If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9

Sins – John doesn’t write, “Confess your sin.” He writes, “Confess your sins.” It’s plural. He is not writing about the big block of willful rebellion against the source of light and life. This is not Sin with a capital S. John is concerned about our tiny little peccadilloes, those details that we love to lump under “He forgives my Sin.” Oswald Chambers makes the point clear. “Never discard a conviction. If it is important enough for the Spirit of God to have brought it to your mind, it is that thing He is detecting. You were looking for a great thing to give up. God is telling you of some tiny thing;”

In Greek, hamartias comes from a verb that means “to miss the mark.” That seems pretty straightforward, until we look at the Hebrew background behind this Greek word. Then we find things get complicated in a hurry.

Quell writes: The concept of sin is linguistically expressed in many ways in the OT. Indeed, justice is hardly done to this variety either in the LXX . . , nor by our modern translations, which neither express the richness of the original nor even catch the decisive point in some cases.”

In other words, sin in Hebrew shows a much wider, more diverse range of meanings than what is captured in either Greek or English. Furthermore, many of the theological words for sin are indistinguishable from their secular equivalents in Hebrew. There is apparently little difference between the religious meaning of sin and the common, ordinary daily living implications of the same behaviors. One additional layer of complexity is added when we discover that some concepts of sin in Hebrew are unique to Hebrew alone. There are about 30 different words for sin in Hebrew. Obviously, it is quite an important part of Hebrew life.

Does this discourage you? How in the world are we supposed to understand sin and avoid it if our very language disguises or distorts what God had in mind when He spoke in Hebrew? Once again, we are prisoners of linguistic ghettos. But don’t give up. There is hope (without being reborn as a native Hebrew speaker). Chambers got it right. God presses on the details. Without the language, the Spirit still speaks. Sure, it might be in our own linguistic-cultural framework, but that has never prevented God from reaching the heart of Man before. The issue is not Hebrew as a second language. It is Spirit sensitivity. If we let God speak, we will find that He can communicate without any problems where He wants us to focus on sin-sensitivity. Sin might be a much bigger category than we realized, but when it comes to this tiny little sin that God has His finger on right now, nothing else really matters, does it?

Topical Index: sin, hamartias, 1 John 1:9

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9

Confess – Let’s translate this verse according to contemporary standards: “If we admit our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins.” In Hollywood terms, this is the equivalent of saying, “I apologize if I have offended you.” Whether or not I actually did anything wrong isn’t the issue. The issue is whether or not you took umbrage with what I did. Religious people often think of apology as saying, “Gosh, I’m really sorry.” But none of this is confession. It’s human minimizing.

The Greek word here is homologeo. It literally means “to say at the same time or place.” Confession is saying about me what God says about me. It is to speak God’s words over my actions. To confess my sins, I must have the same point-of-view that God has about my sins. This is not the same as admitting that I did something wrong. Admitting my behavior does not require me to adopt God’s point-of-view. Admission only requires that I acknowledge there was a rule I didn’t follow. But confession requires that I see my sin as an injury and insult to the character of God. It’s not about rules. It’s about trampling on His love for me.

Homologeo is also used in the sense of promise. Maybe this helps us see how deeply confession reveals the destruction of sin. God promises to love me, care for me, provide for me and direct me according to His purposes. In other words, He promises to be the Master and do those things which the Master does. On the other hand, when I accept His freely offered gift of life with Him, I promise to be obedient to His commands, to honor Him, to love Him with all that I am and to put my hope in Him. Sin breaks my promise! It’s not that I break a rule. Yes, of course, that is also the case, but it is insignificant in terms of the greater picture. Sin takes back my promise to Him. Sin is born of independence, self-will and arrogance. None of these are characteristics of His children. So, when I sin, I violate the deepest part of my relationship with Him. I shout, “I don’t care about Your promise to me so I’m not going to keep my promise to You.” In this regard, sin is betrayal.

Confession scrapes away our façade. You can’t be a Promise-Keeper and sin. But you can certainly be a Promise-Breaker and admit your failures. In fact, you can take pride in the fact that you are willing to admit you’re not perfect. And no one will bat an eye. We all know we aren’t perfect. There is no loss in admission. Admission makes sin excusable. But confession makes it personal.

It’s much easier to admit than to confess, but admission simply leaves us with more to confess. If we’re really going to deal with our sins, we will have to see sin as God sees it. The crushing weight of our arrogance must become a present reality. Then we will know forgiveness.

Topical Index: confession, admission, forgiveness, 1 John 1:9, homologeo