2 Corinthians 7:10

For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death.  ~NLT

How do you know if you are truly sorry over something?

If your sorrow is godly, or worldly?

One simple test might be to examine the object(s) of your focus.

Godly sorrow will be focused upon…God! Upon wronging God first and foremost. It will also give attention to the person you have wronged. And, godly sorrow involves a hatred of the sin for which you are sorry.

But worldly sorrow…is focused upon self. It is merely resentment at punishment, resentment for not getting away with something, for getting caught. Worldly sorrow is upset over embarrassment and the predicament you find yourself in due to the wrongful act way more (if at all) than over the act itself.

Big difference.

In world sorrow, we may even torment ourselves over something, but again, that means we are focused first on—self. That’s why it’s called SELF-loathing, because you must pay most attention to YOU. That is not true sorrow, not godly sorrow.

Godly sorrow sees mostly who is wronged, and senses so strongly the wretchedness of the sin, that repentance is produced leading to reconciliation.

I really like how The Interpreter’s Bible puts it:

In true repentance the change of outlook and of spirit is followed by a surrender to the way of righteousness, and to that trust in the grace and forgiveness of God which takes the place of self-loathing and self-despair.

And from my man, William Barclay:

A true repentance, a godly sorrow, is  repentance and a sorrow which has come to see the wrongness of the thing it did. It is not just the consequences of the thing which it regrets; it hates the thing itself.

The real question is whether you hate your sin because you see it as opposition to God’s will of love, or because you dislike the pain it produces. If your grief is of the latter kind it will merely deepen your blindness to the real condition and deaden your conscience.

Do you want to escape pain, or resolve to be a different kind of person?

2 Corinthians 6:3-4

But in everything we try to keep on commending ourselves as ministers of God must do—in much endurance, amidst the things which press sore upon us, in the inescapable pains of life, in anxieties…

It’s funny, I don’t think I’ve really sat and pondered that the Christian life is one of endurance.

Yet endurance is a vital and foundational requirement for life, if it is to be lived well at all. The Bible tells us that those who persevere to the end will be saved.

We must finish well.

The word Paul uses for endurance here is hupomone, which describes the ability to bear things in such a triumphant way that it transfigures them and transmutes them. We could say it is Triumphant Christian Endurance.

Paul starts his list of just what we need this hupomone for with three internal conflicts of the Christian life:

The things which press sore upon us. This is sheer, physical pressure on a person, the things which weigh down your spirit, the sorrows which are a burden on your heart, the disappointments which could just crush the life out of you, the sheer pressure of the demands of life. This triumphant endurance can cope with them.

The inescapable pains of life. The Greek word anagke literally means the necessities of life. Some burdens you may escape, others you cannot. There are certain things a person involved in the human situation must bear. There is sorrow which inescapably comes to every person. If it hasn’t come to you yet, it will.

The anxieties of life. The word Paul uses, stenochoria, literally means a too narrow place. Life has its moments when a person feels shut in, suffocated, when life induces in you a kind of spiritual claustrophobia, when it seems the walls of life are closing in around you. Even in such a situation as dark as this, the triumphant endurance makes you able to breathe, to breathe in the presence of God and the spaciousness of heaven.

Oh how we need this supernatural hupomone to live our life in the midst of inevitable troubles, so that we do not lose heart and just give up, but rather persevere to the end and finish well!

2 Corinthians 5:12

Are we commending ourselves to you again? No, we are giving you a reason to be proud of us, so you can answer those who brag about having a spectacular ministry rather than having a sincere heart.

~NLT

Let me tell you something, I am so not impressed by anybody’s “spectacular ministry” because it’s usually spectacular by worldly standards, as in big numbers or famous people involved.

La de frickin’ da.

But what does inspire me…

Someone who is truly humble, a real servant leader. Someone who loves Jesus Christ more than anyone or anything else. Someone who is even remotely pure in heart, non-judgmental, viewing everyone through equally loving eyes.

How easy it is to still get sucked into the quicksand of the world’s thinking, holding up on a pedestal someone who is physically beautiful, monetarily successful, politically powerful, or athletically gifted.

Well I don’t give a rat’s turd about any of that.

It’s time we started paying attention to those whom God has shown us to care more about, namely, widows and orphans…those who are suffering and lonely, who are in prison and on the streets..those who have “nothing” to offer, even though they really have everything to offer because they are Christ in disguise.

It’s interesting to note that bragging about spectacular ministry and doing it just to make money are two topics Paul wrote about in this letter, therefore, they have been going on pretty much since the birth of Christianity about 2,000 years ago. So do we really need to continue being shocked at this?

2 Corinthians 4:3-4

However, if our gospel still remains “veiled,” it is veiled for people who are perishing. 

What’s happening there is that the god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they won’t see the light of the gospel of the glory of the Messiah, who is God’s image.

There are some who simply cannot see the light of Jesus Christ. There are various reasons, for sure, but here we see the “veil” of the evil one, a real and dark power. It is not that God has shut them out or abandoned them, but the idea is that they have shut themselves off from God, allowing the blinders to stay in place, refusing to accept what God has given in order to “find” Him.

William Barclay wrote in his Daily Bible Study Series that “We, too, can fail to see the real meaning of scripture because our eyes are veiled.” He listed three veils that may be clouding our vision that you may find helpful to be on guard against:

Prejudice—Too often we approach scripture with our theories already in place, looking to reinforce them, instead of coming humbly, open, and ready to listen and learn what it has to teach us. To be taught means to learn something you didn’t already know. Not even scripture can teach a know-it-all. Do not go to the Bible just to find support for your views, but to honestly find the truth of God.

Wishful Thinking—Sometimes we try to find in scripture what we wish to be there rather than what is there. We skip over what we don’t like, finding what we want to find and neglecting what we do not want to see or wrestle with.

Fragmentary Thinking—We should always regard the Bible as a whole. It is easy to pull out texts here and there as we please to criticize them or “prove” our private theories, choosing what we want, discarding the rest. “But it is the whole message of scripture that we must seek; and that is just another way of saying that we must read all scripture in the light of Jesus Christ.”