 Does public sin require a public confession? Well, you might be surprised at the answer. That is the biblical answer. Nowadays, when we see people sin and I mean sin publicly, we tend to want them to repent publicly. Their sin might be something they do, something they say or something they don't do or say, meaning we're judging their heart. And the question is, do they have to repent publicly? Is that biblical? Well, the fact of the matter is we don't have a text telling us one how to repent and then two to do so publicly. There obviously is no shortage of people sinning. And in many cases, they do so in such a gross way that that person has done and said something where we need to call that person to repentance and it needs to be done publicly. But the question is, do we have a biblical mandate to do so? Is there a scripture? Well, the answer is no. There is no scripture, not one scripture that tells us that a person who has committed a sin has to repent publicly. We do know that someone has to repent, but doesn't say they have to repent publicly. We are told obviously here in the scriptures in 1 John 119 that if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But who are we confessing them to? Obviously not to our neighbor or to our friend or to our mother or to a priest. It is to God. That's what we confess our sins to. It's not necessary that we confess our sins to others publicly. Notice the text doesn't say that. There is another text though that some might skew to think that we're supposed to give a public confession in this regard, but notice what it says. It says, therefore confess your sins one to another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The question is, is this a public sin? And is this also a public confession? This is not necessarily a public confession. And by the way, this doesn't even say that it's a public sin. All we're simply doing is saying that you need to acknowledge the fact and it's helpful to acknowledge the fact that you sin. Now, does it say what sin all sins? Because the problem is when we start talking about which sins must be confessed, if we think that you have to confess to one another publicly, well, which sins? The ones that the public knows about or the ones that no one knows about? It's really stating that you must affirm and acknowledge the fact that you do sin. That's really what's in keeping with John 1 John 1 9. Now, I would also say this and caution everyone that make sure that you're not asking for a public confession because it soothes your desire to be for the person to be made whole in your eyes. In other words, they haven't sinned against you and they don't have to ask or beg for your forgiveness in order to be repentant. We need to get also a good grip on what it means to be repentant. Repentant has nothing to do with someone repenting to you. It is repenting to God in one of the more shameful acts that a person of God could have committed. We see from David. David who has sinned in a horrible fashion. He has coveted and then actually had an affair with a woman who was married. The man that she's married to, what does David do? He concocts his scheme to have the man who is a loyal servant of his who's out there willing to give his life on the battlefield for David. He concocts the scheme for Uriah to come back and to sleep with his wife so that David can lie and say that the baby belongs to Uriah. Again, that doesn't sound very godly, right? That doesn't sound like that he's really in leagues with God. Uriah, who is godly and loyal, says, I'm not going to do this thing while my men are out there on the battlefield and I want to get back out there to finish serving you and to do what I'm supposed to do. And so he concocts his plan to have Uriah to be sent to the front lines and have his men pulled back so that he would be killed. In other words, he murders. He has this man murdered. Pretty shameful. You notice what we didn't see? There's very, very public sin. I would categorize this as a public sin. The public knew about it, obviously, because here comes Jonathan. Jonathan knows about it. But still, what does David not do? David, we don't have an account of David going and making this right apologizing, repenting to Uriah's family. He can't repent. He can't apologize and confess his wrongs to Uriah. Uriah is dead. Thank you, David. But what about Uriah's family? His siblings, his parents? We don't see that. Instead, what we do see is David making this plea, this confession, this repenting statement, not to Uriah or anyone else. But look who he says it to. In Psalm 51.1, he says, Be gracious to me, O God, according to your loving kindness. In other words, have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness, according to the greatness of your compassion. Blot out my transgression. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquities and cleanse me from my sin. Look what he says, for I know that my transgressions and my sin is ever before me against you and you only have I sin and done what is evil in your sight. Now, does that mean that when a person does wrong to another person, they should never try to make it right with that person? That's not what the point. The point though is though that ultimately the sin is against God. Sometimes though, we might get in the habit of thinking the sin is against us. We're so offended that you also, after you've finished repenting and apologizing to God, come apologize to us. That's kind of our way of getting our own pound of flesh, not realizing that we might happen to the same thing lest we also be accused of being hypocritical. But then there's another statement where we see Peter doing the same thing or Peter being confronted by Paul. And is this an example of public confession? No, look what happens. Paul opposed Peter, seephus to his face because of how he treated the Jews when the Jews came forward. He does it publicly, but notice what never happens. We do not have in the scripture, Peter ever coming back and giving a public repentant statement. We don't see that. Paul, the way he treated John Mark, which is the reason for the shift or the rift between him, he and Barnabas, he never repents publicly. We never hear anything about it. What we do see though, in the end we see Paul asking for John Mark, bring John Mark to me, but he never makes a public declaration of his repentant heart or the way he did John Mark. We don't see that. And so our caution, anyone that is so hungry to get a public confession about their sins, one, I would say simply this, why don't you lead us? Why don't you be the first? Well, the reason why you don't want to is because that's not what I meant. I meant for that person. I meant for him, not for me. Be careful that's not you. I'm not saying that for everybody because we do, there is such thing as righteous indignation, but be careful it's not being self-righteous. Be careful your righteous indignation does not lead into self-righteousness and you demanding this person get up and apologize the way you want to. Ultimately, we all sin against God. Some of us in some of our chats and certain forms and so forth, we say some things in a public form. It's a sin and we don't come back and repent. We do something while we're driving down the street. We flick somebody off in public or we do something at the grocery store or what have you in public at the job, at school and we don't want to repent. Matter of fact, we hope no one saw us which is kind of the heart that David has against you and you alone have our sin. Is it good? Is it a good thing if somebody wants to come before someone and make it right with the entirety of the body? Let everyone know. Listen guys, I was wrong. I was so wrong and I apologize. I ask your forgiveness. Please don't look at me that way. That's fine. That is fine. The problem is though or the question is, is it required? And I think we need to get into habit. Now, I think I know we should get into habit of when we say someone ought to do something, it's required. Then we need to find the scripture. There is again, there's no scripture that states that a person who has committed a sin in public must publicly apologize. Would it be nice? Sure, it'd be nice. It'd be nice if we didn't sin at all. It's not going to happen. They are not required. And so let's not make a new rule, a new command that the Bible doesn't have. Amen.