I have seen too many times where someone has asked for forgiveness or professed to being “sorry” for something only shortly thereafter commit a similar if not the same act they had before. This diminishes the action of repentance or the profession of apology.
“8Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.” — Matthew 3:8 (ESV)
This account from John the Baptist’s baptisms is so telling. Here the Pharisees and Sadducees were coming to be baptized for the “world” to see. They were coming to “outwardly show” that they were “men of God”. John, called them out. He made sure everyone could and would hear that they were there. They were being baptized and that they would be accountable to what the baptism represented.
The reality was that this act of baptism for the Pharisees and Sadducees was just that, an act. It was to be a public display to cover all of the covert actions that they truly engaged in.
“7But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” — Matthew 3:7 (ESV)
The “viper” was cunning and slithery and seemed always to be working in the shadows. The was the representation of the Pharisees and Sadducees that John was referring. They always had an angle and the bulk of the time it was they who were truly up to no good although outward appearances “showed” a different picture.
Repentance is an outward demonstration of an inward change. The change was to bring glory to God in any and all situations. Not meant for the one time, or only when the “public” was watching. Repentance was an ongoing action based on the inward change in the life of the individual. That ongoing action was first outwardly demonstrated to the public by being baptized and having the past washed away to show the clean start moving forward.
I have to remember that just repenting is not the end of the action, but the beginning and that beginning is each and every day. Repentance is something that happens at all times and in all situations. I am bearing fruit as an outward example of the inward change to follow Jesus.
What is your example of repentance showing to the world? Are making a visual demonstration for the sake of everyone to “see” and then backing away into the shadows for covert actions? What if you changed, and stayed in the light for all to see every move and made those moves about glorifying God at every turn?
Trevor's Thoughts 