The steps of a man are established by the LORD, And He delights in his way. 24 When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong, Because the LORD is the One who holds his hand (Psalm 37:23-24)

For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the LORD and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel (Ezra 7:10)

Repent!

In Matthew 4:17 Jesus says  "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Now, I don't know about you, but I read that think "been there, done that." I mean, I have repented.

 But look at Mark 1:15. Here Jesus says "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel." Do we say, "Believe? been there, done that. I mean, I have believed." No, I don't  think so. We know that belief, to be "valid," must be a continuing belief. We can't just say, "Yeah, I believed when I was in 7th grade." That's great. But do you continue to believe?

And the grammar of Mark 1:15 bears this out. When Jesus says "believe in the gospel" he uses a "present imperative." Huh? What's that?  Well, I'll let a Greek grammarian tell you: "With the present, the force generally is to command the action as an ongoing process" (Wallace, Beyond the Basics, p. 485). So, Jesus wasn't commanding a faith event (though that would be implied as the beginning of the process), he is commanding an ongoing belief, a lifestyle of belief. A continuing belief. 

Well, guess what?  Repent, in both of those passages is the same grammatical construction, a present imperative. 

So, Jesus isn't just looking for a moment in time when we repent. "I repented when I was in the 7th grade." He's looking for an on going repentance, a repentant lifestyle.

I'm not sure of all the implications of this for my life, but when I combine it with my last post on the fruits of repentance, I realize that this is something God takes very seriously. Do you? 

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