Confession and Self Reflection: The Hard Work

Love is unconditional, we can love someone who doesn't love us back, but forgiveness is conditional upon repentance and confession.

So many people cannot wrap their mind around this. Often people confuse unconditional love with unconditional forgiveness. The two concepts are not equal.

We can love whether or not we have to discipline, but we cannot forgive without confession, even though forgiveness dwells in our hearts ready to be passed to the repentant heart....

Christ loved His creation and died for us while we were still sinful, but in order to acquire His forgiveness we must repent (change our mind) and confess our sinfulness to become born again. Those who confess desire to be cleansed.

Those who refuse to confess have no desire for cleansing because they see no need to be changed, nor do they see God as holy, unable to accept sin in His presence.

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."

James 5:16
"Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working."

Proverbs 28:13
"Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy."

Psalm 32:5 "I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah"

The best message we can give to unbelievers is to share with them that they cannot be forgiven unless they see their own sinfulness. Nor can relationships be restored when someone will not confess their behavior.

God will not change someone who doesn't want to be changed. He will not bring them into the family of God while they remain rebellious against Him.

If we love someone, we desire reconciliation God's way. Is it possible we are so self focused and lazy that we do not want to engage in the difficult task of working through a problem? As a culture we would rather do the easy thing, just say something, even though it produces nothing, rather than walking through the process of confronting someone to help them learn the need for confessing.

Any relationship that will be ruined by an attempt to make things right, never was a friendship to begin with. True friendships don't break up so easily. We live in a culture that throws people away when the going gets rough instead of doing the hard work of dialogue and self reflection.