Repentance. How to define sincere repentance? The Problem of Repentance

The article will be useful to many, as simple truths open their eyes to true position things, and make it possible to make the right decisions.
This is very important for everyone; by making the right decisions, we act more effectively. We don’t waste our time on empty people, and we don’t get involved in relationships that we don’t need.

Pay attention, for example, to the business sector. Successful people, never waste their time on stupid and unpromising projects; such decisions lead to effective business management at work, which is why they are considered successful. Such people do not waste their time on fools, otherwise they would not achieve their goals.

The same attitude can be applied in male/female relationships. The principle is the same - do not waste time on fools, traitors and simply unreliable people.

Very often, in quarrels that arise for various reasons, each person waits for an understanding of his claims, waits for dialogue, waits for the guilty party to understand his mistakes, that is, to repent. And here, an important question arises: how can you understand that a person has sincerely repented, understood and realized his guilt, that it has dawned on him and he has drawn conclusions?

Asking questions like these and having the right answers to them is very important. Here, as in the saying “if I knew the purchase, I would live in Sochi”

What are we talking about, what examples?

Yes, about different ones, about those situations when you were cheated on, deceived, did not keep your word, there are a lot of cases. The task is to be able to understand whether a person has realized his mistake or not, after you bring him to light.

This is a strategically important skill, since ballast thrown off in time will not drag you to the “bottom” in a critical situation.

Agree, it is unreasonable to nominate a poor student for the Olympiad and expect from him prize places, or have a relationship with someone who betrayed you and did not repent. You need to be able to understand this and make the right decisions. Remember that knowing the purchase price, you can “live in Sochi”

Well, so, let’s move directly to the “litmus test” - that criterion that clearly and unambiguously makes it possible to understand whether a person has repented or not, whether he has realized his guilt. The answer is so simple that sometimes it’s even funny how we sometimes deceive ourselves by not noticing the obvious.

Answer: A repentant person repents and asks for forgiveness. Such a person will beg for forgiveness because he will be aware of his wrongdoing. Only those who value you, who have realized and understood their guilt, are capable of this.

An unrepentant person makes excuses, blames others, and looks for reasons for his wrongdoing.

In the first case, there are two ways: to forgive or not to forgive. In the second case there are no options. Forgiving those who do not ask for forgiveness and continuing relationships with them is unreasonable and harmful.

Remember: the ability to make the right decisions depends on how well we understand the current situation.

I wish everyone to be able to understand life situations, and be successful!

Repentance is regret that I acted in such and such a way and not in another way. Consequently, it is an involuntary recognition that I could have acted differently, correctly. Repentance is the first stage of repentance. Repentance is regret that a sin has been committed, a firm determination to leave sin, a fight against it, a change of life.

When repenting, a person not only realizes the wrongness, error, sinfulness, but also bitterly regrets the action (thought, statement), grieves, experiences pangs of conscience, suffers, languishes, and is executed.

In repentance, a person does not yet renounce his former self; he repents only of a separate act. With repentance, the mind admits that the goal turned out to be wrong, that the means were wrong, that the result was unexpected. At the same time, emotions ranging from regret to shame are experienced. Repentance is the most powerful form of conscious self-condemnation. Repentance is the sum of the logical statement of a mistake and negative emotions.

Dead-end paths to repentance are despondency or an attempt to calm the conscience in the vanity of affairs or self-justification. The suicide of Judas is an extreme case of repentance without repentance.

In everyday life, as a rule, compatible but by no means synonymous terms are identified - repentance and repentance. Judging by what happened with Judas (see), repentance can be without repentance, that is, useless, or even disastrous. Despite their consonance in the Russian language, in the text of the Holy Scripture these terms correspond to the different root words μετάνοια (throwing) and μεταμέλεια (metamelia). The word μετανοέω (metanoeo) means “to change your way of thinking,” to change your vision, understanding of the meaning of life and its values. And the etymology of the word μεταμέλεια (metamelia) (μέλομαι, melome - to take care) indicates a change in the subject of care, aspirations, concerns. Repentance, in contrast to repentance, presupposes a deep rethinking of everything at its roots, a change not only in the subject of aspirations and concerns, but a qualitative change in the mind itself.

