This is our last week in Bonhoeffer’s Life Together, a helpful read that has taken us through the practical aspects of living in a community of other sinful believers.  (Next week I will give a brief introduction to Jerry Bridges’ The Pursuit of Holiness, which you can purchase here.*See note at bottom of article)  I hope you have been as encouraged by Bonhoeffer’s writing as I have been.  In past weeks we have looked at community in general; how our day-to-day lives with others and on our own  is to be lived to God’s glory and our fellow Christians’ edification; and some specifics of how we can minister to one another in community.

This week Bonhoeffer moves to confession and communion.  In the opening to this chapter, Bonhoeffer makes an astute observation: “Many Christians are unthinkably horrified when a real sinner is suddenly discovered among the righteous.  So we remain alone with our sin, living in lies and hypocrisy.  The fact is that we are sinners!”  Bonhoeffer recognizes that we are great hiders of our sin, so much so that we are astounded when someone comes into our lives who is open enough to share his sins with his brothers and sisters.  When we do not feel free to be what we are–sinners–then we cannot hope to grow into the maturity that Christ would have us grow into.

But Bonhoeffer argues that in true community, true confession takes place.  ”You do not have to go on lying to yourself and your brothers, as if you were without sin; you can dare to be a sinner.”  True confession, argues Bonhoeffer, is necessary for sanctification and is the entrance into true, biblical community and fellowship:

In confession the break-through to community takes place.  Sin demands to have a man by himself.  It withdraws him from the community.  The more isolated a person is, the more destructive will be the power of sin over him, and the more deeply he becomes involved in it, the more disastrous is his isolation.  Sin wants to remain unknown.

Bonhoeffer says that “confession should deal with concrete sins.”  Why not just confess sin generally?  Do my brothers really need to know everything?  Bonhoeffer argues that they do:

People usually are satisfied when they make a general confession.  But one experiences the utter perdition and corruption of human nature, in so far as this ever enters into experience at all, when one sees his own specific sins.

So when you meet with brothers or sisters in Christ and are confessing sin, do you stick to generalities, or do you confess concrete sins?  I tend to be general in confession to others, and this word from Bonhoeffer is a helpful balance for me, personally.

So if we agree with Bonhoeffer that we should confess, and that we should confess specific sins, the next logical question is: To whom do we confess? Bonhoeffer’s answer is worth quoting in full:

Anybody who lives beneath the Cross and who has discerned in the Cross of Jesus the utter wickedness of all men and of his own heart will find there is no sin that can ever be alien to him.  Anybody who has once been horrified by the dreadfulness of his own sin that nailed Jesus to the Cross will no longer be horrified by even the rankest sins of a brother.  Looking at the Cross of Jesus, he knows the human heart.  He knows how utterly lost it is in sin and weakness, how it goes astray in the ways of sin, and he also knows that it is accepted in grace and mercy.  Only the brother under the cross can hear a confession.

Even the most uneducated Christian who has been bought by the blood of Christ and understands the sinfulness of the human heart and the mercy of the cross is more trained to hear the confession of a brother than any professional who has been trained in the psychology of man who does not yet know Christ or his own sinfulness.  This should be truly freeing for the “average Christian.”  You don’t need a degree in human psychology or even a formal education; you simply must be a follower of Christ who understands the depth of the sinfulness of your own heart and the grace found in the cross of Jesus Christ.  How freeing is this truth!

So are you in confession?  If you are a man, do you have brothers with whom you meet on a regular basis and confess sins, encouraging and spurring one another forward in godliness?  If you are a woman, do you have sisters with whom you meet on a regular basis and confess sins, spurring one another forward in godliness?  If not, I encourage you to do this.  Find two other brothers (if you are a man) or sisters (if you are a woman) and form an accountability “triad.”  It is easy for two brothers or sisters to get into a rhythm of allowing exemptions for sins and being lax in rebuke–but a third person balances the meeting and brings a new dynamic to confession.  So let us confess our sins to one another and grow in holiness!

*CORRECTION:  After reading the preface to The Practice of Godliness, which was what I originally put in the post that we were going to start next week, I realized that we should begin with Bridge’s The Pursuit of Holiness.  You can purchase the book here.  Sorry for any  confusion.