Repentance Part 1

In today's world saying you’re sorry or acknowledging you have done something wrong is pretty rare. Many factors play into this, but three in particular stand out to me. The first factor we owe to our relative thinking and the thought that their is no true right or wrong. Anything can be good or neutral if argued the right way and if it sounds logical. Sad to say I know someone who was very caught up in philosophy and left Christianity partly because of rationalization. Without a standard of morals (something the American culture is debasing more with each passing day) to judge things against and no clear answer to a situation, we turn to whatever the crowd is doing and base our decisions on that; Majority Vote rather than Truth. Next we have the lack of understanding spiritually. I’m no guru on spirituality by any means, but when I look at our civilization I see a complete ignorance of the spiritual life. Without any clue of the spiritual arena we rely on what “feels” good at the time; Emotional rather than Truth. Finally, we don’t care if it is right or wrong. It doesn’t matter if is wrong, just as long as I don’t get caught; Legalism rather than Truth. Before I continue I had better define Truth. The Truth I talk of is the principals brought forth through the incarnation of Jesus Christ and His Church. Without this foundation there is no way to determine what is wrong or right. Without Truth, we turn to the 3 alternatives above or anything else other than Truth to decide if we have done something wrong. Thus we can justify any action allowing us to disregard repentance. Being void of repentance however, feeds pride and selfishness causing walls to be place between people. In my life I have found that when I humbled myself and say “I’m sorry” it has always brought me into a closer communion with whomever I had done the wrong against. The fact of the matter is that we need repentance to be in communion with anyone and to have a loving relationship. Repentance leads to love by acknowledging our mistakes, which destroys our self-love and replace it with selfless love for others. I will elaborate on this on part 2.