Complete Repentance

Do not repent.

Repentance means to stop being bad and to become good.

But your essential being is always good. The bad is only on the outside.

So instead of repenting, return. Return to the essential self and to what is rightfully yours.

“11 ¶ Then He said: “A certain man had two sons. 12 “And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood. 13 “And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. 14 “But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. 15 “Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. 16 “And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything. 17 “But when he came to himself (repented), he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! 18 ‘I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, 19 “and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.”’ 20 “And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. 21 “And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. 23 ‘And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; 24 ‘for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry.” (Lu 15:11-24 NKJV)

People who have stopped sinning haven’t repented. They have simply stopped doing what was wrong. Did you ever hear of a person being a “dry drunk”? They may have stopped drinking but their attitude and thought patterns haven’t changed. Look at how Shaul describes complete repentance:

“Let him who stole steal no longer (repent), but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.” (Eph 4:28 NKJV)

A thief that stops stealing hasn’t fully repented (returned). He hasn’t completed his repentance until he becomes a loving, compassionate giver!