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Question:
Pastor Filat, please guide me how to do better. I pray God to make a change in my life of faith. How to respond to those who make fun of those who have repented?
How to make a change in the life of faith?
If you want to know how to repent, I recommend you to read the following articles:
What to do about those who make fun of those who have repented?
When He started His ministry, the Lord Jesus said “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is close.” The urge and call to repentance was the key message of Christ and it is the same today. Unfortunately, many who claim to be sole true Christians have used this word to mock and call this way people who entered the New Covenant with Jesus Christ and who belong to evangelical churches. This mockery at true Christians who have chosen to live according to the sound doctrine of Christ did not start yesterday or today. It was at the beginning of Christianity, that’s why in the New Testament it is written a lot about this subject.
Jesus warned us that the world would hate us, when He said:
If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, butI chose you out of the world,because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me,they will also persecute you; if theykept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to youfor My name’s sake,because they do not know the One who sent Me. (John 15:18-21)(NASB)
Apostle John said:
Do not be surprised, brethren, ifthe world hates you. (1 John 3:13)(NASB)
And Apostle Peter tells us this:
But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. AND DO NOT FEAR THEIR INTIMIDATION, AND DO NOT BE TROUBLED, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being readyto make adefense to everyone who asks you to give an account for thehope that is in you, yetwith gentleness andreverence; and keep agood conscience so that in the thing in whichyou are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame. Forit is better,ifGod should will it so, that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong. (1 Peter 3:14-17)(NASB)
As said by the Apostle Peter, when those who have repented are mocked, they have to …
- Consider themselves blessed because they suffer for the name of Christ
- Have no fear of those who disturb them because of their faith
- Sanctify Jesus as Lord in their hearts, that is to continue to live in full obedience to Jesus Christ and not be ashamed of Him
- Be ready to answer to anyone who asks them to give an account for the hope of the Gospel that is in them
- Respond to people with gentleness and reverence, rather than with malice and revenge
- Always keep a good conscience so that those who revile the good behavior of those who have repented may be put to shame in the things in which they slander.
God blessed me to have as mentors, teachers and spiritual parents in the Gospel sister Mia and brother Costel Oglice. Sister Mia told me once that in her childhood, during the days of Ceausescu, she had been mocked at school and her teachers had been instigating the pupils to call her “the repented.” Once she came home crying and told her father, Pastor Ion Ordeanu about the blasphemy she was suffering at school. Pastor Ordeanu, being a wise man said to her, “How do they call you? Repented? What a beautiful name! I would like so much to be called this way! This is the most beautiful name that a Christian can have.” From that moment, sister Mia Oglice said that she had changed her attitude and was never sad again when somebody called her “repented”, but conversely, she considered herself blessed.
Once, being in a village in Romania, at the door of a market there was a group of men who were drinking wine and there was also an old lady begging. I approached the woman and gave her bread and what else I had and I asked her her name. But she did not hear well and one of the men who were drinking wine responded to me, saying, “The repented is her name.” When I asked her if she had repented she told me she had not, but people were calling her that way because she went to the Baptist church in the village from time to time and listened to the Gospel. I told that old lady Jesus had called all of us to repentance and that only those who repented would see and would enter the kingdom of heaven. All those men were listening to me and agreed and I used that opportunity to share the Gospel with them.
God help you to tell everyone what true repentance is and to help them understand how important it is to repent and that without repentance they can not enter the kingdom of God.
Translated by Felicia Rotaru