IN Holy Scripture meet, at first glance, unclear words about God's repentance. For example: " And the Lord repented that he created man on earth» () . « The Lord repented of making Saul king over Israel» () , and right there in this chapter above (v. 29) we read: “ and the Faithful of Israel repented not: for he was not a man, that he should repent" This is a classic. You can try to convey this expression as a state of intense grief, but this will also be anthropomorphism. (Cm. )

Olesya Nikolaeva:
Analysis of the background of the sin of Judas and the sin of Peter ultimately leads to a contrast between these gospel characters, one of whom repented, but did not repent in the gospel sense of “change of mind” (“metanoia”) and, continuing to remain in sinful darkness, despaired and hanged himself , and the other - cried bitterly () and, filled with love for Christ, he resorted to His mercy, repented, was forgiven, received the Lord's blessing, became the supreme apostle and testified his fidelity to the Lord by his martyrdom.
This suggests, first of all, that there is a cardinal metaphysical difference between the repentance of Judas and the repentance of Peter. Repentance turns out to be only the torment of a bad conscience, which does not seek or expect, however, forgiveness, which does not believe in the One who has the power to forgive sins, who took upon himself sin of the world (

REPENT

REPENT

REPENT, repent, repent, regret your actions, realize that you should have done something wrong, not said or not done something; to be killed by conscience, to be executed for the past. Repentant sinner. And he repented, but you won’t turn it back. They say to repent someone, to force someone to repent, to reassure someone, to induce them to repentance. Remorse, remorse, the state of someone who repents of something, regrets his bad deed. Later repentance doesn't save. Without remorse, there is no forgiveness.

Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary. IN AND. Dahl. 1863-1866.

See what “REPORT” means in other dictionaries:

Repent, repent, blame, bring repentance, come (to appear) to confess. Cm … Synonym dictionary

REPENT, I repent, you repent. imperfect to repent. “I acted smartly and I won’t regret it.” A. Turgenev. Ushakov's explanatory dictionary. D.N. Ushakov. 1935 1940 ... Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary

REPENT, I say, I say; Sov., in what. Feel regret for your actions or misdeeds. R. in his words, in his behavior. Ozhegov's explanatory dictionary. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 … Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary

repent- deeply repent very repent... Dictionary of Russian Idioms

repent- ▲ condemn one’s own act of regret. regret something. regret. I’m not happy myself (# what I said). and not happy. repentance, self-condemnation of one’s behavior, awareness of one’s guilt. repent of something. repentance. repent of something. confess. repentant (# speech). sayings... Ideographic Dictionary of the Russian Language

See repent... Etymological dictionary Russian language by Max Vasmer

Nesov. nepereh. Feel regret about your action, recognizing it as wrong or bad. Ephraim's explanatory dictionary. T. F. Efremova. 2000... Modern Dictionary Russian language Efremova

Repent, repent, repent, repent, repent, repent, repent, repent, repent, repent, repent, repent, repent, repent, repentant, repentant, repentant,... ... Forms of words

repent- I repent, I repent, I repent... Russian spelling dictionary

repent- (I), I’m repenting, I’m repenting, I’m repenting... orthographic dictionary Russian language

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Repentance as a personality quality is the ability to realize one’s guilt, to experience a deep feeling of regret about one’s bad, erroneous action, and to forever impose a taboo on the entire range of similar actions.

