A static mindset is not a Christian mindset.
A static mindset says, “Nothing can change or should change.”
However, to be a Christian means always being open to changing one’s mind about things. Not necessarily because our views could be wrong (although they may be) but because as we mature and grow, our perspective on things should change as well.
In Matthew 4:17, after spending some time in the desert, Jesus returns and is baptized by his cousin, John the Baptist, and begins his public ministry.
From the start, Jesus’ message is, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near!”
That first word, “repent,” is a tricky one. When St. Jerome translated the Latin Vulgate (the official Greek into Latin version of the Bible) at the end of the 4th century, he chose to use the word paenitentiam, which carries with it hints or subtleties of “regret, remorse, and punishment.” The word “penitentiary” comes from this old Latin word.
This means that since roughly AD 400, people in the West have believed Jesus’ first statement of public ministry was, “Have regret/have remorse/punish yourselves, for the kingdom of heaven is near!”
Fortunately, that is a bad translation that can (and should) be corrected.
The original Greek word is μετανοειτε (metanoeite) and is a variant of μετανοεω (metanoeo) which means, “to change, elevate, evolve, and raise one’s mind.”
This makes an enormous difference.
If we were to translate directly from the Greek New Testament, without the influence of St. Jerome’s well-intentioned decision, which has since caused quite a bit of confusion, it would be more accurate to say that Jesus’s first message was, “Reconsider everything, the kingdom of heaven is near!”
As I said before, it makes an enormous difference. No hint of regret, remorse, punishment, or imprisonment. It has little to do with beating yourself up or inducing shame or fear into people.
“Change the way you think, for the kingdom of heaven is near!”
There is a necessary humility to Christian spirituality. It requires that we admit we are lifelong students and therefore will inevitably come across new people, new places, and new problems that will cause us to rethink what we were previously so certain about! Faith is less about devotion to one way of thinking and far more about being perpetually open to μετανοεω.
What if Christian spirituality is designed to keep us open to the possibility of constantly rethinking everything rather than becoming stuck in one way of thinking our whole life? What would that kind of faith look like?
(This is an excerpt from my free book, Breadcrumbs: Reflections on a Reconstructed Faith eBook, which you can get for free when you sign up for the 5 on Friday Newsletter.
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