What does it mean to repent?

Answer 1

Repenting is the act of asking forgiveness for your sins. Roman Catholics have the sacrament of reconciliation to ask for forgiveness of their sins. This sacrament is not widely accepted by different Christian faiths who believe that in order to repent, one must only be completely sorry for their actions and seek forgiveness from the Lord Himself through prayer and good deeds.

Answer 2

First, let us look at the definition of "repent":

- To feel remorse, contrition, or self-reproach for what one has done or failed to do; be contrite.

Once you have felt that you can do better the next time, and will do better everytime in the future, you can gain repentance.

How Do We Repent?

We Must Recognize Our Sins. The first step of repentance is to admit to ourselves that we have sinned. If we do not admit this, we cannot repent.

We Must Feel Sorrow for Our Sins. In addition to recognizing our sins, we must feel sincere sorrow for what we have done. We must feel that our sins are terrible. We must want to unload and abandon them…

We Must Forsake Our Sins. Our sincere sorrow should lead us to forsake (stop) our sins. If we have stolen something, we will steal no more. If we have lied, we will lie no more. If we have committed adultery, we will stop.

We Must Confess Our Sins… We must confess all our sins to the Lord. If we have sinned against another person, we should confess to the person we have injured. Some less serious sins involve no one but ourselves and the Lord. These may be confessed privately to the Lord.

We Must Make Restitution. Part of repentance is to make restitution. This means that as much as possible we must make right any wrong that we have done. For example, a thief should give back what he has stolen. A liar should make the truth known. A gossip who has slandered the character of a person should work to restore the good name of the person he has harmed. As we do these things, God will not mention our sins to us when we are judged (see Ezekiel 33:15-16).

We Must Forgive Others. A vital part of repentance is to forgive those who have sinned against us. The Lord will not forgive us unless our hearts are fully cleansed of all hate, bitterness, and bad feelings against other people.

We Must Keep the Commandments of God. To make our repentance complete we must keep the commandments of the Lord.

Answer 3

It means to confess your sins *and* to forsake them.

So, you have to admit that you did wrong, and then you have to stop doing wrong. Sometimes both of those are hard, and we need to get help, from God, from counseling, from addiction programs, or whatever it takes. God doesn't expect us to be perfect overnight, but we need to be trying to improve, and working to do the best that we can.

Answer 4

Answer

"Repent" means not just to stop doing something wrong, but to turn your way of life around and go the exactly opposite way:- Eph 4:22-25, 28-29 WEB ...put away, as concerning your former way of life, the old man, ... [v. 23] and ... be renewed in the spirit of your mind, [v. 24] and put on the new man, who in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of truth. [v. 25] Therefore, putting away falsehood [ie stop lying], speak truth each one with his neighbor.... [v. 28] Let him who stole steal no more; but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing that is good, that he may have something to give to him who has need. [v. 29] Let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth, but such as is good for building up as the need may be, that it may give grace to those who hear.

Man is called upon to repent, and that is understandable, but The Bible also says that God repents:- Jon 3:9-10 KJV Who can tell if God will turn and repent, .... [v. 10] .... and God repented of the evil, ... Jer 15:6 KJV ..:.... I am weary with repenting. Jer 18:8,10 KJV ... I will repent of the evil ... [v. 10] .. then I will repentof the good,... Jer 26:3 KJV ... that I may repent me of the evil, which I purpose to do unto them ... Jer 26:13 KJV ... the LORD will repent him of the evil... The Bible also says that God will not repent:- 1Sa 15:29 KJV God "will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent". However, the Bible says that God sometimes does repent (eg Genesis 6:6):- Gen 6:5-6 KJV And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. [v. 6] And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

What does this mean? Is this a contradiction? To understand a verse, read it in context and if possible in a more modern translation [not a paraphrase!] : the NET Bible is particularly good for this because of its associated Notes:- Gen 6:5-6 NET But the LORD saw that the wickedness of humankind had become great on the earth. Every inclination19 of the thoughts20 of their minds21 was only evil22 all the time.23 [v.6] The LORD regretted24 that he had made humankind on the earth, and he was highly offended.25

