I read a post today defining the word repent as “turning traitor”. While having little knowledge of Greek, there is definitely something more to repentance in the Bible than saying sorry.
We are shocked when Jesus told a man he couldn’t bury his father before following him (Matt 8:21-22) because we’ve never worked out Jesus is worth so much that “turning traitor” on the world is expected.
The Bible puts it up as a test of true faith:
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
1 John 2:15
We can add that repentance doesn’t save us, Christ does, and that we need the Holy Spirit to effect this change. All is true. But the fact is: true Christians turn around.
It’s so obvious that the Church isn’t leaving the world behind. We bring in ideas that we bring our idols into church life. Obsession with human rights, law, feminism, homosexuality, sexual liberty, pride, intellectualism, wealth, classism, racism: all of these things have coloured Christian doctrine and ethics rather than Jesus.
Before we rant at others, why don’t we take a look at ourselves and consider whether we’ve truly surrendered the world for Christ. What are your idols that you need to turn traitor on? Feel free to post them below.
If you’ve enjoyed reading this post sign up by email or RSS Feed
(Picture by cornfed1975 under the Creative Commons Licence)
Tim Wilson is a primary school teacher in the North East of England. A Bible-believing Christian, he's committed to putting Jesus at the centre of everything he does.
5 comments
Comments feed for this article
May 24, 2008 at 8:45 am
rjs1
“Art thou weaned from Egypt’s pleasures?
God in secret thee shall keep,
There unfold His hidden treasures,
There His love’s exhaustless deep.” – Little Flock 1881 Edition
May 24, 2008 at 8:47 am
rjs1
BTW: If you have not listened to this sermon then I would commend it to you. :)
May 24, 2008 at 7:43 pm
Tim Wilson
Thanks again Richard for the quote and the link. I look forward to listening to the sermon and will hopefully blog about it when complete thank you!
June 19, 2008 at 8:40 am
Basie
Somehow i missed the point. Probably lost in translation :) Anyway … nice blog to visit.
cheers, Basie.
June 19, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Tim Wilson
Basie, it won’t be you, it’ll be my explanation!
Let me exemplify. Before Jim was a Christian he would get up to all sorts of things he shouldn’t have done.
When he became a Christian, Jim stopped doing these things. His friends would say “Man you’re not as cool as you once were. You’ve betrayed us.”
The point is Jim has to betray them. He has to betray the world’s ways, whether they are seemingly good things (money, family, security) or bad things (shoplifting, abuse, lying). He must completely swap sides and go God’s way not the world’s.
This idea is quite shocking to us, but Jesus is worth giving up everything for.
I hope that goes some way to clarify, sorry for the bad wording. Hope you stop by again!