If We Do Not Repent
Scripture Reading — Luke 13:1-9
“Unless you repent, you too will all perish.”
Luke 13:3
A pastor preached a sermon about sin. The next morning, a church member said to him, “You spoke too strongly about sin yesterday. After hearing your message, my son does not want to return to church. Please don’t speak of sin in the future.” The pastor took a bottle marked “Poison” and said, “If I remove the label on this and replace it with one that says “Honey,” will that make the contents less deadly?”
Leo Tolstoy wrote a story about two women who went to a priest. One woman, weeping, said she was guilty of a great sin. The other said she couldn’t think of any sin she might be guilty of. The priest told the first woman to go and bring him a large stone. He told the other to go and bring him a bunch of pebbles. They did so. Then he told them to return the stones where they had come from. The woman with the large stone quickly returned it. But the other said there were so many pebbles that she couldn’t remember where they all had come from. The priest said, “So it is with sin. You have committed many sins and thought they were so small that there was no need to ask forgiveness. Now you have grown used to a life of sin. Look to God and repent.”
Whether big or small, all sins break our relationship with God and others. But all our sins can be forgiven through Christ. What sin do we need to confess today?
Father, we often do not realize how sinful our actions are. Help us confess all our sins to you, and help us know what they are so we don’t repeat them. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
About the author — Jang Ho Park
Jang Ho Park is a pastor in Tacoma, Washington. He and his wife, Jong Boon, have two sons.
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