Bobby is utterly concern with a recent teaching in the church involving young adults. The teaching stresses that Christians not only should repent on the bad, immoral, sinful behaviours but should also repent on the good that they have done. It is now evidently clear that this teaching is slowly taking roots in the church especially among young adults. This group of church goers started repenting publicly on the bad and good things that they had done. This misconception seriously brings forth scriptural inconsistency.
This misguided teaching is somewhat similar to some of the previous misconceptions. There are three of these that Bobby would like to share here. First is about the rich. As stated in Luke 18:24, 25, Jesus said that it is much harder for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. In other words, it is virtually impossible for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God. So naturally, the misconception here stresses that being poor is next to holiness. The second misconception is about tithing. The often quoted scripture for teaching of tithes is taken from Malachi 3:10. Bring the full amount of your tithes to the temple, … I (God) will open the windows of heaven and pour out on you in abundance all kinds of good things. Needless to say, some churches capitalise on this scripture and treat it like a ‘sure strike’ lottery ticket confusing church goers.
The third misconception is quoted from a scripture in John 5:39, 40. You study the scriptures because you think that in them you will find eternal life. And these very scriptures speak about Me! Yet you are not willing to come to me in order to have life. Another scripture that bears some similarity on this is from Ecclesiastes 12:12. My son, … watch out. There is no end to the writing of books and too much study will wear you out. The teaching that base on these scriptures often teaches the church goers to act, to serve, to be in action and avoid idling by reading scriptures.
All these misguided teachings as stated above only touches on the superficial part of the scriptures, often taken out of context. In actual sense of the words, these scriptures touch on one universal truth and that is the heart, the motive behind. As the psalmist reminded us, guard our heart. During Jesus’ ministry on earth, He often rebuked Pharisees because of their motives. Their heart is not right. The Pharisees often acted superficially like praying long prayers in public as a show of holiness, taking the reserved seats in synagogue to feel important, wearing long robes just to be greeted respectfully in the marketplace, observing all religious rules to make one look righteous in the eyes of God and many others.
So what should be the teaching on repentance? It is not repenting about doing the good deeds. It is about the motives behind doing these good deeds. If the motive is not right, one should repent. My brothers, not many of you should become teachers. As you know, we teachers will be judged with greater strictness than others (James 3:1). Should one inspire to teach, one must equip oneself seriously and correctly. With this age of advance technology and easily obtainable reading materials, one can be easily fooled into feeling adequate and knowledgeable to teach. Beware and be warned. God bless you.
Repent on good deeds? But why? On what basis? By the way what do you think about the Yabez prayer… I should think that is a misguided teaching by the church too.