11 Godly Grief and Worldly Sorrow (2 Corinthians 7:2-16)

In this episode of Wednesday in the Word, we look at one of the hardest parts of real relationships: when to say the hard thing that might hurt in the moment but heal in the long run. Walking through 2 Corinthians 7:2-16, Krisan traces Paul’s emotional journey after sending a painful letter to the Corinthians and shows how God uses honest words, godly grief, and true repentance to restore broken fellowship.

In this week’s episode, we explore:

• How this section fits into the story of Paul’s troubled relationship with the Corinthians.
• What was at stake in Paul’s “sorrowful letter” and why he risked sending it.
• The difference between godly grief that leads to repentance and worldly sorrow that leads to death.
• How the Corinthians’ response showed their real loyalty to Paul and to the gospel he preached.
• Practical questions to ask yourself when you are deciding whether to speak up or stay silent with a friend.

By the end of this episode, you will better understand how God can use painful conversations to bring real change, not just hurt feelings. You will see more clearly what godly grief looks like and why repentance is a gift you will never regret. And you will be better equipped to examine your own motives, to speak hard truth in love when needed, and to receive loving correction as part of God’s care for your soul.

 Series: 2 Corinthians: When Church Hurts

Start Strong: A New Believer’s Guide to Christianity is available now wherever books are sold.

Transcript

Krisan Marotta 0:01

Welcome to Wednesday in the Word. I'm Chris Anata, and this is my podcast about what the Bible means and how we know. Today is the 11th talk in my series on 2 Corinthians, and we will be studying 2 Corinthians chapter 7, verses 2 through 16. When should you say the hard thing that might upset your friend, but also might bring repentance and reconciliation? And when should you stay silent? How do you tell godly grief and the kind of grief that only wounds? We'll be tackling those questions in today's passage. I'm glad you came along. Well, as always, let's review where we are in the letter because context is always important. Paul is writing to the church he founded in Corinth. He has a very troubled relationship with them. Some in the church have rejected him and don't think he's really an apostle. And from chapter one, he has been defending himself and his apostleship. In the last podcast, we went through the end of chapter six to ask what Paul means by unequally yoked and why that command sits inside his appeal to open your hearts. And I argued that this isn't a tangent. It actually fits very well with the plea that comes before and after it, open your hearts to the true gospel. Because Paul is writing to a church of mixed believers and unbelievers. There is a group in Corinth who claims to be Christians, but they are continuing to pursue a pagan lifestyle. And Paul argues don't be yoked with them. Don't as a church encourage them to believe that they are Christians when they have not yet repented. Paul argues that God's people fear God, they know God will be merciful if they repent and follow him, and their pagan neighbors are taking a road that leads to death. The people of God cannot follow them down that road because they have repented and they have turned back toward God, they are heading in a different direction, and those two kinds of people cannot be joined together as a church. So when Paul talks about being unequally yoked to unbelievers in this particular context, he is talking about joining together as a church. His concern is what the church is communicating. Being a believer means something. It means fearing God and repenting and turning back, agreeing with God that we have done wrong, that we need his mercy, and he needs to show us the right way. It makes no sense to include people in the church who will not repent, who will not turn from idolatry and immorality, and it's not loving to encourage them in their deception that they're on the right road when they're not. Now, that principle can be applied to other areas like marriage and business, which we talked about, but in the context Paul's talking about a church. And that brings us to where we left off in chapter seven. Paul has used some strong language with the Corinthians, warning them, exhorting them, defending his ministry, urging them not to take the grace of God in vain, warning them against being cold toward him. There's quite a bit of tension between Paul and the Corinthians. So imagine that you're rummaging around in the Bible and you come across a statement that Paul wrote to one of the churches he was writing to, and it says I am acting with great boldness toward you, I have great pride in you, I am filled with comfort, in all our affliction I am overflowing with joy. Well, if you just read that, you might think Paul is writing to a great group of believers. He must have a better relationship with them than he does with the Corinthians. I mean too bad he couldn't speak with such confidence and boasting and joy to the Corinthians the way he did to this church. Well, of course, Paul says that in our passage today. That is Second Corinthians seven four, which he wrote to the Corinthians. So how do we reconcile the very negative things he says to them with the very positive things he says to them? And that's part of what we're going to sort out today. We are starting in chapter seven verse two, I'm going to read you two through four. Make room in your hearts for us. