Clean Conscience Christianity
Why confess past sin against others?

When our conscience is clear, the mind is undisturbed by guilt and free from uneasiness.

These “guilt deposits” must be dealt with. If not, every time a similar temptation to the recorded sin takes place, our minds will refer to that past surrender of will to selfishness for guidance.

At once, failure and defeat will crowd our thoughts, preparing us to sin again the same way. This is the reason so many people cannot seem to resist temptation.

This “law of sin” has terrible strength.

Romans 7:14-25 NKJV
14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. 15 For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. 16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. 22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
https://bible.com/bible/114/rom.7.14-25.nkjv

God has given us two deeply powerful principles to overcome it. These two principles are the moral forces of confession—to bring self-honesty, forgiveness, and restitution to right wherever possible the harm that has been done by selfishness.

The purpose of confession is to restore a ruptured relationship. Too many Christians have overlooked the fact that when we hurt both God and man, it will be necessary to make things right with both.

1. Overcome Temptation

2. Obey God
Unforgiven sin blocks faith.

Clean consciences help you face anything. You can be
confident that there are no secret weeds of
unrighteousness that have not been rooted out and burned.

Past failure conquered means present power to beat temptation.

Acts 24:16 NKJV
16 This being so, I myself always strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and men.
https://bible.com/bible/114/act.24.16.nkjv

Proverbs 28:13 NKJV
13 He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.
https://bible.com/bible/114/pro.28.13.nkjv

If there’s someone you have sinned against and not made it right, to that person at least, you are not truly a Christian.

Spiritual Diagnosis Sheets

1. Stealing
Can you remember taking belongings, property or money that was not rightfully yours? List everything you can remember taking, large or small, and determine you will try to pay each back.

2. Cheating

3. Lying
— any designed form of deception.

“If you design to make an impression contrary to the naked truth, you LIE.” Dishonesty in action, word or appearance is an abomination to God. Lies cause distrust and suspicion.

4. Slander
— backbiting, speaking evil of another

Have you talked “behind someone’s back” in such a way to hurt their character, or in a way you would not be willing to do before their face?

5. Immorality
Are you guilty of past immorality? Your lust could have caused a complete chain of sin that can affect many lives. Moral impurity causes great guilt.

I Corinthians 6:18 NKJV
18 Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.
https://bible.com/bible/114/1co.6.18.nkjv

1. Levity

— needless frivolity, silly talk, speaking or acting like a
fool.

Jests that tend to undermine sacred standards of life like birth, death and sex.

2. Envy
Envy is “rottenness to the bones.”

Proverbs 14:30 NKJV
30 A sound heart is life to the body, But envy is rottenness to the bones.
https://bible.com/bible/114/pro.14.30.nkjv

Did you gossip and boast to exalt yourself at the expense of others? Does it hurt to hear certain others praised?

3. Pride
It is nothing but selfishness personified. It is thinking and pretending you are more or less than you actually are.

Have you paid more attention to your looks than you have to the state of your soul? Contention with others is almost always a direct result of pride. Do you constantly have conflicts with others?

4. Ingratitude
How many times have others gone out of their way for you, made personal sacrifices to help, and you have treated them like dirt under your feet?

5. Anger
Provocation only reveals the true state of your heart; it does not cause the state of your heart to become what it is.

6. Cursing
Have you hurt others by using gutter language? Swearing has no place in the life of a child of God.

To have said one thing and done another makes you a hypocrite.

Matthew 23:28 NKJV
28 Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
https://bible.com/bible/114/mat.23.28.nkjv

2. Hindrance
Have we hindered others from doing God’s will?

3. Hardness
Have you fought back, grumbled or returned evil for evil?

4. Half-Heartedness
Can you remember occasions where at work or on a job you shirked your full share of responsibility?

5. Broken Vows

Is there a vow you made to God that you have not kept? Did you promise Him something you have since forgotten or gone back on?

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