Return While He Is Near

The word set before us today is not vague sorrow but repentance with deeds. In the Law, sin is not treated as a mist that passes by itself. A man must confess; what was taken must be restored; what was defiled must be acknowledged; what was hidden must be brought into the light. Even silence can bear guilt, and fraud against a neighbor is trespass against God. So the Lord teaches us that repentance is not completed by speech alone, but by truth-telling, restitution, and amendment of life.

Yet the same Lord who exposes sin also calls the thirsty to come without price. He does not invite us to remain as we are, but to forsake our way and return. As Theophilus says, "Concerning repentance, then, Isaiah the prophet, generally indeed to all, but expressly to the people, says: Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near: let the wicked forsake his ways, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord his God, and he will find mercy, for He will abundantly pardon." Mercy is abundant, but it is found on the road of return.

Therefore the warning of Christ must not be softened. Calamity is not proof that others were worse; it is a trumpet to our own conscience. "Or those eighteen upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, do you think that they were debtors to death above all men who dwell in Jerusalem? No; I say unto you, said He, that unless you repent, you shall all likewise perish." Let us then strive to enter by the narrow door: not delaying confession, not keeping what is another’s, not excusing uncleanness, but seeking the Lord while He is near.