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have taken advantage of no one. I do not say this to condemn you, for I said before that you are in our hearts to die together and to live together. I am acting with great boldness toward you. I have great pride in you, I am filled with comfort, in all our affliction I am overflowing with joy. Now that last statement, that's a very positive sounding thing to say, considering what Paul has been saying up to this point. So to make sense of what Paul's saying here and why he's saying it, let's review a little bit of what we know about Paul's relationship with the Corinthians, because I think that will help us sort this out. Remember, this is where Paul returns to the story that he started back in chapter two. And we talked about this when we started the letter. If you have a Bible map, it might be handy to take a look at it. If you go to my website Wednesdayintheword.com and search for geography of the New Testament, you will find a really beautiful map from Bible history online, and I will put a link to that in the show notes. But if you don't have a map, if you're driving or something while you're listening, picture an upside down horseshoe. The horseshoe part is the land and in the middle is the Aegean Sea. Ephesus is over on the east side, north of Ephesus is Troaz, across the sea, so going across the middle of the horseshoe, to the north and west is Macedonia, and below Macedonia, kind of to the south and west is Corinth in Acacia, and we would call that Greece. Now in this upside down horseshoe, Ephesus is on one side and Corinth is on the other. To travel between them, you could go directly across the middle of the horseshoe or go directly across the sea by boat, or you could go around the horseshoe on land, which takes longer. So Paul was in Ephesus and he went to Corinth for what he refers to as his painful visit. While he was there some man caused some kind of trouble, but it was a great deal of trouble. We don't know what he did, but he did something, and the situation was so bad that Paul decided he had to leave abruptly. Presumably no one in Corinth helped Paul or tried to diffuse the situation because Paul decided he needed to leave abruptly. He returned to Ephesus and from there he wrote them the sorrowful letter. He told the Corinthians he would visit them again, and originally he had planned to cross the sea from Ephesus to Corinth, travel north to Macedonia, and then come down to the south back through Corinth before heading to Jerusalem and Antioch. So he had told them he planned to visit them twice, once on the way up to Macedonia, and then again on the way back down as he headed toward Jerusalem. But he didn't do this because the sorrowful visit in between made things so bad that he felt two more visits would only make the situation worse. So instead of visiting, he wrote the sorrowful letter. Paul sent Titus to Corinth with the letter and he stayed behind in Ephesus. But Paul is very anxious to hear from Titus how this letter went over, how it was received. So he traveled by land up to Troaz, hoping to meet Titus on his return from Corinth. When he gets there, Paul told us he has an opportunity for ministry, but he was so anxious and upset about the situation in Corinth that he couldn't stay and do it, so he kept going around the land of the horseshoe until he came to Macedonia, where he finally meets Titus. So Paul didn't visit the Corinthians as he said he would, and he began this exploration back in chapter two, but he left us hanging. Remember this is chapter two verses twelve and thirteen. When I came to Tores to preach the gospel of Christ, even though a door was opened for me in the Lord, my spirit was not at rest because I did not find my brother Titus there, so I took leave of them and went on to Macedonia. At that spot he stops. He doesn't say what happened when he got to Macedonia. Instead he breaks into a defense of his ministry, which we've been looking at, that runs all the way from chapter two to our passage today in chapter seven. Now he's going to return to the story. He defended himself and his ministry. He reminds them the gospel that he teaches is true and powerful. He says he himself is not adequate for such a ministry, but God has made him adequate. God is the one behind him doing all these things. He tells them how he suffered many things on their behalf. He insists he's a man of honesty and integrity, and he loves them greatly and urges them not to receive the message of grace in vain. And last week we saw kind of the culmination of Paul's appeal to them. He says, Open your hearts to me, and he urges them to essentially reconcile with him. Now in our passages today, he continues with that. I think he's wrapping up his defense here. He's saying, Soften your hearts, listen to me, make room in your hearts for me. I've done nothing wrong. I haven't harmed you in any way. And all of this language makes it clear that there is tension between Paul and the Corinthians. You don't say, I didn't wrong anyone unless someone is accusing you of wronging someone. He has been defending his ministry and his motives, and now he's urging them to abandon the negative feelings they're clinging to and soften toward him instead. Saying, Don't be restrained in your affections, don't treat me as if I had wronged you or been corrupt or taken advantage of you because I didn't do that. And it's in that context that we come across this positive language, this more conciliatory tone. Let's keep reading. This is two through four. Make room in your hearts for us. