2 Corinthians 7:10-11 - Explained

"For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death. For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter."

A lot of people use verse 10 falsely to say you have to repent of your sins to be saved. But this is actually being written to people that are already saved and living in sin. It is not about somebody repenting of sins to get saved, because all we have to do to be saved is believe on Christ. What it is talking about is someone who is already saved and who should have godly sorrow — true repentance and grief over their sin — as opposed to worldly sorrow. It is talking about getting right with God, which can actually save you from a lot of problems in your life.

Verse 11 gives us a more detailed understanding. What Paul the Apostle is stating is that he wrote 1 Corinthians and ripped the church of Corinth apart. As a result of that letter, they ended up having true godly sorrow and got things right. A period of time went by, and now he is saying you have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter. He looked at them after ripping them apart and they had truly made changes — vehement desire, zeal, indignation, fear, all of these things. There was a major change that took place as a result.

But what we have to understand is that to see godly sorrow it actually requires time to be able to recognise it. A great comparison in the Bible is King Saul versus David. What David did was actually worse than King Saul. But the difference is that King Saul always had worldly sorrow — he was sorry he got caught. Whenever a criminal gets caught, whenever a killer gets caught, they will say they are sorry. They will have their crocodile tears. But that does not mean they actually have godly sorrow. Godly sorrow is actually proven over time.

The reason the prophet Nathan knew that David had truly gotten right with God is because God told him. There was no way Nathan could have looked at David and said right after David said I have sinned — okay, there is godly sorrow. Because godly sorrow according to 2 Corinthians 7 is something that takes time to actually prove.

So when you hear a sermon that rips you apart and you feel guilty and you feel bad, do not just have an emotional reaction — make a real change. Have real godly sorrow, because it will save you from a lot of problems in your life. Do not just have worldly sorrow when you get rebuked.

Pastor Matthew Stucky