What is Repentance?

Mark 1:14-15

Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.  (KJV)

The definition of repentance is a common concern/issue among Christians.

I have my own ideas about what repentance is and what it isn’t and I’ll share some of them here with you.

Repentance Definition

Let’s look first at Strong’s definition of the word “metanoeo” which was interpreted as “repent” in most of the New Testament scriptures.

3340 metanoeo (met-an-o-eh’-o);

to think differently or afterwards, i.e. reconsider (morally, feel compunction)

The part of the definition that resonates most with me is the phrase “to think differently”.

I think it’s a generally accepted idea that to repent means to change in some way for the better – normally it means you stop doing the bad stuff you’ve been doing.

In Christian language you turn from your sin. This is probably where a lot of the confusion comes because even though we’re taught to turn from our sin, we’re also taught that we’ll always be sinners. So in some ways what’s the point of repenting, turning from your sin and trying not to sin if your going to be sinning anyway right? Doesn’t make a lot of sense from any perspective if you put it that way does it?

So I’m not going to put it that way. I don’t think repentance means to stop doing something.

Let’s think about what it means to think differently.

What does it take to change your thinking?

Let’s think about what Jesus may have meant when he spoke those words in Mark. If we use our definition He was asking: “Think differently and believe my good message”.

This does not imply doing anything different. It doesn’t mean stop drinkin’, smokin’, gamblin’ and start going to church – which seems to be a typical definition of repentance.

Thinking differently may produce that outcome but producing the outcome just because you’ve been told that those things are wrong isn’t repentance – and the message that those things are wrong or bad isn’t the good news either – in fact it is my opinion that those types of messages are simply judgments based on cultural and societal constraints that we adopt and become comfortable with – but that’s a topic for another article entirely.

The good news is that there is a different way of looking at things – a whole other reality – a “real” reality – a spiritual reality or truth that underlies all the physical stuff we view with the naked eye.

When we’re faced with the message that speaks of a greater spiritual truth, a life of power over apparent external conditions, of oneness with God, of unlimited possibilities – that’s good news. When we believe it, that’s a change of thinking. We’re opening up to the possibility that there’s more to life than meets the eye. We begin to see that Jesus meant more than a religion or a lot of trouble for the religions of His day.

We begin to accept these unlimited possibilities for ourselves – that’s a new way of thinking. That’s a change. That’s repentance.

If you’ve signed up for my free course you know it’s all about examining your thoughts and beliefs and determining if they’re really accurate or not.  It’s about changing your thinking – it’s about repentance – seeing things differently – specifically seeing God as He really is.

If you haven’t signed up for the free course yet, you might actually enjoy it!  A lot of people have already.  Just fill in the form at the top right of this page and click the “Sign Up Now” button!

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