There are some who wish to be 'all-out' for Jesus, and end up doing ridiculous or even stupid things. But if we make fools of ourselves while seeking to glorify Jesus, our 'special acts of zeal' will backfire. Think of someone who refuses to take medical treatment saying that God will heal them miraculously, without hearing from God. God does sometimes heal miraculously, but we are not to jump off from the top of the temple expecting angels to carry us safely, as Satan tempted Jesus. Jesus saw through this and said that we were not to put God to a test. Perhaps people are deceived thinking that they are somebody special before God and that everyone will soon realise that! This kind of idea must raise a red flag. Some others are sincere in their belief that they have to make this sacrifice for the glory of God, but it turns out they were also deceived.
"Do not be excessively righteous and do not be overly wise. Why should you ruin yourself?" (Ec.7:16). This is about going overboard with trying to be spiritual, even though being righteous is a very good thing. Let us look at confessing sins openly and how it is misunderstood by many Christians.
When we sin in any form, in word, action, thought, motive, intention or attitude, we sin against God. As our Creator and Judge, every single one of us has to give an account to God for it (Ro.14:12). He knows every detail (He.4:13). We cannot hope to deny, justify, find excuses or blame others when we stand before Him because He has a complete record with Him (Re.20:12). So it is obvious that that we need our account to be absolutely clear with Him to avoid punishment. Praise God, He offers us forgiveness for all our sins when we confess them, because Jesus has already taken our punishment (1Jn.1:9). It is also important that for the sins we have committed against others, we must seek for their forgiveness and make restitution where possible (Mt.5:23,24).
We have done many sins in our life which we don't even remember now, and we are not even aware that some things we have done were actually sinful. We don't realise now that many things we are doing right now are sins according to His standards. So if forgiveness is based on confessing every single sin, we are in trouble!
So, when we come into God's presence and admit we are sinners who have sinned in many ways before Him, He forgives us ALL our sins (1Jn.1:7). God is reasonable as well as realistic. If we try to add to this by saying we must disclose all our sins publicly before people, we go overboard. 'Coming into the light' essentially means to come out of our hiding place and to face God honestly and sincerely, owning full responsibility for our actions. This is crucial. After this, our confession must be to those people we have sinned against. Public confession is required if our sins were against the public. To confess private sins publicly is to give occasion for the enemies of Christ to shame His name (Ep.5:12).
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