Godly Sorrow (5)

Godly sorrow is an essential element of spiritual life. When we read 2 Corinthians 7:10, we must say that this text also speaks about the children of God, those who already know faith but who have lost the way and who return with sorrow.

God’s children so often lose the way. Their straying costs them tears. That is why godly sorrow remains part of their daily conversion, but it is just in this way that the wonder of God’s faithfulness becomes ever greater. All too often, however, it must be said that it can be so barren and dead-like inside and that the world takes up such a large part of the heart. The sorrow in Peter’s heart was greatest when Jesus looked upon him with an eye full of love after he had denied Him, and he went outside weeping bitterly. Committing so much sin against so much love—the more the love is tasted, the deeper and more profound the sorrow. How often must that faithful Saviour bring back His own.

There is a difference in the measure and station of this sorrow. With the one person it is more legalistic; with another it is more evangelical. With the one it is more painful and more oppressive; with the other it is softer, more tender, more loving. With the one it takes longer before one comes to Christ; with the other it is a shorter time. With one there are more outward tears, with the other more soul’s tears. The Lord is free in how He deals with His children. However, wherever there is spiritual life, we learn to know something of this sorrow.

The antithesis in the sorrow of the world

In addition to godly sorrow, Paul also speaks of another sorrow in 2 Corinthians 7:10, namely, the sorrow of the world. What kind of sorrow is that? That is a sorrow which does not go any further than the world and which can be removed with earthly blessings. Let me list several examples. Esau was very sorrowful when he called out, “Bless me, even me also, O my father!” Yet, it was the sorrow of the world, for he only had an eye for the blessing and not for the God of the blessing. How sorrowful was Ahab when he could not get the vineyard from Naboth, and he turned himself to the wall.

There you can see the worldly sorrow. Give Esau his blessing, and give Ahab his vineyard, and all is well, for they are comforted. This sorrow goes no further than the world and can be comforted with the things of the world. In the worldly sorrow people may at times be frightened, and an outward improvement may take place, but there is no inward renewing of the heart and no fleeing to God with weeping and supplications.

Only because of the result of sin

The sorrow of the world only concerns itself with the results of sin. It is a sorrow because one is in mourning, or because one is sick, because one goes on his way as lonesome and misunderstood. This world at times is called a vale of tears, “For all our days are passed away in Thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told.” There are so many tears shed upon this earth, but so few of them fall into God’s bottle. There is a sorrow due to the results of sin and not because of sin itself. In the sorrow of the world, we so frequently bite the rod wherewith we are chastised. It is a sorrow which causes us to flee farther and farther away from God. Cain called out, “My punishment is greater than I can bear.” With his “sorrow” he fled away from God. With Judas it was exactly the same.

The sorrow of the world can bring us to despair. Then a person ends up broken and bruised upon the ruins of his life. We do not want to fall down before God with empty hands and a contrite heart. Then we feel ourselves more a victim than a sinner. Tears are not always evidence that a person has truly become a guilty sinner before God.

God’s children, to their grief, so often have to experience carnal sorrow in their lives. You must not think that all of the tears shed by God’s children fall into His bottle. They have to carry along with them the old man of sin. However, when the new life may truly shine forth, it cries in the first place not because of the results or punishment of sin, but it cries out to God against whom they have sinned.

(To be continued)

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