A Change of Mind

  

DEVOTION

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

A CHANGE OF MIND

Acts 20:17-21

17 From Miletus, Paul sent to Ephesus for the elders of the church. 18 When they arrived, he said to them: "You know how I lived the whole time I was with you, from the first day I came into the province of Asia. 19 I served the Lord with great humility and with tears, although I was severely tested by the plots of the Jews. 20 You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house. 21 I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.

NIV

There it is the truth in a nutshell. Turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus. It cannot get any plainer than that. There is no confusion about what it means to repent as the Greek word is metanoia which is the base of metamorphous, to change. However, here it means to change one’s mind, the way one thinks. To change about looking to self, to the humanistic method of thinking and look toward God, think that God is the one who has the way to life, and it comes through faith in Jesus Christ. We cannot be saved from the penalty of sin unless we have a change of mind, thinking that the answer is in Jesus. This does not imply a change from being human with all the faults of humanness. We cannot achieve perfection, a life completely free of all sin, for then there would be no need for Jesus to die on the cross. We cannot find any amount of righteousness in this fleshly form in which we are temporally imprisoned. We cannot find any answers in rules and regulations, even if they are somewhat spiritual in nature. The Jews thought they could find the answers in the law, but their thinking was wrong, and as Paul declared to them, as he does to us, that they and we need to change our way of thinking and look only toward God who sent His Son to redeem us. Faith in Jesus Christ and him alone is the only way to life, and if we think anything else, such as wanting to add anything onto Jesus, we are as wrong as we can be and, once again we need to change the way we think. We need to see there is only one way, and that is God’s way for us to attain life everlasting. In addition, we cannot hesitate to preach that same word to all that we have contact with throughout our daily walk, and there is one caveat with this preaching of the word. It needs to be done with great humility although we are not too sure about the tears. But the point is that whatever we do in regard to our ministry or calling to whatever part of the body of Christ we are meant to be, we should do that with humility. It matters not if we see the opposite in some who serve with boastful pride. We should always take our cue from Jesus, who show us the consummate act of humility, giving himself for us. Sometimes it seems that Paul boasts, yet by his own confession, he remains a humble servant of the Lord and that is how we need to live as we preach the word to all who have ears to hear. That too requires this change of mind.