One day an angel disobeyed God, for which he appeared before the throne of the Judge. He prayed that he would be allowed to atone for his guilt, and God said: “I will not punish you, but for your disobedience you must come down to earth and bring me the greatest value from there.” The angel flew to earth, circled over mountains and valleys, over seas and rivers - all looking for the greatest value in the world. Finally, several years later, flying over the battlefield, he saw a soldier die, wounded in the battles for his homeland. - Water, water! - the warrior begged with dry lips. Hearing his groans, another dying soldier crawled up to him, opened a flask and began to give water to his comrade, on whose face a smile appeared. When the flask was empty, the angel picked it up and brought it to the throne of the Most High. “Almighty God,” he said, “is probably the greatest value in the world.” “Of course,” God agreed, “the value is considerable, but not the greatest in the world.” The angel returned to earth and, after a long search, reached the infirmary where the sister of mercy was dying. She was nursing the sick when she was struck by an incurable illness, and now she had only a few hours to live. When she breathed her last, the angel picked him up, brought him to the judge's throne and said: “Almighty God, this is probably the greatest value in the world.” God smiled at the angel and said: “Self-sacrifice is a huge value, but fly again and bring Me the greatest value in the world.” The angel returned to earth and this time searched for a long, long time until he noticed a horseman making his way through the forest thicket. He was armed from head to toe, and from his fierce appearance it was clear that he was a villain. The horseman made his way to the hut of his enemy to kill him. The owners of the hut had no idea about anything; the light was on in their house. The attacker crept up to the window, looked inside, and the following picture appeared to his eyes: putting him to bed little son, his mother taught him to pray and thank God for all the blessings that He sends to people. This scene reminded the villain of his own mother, who put him to bed in the same way as a child and taught him to pray in the same way. The villain's heart softened, tears rolled down his cheeks, and he regretted his evil intentions. The angel picked up one tear and brought it to God. “Merciful God, repentance is certainly the greatest value in the world.” God smiled kindly at the angel and said: “Now you are right - in My eyes this is the highest value.”

Repentance is not liberation from sin, it is a turn towards liberation from it. There is a misconception that repentance automatically frees you from sins. That is, he did something nasty, repented, and with renewed vigor began to create new nasty things. He obeyed the pleasant voice of feelings, impulses of emotions, did indecent things, repented and again gave in to the impulse of feelings. In fact, repentance means an attempt to take the path of cleansing from the filth of sins. No more.

Repentance is not the cleansing of an elephant. When the elephant takes a bath, a lot of midges stick to his skin and he becomes terribly uncomfortable. Therefore, after bathing, the elephant lies down in the dust and begins to roll in it. A “good” swim if you’re up to your ears in mud again! Bathing an elephant is a great metaphor for false repentance. A person commits a bad deed, repents, and then commits a bad deed again. The “bathing an elephant” type of repentance algorithm definitely does not work.

The laws of the Universe are perfect. They do not accept false repentance. François de La Rochefoucauld writes about one such form of false repentance: “Our repentance is usually not so much regret for the evil that we have committed, but rather the fear of the evil that may be inflicted on us in return.” Martin McDonagh writes even more radically: “And the most interesting thing is this. You can send a bunch of people to the next world, but if you repent properly, you can go to heaven.”

Complete repentance is the ability to fully understand the horror of your current state. Chingiz Aitmatov in his wonderful novel “The Scaffold” writes: “Repentance - one of the great achievements in the history of the human spirit - has been discredited these days. It can be said to have completely disappeared from moral world modern man. But how can a person be a person without repentance, without that shock and insight that is achieved through awareness of guilt - whether in actions, in thoughts, through outbursts of self-flagellation or self-condemnation?

Changes in consciousness for the better fully correspond to the depth of repentance. For example, a wife has repeatedly cheated on her husband. And such events happened in her life that it became unbearable for her to feel like a cheater, to lie and pretend in front of a loved one. But like any sin, once committed, it requires repetition. When the Rubicon of marital fidelity was crossed, the devil whispered: “It’s only once and that’s all.” Then he said with a grin: “Well, just think, what a deal! Nothing bad will happen to you. It won’t get any worse from you.” In a word, sin creates a habit. The woman has already developed a habit of cheating. She considered herself sincere when she repented, but she discovers with horror that there was repentance, but habit demands its toll. The sin remains. Repentance did not free her from sin. What should she do? Realize that she is at the beginning of the path of liberation from sin, that you need to be as careful as possible in the area of ​​voluptuousness, that you just need to not notice other men. You need to continue to repent and be more and more wary until you fully understand the danger of sin. Charles Baudelaire also wrote:

Vice is persistent in us, repentance is feigned;
Hasten to repay yourself a hundredfold for everything,
Again the soul glides along the path of sin, laughing,
Tears of cowardice washed your shameful path.

