“Confessions” is one of St. Augustine’s longest surviving works. The other one is “City of God.”
St. Augustine of Hippo, was born at Thagaste in North Africa in AD 354 and died in 430.
His book, “Confessions” is the book I recommend to all Christians to read, especially to those of you, young men, who are battling against sexual sin.
Augustine struggled with sexual sin for many, many years, until he turned 31 or 32 and he declared his freedom.
In this book, Augustine confesses all his sins to God in a way that shines light in the darkest side of a human heart. I love reading his journey from darkness into marvelous light.
I love this particular passage and want to share it with you. I love it because it shows the power of a mother’s prayer for her son. There is more to this story but I am just sharing the glimpse of it so I may incite interest in you to read this whole book.
Throughout this book, Augustine is talking to God. So, “You” pronoun is for God.
On page 66, he says this to God:
“But how can sins of vice be against you, since you cannot be marred by perversion? How can sins of violence be against you, since nothing can injure you? Your punishments are for the sins which men commit against themselves, because although they sin against you, they do wrong to their own souls and their malice is self-betrayed.”
Isn’t that true? We hurt ourselves when we love our sin and we benefit ourselves when we hate and denounce our sin.
As the Bible says, “Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.” Proverbs 28:13
Please read this book (I bought it from amazon.com). It still amazes me that this book is written in the first century. ///