2 Corinthians 7:10

2 Corinthians 7:10

Jeff Lampl

One of the great verses in the New Testament is . . . . .

Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.    2 Corinthians 7:10 (NIV)

The apostle Paul had written a “painful letter” to the believers in Corinth, a church of between 50 and 100 members (2 Corinthians is a conflation of Paul’s 2^nd and 3^rd letter to Corinth).  In this painful letter, Paul reprimanded the believers and the believers were heartbroken.  They were sorry for their behavior.  And their sorrow led to repentance, to their changing.  The pain led to a fresh new start in life.  Sorrow that leads to an honest look in the mirror and results in regret, repentance and change is salvific.   It is the path to salvation, to freedom, to acceptance by God, to the repair of relationships, to release from self-condemnation, to the acceptance of God’s forgiveness.   It feels good after feeling really, really bad.

On the other hand, there is a kind of sorrow that is worse than useless.   It is a sorrow that carries with regret, remorse, apologies, tears, the most outward expressions of grief, yet without inward change.   This kind of sorrow often “works” in the short run, often eliciting forgiveness and even sympathy from the person wronged.   But without inner change expressed in changed actions, it simply turns one into a deceiver, sooner or later found out by others and sooner or later resulting in a hardened, untransformed, self-justifying, even irredeemable heart.

Worldly sorrow is the path to death, to the death any hope of the joy of the Lord in this life and it is the path, if unrepentantly followed, to eternal death.   Alternatively, Godly sorrow is the most potent path to the joy of Lord, because it is the path of humility.    And it is only in humility that we can meet God.  And it is only in the Lord that joy can be found.

As always, C.S. Lewis says it succinctly and profoundly, 

“God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.”

Lewis Smedes writes

“You and I were created for joy and if we miss it, we miss the reason for our existence. . . . if our joy is honest joy, it must somehow be congruous with human tragedy. This is the test of joy’s integrity: is it compatible with pain? . . . Only the heart that hurts has the right to joy”

It is joy, not happiness, that can carry us when life’s pain is overwhelming.   It is also the pain of seeing myself as I really am before God, unholy, in need of change, in need of being changed, of being given the fresh start in life that I cannot achieve without God.

“Lord, grant me the humility that relinquishes self-justification, excuses, quick fixes, and denial.  Help me to see myself as I really am before you, deeply in trouble, but deeply loved.  Lord, I renounce the pride of defensiveness and the deceit of worldly sorrow.  Instead I choose godly repentance, that sorrow that leads to your forgiveness, freedom and confidence in your love, all of which combine to become a strength that I can call joy.  Amen”