What a wonderful word is this term, ‘confess.’  In John’s language the idea meant, “to say the same thing.”  Confession means that we acknowledge our sin and lay it before God—but more than that; it means to side with God against our sin.  “I speak with God in condemnation of this action or attitude or inclination of my heart” . . . “O God, here it is—you have declared that you hate this thing in me, and I hate it too.”