Spiritual honesty is the ability to assess accurately our own thoughts and actions before God. This is crucial in spiritual growth, because we need to be able to see ourselves clearly as God sees us. We have to be able to tell God about who we are. We have to stop comparing ourselves to other people and start comparing ourselves to the standards that God sets for us.
From Jesus
Mark 10: 17
As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone."
(Expositor’s Bible Commentary - Jesus' reply seems unnecessarily abrupt. But we must remember that he was calling attention to the man's unthinking use of language. "Jesus calls him to sober reflection. What does the epithet `good' mean? It belongs to God who is good; and it should not be used unthinkingly or as a flippant gesture of praise" (Martin, Mark, p. 124). Or as Calvin (2:393) understands Jesus' reply, it is "as if he had said, `Thou falsely calleth me a good Master, unless thou acknowledgest that I have come from God." In other words, Jesus is saying, "Before you address me with such a title, you had better think soberly about what the implications are, and especially what they are for you.")
Luke 18: 9-14
To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.' "But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.' "I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted."
Other New Testament Passages
Romans 3: 22-24
There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
Galatians 6: 3-4 If any of you think you are something when you are nothing, you deceive yourselves. Each of you should test your own actions. Then you can take pride in yourself, without comparing yourself to somebody else,
1 John 1: 8-10
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.
James 3: 2
We all stumble in many ways.
James 5: 16
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
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Old Testament Background
Job 6: 24
Teach me, and I will be quiet; show me where I have been wrong.
Psalm 32: 5
Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity.
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD”— and you forgave the guilt of my sin.
Psalm 51: 3-4
For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.
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Practical Application
The Scriptures recommend that we confess our sins to one another (James 5: 16). In this way Christians can help each other as we talk to each other openly about the true nature of our spiritual lives before God.
Consider having an accountability partner. This is a person that you can trust and to whom you can confess those difficult-to- -overcome areas of temptation and vulnerability. As we attempt to grow spiritually we invariably hit road blocks -- some sinful destructive behavior that nevertheless still remains attractive to us. A powerful way to defeat the power of these sinful inclinations is to confess them to another Christian who will not judge you, but help you get it out into the open. Once you can talk about it and confess it then its power over you is broken.
As long as we occupy these earthly bodies we will experience sinful urges and attractions. We can't help that. It's just part of being human. However we can, with God's help and our own discipline, keep ourselves from being overcome by the sin. As the Scriptures say, "No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to us all. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. (1 Corinthians 10:13) One of the best ways to stand up and endure under temptation is to confess your temptation to God and to another trusted Christian friend.
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