Say you're sorry

Phillip Foster June 23, 2020

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Say you're sorry.

Remember when you were younger and you got in trouble for hitting one of your siblings? After a stern lecture, your parent told you, "Now, say you're sorry."

That's a rather simplistic way of understanding what it means to repent. I need to repent. I need to say I'm sorry. And maybe you do as well. Don't confuse me with a Greek scholar, but I can find my way around a commentary and a do a word study from time to time. So, I was reading a passage from the New Testament the other day and reading it in the Greek, and the word "repent" jumped out at me. I felt compelled to give it another look.

There are at least a couple words that are translated from the Greek as repent, both referring to what we do with our minds after. Think "afterthought." First of all, understand that when the Greeks talked about the mind, they were referring to the moral center of a man, the place of reflection upon right and wrong, from where comes a man's purpose.

Repentance suggests a need to reflect upon what we have done in terms of whether it was morally right or wrong. But, even further, it suggests the need to change. What good is saying, "I'm sorry," if we don't intend to change? In addition, the intent is to not only consider what we have done wrong and that we intend to change, to repent means that we intend to literally "make provision for the direction of the mind," that is, we will make a plan of thinking differently, thereby acting differently.

We need to examine our own faulty thinking and how it has shaped our actions, and change our thinking and beliefs. Then we need to follow through and act differently.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians that he didn't regret hurting them by his words in a previous letter because it led to them feeling sorry, and their sorrow led to repentance, and that was God's intent. "Godly sorry brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret" (II Cor. 7:10), and it caused them to change their ways, to become more earnest, more eager, more indignant and alarmed, and ready to see justice done.

Many of us feel sorrow over the recent events of violence towards blacks in our country. I need to repent because my mind has not been inclined towards doing anything constructive about the issues. I need to allow my sorrow to lead me to being indignant and alarmed, but also to be active and intentional about applying my mind towards change. I need to be more ready to see justice done. What about you? If so, say you're sorry.

Tell someone you know or use your own form of social media, but tell our brothers and sisters who are black that they do matter and you are sorry. Then make a plan. Don't let your sorrow be wasted. Use it to motivate you to find a way to accomplish something purposeful. Change.

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Phillip A. Foster, Ph.D., as a psychologist and Director of AuthenticQuest.org, provides spiritual direction, counseling, training and consulting, to those in ministry or other roles of leadership in the church. He is the author of Here's My Heart, Lord; Parent With an Attitude, and Not Good Enough. Learn More »

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