Prideful Penitence

To keep a proper focus during Lent, it's vital that we remember there's a right way to be penitent and a wrong way. Prideful penitence can actually take us backward in our spiritual life. This devotion uses the insights of sixteenth century priest Lorenzo Scupoli to help keep us on track.

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In all honesty, I’m not sure what percentage of Christians this particular Lent devotion applies to. All around us in the world we see people sinning without remorse, without even a tingle in their conscience. Guilt is seen as absurd or even unhealthy in some quarters. Pointing out sin seems to some like something the “old” church got wrong. The “loving” church speaks of grace, welcome, and forgiveness exclusively.

But some Christians, for whom this devotion is written, get bogged down in guilt and despair when they enter into a time of penitence. That’s not healthy either.

I once offended a younger couple when interviewing one of them for baptism, and it came out that they were living together. I asked the young man whether he was aware of the Bible’s teaching on sex being reserved for marriage, or whether he knew that’s what the Bible teaches but, for whatever reason, wasn’t following it. We can’t take this for granted. Premarital sexuality is so common that it’s very possible a couple may never have heard that the Bible has something to say about it. Pastorally, we need to approach that in a different way.

But this young man admitted that he knew, but had decided, for whatever reason, to live the life he was living. I said we could marry them, help them find a separate place to live, or explore other options for them, but it was too soon for them to be baptized until they addressed this ongoing sin. The biblical language is “repent and be baptized,” (Acts 2:38) which means we intend to leave our sin behind. Though we will never live perfect lives, our intent at baptism is to declare that Jesus isn’t just Lord, but our Lord, which is difficult to do if you get baptized knowing you will go home that night to share the bed of a man or woman you’re not married to.

We never heard from them again. Two of us reached out to them for follow-up—we wanted to walk through this with them; we weren’t rejecting them—but they apparently have no interest in a church like ours. I hope they come back.