Thanks, Jay. We need this pointed out, that mere doctrinal correctness does not put us in the right. Too often we take being convinced on a doctrinal point as carte blanche to beat our detractors about head and ears with the old Thompson Chain Reference like Jesus thrashing the moneychangers. Brothers, it should not be so. As a wise brother once told me in my more-contentious youth, “Well, son, you’re right. You’re also left.”

When Josephus tells the rebel to “Repent and believe in me” (In Greek “metanoesein kai pistos emoi genesesthai” cf. Mk 1:15) what Josephus wants this man to do was to save himself from obvious peril by switching sides as Josephus himself has done.

Will defection from the kingdom of Satan to the kingdom of God require a change of behavior? Absolutely, a far greater change even than defection from Zealotry to Roman service.

But even when John tells the crowds, “Bear fruit in keeping with repentance,” and when James says, “Faith without works is dead,” what they are *not* saying is that “true repentance” and “precisely perfect performance” are equal.