BY GREG CRUM
PASTOR, CALVARY TEMPLE
“In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.” II Timothy 2:25-26
In these two verses we see revealed a truth that some in the “self-help” communities have stumbled upon and used to their advantage over the years, and that is this, a lot of our issues, both individually and collectively, spring from our propensity to “self” destruct. In verse 25 of II Timothy 2 we see that there are those in this life that “oppose themselves,” or in other words, people that, by their deeds and thoughts, actually fight against what is best for themselves. This opens the door for the devil to come and take whole portions of their life captive to his desires. Thankfully in verse 26 we read of God’s ready-made solution. What solution is that? The Godly blessing of repentance!
Last week we began to think about the blessing that is repentance. Now, I know that many long-term Christians don’t see repentance as a blessing. Instead they see it as a moment of shame and disgrace. To be sure, there is a bit of shame and obviously some type of failure that would lead us to the necessity to repent, but repentance itself should never be looked at unfavorably. It’s the appropriate response to a heart humbled before God, and it always brings God’s favor and grace on the scene and that in turn will begin to heal any wound caused by our self-destructive behavior.
Friends, repentance is a gift from God, a tool that leads us to acknowledging the truth, and once acknowledged and embraced that truth will make us free indeed! Now, repentance is a blessing from the Lord, but what does it look like in practice? Is it all about the emotion of the moment? Do you have to be moved to tears in order to truly repent? Well, emotions are fine, tears are fine, but these are not absolute signs of repentance. We have to understand that God’s kind of repentance is spiritual, not fleshly, and according to Scripture it has much more to do with our mind and heart than with our tear ducts.
In Matthew 4:17, we read that Jesus preached that people should “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The Amplified Version of the Bible elaborates on the word “repent” by stating, “change your mind for the better, heartily amend your ways, with abhorrence of your past sins.” That lines up with the definitions of the Greek word translated in our Bibles as repent. In the ancient Greek the word translated “repent” meant “to reconsider, to think differently afterwards, a reversal.” It also implied “a change or metamorphosis.”
Can you see then how that true Bible repentance is a changing of our minds? It means that we have reconsidered what we’ve always believed about an issue and changed the way we believe about a thing. That said, you can see how you don’t necessarily have to shed one tear to repent, and you don’t have to be a vulgar sinner to need to do this either! With this definition of repentance in mind, it should both remove some of the traditional and unwarranted shame of repentance and also show us that all of us have things that we need to repent of from time to time.
None of us have “arrived” in our walk with God; all of us have things we could improve upon and understand and act upon in a more Biblical way. Unless we are “renewing” our minds and reshaping our thoughts to better match the mindset of Jesus we are not growing in our relationship with God. When we are, we are growing, and part of that mechanism for growth is this thing called repentance.
Brothers and sisters, repentance is a gift from God, one that should be opened by us from time to time as it is revealed necessary. The good news about opening this gift is that it makes us eligible for those times of refreshing mentioned in Acts 3. Our path to spiritual refreshing is to repent, immerse ourselves in God’s ways, and then enjoy His change in our hearts and minds. Repentance is not a curse or shame but the way out of the messes we have made for ourselves in this life. It is the way to God’s best life for us!
Greg Crum is the pastor of Calvary Temple in Lovely.