This is explained by 'Notes 18 to 25 for Genesis 6:6-7' from the NET Bible:- "19 The noun יֵצֶר (yetser) is related to the verb יָצָר (yatsar, "to form, to fashion [with a design]"). Here it refers to human plans or intentions (see Gen 8:21; 1 Chr 28:9; 29:18). People had taken their God-given capacities and used them to devise evil. The word יֵצֶר (yetser) became a significant theological term in Rabbinic literature for what might be called the sin nature - the evil inclination (see also R. E. Murphy, "Yeser in the Qumran Literature," Bib 39 [1958]: 334-44). 20 The related verb הָשָׁב (hashav) means "to think, to devise, to reckon." The noun (here) refers to thoughts or considerations. 21 Heb "his heart" (referring to collective "humankind"). The Hebrew term לֵב (lev, "heart") frequently refers to the seat of one's thoughts (see BDB 524 s.v. לֵב). In contemporary English this is typically referred to as the "mind." 22 Every inclination of the thoughts of their minds was only evil. There is hardly a stronger statement of the wickedness of the human race than this. Here is the result of falling into the "knowledge of good and evil": Evil becomes dominant, and the good is ruined by the evil. 23 Heb "all the day." The author of Genesis goes out of his way to emphasize the depth of human evil at this time. Note the expressions "every inclination," "only evil," and "all the time." 24 Or "was grieved"; "was sorry." In the Niphal stem the verb נָחָם (nakham) can carry one of four semantic meanings, depending on the context: (1) "toexperience emotional pain or weakness," "to feel regret," often concerning a past action (see Exod 13:17; Judg 21:6, 15; 1 Sam 15:11, 35; Job 42:6; Jer 31:19). In several of these texts כִּי (ki, "because") introduces the cause of the emotional sorrow. (2) Another meaning is "to be comforted" or "to comfort oneself" (sometimes by taking vengeance). See Gen 24:67; 38:12; 2 Sam 13:39; Ps 77:3; Isa 1:24; Jer 31:15; Ezek 14:22; 31:16; 32:31. (This second category represents a polarization of category one.) (3) The meaning "to relent from" or "to repudiate" a course of action which is already underway is also possible (see Judg 2:18; 2 Sam 24:16 = 1 Chr 21:15; Pss 90:13; 106:45; Jer 8:6; 20:16; 42:10). (4) Finally, "to retract" (a statement) or "to relent or change one's mind concerning," "to deviate from" (a stated course of action) is possible (see Exod 32:12, 14; 1 Sam 15:29; Ps 110:4; Isa 57:6; Jer 4:28; 15:6; 18:8, 10; 26:3, 13, 19; Ezek 24:14; Joel 2:13-14; Am 7:3, 6; Jonah 3:9-10; 4:2; Zech 8:14). See R. B. Chisholm, "Does God 'Change His Mind'?" BSac 152 (1995): 388. The first category applies here because the context speaks of God's grief and emotional pain (see the following statement in v. 6) as a result of a past action (his making humankind). For a thorough study of the word נָחָם, see H. Van Dyke Parunak, "A Semantic Survey of NHM," Bib 56 (1975): 512-32. 25 Heb"and he was grieved to his heart." The verb עָצָב ('atsav) can carry one of three semantic senses, depending on the context: (1) "to be injured" (Ps 56:5; Eccl 10:9; 1 Chr 4:10); (2) "to experience emotional pain"; "to be depressed emotionally"; "to be worried" (2 Sam 19:2; Isa 54:6; Neh 8:10-11); (3) "to be embarrassed"; "to be offended" (to the point of anger at another or oneself); "to beinsulted" (Gen 34:7; 45:5; 1 Sam 20:3, 34; 1 Kgs 1:6; Isa 63:10; Ps 78:40). This thirdcategory develops from the second by metonymy. In certain contexts emotional pain leads to embarrassment and/or anger. In this last use the subject sometimes directs his anger against the source of grief (see especially Gen 34:7). The third category fits best in Gen 6:6 because humankind's sin does not merely wound God emotionally. On the contrary, it prompts Him to strike out in judgment against the source of his distress (see v. 7). The verb וַיִּתְעַצֵּב (vayyit'atsev), a Hitpael from עָצָב, alludes to the judgment oracles in Gen 3:16-19. Because Adam and Eve sinned, their life would be filled with pain; but sin in the human race also brought pain to God." [Sorry, I cannot indent the section above up to the lined heading re 'Notes' to make it easier to read]

To summarize, when the Bible says that God 'repents', it really means that He felt instead emotional pain, regret, grief, embarrassment, offended, and insulted.