2 Corinthians 7:10

2 Corinthians 7:10

Notice:

I. Godly sorrow: its nature and origin. (1) The nature of godly sorrow. In the immediate context it is directly contrasted with a commoner truth, the sorrow of the world. The sorrow of the world, though it seem a thick homogeneous covering over all human life, is yet made up of as many kinds as that carpet of green which covers the earth. Godly sorrow is like the rest, inasmuch as it is sorrow; it is unlike the rest, inasmuch as it springs, not out of the sufferer's connection with earth and time, but out of his connection with God and eternity. The expression clearly intimates that the attitude of the soul must be changed ere it can be sensible of this sorrow. Away from the world, with its hopes and fears, the man must turn, and open his inmost being towards God. Godly sorrow is an affection which the carnal mind never knew. (2) Consider the cause of this sorrow: "The goodness of God leadeth to repentance." The sorrow for sin was not felt until God's goodness aroused it; and that sorrow once aroused, instantly manifests true repentance in an eager effort to put sin away.

II. The repentance which godly sorrow produces. It is a change of mind which imparts a new direction to the whole life, as the turning of the helm changes the course of the ship. Two things are said in the text about this turning: (1) it is unto salvation; and (2) it is not to be repented of. The repentance which led unto salvation is the only repentance which the saved see in the memory of the past, and that repentance they will never repent.

W. Arnot, Roots and Fruits,p. 300.

References: 2 Corinthians 7:10. A. Maclaren, A Year's Ministry,vol. ii., p. 113; C. C. Bartholomew, Sermons Chiefly Practical,p. 65; H. \. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit,vol. vii., p. 331; Ibid., Sermons,vol. ii., p. 31; Spurgeon, Morning by Morning,p. 287; Preacher's Monthly,vol. v., p. 122.