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CONFESSING SINS PUBLICLY Beware of people who feel the need to confess their private sins publicly. Faults are to be confessed to your fellow man (James 5:16; Gen. 41:9-13), but sins are to be confessed to God (I John 1:9). A man who feels the need to publicly confess private sins is often a man who has not taken care of business at the throne of grace, meaning that he might still be practicing the very sin that he is confessing. Having not adequately settled the matter with God, he feels the need to continually unload his guilt on his family, friends or church. This might be the way that the lost world handles the guilt of sin, but all serious Christians know that no sin issue is settled until it is settled with God by being put under the blood of Jesus Christ, and once it is settled with God, there is no need to settle it with man, unless man has been personally affected by it. Standing in a pulpit or publishing a newsletter and saying things like, "Ya'll pray for me as I strive for victory over my porn addiction" is very stupid, and for more reasons than I'll attempt to address at this time, but the biggest reason is that it's a strong indication that the man has not fully taken the matter to God, yet he wants attention and sympathy while still in his sin. He doesn't need attention and sympathy; he needs genuine conviction and repentance, and he'll find that on his face before God in private, not in a public spectacle.