In the epistle of James, believers are commanded to confess their sins to one another in the context of receiving forgiveness of one’s transgressions and/or healing from any illnesses that may have resulted from personal sins:

“Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray. Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises. Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him. Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.” James 5:13-16

We know from first century sources that it was the habit of the churches of the Apostles to gather on the Lord’s Day in celebration of the Eucharist where the believers were exhorted to publicly confess any transgression they may have committed in order to partake of the Lord’s Table in a worthy manner so as to not defile their sacrifice:

Chapter 4. Various Precepts

My child, him that speaks to you the word of God remember night and day; and you shall honour him as the Lord; for in the place whence lordly rule is uttered, there is the Lord. And you shall seek out day by day the faces of the saints, in order that you may rest upon their words. You shall not long for division, but shall bring those who contend to peace. You shall judge righteously, you shall not respect persons in reproving for transgressions. You shall not be undecided whether it shall be or no. Be not a stretcher forth of the hands to receive and a drawer of them back to give. If you have anything, through your hands you shall give ransom for your sins. You shall not hesitate to give, nor murmur when you give; for you shall know who is the good repayer of the hire. You shall not turn away from him that is in want, but you shall share all things with your brother, and shall not say that they are your own; for if you are partakers in that which is immortal, how much more in things which are mortal? You shall not remove your hand from your son or from your daughter, but from their youth shall teach them the fear of God. Ephesians 6:4 You shall not enjoin anything in your bitterness upon your bondman or maidservant, who hope in the same God, lest ever they shall fear not God who is over both; Ephesians 6:9; Colossians 4:1 for he comes not to call according to the outward appearance, but unto them whom the Spirit has prepared. And you bondmen shall be subject to your masters as to a type of God, in modesty and fear. Ephesians 6:5; Colossians 3:22 You shall hate all hypocrisy and everything which is not pleasing to the Lord. Forsake in no way the commandments of the Lord; but you shall keep what you have received, neither adding thereto nor taking away therefrom. Deuteronomy 12:32 IN THE CHURCH YOU SHALL ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR TRANSGRESSIONS, and you shall not come near for your prayer with an evil conscience. This is the way of life…

Chapter 14. Christian Assembly on the Lord’s Day

But every Lord’s day gather yourselves together, and break bread, and give thanksgiving after having confessed your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure. But let no one that is at variance with his fellow come together with you, until they be reconciled, that your sacrifice may not be profaned. For this is that which was spoken by the Lord: In every place and time offer to me a pure sacrifice; for I am a great King, says the Lord, and my name is wonderful among the nations. (The Didache; emphasis mine)

What may not be known is that there seems to be another inspired Scripture which commands the faithful to confess their sins to one another as a means of obtaining God’s forgiveness:

“And this is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not do the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess (homologomen) our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.” 1 John 1:5-10

Note the specific verse in question:

“If we confess (homologomen) our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9

Here’s how the word homologeo is used throughout the God-breathed Scriptures:

“Everyone who denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also.” 1 John 2:23

“and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.” 1 John 4:3

“Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.” 1 John 4:15

“For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.” 2 John 1: 7

“And he confessed and did not deny, but confessed, ‘I am not the Christ.’” John 1:20

“His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone confessed Him to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.” John 9:22

“Nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue;” John 12:42

“And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’” Matthew 7:23

“Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 10:32

“But when Herod’s birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before them and pleased Herod, so much that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked.” Matthew 14:6-7

“And I say to you, everyone who confesses Me before men, the Son of Man will confess him also before the angels of God,” Luke 12:8

“For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor an angel, nor a spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all.” Acts 23:8

“But this I confess to you, that according to the Way, which they call a sect, I do serve the God of our fathers, believing everything that is in accordance with the Law and that is written in the Prophets;” Acts 24:14

“that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, leading to righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, leading to salvation.” Romans 10:9-10

“Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” 1 Timothy 6:12

“They profess to know God, but by their works they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and unfit for any good work.” Titus 1:16

“All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.” Hebrews 11:13

“Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess His name.” Hebrews 13:15

It is clear from the preceding examples that the term refers to a public confession and/or declaration before other men. The sole exception to this general meaning is the following:

“But as the time of the promise was drawing near which God had assured to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt,” Acts 7:17

And yet even in this case of God assuring Abraham, it is still a declaration made to a human being.

Therefore, it comes as no surprise that many an exegete (whether Protestant or otherwise) sees in 1 John 1:9 an exhortation to publicly confess/declare one’s transgressions to the Christianity community, i.e., the Church, in order to procure God’s forgiveness for those particular sins committed:  

confess our sins, not only acknowledge them, but acknowledge them openly in the face of men. Com. ii 23; iv. 2, 3, 15; Apoc. iii. 5; John i. 20; ix. 22; xii. 42; Rom. x. 9, &c. (Brooke Foss Westcott, The Epistles of St. John: the Greek text, with notes and essays [MacMillan, Cambridge, 1886], p. 23 https://archive.org/details/epistlesofstjohn00westuoft/page/n7/mode/2up; emphasis mine)