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have taken advantage of no one. I do not say this to condemn you, for I said before that you are in our hearts to die together and to live together. I am acting with great boldness toward you, I have great pride in you, I am filled with comfort, in all our affliction I am overflowing with joy. Now note, Paul says in this context, I do not speak to condemn you. I think he's acknowledging the relationship has gotten pretty bad. He has been speaking somewhat strongly to them, and his words could be interpreted as condemning the Corinthians for their attitude toward him. But he's saying, No, that's not what I'm doing. I have a strong affection for you. I'm not speaking to condemn you, I'm speaking to reconcile our relationship. And he can say that in some sense he has confidence in them. He boasts on their behalf, and as we keep reading, I think he'll give us a better sense of what he's talking about. Even in the midst of these afflictions he has, he has joy, and it is this mention of afflictions that finally brings us back to the story of what happened when he went to Macedonia. This is seven five. For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn, fighting without and fear within. Now, if you've been with me since the beginning of this series, you know that Paul has been talking about his afflictions in this letter. One of the most powerful themes that runs through this letter is this idea that Paul suffered greatly as an apostle, and he suffered so that his listeners could hear the gospel. He takes on these hardships, this great suffering for the sake of spreading the gospel so that others can understand it. Evidently when he arrived in Macedonia, he still hadn't found Titus yet. Now remember, Macedonia is a region, it's not a particular city. In Macedonia, Paul founded several churches, including those in the cities of Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea. Presumably he's revisiting those churches that he had founded, and he describes it as his sufferings continue when he does that. He's already troubled by the situation with Corinthians. He's concerned about how they're going to respond to the letter, and now when he goes back through Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea, there's some sort of situation going on that is afflicting him. And he describes that as conflicts without and fears within. He has conflicts externally with the people in Macedonia, and internally he is anxious about the Corinthians. Acts 20 verses 1 and 2 tells us as Paul went through these districts of Macedonia, he gave them much exhortation, so he is working while he's waiting for Titus. And meanwhile, it seems the people of Macedonia are giving him a hard time, just like the Corinthians are giving him a hard time. It's not clear who is afflicting him. It could be some people in the churches, it could be Jews from the synagogue, or it could be the local government. He doesn't say where the problem's coming from. But finally, Titus arrives. But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus, and not only by his coming, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted by you, as he told us of your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoice still more. Finally we get to the end of the story. Paul tells us Titus joined him in Macedonia and reported how the Corinthians responded. Now we already know a little bit about how the Corinthians responded because Paul has been talking about it in the letter. We know at least two things that Paul learned from Titus. First, we know the Corinthians did in fact deal with the man who had opposed Paul. In 2.6, we saw the majority of those in Corinth listened to Paul and rebuked the man who was causing trouble. They didn't blow Paul off, they handled the situation well, and Paul rejoiced over that. This is what Paul calls their longings, their mournings, and their zeal. But the second thing we know is that even though there was good news, there is still trouble in Corinth. We know from earlier parts of the letter, Paul also learned that some in Corinth were accusing him of hypocrisy and indifference because he didn't visit them as he said he would. So we know that the majority in Corinth rebuked the man who opposed him, but there is still a minority there who disagreed with that decision and they are agitating against Paul, and all of that is swirling around the situation as Paul is writing this letter. Now I think it's interesting to think about how Titus must have felt walking into that situation. Remember, the relationship was so bad in Corinth that Paul left abruptly, and then he sends Titus back with this sorrowful letter, a letter that might make the Corinthians even angrier. Now, if they weren't happy with Paul, what are they going to do with Titus when he arrives and reads this stern letter out loud? I mean they might decide to beat him up and run him out of town. I think Titus deserves a lot of credit for the courage it took to go back into a volatile situation and stand up for Paul. He shows a lot of uh fortitude there. And finally, Titus returns, he's encouraged by their response, his that encourages Paul. Paul's delighted they didn't beat Titus up or something, and instead they treated him well. Now in 7-6, Paul speaks of God as one who comforts the downcast. By downcast, I don't think he means depressed in the sense that we talk about that today. He is sorrowful that he had to write such a harsh letter. He's worried about their spiritual health. He's weary from the constant opposition he faces, so he is downcast in that sense. He is run down because of the difficulty of his circumstances. But I wouldn't don't think he means here that he was depressed in any kind of clinical way. He's just weary and run down from all the things he's dealing with. And I would like to translate this word encourage rather than comfort. Comfort is not a bad translation. It works, but to me