<p>8:22 <em>Therefore, repent- </em>Peter had used the same words earlier in addressing the crowd in Acts 3:19, appealing for them to &quot;repent therefore and be converted&quot;; in Acts 2:38 Peter had urged repentance in order to obtain forgiveness. Now he encourages the baptized Simon to repent and be forgiven. The call to repent and convert is as real both before and after baptism, for Simon had been baptized. Conversion, as Peter himself had learnt, is ongoing. This incident is proof enough that baptism alone will not save us; there is no such thing as 'once saved always saved'.</p><p><em>Of your wickedness- </em>This is later defined as the thought of his heart. For the sake of thoughts, a man can be condemned. That is the message here, and the Lord made it equally clear. In this we see the supreme importance of being spiritually minded.</p><p><i>And pray to the Lord, that perhaps the t<em>hought of your heart shall be forgiven you</em></i>- He had not just thought something, he had offered money in order to be able to pass on the Spirit gifts (:18,19). But the essence of his sin was a heart matter, what he was imagining, the likely future he envisaged, of him being given money in return for giving Spirit gifts. See on :20.</p>