Monday, August 25, 2008

Passive or Active?

Repentance..This question surfaced during a sermon last night on the Book of Jonah. Is repentance without action really repentance at all? How can I truly believe that I have repented of something if my actions or lack of them, don't change? It seems to me that I am good at making myself believe that I have repented, but so many times my actions don't match my words.

Going through the Book of Jonah has made me realize that I am more similar to Jonah that I would like to believe. One can read the Book of Jonah and get caught up thinking about what kind of fish it was and how a person could spend three days in the belly of a giant fish, or even laugh at the fact that Jonah tried to run as far away from God as he possibly could. Is having passive repentance any better than trying to run from God?

1 comment:

Toirdhealbheach Beucail said...

The Greek for repentance is, Metanoia, which translated can mean repentance, change of heart, a turning away from one's sins, or a change of way. I might submit that it is both passive and active: passive, in the sense that a change of heart is truly an internal matter (I can do something because it is right without a change of heart that it is right, which means it has not really taken); active, in the sense that actions demonstrate that we have repented.