Godly Grief (2 Corinthians 7:2-16)

Good morning.

We're gonna be in 2 Corinthians chapter 7, verses 2 through 16.

2 Corinthians 7:2–16

And if things sound a little bit different on the podcast here this morning, that's because we had a little technical issue on Sunday morning with our recording.

So you're actually hearing me in my home office on Monday morning re-recording the message.

So that explains any differences that you might hear.

But let's jump right in.

2 Corinthians chapter 7, verses 2 through 16.

2 Corinthians 7:2–16

Paul starts off.

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.

I'm very frank with you.

I have great pride in you.

I'm filled with encouragement.

I'm overflowing with joy in all our afflictions.

In fact, when we came to Macedonia, we had no rest.

Instead we were troubled in every way, conflicts on every side.

I'm sorry, conflicts on the outside, fears within.

But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the arrival of Titus, 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.

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, 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.

For godly grief produces repentance that leads to salvation without regret.

But worldly grief produces death.

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.

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.

For this reason we have been comforted in addition to our own comfort.

We rejoice even more over the joy Titus had, because his spirit was refreshed by all of you.

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.

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.

I rejoice that I have complete confidence in you.

So Paul spent the end of chapter six in the first verse of chapter seven pleading with the church to not partner with, to not yoke themselves with a non-believer.

And essence, really, don't partner with the world is the message that he was giving to them.

And Ben covered this well last week.

How it's every aspect of our life that we shouldn't partner with the world, not just in marriage.

He talked about how two animals under one yoke need to be on the same page and headed in the same direction in order for anything productive to get done.

And also for the health of the two animals as well, so they don't injure themselves.

And it's the same with us as the church.

We can't link arms with things that are not aligned with the kingdom of God.

We are the bride of Christ.

We are linked, we are yoked with Christ.

And the only other people that we should be partnered with are like-minded believers.

And that is what our passage this morning is really about.

Starting in chapter 7, verse 2, to whom we can and should partner with.

And in this case, it's Paul and those that he is ministering with.

He's pleading with the Corinthian church to partner with them.

So let's start with verse 2.

Make room for us in your hearts.

We have wronged no one, corrupted no one, taken advantage of no one.

Really, this is Paul just pleading his case.

You can partner with us.

You can make room in your hearts.

You can open your hearts for us.

He's really pleading his case that we're pulling in the same direction.

We're all the bride of Christ.

We can be yoked together, partner together.

So please trust us, Corinth.

And in order to make his case, Paul is continuing on with this recurring thing that we're seeing throughout 2 Corinthians of convincing his naysayers that he has done nothing wrong to this church in Corinth.

He keeps telling them that he has a clear conscience and he has pure motives.

He's telling them, whatever you have against us, can you please realize we haven't wronged you or taken advantage of you?

And can you now allow us into your heart so that we can stop fighting and we can partner together in ministry?

Look at verse 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.

And he's simply just referring back to chapter 6, verse 11 here.

Verse 4.

I'm very frank with you.

I have great pride in you.

I am filled with encouragement.

I am overflowing with joy in all our afflictions.

Paul is encouraging them that he doesn't hold anything against them.

You know, it's actually quite the opposite.

He's proud of them, he's encouraged by them, and even in affliction, still finds overflowing joy.

That's the word he used, overflowing joy in them.

Now, remember at first, Corinth got defensive toward Paul when he first called him out on their sin, which is usually our defense mechanism as well when we're confronted with sin.

But as we're about to learn, the majority of the church eventually had a change in heart.

Now, before we jump into verse 5 and continue on with this, I want us to piece a few things together.

Benjamin mentioned a while back when we were going through chapter 2 of 2 Corinthians that from 2 Corinthians 2.14 through chapter 7, verse 4, it's like a big parentheses.

You know, if we took those five chapters out of 2 Corinthians, we'd be missing a lot of good stuff.

But if we didn't know it was supposed to be there, we probably wouldn't miss it at all.

So I want you to keep a thumb here in chapter 7, but also I want you to turn to chapter 2, verse 12.

And for context, Paul has had this painful visit that doesn't end well when he visits the church in Corinth.

So he heads back to Ephesus and starts ministering there again, but he starts to become concerned with Titus, who is still ministering in Corinth.

And Titus hadn't come back, he hadn't returned from Corinth to meet back up with Paul as they had planned.

So Paul starts to have this concern for Titus, and he already has this huge concern for the church in Corinth in Corinth.

So Paul goes looking for Titus, and that's where chapter 2, verse 12 comes in.

Let's start reading it.

When I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, even though the Lord opened a door for me, I had no rest in my spirit, because I did not find my brother Titus.

Instead, I said goodbye to them and I left for Macedonia.

