Godly Grief Can be an Agent of Change

2 Corinthians 7:2–16 CSB

2 Make room for us in your hearts. We have wronged no one, corrupted no one, taken advantage of no one. 3 I don’t say this to condemn you, since I have already said that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together. 4 I am very frank with you; I have great pride in you. I am filled with encouragement; I am overflowing with joy in all our afflictions. 5 In fact, when we came into Macedonia, we had no rest. Instead, we were troubled in every way: conflicts on the outside, fears within. 6 But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the arrival of Titus, 7 and not only by his arrival but also by the comfort he received from you. He told us about your deep longing, your sorrow, and your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced even more. 8 For even if I grieved you with my letter, I don’t regret it. And if I regretted it—since I saw that the letter grieved you, yet only for a while—9 I now rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because your grief led to repentance. For you were grieved as God willed, so that you didn’t experience any loss from us. 10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, but worldly grief produces death. 11 For consider how much diligence this very thing—this grieving as God wills—has produced in you: what a desire to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what deep longing, what zeal, what justice! In every way you showed yourselves to be pure in this matter. 12 So even though I wrote to you, it was not because of the one who did wrong, or because of the one who was wronged, but in order that your devotion to us might be made plain to you in the sight of God. 13 For this reason we have been comforted. In addition to our own comfort, we rejoiced even more over the joy Titus had, because his spirit was refreshed by all of you. 14 For if I have made any boast to him about you, I have not been disappointed; but as I have spoken everything to you in truth, so our boasting to Titus has also turned out to be the truth. 15 And his affection toward you is even greater as he remembers the obedience of all of you, and how you received him with fear and trembling. 16 I rejoice that I have complete confidence in you.

We need to be open to having close fellowship with fellow believers.

Paul uses the phrase “make room for us in your hearts” - this is a conscious decision, it can be difficult to let people in because it requires us to be vulnerable and the others have to be good stewards of our trust.

We have to trust that we can have confidence in [because they follow God’s will], be proud of [because they are faithful] and be encouraged by the majority of the people in the church (of course not everyone but most).

God is the ultimate comforter of the hurting.

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God often uses other believers to be His hands and feet to bring comfort.

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Sometimes the truth hurts but it is ultimately for our good.

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Paul uses the word grieve or sorrow to describe the feeling the people had from his letter.

The Holy Spirit also writes a letter in our spirit that brings about grief or sorrow.

Godly grief brings about change when acted on.

Paul says worldly grief produces death - in other words, the outcome of our grief indicates its true nature - if it causes us to change, its Godly - if the grief is not met with change it is worldly.

Paul points to 8 results of Godly sorrow

It produces sincerity.

It produces a readiness to make amends.

It produces an indignation against the ways of the world.

It produces alarm or fear over past sin.

It produces a deep longing for righteousness

It produces zeal for the condition of the church.

It produces a commitment to justice and doing what is right in the church.

It produces proof of innocence in wrong doing.

Godly grief produces repentance.