To Encourage You

2 Corinthians 7:10-11 “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment!”

When I was growing up in the church, one of the things I remember our spiritual leaders talking about was the condition of having one foot in the world and one foot in the church.  That described me pretty well, and it was not good.  It’s the condition of having an association with the church, of acknowledging the things the Word of God taught, and yet living in a way that was contrary to such things.  It was a condition of tolerating and even embracing sin in my own life, while at the same time recognizing that sin is not something that pleases God. It’s a sad state of affairs, for to live this way is to live the life of a hypocrite, which is never a good thing. 

You see, the attitude of a Christian that truly repents of his or her sin is a radical turning away from that sin, not an acquiescence to and toleration of it.  We see characteristics of true repentance in the description of the believers of the church in Corinth in the verses above. Paul had written to this church about the sinful attitudes and actions within their assembly, not knowing how they might respond. They could have angrily turned against him, which is the defensive posture many take when confronted with wrongdoing. They could have ignored him. Or they could have made excuses for their behavior.  But, to Paul’s relief, they didn’t react in any of these ways. Rather, they had truly repented.  The evidence of their repentance is reflected in the words Paul used to describe it.  First, they were deeply grieved over it.  This was a godly grief, that reflected their awareness that they had sinned, first and foremost, against the God who had sent His own Son to die for them.  Then there was an earnestness that their grief had produced.  They didn’t put it off and deal with it later.  They were eager to take care of the problem now, for that’s what true repentance is like.  It’s a sincere and intense conviction we were wrong about something and a commitment to make it right.  Then there was an “eagerness to clear yourselves,” i.e., they were apologetic and wanted to make things right as soon as possible.  They were also “indignant.” This was a righteous anger over the fact that they had acted in the way they did.  They clearly knew they had been wrong and they were committed to turning away from the path they had been on.  Besides that, there was a godly “fear” produced.  It was a true reverence toward God and an acknowledgement that they had sinned first and foremost against Him, and thereby had risked the consequences of the discipline that God can bring, discipline that touches us in a way we’ll not soon forget.  They had a longing to change, and zeal to follow hard after God and away from the path they had been on, and a willingness to accept the punishment that was due them. 

Wholehearted repentance: it’s not like the little child who says “I’m sorry” when forced to say so by their parents while everything else about them says that they are not.  No, true repentance is a turning from sin, a repudiation of it, and a commitment to follow the way of righteousness that is the way of our Lord. 

May God help us to be those who confess and turn away from sin when we fail, rather than to continue in it, hide it, and even coddle the things for which Christ died.