Now turn back to chapter 7, verse 5.

This is like the other side of the parentheses, if you want to look at it this way.

So chapter 7, verse 5, Paul picks up, in fact, when we came to Macedonia, we had no rest.

Instead, we were troubled in every way.

Conflicts on the outside, fears within.

Now you see how those two verses marry together, but only five chapters apart.

So he went all the way from Ephesus, and then he traveled north up to Troas, and then northwest over to Macedonia.

And Paul says that he was troubled in every way, conflicts on the outside, fears within.

So a question for you.

Has much changed in the Christian life in the last 2,000 years?

Conflicts on the outside, he said, and fears within.

Remember our first Sunday, if you've been following with us uh since we started 2 Corinthians, I mentioned that we're gonna gain a lot of doctrine from this book, but just as much, we get to learn more about Paul through his testimony that he's giving to this church.

You know, so far in 2 Corinthians, he's talked a lot about conflicts on the outside, hasn't he?

About the persecutions, life, his life being threatened, cold and hungry and sleepless nights, beatings and whippings and on and on of all the things that he has suffered through.

But here he admits that he had fears within.

This guy that God used to perform countless miracles, who got to see revival on a mass scale in multiple locations, that got to see God move in miraculous, supernatural ways, who God used to write a huge chunk of the New Testament that we hold today.

Paul's the one that wrote to Timothy in 1 Timothy 1 7, for God has not given us a spirit of fear, but one of power, love, and sound judgment.

But we learn here today that this is a lesson that he himself is learning as well.

He's not just preaching it, but he's learning it for himself.

He struggles with fear too.

In Acts 18 9, while Paul was actually in Corinth, it says that the Lord showed up to Paul and said, Don't be afraid, but keep on speaking, and don't be silent, for I am with you, and no one will lay a hand on you to hurt you, because I have many people in the city.

You know, the Lord doesn't usually show up to say, Don't be afraid, unless the person is afraid.

It personally brings me great comfort to know that Paul had struggles just like we do, and needed to renew his mind with the truth of God's word just like we do.

You know, it brings me comfort that he needed to remind himself of the truth when lies were looking very believable in the heat of the moment.

You know, I really believe that this may be the number one sin that we commit as the church in America.

Fear and worry.

You know, and I've never met anyone that doesn't struggle with this to some capacity.

You know, we are so fearful, I think, as a culture, of the future, of the unknown, of our finances, of who gets elected in various places of government.

We get fearful of the weather, of different family members in different situations, we get fearful of health issues that we may have, and on and on.

But we rarely treat fear and worry as sin.

You know, when God says don't worry, when he says don't fear, and we do, that's sin.

So the question is, why do we choose to fear and worry when God says not to?

For instance, when I give you my testimony about my brain tumor and the subsequent surgery that took place after, I told you that the hardest part of that whole process psychologically was the first 14 hours that we had from when the doctor called and said, We need to see you immediately, and oh, bring your wife, and the actual appointment itself.

That gap was 6 p.m.

to 8 a.m.

Those 14 hours were the hardest for me and for my wife as well, psychologically, because of the unknown.

Because fear and worry gripped me.

You know, thoughts like, will I be able to finish raising my kids?

Will I ever be the same after whatever this diagnosis is that I didn't even know at the time?

I had thoughts of how much pain am I about to go through?

You know, I had all kinds of thoughts like that.

And it took me and Michelle, honestly, hours before we were able to take those thoughts captive and give our trust completely over to God.

But I have a question for you.

Was any of that worry and fear beneficial to us?

Did it help us in any way?

I can tell you it didn't.

What it did do though, and I'm not gonna speak for Michelle here, I'm just speaking for myself, but it revealed a lack of trust in God in me.

In that moment, I really wasn't believing that God could work all things together for good.

Not in those first few hours at least.

I wasn't really believing that God was in control of everything.

That and that he wouldn't allow anything to happen to me that he couldn't also walk me through.

Not in those first few hours at least.

You see, I think we like to worry.

We like to fear because it gives us a sense of control of the situation.

You know, if we're worrying about something we have no control of, at least we feel like we're doing something.

It makes us feel like we have some control of the outcome if we would just worry hard enough.

But it's a false sense of control in a situation where we don't have any control whatsoever.

You know, when the doctor called and I started to fear and worry, did it change my diagnosis when I worried?

Did it make the tumor bigger or smaller, more cancerous or less cancerous?

Did it make the surgery more painful or less painful?

Did it make my recovery faster or longer?

And the answer to all of those is no, absolutely not.

My worry didn't change a thing.

It just made it more difficult for me to emo to emotionally process these things while walking through the unknown.

You know, and entertaining those thoughts only made me trust God less as I went down that fear and worry spiral.

