Paul is just not in the habit of letting me off the hook … at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things (v.1). I would like these verses a whole lot more if he had just kept his pen off the page here.

But Paul wants us to encounter the God who comes to us in Jesus. So, he asks us just four verses later to remember that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance (v. 4). Lent is a season designed to aid us in walking in repentance.

Repentance is not an easy stroll in the park. It requires soul-honesty. Repentance invites us to take a good deep look at ourselves rather than a shallow look at someone else. This is not repentance as a crushing self-humiliation but is repentance as the self-forgetful opening of the heart to divine love. This is a recognition that the God who calls for our repentance comes to us in Jesus Christ with forgiveness and renewal.

Maybe during this season of Lent, you find yourself discouraged. Perhaps you tell yourself, “I have entered into exercise after exercise, but I wake up each day with the same habit of judgmentalism. How do I get off of this merry go round?” Paul tells us in verse seven there is one way … it is the way of persistence— persistence anchored in the goodness of God who comes to us in Jesus. He leads us in repentance, not in order to crush us, but to transform us. It is repentance as a spiritual discipline grounded in grace rather than in judgment. It is repentance tied to the character of God in Christ.

If our repentance lacks this arterial connection to the grace of God, it will degenerate into self-loathing, a critical spirit, and lack the connection to deliver grace right in the midst of our daily struggles. Paul understood the necessity and reality of this connection; our repentance, devoid of the Spirit of Jesus, is just an exercise in futility. But repentance anchored in the grace of God in Christ is life-giving. It is repentance as the self-forgetful opening of the heart to divine love.

Here is the spirit of Lenten repentance. May we find ourselves grounded in the deep love of God who does not show favoritism (vs 11).

Author: David Brown

Other Lenten readings for today:

• Psalm 39
• Jeremiah 11:1-17