anyway, it carries more the idea of calm down, settle down, kind of sleep through it and ease the pain a bit. I think this word has more the sense of encouragement. It's more strengthen your resolve. It's a kind of looking at the situation, remembering the promises of God and realizing the situation is not as hopeless. I can go on. God gives Paul encouragement in this case by showing him that things were not as bad as he feared with the Corinthians. And I think Paul is describing God as the God who gives encouragement to those who are weary in this race they are running, to those whose circumstances have brought them sadness and weariness of spirit, he lifts them up again. That's the description of what's going on there. At any rate, Paul was encouraged by what he heard from Titus, and he goes on in seven, eight through ten, for even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it, though I did regret it, for I see that the letter grieved you, though only for a while. As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief so that you suffered no loss through us, for godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. Now Paul is describing a very common human experience here. All of us have been in those situations where we think somebody else is messed up, and we have to tell them. Imagine one of your good friends, we'll call her Carol, is making some really bad decisions, and you can see that the path she's heading down is going to do her a great deal of harm, but she won't listen to you. She pulls away from you and starts listening to people who put you down and they misrepresent what you say. They tell Carol it's not her fault, it's your fault, you're the problem, and the situation becomes so tense that you can't hang around with her anymore. But you still care for her, so you pour your heart out in a long text message. You write what's true, you warn her about the danger she's in, you tell her that you still care about her, you miss their friendship, but you just can't stay silent when she's making such big mistakes. You press send and then silence. You hear nothing from her. As the hours turn into days, you start to second guess every word you wrote. Was I too harsh? Did I say the wrong thing? Should I have said it this way instead of that way? Did I just ruin everything? And then finally, your mutual friend Tyson comes and he says, Hey, I've just been talking to Carol. She read your message and she's been thinking a lot about it, and she agrees with you. She'd forgotten how much you cared, and she is grateful that you wrote and she wants to talk to you. Well, that's the kind of situation that happened between Paul and the Corinthians. He wrote them a strong letter, which could have been misunderstood. Then he had to wait a long time for a response, and during that time he waited and worried. But finally Titus showed up with good news that they had responded well, and Paul, who had been carrying that weight for many months, overflowed with joy. Now it turned out well for Paul and the Corinthians, but it's very common for that kind of situation to result in a breach. Once the tension between the two parties is made explicit, it can't be ignored, and the relationship often sadly breaks down. They may stop talking to each other and go their separate ways, both convinced they were right, and that's a pretty common scenario you're probably familiar with. And I think this is the kind of thing Paul has in mind when he says the sorrow of the world produces death. Paul's harsh letter could have left both parties with sorrow and regret, both insisting they were right, both insisting the other one was wrong, and this irreparable breach between them. The letter could have become one more nail in the coffin of their deteriorating relationship. But thankfully that's not what happened here, and that's what Paul is rejoicing over. The Corinthian church had something to repent over, Paul pointed it out to him. To them, and they did in fact repent, and the letter produced in them a sorrow according to the will of God which led to repentance. I think it's interesting that Paul says, For though I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it, though I did regret it. There are times when we need to say things that make other people unhappy, because unhappiness is the door they must go through to find life. There are times when sorrow must precede repentance, and this is the distinction we need, this godly grief versus worldly sorrow. Godly grief is a sorrow that comes when the light goes on, when we see our sin and recognize we were in the wrong and we want to be different. This is the kind of sorrow that leads us somewhere and it leads us to repentance. Paul describes it as it produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret. Godly grief is a sorrow that produces repentance, which leads to salvation. Worldly sorrow never turns around. It's self-focused, it never learns, and it is on a path that leads to death. And we can see examples of godly grief in the New Testament. The prodigal came to himself before he went home to his father. His empty stomach exposed his empty heart, and sorrow moved his feet toward his father. King David didn't just admit his failure, he mourns a violated relationship in Psalm 51 against you and you only have I sinned. We see his godly grief. Peter, after his denial, meets the risen Lord, weeps bitterly, and then is returned and restored to the mission. Judas, by contrast, is the one who never turns. He feels remorse, but he never turns to the Lord with it. And that is a sorrow that leads to death, worldly grief. So sorrow doesn't have to be the finish line, it can be the gateway to repentance