Repent...

During these posts we are looking at what Jesus instructs John to write to the church at Ephesus AND TO US!

Revelation 2:4-5 ^“Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love." He then gives them some advice as to how to regain that love…  "Remember the height from which you have fallen,”… Repent…

Repent from what has caused you to fall.  Eight times in Revelation 2 and 3 Jesus calls the church to repent.  From what?  What do you typically need to repent from?  The Greek word metanoia literally means “to change one’s mind”, have a heart change.  From what?  SIN.  Some sin that’s gotten rooted in your life and you can’t get it out and has caused an impediment in your relationship with the Lord.

It’s often multiple sins.  There’s the sin of pride, resentment, bitterness, anger, materialism.  There’s sexual sin like adultery. (Remember adultery does not start in bed but in the head.)  There are all different kinds of sin and when they grab hold of the life of a believer they will keep them from allowing first things to be first – their love for Christ.  Jesus is saying repent of that. But How?

That is often the most difficult thing to do.  There are two different Greek words for “repent”.  One is to feel sorry, to feel remorse.  The other is to actually change, to actually implement change of will and heart and action. One is to feel sorry.  And we feel sorry.  We feel horrible about our sin.  But do we change, do we make the step, do we take the step to actually change?

Tomorrow in this post we will look how we can make those changes.

Your pastor and partner in ministry,

Kyle