The Importance Of Repentance

October 5, 2026

2 PETER 2:20-22 NKJV - (20) For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. (21) For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. (22) But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: "A dog returns to his own vomit," and "a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire."

Peter now writes that those who persist in continual sin symbolize the wisdom of PROVERBS 26:11: the fool returns to his recklessness just as a dog returns to eat his own vomit. Similarly, they are like a pig who can be scrubbed clean but soon returns to wallow in the mud again.

This is a particularly strong analogy for Peter, as pigs and dogs were two of the most despised and unclean animals in Jewish thinking. In other words, these people were never truly changed in their nature. Dogs and pigs do what dogs and pigs do. Those truly in Christ don't merely get rid of the sin in their lives and, thus, become acceptable to God.

Through faith and by God's power, true believers are changed in their very nature, becoming more and more like Jesus over time through the power of God at work in them. This does not mean perfection, but it does mean a changed life. Those who show evidence that they were never changed, it stands to reason, are still exactly what they used to be.

Many of us have made ourselves our own doctor and instead we are making ourselves sicker. Make that change from what you are accustomed to and address Jesus "The great physician" about your status.

SCRIPTURE READING:

DEUTERONOMY 32:29

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK:

"The work of repentance is not the work of an hour, a day, or a year, but the work of a life.