and salvation. Now, Paul's line, I do not regret it, though I did regret it. I think this shows how human he was. Speaking the truth in love will cause temporary pain. And we feel the weight of that. We regret making people feel sorrowful even when we know we have to do it. And parents, good parents, do this all the time. We know that sometimes we have to make our children feel uncomfortable, feel sorrowful in order to reach a greater goal. But if you love someone, you're willing to risk a short-term sorrow to gain long-term life. Now, Paul is not saying believers never look back with sadness over the sin in their lives or what sin costs. He's not saying repentance produces no regret. I think what he's saying is you won't regret repenting. Ten years into repentance, no one ever says, Oh gee, I wish I'd stayed in the dark. Godly sorrow yields a life you will not regret having chosen. That's the point he's making. You won't regret repenting and turning back to God. Now Paul goes on to further describe their reaction. This is eleven and twelve. For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment. At every point you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter. So although I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of the one who did wrong, nor for the sake of the one who suffered the wrong, but in order that your earnestness for us might be revealed in you in the sight of God. Paul says they demonstrated themselves to be innocent in the matter, and I don't think he's saying, Oh wait, you never did anything wrong. He's not saying your innocence in the sense that you have nothing to repent over. He can't mean that. If that were true, he wouldn't have needed to flee Corinth or write the sorrowful letter. Instead, I think he's acknowledging you're on the right track. Your misunderstanding, your failure here does not stem from a deeper problem of rejecting the gospel and rejecting Paul. Whatever mistake they make, it was not rooted in hostility toward God. They wanted Paul to understand that they had zeal for him and his gospel, and Paul says, I recognize that you do. They feared Paul's letter meant he had lost all confidence in them, and he says, Nope, that's not what happened. He says he didn't write for the sake of the offender or the one offended. That is, his purpose was not to punish the man who did wrong or to clear his name. Instead, he wrote that their earnestness on our behalf might be made known to you in the sight of God. Essentially, I think he's saying there, I wanted you to understand yourselves. I wanted you to have a chance to wake up to the fact that the gospel means something to you, that I, Paul, means something to you. Paul wanted them to confront the question, which side are you on? Are you on the side of this man who opposes my work as an apostle? Or are you on the side of the gospel? And he's cautiously optimistic that they are on his side and he's writing to them so they wake up and realize it. And now, with time and reflection, they have had the opportunity to step back and say, Yep, we do side with Paul, we should have done something here, we care about the gospel and we are going to respond. Titus reported back a whole list of responses that the Corinthians had. They vindicated themselves of this idea that they were against Paul. They were indignant that anyone would think that they had turned against Paul or rejected the gospel. They feared that Paul had written them off, that his stirred words indicated he'd lost confidence in them. They had a longing to restore their relationship with Paul, and they wanted to continue that good relationship. They had zeal for Paul's ministry and for the gospel. They had punishment, they avenged the wrong done, they dealt with the man who had opposed Paul, and Paul says he was encouraged by their response along with Titus. Now let's finish this up thirteen through sixteen. Therefore we are comforted, and besides our own comfort we rejoice still more at the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all. For whatever boast I made to him about you I was not put to shame. But just as everything we said to you was true, so also our boasting before Titus has proved true, and his affection for you is even greater as he remembers the obedience of you all, how you received him with fear and trembling. I rejoice because I have complete confidence in you. So Paul says he boasted to Titus about the Corinthians. Presumably this happened when Paul handed the sorrowful letter to Titus and asked him to carry it to Corinth. Titus may have expressed some doubt about how the Corinthians would receive him, which makes perfect sense if you think about how that situation could have turned out. You could imagine that Titus expressed some fear in returning to Corinth, and Paul boasted it's going to be okay. Paul encouraged Titus. There were genuine believers in Corinth who would repent and who would respond to the truth. And that's how it turned out. But after Titus left, it sounds like Paul's imagination got the better of him and he feared, ooh, maybe the Corinthians are going to respond badly. So I think there's something of a sigh of relief in this comment. I boasted to Titus that you would respond well and you did. Now how do we apply this to our lives today? This section raises the question, do I write the letter or not? In other words, when do we speak up and when do we stay silent? When you see a Christian friend and you think that friend is seriously in the wrong, do you write the sorrowful letter or have that sorrowful conversation that you know is going to make them upset, maybe angry, and maybe even break the relationship for good? Or do you stay silent? Well, I