The ongoing debate within the world of psychology is where our habits and characteristics come from. Are we affected more by biological or environmental influences? Is it something I was born with, or was it some external source that impacted my behavior or personality?
The world is obsessed with why we are the way we are. We want to peer into the past and create an identity based on what we once were. We have all heard the phrase, “A leopard can’t change its spots.” Uhchangeableness is the point that the secular world wants to hold onto, “I am who I am.” A phrase once declared only by God alone has become the battle cry of Western culture. However, the description of the Bible gives us a different viewpoint.
Jeremiah 17:9 – “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”
And yet we are presented a promise that when the Messiah comes things will be different. Change is possible for those that want to draw near to God.
Ezekiel 36:26-27 – “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”
The Bible overlooks both sides of the argument. God’s Word does not say if we are impacted by biological or environmental factors, only that we need a complete change. We need a new heart, and God is the one who changes us. This takes a lot of the pressure from us, but it requires us to submit to God’s will.
I love the account of Naaman from 2 Kings. A foreign commander plagued by leprosy needs healing through the prophet of God, and it culminates in a muddy river. Naaman expects a lot of pomp and circumstance for a miraculous healing. He expects that a change like he requires will be ostentatious and spectacular. What he does not realize is that for Naaman, it would be life-changing, but that is because he will be gaining a new heart.
2 Kings 5:10-11, 14-15 – “And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.” 11 But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, “Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. … 14 So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. 15 Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and he came and stood before him. And he said, “Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel […]”
Maybe a leopard cannot change its spots. Its circumstance is firmly cemented in its appearance. But that is not to say that we cannot change. I know that I am not who I once was, I am changed. I am a new creation.
Change is the story of the Gospel: I once was lost- but now I am found; I once was blind-but now I see; I once was dirty- but now I am clean. This is the same result of Naaman, who approached the water with skepticism yet submitted to God’s request, transforming his heart. No, the leopard cannot change, but through God, the leper can change their Spots.