Home Alone

I have been thinking much about how much we need other people. And its not to make up for our lonliness. In fact, we need each other to expose our lonliness. The true lonliness is a lonliness of heart, not of company and it is caused not by a lack of friends but by sin. And to expose our sin is the only way to come to Jesus and to really know one another. Read the following excerpts from and comments about Deitrich Bonhoeffer's Life Together

"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 what do we do? We cover up our sin, and live in hypocrisy. In contrast to this kind of fellowship, the gospel is only for the sinner. We do not have to lie but we can own up to God.

Moreover, we are to confess and be confessed to.

The importance of confession centers around the nature of sin. "Sin demands to have a man by himself."It isolates him, by desiring to remain unknown. Where there is confession, the way is open for returning to the community. In confession one gives up his evil, gives his heart to God, and finds forgiveness and fellowship. Confession should be on a personal basis between two people, not necessarily to the entire church, for in confession to one member confession is made to all. If there is confession, the sinner is never alone again.