Repent or Perish

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

REPENT OR PERISH

Luke 13:1-5

13:1 Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2 Jesus answered, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. 4 Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them — do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish." 

NIV

From other records of history such as Josephus we have learned about the people referred to here as Galileans. They were Jews who were loyal to Herod and sedition was their manner. They were outspoken against the authority of Pilate, and what happened from this historical records account was when they were priests, and doing the sacrifices in the temple, Pilate sent soldiers to slay them, so their blood was mingled with the blood of their sacrifices. With everything else these people told Jesus as if he was unaware of it, he responds with the same warning to them, “But unless you repent you too all will perish”. The idea is that when they were looking at how God dealt with the wicked Galileans by punishing them with such an awful way of perishing, and thinking how better they were than the Galileans, Jesus was telling them to perish is to perish, and all men are sinners, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and unless a person changes the way they think, repenting of the way they think and thus act in this life, they too were going to perish. This is the story of man, in his relationship with God. Because we are the human descendants of Adam, we all have the knowledge of good and evil, and we also know that man’s heart is bent toward evil all the time, and that includes us, or may even still include though we profess to be Christian. The fact is, unless we change the way we think and put to death that old man who was bent toward evil, and become a born-again, spirit-filled new person in Christ Jesus, we could perish. Many call themselves Christians but as far as we can tell by their lifestyle and manner of speech, they have not repented and turned their life from themselves to God. Being a believer in Jesus Christ should mean we live for God and not for self. There must be a change in the way we think because we have faith in our Father and in Jesus our Lord and Savior, and have accepted the indwelling of the Spirit, and have the faith He will lead us into all truth, that faith must produce the fruit and the gifts of the Spirit. This is where we get that faith without works is dead from James. Because we have the Spirit producing those gifts and His fruit within us, which include love, kindness, gentleness, and goodness, along with gifts to administer to others, we would be just telling those in need we are praying for them, but we would be doing something about their need. The key is that our help is not from human efforts, for even the pagans help others, but it must be motivated by the Spirit. Well, that was a digression from the original point, or maybe not. Unless we repent, we will perish. Unless we fully change our thinking, we have not fully repented, we have not fully put all our faith in Jesus but have kept some faith in ourselves, and in our abilities.  Repent or perish.