Repent and sin some more.
There are plenty of words that are thrown around, words you might call Christianese. there's a word that's very close to the heart of Jesus, I think, "repent."
What does it mean to repent. There are a few simple meanings of the word that pastors teach quite often, most comonly taught is the "180 degree turn" meaning you turn from your sin and toward God. This version of repentence leads strait to more sin. People are taught to "flee from sin" and kick their nasty habbits without ever being taught how to deal with their sin. Church teaches us what is wrong to do and in many churches a sort of standard is set where people are either alienated or they learn to hide their sin on suday only to sin some more on monday.
I believe that first of all this word repentace must be rooted in love because sin, I humbly submit, is scripturally defined as the oposite of love. So could repent simply mean "start loving?"
If we flee from sin, without actually embracing it and bringing it before God and people to be dealt with, we can never break that mystical bond that exsits between our sin and ourselves. But how does the Church respond? Sin will scar us for life, at least until healing happens. There must be more to that word; "repent."
What does it mean to repent. There are a few simple meanings of the word that pastors teach quite often, most comonly taught is the "180 degree turn" meaning you turn from your sin and toward God. This version of repentence leads strait to more sin. People are taught to "flee from sin" and kick their nasty habbits without ever being taught how to deal with their sin. Church teaches us what is wrong to do and in many churches a sort of standard is set where people are either alienated or they learn to hide their sin on suday only to sin some more on monday.
I believe that first of all this word repentace must be rooted in love because sin, I humbly submit, is scripturally defined as the oposite of love. So could repent simply mean "start loving?"
If we flee from sin, without actually embracing it and bringing it before God and people to be dealt with, we can never break that mystical bond that exsits between our sin and ourselves. But how does the Church respond? Sin will scar us for life, at least until healing happens. There must be more to that word; "repent."
Comments
I would add the question, "who can the repentatn sinner trust?"
In my opinion, yes, something needs to be done and it may not be a "smooth" transition from where we are now (fake and unsincere) to where we need to be (real and open). Until we, the church, can admit to being imperfect and that it's okay, that in fact the very reason we need Jesus is because we are imperfect, nothing is going to change. We will continue to appear as hypocrites to non-believers and continue to cause those in our church family to feel as though they have to hide their sin, for fear of being the only one struggling with their issues. We need to allow ourselves to be vulnerable in order that we may reach and connect with others in similar situations so that we my grow together for the kingdom of Christ.