The Word of God says that mercy and truth go together. Mercy and truth are what God uses to purge our iniquity (Prov. 16:6). There are many occasions when we miss an opportunity to have iniquity purged because we want to be flattered instead of forgiven. God comes to us, ready to forgive, with mercy in one hand and truth in the other. He is ready to cleanse that wound and to bandage it. But the truth—our true friend—is an antiseptic. It stings. We want soothing ointments and very white bandages so that we tell ourselves that no infection could possibly be taking root down below.
There is an old joke about how you can always tell a Harvard man—but you can’t tell him much. Apply that to anyone who wants to be flattered out of his sin. You can’t tell him much, if there is a trace of truth in it. This is because truth is antiseptic, and truth stings.
When Christians grow allergic to truth like this, they often behave in ways calculated to discourage anybody from ever bringing anything up, and then use the fact that nobody has brought anything up as evidence that there must not be anything there. Over-react to the sting—ow, ow, ow—and then assume because nobody has suggested it recently that this means you don’t need it.
But at the same time, remember that truth is paired with mercy. This is how God works with us. There is no growth in grace without humbling, without truth, without the surrendering of pride and every form of vanity.
If you have learned how to come to this time of confession every week, but you have forgotten what that sting feels like, it may well be that you have forgotten what forgiveness feels like. Do not think you have arrived. Do not think that God cleanses through flatteries.