We begin by recognizing that God is and that God reaches out in love through Jesus Christ to bring us back to our Creator. Once we decide to turn to God, we must, like the prodigal, also turn away from the past. We must, in repentance, turn away from all that was destroying us, our lives, and relationships, and through the One who died in our stead find new beginnings and forgiveness of our sins. We cannot partake deeply in the life of God unless we change profoundly. It is therefore essential that we should go to God in order that he should transform and change us, and that is why, to begin with we should ask for conversion.
Conversion begins but it never ends.
It is an increasing process in which we gradually become more and more what we should be, until, after the day of judgment, these categories of fall, conversion and righteousness disappear and are replaced by new categories of a new life. The state has nothing to fear from them. Christ's kingdom is not of this world. The empire has no better subjects than the Christians - look at the change in their character and their lives since they left the service of demons. They pay tribute, give to the poor, avoid swearing, and love everybody.