‘CONFESS YOUR faults one to another’ (James 5.16). He who is alone with his sin is utterly alone. It may be that Christians, notwithstanding corporate worship, common prayer, and all their fellowship in service, may still be left to their loneliness. The final break-through to fellowship does not occur, because, though they have fellowship with one another as believers and as devout people, they do not have fellowship as the undevout, as sinners. The pious fellowship permits no one to be a sinner. So everybody must conceal his sin from himself and from the fellowship. We dare not be sinners. 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!

-- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

These are steps 4 and 5 of the 12 step program from alcoholics anonymous :

STEP 4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

This step requires self-examination that can be uncomfortable, but honesty is essential in this process. The key is to identify any areas of past regret, embarrassment, guilt or anger.

STEP 5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

This step involves admitting to past poor behavior. Often, alcoholics will share what they wrote down during the previous step with their sponsor.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer-“Life Together”

Curt Thompson - “The Soul of Shame”

CS Lewis - “Mere Christianity”

Lynch, McNicol, Thrall - “The Cure: What If God Isn’t Who You Think He Is And Neither Are You”

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