Worldly Sorrow vs. Godly Sorrow

Worldly Sorrow vs Godly Sorrow For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. – Romans 3:23 All of us have done things we are not proud of, that we wish we had never done, and that we wish we could take back. But we can’t. And all of us experience sorrow for what we have done. Sometimes what we did was accidental, we see the devastation of our actions and are genuinely sorry for causing that. Sometimes we justify what we did in our minds. We know what we did was wrong, but they had it coming, or they owed us, or we wanted them to know how we felt when they did it to us. Then, when we get caught, we shift the blame to them and feel like we are being unjustly punished. Or worse, we are exposed for what we did and face horrible consequences for our actions. There is no way out and the shame of what we have done sets in. All of us have seen this, all of us have experienced it, believer and nonbeliever alike. It’s human to experience this which is why it is called worldly sorrow. It’s universal to us all. The problem with it is that it is self-focused. I wish I hadn’t done that because now I will lose my job, my wife will leave me, my kids won’t know me, and I will be locked up for a long time only to struggle even worse after I get out. Notice all of it is full of “I,” “my,” and “me?” The consequences may be useful for limiting the behavior, but since it doesn’t change the heart, we seek better ways of getting away with it again if we can. The Apostle Paul describes another kind of sorrow. This sorrow is beyond just coming to learn from scripture how our sins hurt, who they hurt and why, no, this sorrow comes to realize that above all other hurts we have hurt God himself. Here is how Paul describes it: Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. – 2 Corinthians 7:10-11 From this passage we see that godly sorrow is the catalyst for repentance (turning from a sin), which is a process that leads to salvation (the Holy Spirit taking up residence inside you). We can also see that this sorrow, being god-centered rather than self-centered, produces a need for truth, atonement, and justice within us that makes us not want that sin to be in our lives anymore. It leads us to the understanding and agreement that God’s way is better than our way and we resolve never to allow than sin to mar God’s holiness within us (our heart is His temple). That takes us to the beginning of the repentance process, so I’ll stop there. There are several steps to the process, and it is the Holy Spirit which conducts that process in us, so it deserves its own teaching at another time. Rather, I will simply point out that it is this kind of sorrow which touches off the change of heart that opens us up to the Spirit’s power to unchain us from our captivity to that sin in our lives. We bring to the table only this godly sorrow, he does the rest. Where does this godly sorrow come from? It comes from our relationship with God. When we are in constant communication with Him and our focus is on knowing more about Him and what He is like and what He wants for us we start to think and feel more like He does. That’s why you see words like earnestness, indignation, longing, concern, and readiness for justice in this passage. These are the things that God is concerned with, the things that are attributed to His perfection, the things that He wants for us to choose in our lives. If our focus is on what God wants instead of on what we want, we become open to what is true and best for all. Often, this means giving up what we want or giving up our own rights but whenever we do this in the service of Jesus, I have noticed that we end up gaining more than what we gave up in the long run. To become focused on what God wants we start with prayer. That is our direct communication with God. Because of Christ’s work on the cross we have direct access to the throne of the Father through the name of Jesus (Ephesians 2:18). Reading the bible helps us understand who God is, what he wants for us, and a guide to help us facilitate the Lord’s work in us. It provides us comfort in hard times, encouragement during times of testing, tools to reflect on and build our own character, wisdom that works when everything inside us tells us it shouldn’t, hope for the future, and a standard of living (lifestyle) to follow that is worth following when done right. Walking in Christ (living the lifestyle) also helps us to be God focused but that comes as a result of repentance and during the sanctification (purification) process and deserves its own sermon at another time. I mention it here because it also helps generate godly sorrow and this would not be complete to the Lord’s standard if I did not. Why do we want godly sorrow? Because it is precisely godly sorrow that leads to the change of heart, which leads to change of thinking, which leads to change of behavior. As Jesus himself said: “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach then out of the body? But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and those defile him. For out of the heart come evil thoughts – murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.” – Matthew 15:17-20 And when Jesus was speaking to the Pharisee’s: “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.” – Matthew 23:25-26 Obviously, Jesus was not talking about literal cups and dishes in this last passage, he was using them as a metaphor for the hearts and minds. The point is, when we take our eyes off ourselves and become God focused, our resulting godly sorrow for those things we wish we never did will result in the needed change of heart that, in turn, results in a change of behavior in our lives. I hope and pray that this helps ease the process for those in that space and helps those without the Lord to seek him in their times of trouble. Amen