1:9 Having described his opponents’ claim (to be without sin) and the concomitant reality (their self-deception), the author now puts forward a counterhypothesis in another conditional sentence. The sentence begins with the words, If we confess our sins.… The author projects a situation in which people acknowledge their sins in an ongoing way. He portrays authentic Christian living as involving honest and ongoing acknowledgement of one’s sins.²⁶

Confession of sin is not a theme that is found often in the NT. It is found in only four other places. It occurs in the Synoptic accounts of the ministry of John the Baptist when people came confessing their sins to be baptised by him (Matt 3:6; Mark 1:15). It is also found in James 5:16, where, in the context of praying for the sick, people are urged to confess their sins and pray for each other that they may be healed. People in Ephesus confessed their ‘evil deeds’ and burned their magical books during the ministry of Paul in that city (Acts 19:18). In each of these cases confession of sin was public, not private (i.e., not just between the individual and God). It may then be the case that here in 1:9 the author also has in mind public confession of sin. (Colin G. Kruse, The Letters of John, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: W.B. Eerdmans Pub.; Apollos, 2000), p. 68; emphasis mine)

Confession of sin was generally public (Mark 1:5; Acts 19:18; James 5:16; Didache 4:14, 14:1), and that may well be the case here. The use of the plural “sins” (rather than “sin,” as in 1:8) is a reminder that not just an abstract confession of sinfulness but the acknowledgment of specific acts is in mind. (David Rensberger, Abingdon New Testament Commentaries: 1, 2, & 3 John [Abingdon Press, 1997], p. 54; emphasis mine)

9a. But if we confess our sins. This is an ean condition with the present subjunctive as in v. 7a, but with the adversative idea expressed by asyndeton rather than by a de particle as there. ZGB 327 says that in this instance the classical grammatical distinction has broken down between a condition that expresses what is possible (usually future in tone) and a condition that expresses a general truth (an atemporal present). The verb homolegein, ” to confess, acknowledge,” occurs 4 times in GJohn, 5 times in I John and once in II John 7, so that the Johannine literature accounts for 40% of the total NT usage (26 times). All the other 9 Johannine uses refer in one way or another to confessing Christ; this is the only instance of confessing sin. Indeed, the expression “confess sins” with homologetn occurs only here in the NT, although the same expression with the related verb exomologeln is well attested, both in connection with baptism and for people who have already been Christians for a while. Consult Mark 1:5 and Matt 3:6 for the confessing of sins as or after people were baptized by John the Baptist; Acts 19: 18 for believers confessing past evil practices; Jas 5:16 for believers confessing sins to one another in the Christian community; and Dldache 4:14: “In the church you will confess your transgressions,” as part of the instruction before receiving baptism. As for the need to make one’s sins known, Prov 28:13 (Heb) gives the principle: “He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but the one who confesses them and forsakes them will obtain mercy.” Sirach 4:25-26 instructs, “Never speak against the truth, but be mindful of your ignorance. Do not be ashamed to confess your sins.” Often this was done in a liturgical context, e.g., Lev 5:5-6: “When someone is guilty of such things, he shall confess the sin he has committed and shall bring his guilt offering to the Lord”: and Dan 9:20: “While I was yet speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin…”

All the parallels and background given thus far suggest that the Johannine expression refers to A PUBLIC CONFESSION rather than a private confession by the individual to God (although the latter view was held by Augustine, OecumeDius, Bede, and Theophylact). The fact that in the rest of I John 1:9 God alone is the agent of forgiveness does not prove that the confession is to God rather than to the Community (pace Schnackenburg, Johannesbriefe 86), for both 1:7 (the previous ” But if’ condition) and 1:3 show that relations to God are in a Community context. The passage in I John 5:16 suggests some public knowledge of sin in the Johannine Community (though not necessarily public confession). The idea of public confession also receives support from the four uses of homologein in GJohn (1:20; 9:22: 12:42) which involve public professions in relation to Jesus. The four christological uses of homologein in I John 2:23; 4:2,15 and n John 7 are also most likely public. Michl, Brlefe 207, argues that the confession in 1 :9a has to be public in order to end the self-deception; and he thinks in terms of the Sunday service, as in Didache 14:1 where the eucharist on the Lord’s Day follows the confession of transgressions. Others, as we shall see, think baptismal practice is being recalled; but there is no way of knowing whether in the Johannine Community the public acknowledgment of sin would have been in a liturgical or worship context. What is probable is that the confession would have been seen as related to Jesus’ promise, “If you forgive men’s sins, their sins are forgiven: if you hold them, they are held fast” (John 20:23). It is not surprising, then, to find that the Council of Trent (Session XIV, chap. 5; DBS 1679) saw in I John 1:9 a reference to sacramental confession, a view upheld by Bellarmine, Belser, Camerlynck, and Vrede but abandoned by most Roman Catholics today. In the Roman understanding a church usage of Scripture shows how a passage is relevant to church life, but is not necessarily indicative of what the original author meant when he wrote the passage. (Raymond E. Brown, The Epistles of John (The Anchor Yale Bible Commentaries) [Yale University Press, 1995], pp. 207-208; emphasis mine)

All scriptural references taken from the Legacy Standard Bible (LSB).

FURTHER READING

EARLY CHURCH ON PUBLICLY CONFESSING SINS

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