Is there a difference between saying, “You must repent,” and “You must repent of your sins”?
I believe there is.
But I also believe that “our sins” or “sins” are inherently attached to the public mind such that a person will say to another, “You must repent” while the person hearing the imperative hears, “You must repent of your sins.”
And here’s the problem:
What if you believe you don’t sin?
(Yes, yes, I know! For the purpose of this post, put it aside - if you can. Scripture says all have sinned and if we claim to be without sin the truth is not in us. Set those truths aside for a minute or two. Ok?)
But, let me play advocatus diaboli for a minute, give or take.
What if you believe you don’t sin?
In the community of Faith and the times I grew up in, sins were mostly major things that sinners - not Christians - did.
Here’s THE List I generally grew up with:
Crime. Murder being at the top.
Smoking cigarettes. Actually, any form of smoking, snuff and chew. Why? Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit.
Drinking alcohol. Why? Our bodies are the temple - let’s make this simple and abbreviate it as OBATTOTHS - and the possibility/probability of drunkenness.
(Funny how these things work: overeating leading to obesity was not considered a sin by most in my day even though OBATTOTHS!)
Gambling using dice or playing cards; any parlor games utilizing dice or playing cards; sports betting or betting on other things or events. This included playing pinball - the precursor to modern video games - because gamblers bet on the outcome of pinball games. So I was told.
Why?
Gambling is being a poor steward of God’s money - a trick popularized by the Pharisees to keep from spending their wealth on spiritual things they didn’t want to spend their money on.
Besides which, my grandma told me gamblers are natural liars and cheats; dissolute people. Plus! Gambling is like a gateway drug: it (could) lead to smoking and drinking and other moral sins to be named below.
And yet...
The Stock Market, especially the commodities markets, are gambling on a much larger scale. But they’re ok. They're essential to the survival of our economy.
Drugs. OBATTOTHS. Plus, pot is a gateway to other more harmful drugs. And can lead to lust, fornication, adultery, masturbation, porn and a whole host of other spiritually and morally unacceptable things.
Pornography. A) OBATTOTHS & B) it leads to lust and all of the following sexual sins:
Masturbation. Sex with oneself. OBATTOTHS. Plus, it directly leads to lust, probably fornication, possibly adultery, among other things.
Fornication. Sex between two unmarried people or in cultural parlance, premarital sex. OBATTOTHS.
Adultery. Sex between two married people, not married to each other or between a married person and an unmarried one. OBATTOTHS.
Cussing. The whole “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain,” thing in the 10 Commandments. It’s number four in the Hit Parade.
There may have been a few other things on my sin list as a youth, lying, being dishonest; I can’t remember all of them!
“My people” were never big on the Seven Deadly Sins because the Seven were a Catholic thing and, oh yeah, being Catholic was a sin (idolatry, spiritual adultery, false worship - of the Pope, and a few other things that escape me.)
But I digress.
NOT ON MY SIN LIST:
- Obesity/gluttony (and any of you who know me know I packed on a few pounds over the years hitting 330 in November of 2013 - now I am 100 pounds down and dropping. TMI?);
- being unnecessarily rude and impolite, which implies one is allowed to be rude and impolite; uncivil when necessary);
- impatient and/or angry with a stranger, including but not limited to: customer service representatives just doing their job and/or doing their job badly, a salesman, a server/waiter/waitress or a fool.
Actually, any circumstance, thought or deed originating from the works of the flesh except immorality, impurity, indecency, idolatry, sorcery, drunkenness and carousing, was NOT on my sin list.
Hatred, creating strife, being jealous, being angry/ill tempered, selfishness, causing ill will, creating/causing factions and envying - these are all things that are ok if one’s motive is “righteous.”
Really. I mean isn’t that pretty much what preachers of Republi-Christians teach? Haven’t we all learned these things, if only at a subconscious level?
Well.
By the standards I’ve just laid out, I’m not really a sinner.
Or, at least, not much of one.
I’m not a criminal.
I did start smoking when I was 36 and quit, rather more or less, around 54 or 55.
I do have a taste for an occasional dram or Irish whiskey or American straight bourbon whiskey or maybe a glass of Manischewitz or Mogan David but I can literally count the number of times I have been “drunk” on the fingers of my right hand - I can even tell you where!
I gambled once, when underage (18 - I’ve never been carded, ever), in the old Stardust Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. I don’t sports bet or bet on events. (I am too poor to be “in the market.”)
My drugs are very, very good but they are legally prescribed for quite valid and extraordinarily painful maladies.
I had a college professor, Clark McKinney, and national marriage and family counselor, expert on the end times and multi-millionaire author/heretic Tim LaHaye grudgingly admit that masturbation within marriage was not sinful but they didn’t understand why anyone would want to - and as badly as I want to comment on that, I ain’t sayin’ no more.
I haven’t fornicated since right after high school.
No adultery to speak of.
I rarely take the name of the Lord in vain, at least as it is understood by the unbeliever, the newborn Christian, the spiritually developmentally disabled Christian, the Republi-Christian & the ritual Christian.
I’ve either ceased these sins as described or I pray for forgiveness when I have done one but basically:
I don’t sin.
So, IF I am not a sinner, WHAT do I need to repent of?
Well. Nothing.
On the other hand:
Checking my behavior against the life of Jesus (whose life all disciples are to emulate and be submissive to) and His commands;
- ALL THESE THINGS BEING OBJECTIVE STANDARDS -
well, my life and perhaps yours, shows me to be almost 180 degrees out of sync, meaning I need to repent and do it daily until I can get in sync with my Master.
We tend to look at specific acts to check our “righteousness” with GOD rather than the motivations, the thoughts that then spawn the specific acts. And by this trick of self-delusion we generally stay “free” of sin.
So.
Becoming a disciple of Christ, walking the narrow road with Him, consists of repenting not of our sins but of our very lives.
All the natural impulses we feel and act on every day. Until we reach a tipping point - which is different for each of us - where we’ll suddenly know we have mastered the hard part of living life unnaturally for a human being, but living naturally as a disciple of Christi; natural for a new creation who has a part in the Divine nature of GOD.
Until that tipping point, repentance is hard and will be hard.
Check and consider what’s on your sin list. Consider what you have to repent of and if you’ve done it. And have you hit your tipping point yet?
We’ll talk more in Part Deux.
Until then,
May the Peace of Christ be With You,
† Scott, V.D.M., ev
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