think we can learn from Paul how to handle these situations. The thing that I find most interesting in what he says is verse seven twelve. He says, So although I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of the one who did wrong, nor for the sake of the one who suffered the wrong, but in order that your earnestness for us might be revealed to you in the sight of God. That gives us his guidelines. He didn't speak up in order to make sure that the one who did wrong got punished. So his primary motivation for writing the letter was not to make sure that the offender got what was coming to him. Nor did he write for his own sake. He says he doesn't write for the sake of the one who suffered wrong. Well, Paul is the one who suffered wrong. So he didn't write to clear his own name, to make himself feel better, or to vindicate himself. And that's a guideline we can apply to ourselves when we're trying to decide should we speak up or stay silent. Often if I stop and if I'm honest, I want to tell others where I think they're wrong because I want them to treat me better. I want my life to be easier. If I could convince this other person that I'm right and they're wrong, then my life would go more smoothly and I would feel better, and I'd have this wonderful little sense of victory that the person who hurt me would be punished and ensure everyone knows I'm right. That's the wrong motivation. And Paul says that's not my motivation. He's not looking to be personally vindicated or to make his life easier. So that's one thing we can ask when we're approaching the situation to speak or stay silent. What's my motivation here? If I'm really only after winning the argument or vindicating myself in some way, or making my life easier in some way, then perhaps I should stay silent and trust God to handle it. Then in the same verse, there's Paul's comment about how he wants to awaken them. He wants to reveal something in them. He wants to remind them of some truth that they claim to believe. And in this case, the truth is that Paul and his gospel mean something to them. He wants his letter to remind them that they embrace the gospel that Paul preached to them, and he wants to remind them of the truth they claim to have believed. So that's our other guideline. If I'm writing to remind someone of a gospel truth that I sincerely think they need to hear, then I should speak up. So those I think are our two guideposts. Don't write the sorrowful letter so that you can improve your own situation. Don't write the sorrowful letter so that you can make yourselves feel better, or vindicate yourselves, or make sure the wrongdoers get what's coming to them, or congratulate ourselves that we've had victory over this other person. Those are the wrong motivations. But we should write the letter when we want to inspire someone to the truth of the gospel. If our motivation is to improve their life, to improve their situation, to help them avoid danger or regret, then we speak. Now, of course, we all face the temptation of wanting to be the person who's right. We're all tempted to puff ourselves up by putting someone else down, and in those situations we want to stop and bite our tongues. Paul says he wept many tears writing this letter, but he wrote it in the hope that he could stir them to the truth of the gospel. He could get them to remember what they were really all about. So in essence, we write a sorrowful letter out of love. If our motivation is to improve the other person's life or inspire them to the truth of the gospel in some way, then speak up. Now Paul talks about the sorrow that is according to the will of God, the sorrow that leads to repentance. We talked about that earlier with godly grief and worldly sorrow. That sort of sorrow, that godly grief, is a great treasure. True, it's painful. The kind of sorrow that leads to repentance is a wonderful gift because repentance leads to eternal life. We should want to have the sorrow that is according to the will of God. We should embrace the sorrow that leads us to repent because repentance is something we will never regret. That kind of sorrow is a great and glorious gift because it leads to eternal life. Now it may not be pleasant in the moment, but it is very beneficial in the long run. So there's a sense in which we should all pray for the sorrow that is according to the will of God. And if we think there's a good chance that our words could lead to that kind of godly grief, the kind of sorrow that leads to repentance, then ultimately that's a good thing. And we should at least be open to the idea that sometimes it is our calling. It falls on us to say those sorrowful words. Godly sorrow is a doorway, not a destination. Walk through it and help others find the way through it, and you won't regret it. You've been listening to the Wednesday in the Word podcast. My mission is to explain not only what a passage means, but show you how to figure it out. The blog version of this podcast is on WednesdayInTheWord.com slash 2 Corinthians 1. You can hear all the episodes in this series on my website, WednesdayIntheWord.com. There is no chart, no spam, and no ads. Just a lot of free resources to help you grow in your understanding of scripture and learn how to study it for yourself. If you've been blessed by this podcast before you go, please rate it, review it, and like it on your favorite podcast platform. But most importantly, tell a friend what you learned and where you learned it. Our theme music is graciously provided by my friend and favorite musician, Reddy Coates. You can hear his music on heartfeltmusic.org. Thank you for joining me today. I'm Kristan Morata, and I'll see you next week at Wednesday in the Word.