A Word Study
I recently wrote that confession and profession are different in one of my notebooks. It’s one of those things I believe I know inherently but have trouble backing up with a dictionary. I know that’s essentially problematic, but I still want to get to the bottom of why this thought jumped out at me.
To confess is to admit that you’re at fault in some way. It can at times include reluctance, and it can at times mean to declare your faith.
To profess is to claim a quality or feeling, and this is the part that’s throwing me: especially when it is not the case. It also means to affirm your faith in a religion or set of beliefs. So it seems to be a contradiction in and of itself.
I wrestled digitally with my Oxford English Dictionary for a while (this was not pretty), and then I noticed that, in the case of an antiquated sense of the word professor (to describe a person who professes faith in Christ), it makes sense. We’ve seen a lot of that throughout history: people who say they’re Christians and yet when the pressure is on, they hide, deny, and lie. They’re changeable, in other words. Their faith is not genuine; it fails the test. As above, they claim something that, when tested, turns out not to be true.
And that’s as may be. But I maintain that there is more going on about the difference between confession and profession. What about the Latin prefixes con and pro? A quick study should add depth to our understanding.
The Latin prefix con is a shortened form of the Latin word contra, meaning “against.”
In contrast, the Latin pro means “in front of, on behalf of, instead of, on account of.”
Obviously the precise meaning depends on the context. Now that we understand the prefixes, though, we need to dig in to the main part of each word.
To do that with the limited tools I have on hand right now (all of my proper tools are in storage, including my Webster’s 1890 Unabridged, which is a formidable and dangerous weapon), we have to look at the etymology of both confess and profess, then gather clues.
If we take the word confess back to its earliest roots in Latin, we find that it is based on confessus, meaning “acknowledge,” and confessus itself is derived from a compound of con and fateri, meaning basically “to declare or avow with intensive force.” So it would seem that the main root fateor has something to do with a vow or declaration. Indeed, this link, which leads to wordnerdville proper, shows the entire declension in Latin and gives all potential meanings as admit, confess, disclose, acknowledge, and praise.
If we treat profess in the same manner, we see that the Latin form is identical in appearance: profess. But we also see that it was derived from the verb profateri, meaning basically “to avow before”others. This could mean that a professor makes a confession before an authority or a witness, or even quite literally before events; that is, in faith because he has no physical evidence. I suppose that makes it a little like prophecy, at least in its "foretelling" sense.
In light of these things, I think that a confession is like a solemnly sworn vow, and a profession is similar, only more speculative—or intangible, let’s say—in nature. Oswald Chambers said, “Belief is not the result of an intellectual act, but the result of an act of my will whereby I deliberately commit myself.” And that’s good.
In practice, especially in the church, these words mean different things. I think the difference, in practice, is less subtle. I think this is mainly because we don’t regard our profession of faith to have been placed in any kind of dead system of beliefs or rules-based religion.
Our profession of faith is in Christ Himself, and He is not a religion. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He is not dead, He is alive forever.
When we profess faith in Him, it is as alive as He is, and we are cognizant of the fact that the very faith we affirm is the gift of God.
And as to our confession, when it is in regard to sin it comes bound to penitence and humility, and it includes an about-face from our old evil nature toward the inexhaustible mercies found in the Person of Christ alone, who guards our inheritance until the Day He delivers us—finally—from this body of sin and death.
Confession and profession are different, then.
When I profess faith in Christ I state with my lips that He is who He says He is. This profession is trust both implicit and exemplified in His faithfulness and power to deliver me from this body of death on that great and terrible Day when the Age of Grace draws to a close and eternity finally overrides this fallen creation.
When I confess my sins to God I believe I am forgiven, and when I confess my sins to men, with prayer, I believe I can be healed, just as Scripture promises.
So the profession, looking forward, casts my hope upon Christ. The confession, acknowledging the past, is my stand against all that hinders me.
Both concepts are essential elements that bolster our understanding of walking with Jesus as disciples, not bystanders. Let us be participants, not consumers.