He Who is Alone With His Sin is Utterly Alone

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in Life Together, reflecting on James 5:16:

He who is alone with his sin is utterly alone. The pious fellowship permits no one to be a sinner. So everyone must conceal his sin from himself and from the fellowship, living in lies and hypocrisy. But it is the grace of the Gospel, which is so hard for the pious to understand, that says: "You're a sinner, a great desperate sinner. Now come, as the sinner that you are, to the God who loves you" ...A man who confesses his sins in the presence of a brother knows that he is no longer alone with himself; he experiences the presence of God in the reality of the other person.