so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly
admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact
with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will
for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried
to carry this message to alcoholics,[7] and to practice these principles in
all our affairs.
The Alcoholics
Anonymous book is available on the web. I downloaded the file from AOL a
few years back. The Fourth Step is a "personal moral
inventory" of ourselves, and must be undertaken before we can
"confess" anything. Bad habits and bad acts must be dealt with before
good habits can be cultivated. "The Big Book" says,
We reviewed our own conduct over the years past. Where had we been selfish,
dishonest, or inconsiderate? Whom had we hurt? Did we unjustifiably arouse
jealousy, suspicion or bitterness? Where were we at fault, what should we have
done instead? We got this all down on paper and looked at it.
Having made our personal inventory, what shall we
do about it? We have been trying to get a new attitude, a new relationship
with our Creator, and to discover the obstacles in our path. We have admitted
certain defects; we have ascertained in a rough way what the trouble is; we
have put our finger on the weak times in our personal inventory. Now these are
about to be cast out. This requires action on our part, which, when completed,
will mean that we have admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human
being, the exact nature of our defects. This brings us to the Fifth
Step in the program of recovery mentioned in the preceding
chapter.
This is perhaps difficult -- especially discussing our defects with another
person. We think we have done well enough in admitting these things to
ourselves. There is doubt about that. In actual practice, we usually find a
solitary self-appraisal insufficient. Many of us thought it necessary to go
much further. We will be more reconciled to discussing ourselves with another
person when we see good reasons why we should do so. The best reason first: If
we skip this vital step, we may not overcome drinking. Time after time
newcomers have tried to keep to themselves certain facts about their lives.
Trying to avoid this humbling experience, they have turned to easier methods.
Almost invariably they got drunk. Having persevered with the rest of the
program, they wondered why they fell. We think the reason is that they never
completed their housecleaning. They took inventory all right, but hung on to
some of the worst items in stock. They only thought they had lost their
egoism and fear; they only thought they had humbled themselves. But
they had not learned enough of humility, fearlessness and honesty, in the
sense we find it necessary, until they told someone else all their life
story.
More than most people, the alcoholic leads a double life. He is very much
the actor. To the outer world he presents his stage character. This is the one
he likes his fellows to see. He wants to enjoy a certain reputation, but knows
in his heart he doesn't deserve it.
The inconsistency is made worse by the things he does on his sprees. Coming
to his sense, he is revolted at certain episodes he vaguely remembers. These
memories are a nightmare. He trembles to think someone might have observed
him. As far as he can, he pushes these memories far inside himself. He hopes
they will never see the light of day. He is under constant fear and tension --
that makes for more drinking.
Psychologists are inclined to agree with us. We have spent thousands of
dollars for examinations. We know but few instances where we have given these
doctors a fair break. We have seldom told them the whole truth nor have we
followed their advice. Unwilling to be honest with these sympathetic men, we
were honest with no one else. Small wonder many in the medical profession have
a low opinion of alcoholics and their chance for recovery!
We must be entirely honest with somebody if we expect to live long or
happily in this world. Rightly and naturally, we think well before we choose
the person or persons with whom to take this intimate and confidential step.
Those of us belonging to a religious denomination which requires confession
must, and of course, will want to go to the properly appointed authority whose
duty it is to receive it. Though we have no religious conception, we may still
do well to talk with someone ordained by an established religion. We often
find such a person quick to see and understand our problem. Of course, we
sometimes encounter people who do not understand alcoholics.
If we cannot or would rather not do this, we search our acquaintance for a
close-mouthed, understanding friend. Perhaps our doctor or psychologist will
be the person. It may be one of our own family, but we cannot disclose
anything to our wives or our parents which will hurt them and make them
unhappy. We have no right to save our own skin at another person's expense.
Such parts of our story we tell to someone who will understand, yet be
unaffected. The rule is we must be hard on ourself, but always considerate of
others.
Notwithstanding the great necessity for discussing ourselves with someone,
it may be one is so situated that there is no suitable person available. If
that is so, this step may be postponed, only, however, if we hold ourselves in
complete readiness to go through with it at the first opportunity. We say this
because we are very anxious that we talk to the right person. It is important
that he be able to keep a confidence; that he fully understand and approve
what we are driving at; that he will not try to change our plan. But we must
not use this as a mere excuse to postpone.
When we decide who is to hear our story, we waste not time. We have a
written inventory and we are prepared for a long talk. We explain to our
partner what we are about to do and why we have to do it. He should realize
that we are engaged upon a life-and-death errand. Most people approached in
this way will be glad to help; they will be honored by our confidence.
We pocket our pride and go to it, illuminating every twist of character,
every dark cranny of the past. Once we have taken this step, withholding
nothing, we are delighted. We can look the world in the eye. We can be alone
at perfect peace and ease. Our fears fall from us. We begin to feel the
nearness of our Creator. We may have had certain spiritual beliefs, but now we
begin to have a spiritual experience. The feeling that the drink problem has
disappeared will often come strongly.
This is part of the same program used for drug, gambling, sex and other
addictions. It strikes me as fairly Biblical, though they aren't really trying
to be so.
One thing that may make A.A. successful is that the steps of Confession are
not made to people wearing funny robes, who claim some kind of mysterious or
"sacramental" character to what they're doing. It involves ordinary
people who have ordinary vocations who are engaged in acts of service to try to
help others. I suspect that the greatest strides toward fulfilling Micah's
vision will come in this context, rather
than by institutional intimidation, hocus-pocus, and coercion.
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