When a person comes to church to repent, he, to some extent, overcomes his selfishness and thereby strengthens the power of repentance. Promises to yourself do not have much power, but when you told the priest, that is, an authority figure, it already has power, because if you break your promises, the respect of this person is lost. Dr. O.G. Torsunov, considering the issue of repentance and forgiveness, says: “If you ask a saint for forgiveness, he will always forgive, this is the privilege of a holy person, he always forgives, in any case. There is no chance of not forgiving, not receiving forgiveness, one hundred percent. What does forgiveness mean then? This means admitting your guilt. But the problem here is that there are two types of repentance. Repentance in the mind, and repentance in word. If a person repents in his mind, before a saint, it does not work, or it works very weakly. He must repent in word, next to him, because he must... this is the law. I don't know how it is, I can't explain it, he has to come to him and ask for forgiveness. But when we insult ordinary people, repentance often works in the mind, very often. It is not necessary to come up and ask for forgiveness, especially if the person is not able to accept forgiveness. He will swear, get angry, stomp his feet, you know? If a person himself has the form of a false ego, then one can ask for forgiveness in the mind and the reactions will be destroyed. But always a person for insulting another person, even inadvertently, or even in defense of the truth, if he insults someone, he must ask for forgiveness, in any case. Otherwise he will suffer for it.”

Repentance is unison with your conscience. This is a state of truthfulness. The human body, metaphorically speaking, should be filled with tears of repentance. The first stage of repentance is a feeling of guilt, a feeling of heaviness from a bad deed. The person begins to repent enthusiastically. Let's say six months pass, and a moment comes when sincere repentance brings lightness and relief.

Repentance is vigilance in action. People repent to return to normal active life, get away from feelings of guilt and find agreement with your conscience. True repentance is when I continue to live in accordance with my moral criteria, with my conscience. That is, a person becomes vigilant. He will no longer succumb to anyone's persuasion. For example, his friends suggested that he go to the right “deed”; they say that he will be in a big mess, that they will “cut everything into pieces.” But if a person has sincerely repented, he will be vigilant in action - he will not fall for the bait of criminals.

Repentance means never doing that again. Repentance is a departure from bad deeds across the entire spectrum of life activity. For example, a person repented of drunkenness. But he switched to pills, drugs, or became a substance abuser. This is not repentance. Repentance involves a comprehensive departure from all types of bad behavior in a given area of ​​​​life. Repentance for drunkenness simultaneously implies the renunciation of all mind-stupefying substances. That is, repentance is a taboo on the entire spectrum of the same type of vicious activity. Partial repentance does not transfer the person to another level of consciousness. On the contrary, it can contribute to the strengthening of his bad inclinations. For example, he repented of smoking, but became an alcoholic.

Once upon a time there lived a wolf; he tore to pieces many sheep and plunged many people into confusion and tears. Finally, I don’t know why, he suddenly felt remorse and began to repent of his life; decided to change and no longer kill sheep. To make sure everything was real, he went to the priest and asked him to serve a thanksgiving prayer. The priest began the service, and the wolf stood and cried in the church. The service was long. The wolf happened to kill a lot of the priest’s sheep; so the priest prayed with all seriousness that the wolf would change. But suddenly, the wolf looked out the window and saw that the sheep were being driven home. He began to shift from foot to foot; but the priest keeps praying, and there is no end in sight to the prayer. Finally the wolf could not stand it and growled: “Cut it out, priest!” Otherwise they will drive all the sheep home and leave me without dinner!

Petr Kovalev 2013