Turn and Live

The Lord does not deal with us as with stones, nor as beasts driven without reason. He anoints, commands, warns, and calls each man to answer. Saul was changed for service, not for pride or delay; as Tertullian says, “The spirit of God later turned Saul into another man, that is, into a prophet.” Yet a new beginning is not the end. The man who has received grace must walk in it.

So Ezekiel cuts off every excuse. No son may hide behind his father’s sins, and no sinner may say that ruin is inevitable. God takes no pleasure in our death, but calls us to turn, to do justice, to cease from evil, and to live. Clement sets the matter plainly: “He has walked in my statutes, and kept my judgments to do them. This is a righteous man. He shall surely live, says the Lord.”

Psalm 137 shows what repentance feels like in exile. The faithful do not make peace with Babylon. They remember Zion and refuse to sing for the amusement of their captors. And if Babylon’s little ones are the first stirrings of sinful confusion, they must not be nursed but dashed against the Rock while they are still small.

Therefore in the church also there must be no confusion. Gifts are not given for display, but for the building up of the brethren. Speech must be orderly, understandable, and governed by charity. The man who would speak by the Spirit must also know when to be silent. God’s people are not called to noise, but to peace, repentance, and steadfast obedience until they return from exile and stand among the living.