Many of you commented last week about my take on what repentance entails. But the truth of the matter is that repentance is about all of life. The word in Greek is “Metanoeo” and is pronounced, “Meh-tan-I-eh-o,” with the long “o” sound at the end. It is defined according to Strong’s: to think differently, to reconsider morally, have a change of mind. And it involved turning with contrition from sin to God.
When I wrote my blog last week, I used the idea of repent in the way we think about what our new year’s resolutions might be. Which are those things we don’t like about ourselves, and we want to change. Typically, we want to lose weight, gain some control over our finances, or maybe try to improve our job skills or anything else. We don’t think about those items in terms of a need to repent, but the ideas behind the word are very applicable to our new year’s resolutions. Our resolutions subconsciously seem to point to an area in our life where we are sinning, and the issue is that we have a too narrow definition of what sin is.
Sin is when we do something that goes against what God wills in our life. Basically, sin is anything that is contrary to the law or will of God and it includes our failure to act as well as our actions. So…do you think that God wills overeating? No, of course not. Overeating endangers our health as being overweight brings high blood pressure issues, diabetes, high cholesterol and many other ills that damage the body God gave us. I think, if we looked at our weight loss in terms of sinning and how we need to repent, we might be more successful in our weigh loss goals. The same is true for our finances, relationships and anything else.
Biblically we are taught that sin is a condition of our hearts that is corrupted and inclined toward doing what is wrong or what goes against God’s will. Repenting of (or changing as the word is defined,) our behaviors, brings us in line with God’s will. And this applies to all aspects of our life. The problem, I think, and I could be wrong, but I believe we think of sin as the big things. Like murder, stealing, lying, adultery, or others that we have determined are really bad. Here is the thing: God doesn’t distinguish between sins. They are all bad as far as God is concerned.
What are these sins? Well, the basic categories are Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Laziness, Wrath/Anger, Envy, and Pride. From these seven, flow all the ways we fall short of the law. And of course, sin is the transgression of God’s laws as well as the laws we are tasked to follow as citizens of whatever nation or country we live.
Paul lists out in both Galatians and Corinthians some of the ways we sin, and he hits pretty hard on the biggies but again, whether you are killing someone physically through murder or killing their spirit through gossip, the sin is still sin and abhorrent to God.
The law stands to show us how desperately we need God. It is through God’s saving grace accomplished by Jesus Christ when he died and rose for our sins, that we receive God’s amazing grace. In his letter to the Roman church, Paul wrote: “sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under law but under grace.” Can I get an AMEN!!!!
We need to repent in how we live in all aspects of our lives. And the bottom line is that repent means to change. The question we need to ask ourselves and the answer will be unique to each one of us, is this: What do I/we need to change?
Peace,
Pastor Beth
Beth's Blog 