Word of the Week
February 22, 2025
NOTE: In your feedback to our survey at the beginning of the year, many of you asked for help with words in a particular verse. We are going to tackle some of those requests for the next few weeks. To get started, one response asked for help with Acts 26:20, where Paul is describing his ministry. What was his task? To proclaim to all that they are to “repent and turn to God.”
What does it mean to repent? And what kind of turn does God require?
We are going to give a two-part answer: this week we offer an article on “repent” drawn from our archives. Next week we will dive into the Greek word for “turn,” looking for a clear understanding of biblical conversion.
Metanoeō: How Big a Turnaround?
Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Matthew 4:17
The word repent has fallen out of fashion. For many, it evokes the image of a fanatic hauling a signboard down the street with warning of impending doom.
The 70s movie Love Story popularized the phrase, “Love means you never have to say you’re sorry.” No one enjoys admitting, “I was wrong,” and it is even more painful to announce, “I repent.”
Repentance, however, is built into the language of the Christian message.
John the Baptist showed up at the Jordan River to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2). With his eccentric attire and diet, he might have been disregarded like the street-corner preachers carrying signboards.
However, Jesus began his ministry with the same message: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (Matthew 4:17).
Repentance was the keynote of Christ’s kingdom message, so I need to understand something about repentance. We can begin by becoming familiar with the Greek word He used.
Both John and Jesus used the word metanoeō in their ringing announcement of the kingdom. It appears over 30 times in the New Testament, most often in Matthew, Luke, Acts and Revelation.
Most Bibles translate it consistently as “repent.” But what does that mean?
To an ancient Greek philosopher, metanoeō might be simply an intellectual matter, changing your point of view about something. If your previous opinion was harmful, you might feel emotional regret. But that is as far as it went.
In the Greek Old Testament, the meaning runs deeper. When a prophet calls on Israel to repent, he demands a drastic change in behavior, not just rephrasing opinions or expressing feelings of regret.
God expects more than the pragmatic regret described by Francois de La Rochefoucauld: “. . . not so much remorse for what we have done as the fear of the consequences.”
What is repentance in the New Testament?
Metanoeō means an about-face that involves the whole person.
- It may start with a mental response to the truth – acknowledging the fact that sin is wrong and Christ is worthy of our allegiance. But it doesn’t stop there.
- Repentance involves an emotional response to the truth. When we see the depth of our sin, it is inevitable that we would have an emotional response. Different personality types express sorrow differently, but the abrupt reversal involved in repentance will surely generate some strong feelings.
Matthew 11:21 and Luke 10:13 – Jesus said that repentance for the pagan cities of Tyre and Sidon would have repented with sackcloth and ashes, the external expressions of remorse.
- Repentance results in changed behavior. Like faith, genuine repentance makes a difference in the way we live.
Acts 26:20 – The apostle Paul explained that his ministry had a clear goal: telling both Jews and Gentiles that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds appropriate to repentance.
Notice that the same verse uses two verbs to describe the reversal of directions involved in salvation:
Repent – turning away from sin
Turn – turning toward God
Who needs to repent?
- Unbelievers need to repent. Revelation describes the stubborn sinners who refuse to repent even in the middle of the most disastrous judgments from God (Revelation 9:20-21; 16:9-11). If you want a relationship with God, you have to stop running away from Him and turn toward Him.
Note: This is more than just resolving to live a better life. None of us are capable of living up to God’s standards. Repentance means you turn toward God in faith, abandoning your own efforts to save yourself and throwing yourself on His mercy, accepting the salvation that Christ offers
- Christians also need to repent – not to gain salvation but to experience intimate fellowship with our Lord. Jesus instructed five of the seven churches in Revelation to repent (Revelation 2:5, 16, 21-22; 3:3, 19). Whenever I get off the track, repentance puts me back where I belong.
Repentance goes against our grain. Rosario Butterfield describes it well:
One very difficult aspect of sin is that my sin never feels like sin to me. My sin feels like life to me, plain and simple. My heart is an idol factory, and my mind is an excuse-making factory.
Repentance is not for the fanatic on the street corner. It is for the one who remembers all my deepest desires are met only in Jesus and I am a fool to wander away from Him.
Study Hint:
The word metanoeō occurs occasionally in the Greek Old Testament (the Septuagint), including Jeremiah 18:8, 10. Here God says that He may “repent.”
“If the nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will metanoeō concerning the calamity I planned to bring against it.”
And if God speaks a word about blessing for a nation, but “if it does evil by not obeying my voice, then I will metanoeō the good which I had promised”
Obviously, this word does not always mean “to turn from sin to God.”
This is an example of the fact that words have multiple meanings. You have to look at the context to determine the meaning in a particular verse.
Coming Up
As we promised earlier, next week’s article will examine Paul’s second description of salvation, not just repenting but turning to God.
©Ezra Project 2022
6 Responses
Hi,
Does metanoia mean “ an about face” or does a genuine change of mind in response to accurate information result in an about face? A person can do an about face in behavior for many lesser motives such to ease a bad conscience, deceive the Christian girl into marrying him, stay in his parents will, etc.
I understand Ac 26:10 to list two vital things but not equate them. One would be a cause and the other its effect.
Thank you Professor for your good and helpful work. You are a blessing!
Chris
I think you make a good point. Metanoeo as used in the New Testament seems to consistently refer to a genuine change, but the word itself could theoretically cover an insincere motive. Our next article is going to look at the Greek word for “turn.” I hope the combination of the two sheds some light on the verse.
Awesome word study. Thanks also for clarifying how the word matanoeo, has multiple meanings and the context dictates it’s usage. Today I’m living a life that’s causing me to turn from my former sinful lifestyle and turn towards a lifestyle built upon obedience and love 🙌🏾🙏🏾
This is such an important thing to understand and do. Thank you for bringing attention to this.
I’m intrigued by your use of the word “fanatic”. Perhaps it escapes the attention of the average theologian but what the church offers, the average sinner doesn’t come to the church to hear. So the church must bear the reproach of being “fanatics” if they go into all the world and preach the gospel. Jesus didn’t say go into all the church and hear the gospel. The mandate of evangelism, as uncomfortable to our carnal nature, as it is, will be accomplished with more effort than just a welcome sign at our church. I am one such “fanatic“ who preaches the gospel on the street. I am labeled as such because I believe literally the words that Jesus said about that horrible place called hell. I would rather believe that it was literal and be found a fool, than to believe that it was not literal and be found a fool.
This is well explanatory,I am indeed blessed.
Remain blessed.