07/10/2022 – Day 133 – 2 Corinthians 6 – 8 // Godly sorrow and godly joy. Chapter 7: 5 – 16
I would like to share with you tonight William Barclay’s “The Letter to the Corinthians” commentary. I plan here to go just a little more than copying his outline in the text, with the “Godly sorrow and worldly sorrow” section a key exception. Let’s get started:
Background to this section:
“The connection of this section really goes as far back as 2:12, 13, for it is there Paul tells how Troas he had no rest because he did not know how the Corinthian situation had developed and how he had set out to Macedonia to meet Titus to get the news as quickly as possible. Let us again remember the circustances. Things had gone worng in Corinth. In an attempt to mend them Paul had paid a flying visit which only made them worse and nearly broke his heart. After the failure of the visit he had dispatched Titus with a letter of quite exceptional sternness and severity. He was so worried about the outcome of the whole unhappy business that he was quite unable to rest at Troas although there was much there that he might have done, so he set out to meet Titus to get the news as quickly as possible. He met Titus somewhere in Macedonia and learned to his overflowing joy that the touble was over, the breach was healed and all was well. That is the background of events against which this passage must be read and it makes it very rich.
It tells us certain things about Paul’s whole method and outlook on rebuke.
(i) He was quite clear that there came a time when rebuke was necessary. It often happens that the man who seeks an easy peace finds in the end nothing but trouble. The man who allows a perilous situation to develop because he strinks from dealing with it, the parent who exercises no discipline because he fears unpleasantness, the man who will not grap the nettle of danger because he wants to find the flower of safety, in the end simply piles up great trouble for himself. Trouble is like disease. If it is dealt with at the right time, it can often easily be eradicated; if not, it can become an incurable growth.
(ii) Even admitting all that, the last thing Paul wished was to rebuke. He did it only under compulsion and took no pleasure whatever in inflicing pain.
(iii) Further, Paul’s sole object in giving rebuke was to enable people to be what they ought to be. (Jimmy note: True love for a brother and/or a sister.)
This passage tells us also of the three great human joys.
(i) There breathes through it all the joy of reconciliation, the healed branch and the mended quarrel… In the last analysis the man who cherishes bitterness hurts no one more than he hurts himself.
(ii) Life’s sorest tragedy is disappointed hopes and life’s greatest joy is hopes come true.
(iii) The thing that delights the heart of God is to see one of his children kindly treated. Inasmuch as we do it to them, we do it to Him.
Godly Sorrow vs. Worldly Sorrow:
(i) A godly sorrow produces a true repentance, and a true repentance is one which demonstrates its sorrow by its deeds. The Corinthians proved their repentance by doing everything they could to mend the wretched situation that their thoughtless conduct had produced. Now they hated the sin they had committed, and even hated themselves for committing it, and they labored to atone for it. (Jimmy note: Just the thought of that sin brings a fear of grieving the Holy Spirit.)
(ii) A worldy sorrow is ot really sorrow at all in one sense but it is not sorrow for its sin or for the hurt it may have caused otehrs; it is only resentment that it has been found out. .. It is not just the consequences of thing it regrets ; it hates the thing itself. “
Soli Deo Gloria!