You know, it's not until we renew our minds with the truth of God's word that we can get out of that spiral of worry and fear.

It's when we remind ourselves of how big and powerful God is.

And that he not only can, but does work all things together for good for those that love him.

That he won't put us in positions that are too great for us to walk through with him.

You know, it's when we remind ourselves of those things that we can get out of that fear and worry spiral.

When we believe those things and have faith that God will do what he says he will do.

It's the only way that we can get out of that fear spiral.

The only way to turn from that sin, because that's what it is, that sin of fear and worry, and repent.

Repent means to turn away from and go the other way, to turn away from that sinful line of thinking.

And the thing is, Paul gets this, he understands this, he disciples Timothy in this, but he still struggles with it too.

He had, as it says at the end of verse 5, fears within.

Now look at verse 6 with me.

But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the arrival of Titus, and not only by his arrival, but also by the comfort he received from you.

Paul finds Titus in Macedonia finally, and he gets the good news of the repentance that is taking place finally in the church in Corinth.

But even though Paul was distressed, and I'm sure trying to take every thought captive, he had fears.

But look, God meets him where he is, not with arms crossed yelling at Paul, Why didn't you trust me?

But as a father that comforts the downcast.

Now, if you'll remember how Paul started this book in chapter 1, verse 3, he said that God is the father of mercies and the God of all comfort.

God comforts Paul.

Not only with finally finding Titus, but also with a good report of how the church in Corinth is doing.

So he uh look at the second half of verse 7.

It says, He, this is still referring to Titus, he told us about your deep longing, your sorrow, and your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced even more.

And those concerns and fears that Paul had turn into praising God for his faithfulness.

I have another question for you.

Did Paul's fear within help Paul in any way?

And I think we can honestly say, not one bit.

But God is still faithful.

Even when we're lacking in faith, he's still faithful to be merciful and to comfort us.

And when we finally see how God was working, we look back and think, you know, why was I doubting God?

And I think this is the situation that Paul's in right now.

Why was I so riled up in the moment?

You know, I should have trusted that God was doing this, this, and this, even though I couldn't see it.

But the thing is, we have to choose to see it.

Because sometimes we can become so bitter with God in the trial that we choose not to see his purposes because we're too mad to allow him to show us those things.

And then I think there are some times where we have to trust God in the hard stuff because we don't get to see the why, this side of eternity at least.

And I think that is the strongest type of faith that we can have, where we can say, you know, that was horrible, and I have no clue why God allowed that.

But I know he's good, and I know he never changes.

And in all of this, I think we need to learn, like Paul, to rejoice in all of those circumstances, regardless of what we're going through, because we know that God is so big and cares so deeply about each one of us.

Let's look at verse 8 now.

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 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.

So we are back to that letter that we've been talking about, that Paul wrote through tears that grieved the church in Corinth.

But the grief led to repentance, and there were gr and they were grieved as God willed by the words of Paul.

You know, this is a concept that King David understood well.

He wrote Psalm 141, verse 5, which says, Let the righteous one strike me.

Psalms 141:5

It is an act of faithful love.

Let him rebuke me.

It is the oil for my head, let me not refuse it.

Jesus says in Revelation 3 19, along those same lines, as many as I love, I rebuke and discipline.

So be zealous and repent.

And then Proverbs 27, 6 says, The wounds, please hear that, the wounds of a friend are trustworthy, but the kisses of an enemy are excessive.

You know, Corinth had been receiving kisses from false teachers and false prophets, but Paul is wounding them with truth and love.

And Corinth is finally starting to understand, it appears, that the grief Paul caused was him being faithful.

Corinth needed to feel the weight of their sin.

And keeping this all in context, Paul's saying, Don't hold that hard letter against me.

Don't hold the weight of your sin that you felt against me.

Don't close up your heart toward me.

He's saying that that was God's will for you to be grieved by your sin.

And the The result of that letter was your repentance.

So don't hold that against me.

So now Paul can actually rejoice that that letter brought grief because it had its full godly effect on the church in Corinth.

And then notice how he ends in verse 9.

He says, For you were grieved as God willed, so that you didn't experience any loss from us.

You know, it's back to that whole idea of the wounds of a friend are trustworthy.

Paul could have written this letter in such a way that they repented and they still hated Paul.

But he wrote the truth in love so that nobody could say, you know, even though you were right, Paul, your flesh was all over that letter, and we repented, but we still want nothing to do with you.

Paul wanted correction to take place, but he also wanted relationship to continue.

So he wrote to them the truth in love.

Look at verse 10 with me.

For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret.

You know, I've never met a Christian that has given their life to Jesus and is abiding in him and regrets the day of their salvation.

It just doesn't happen.

And that's basically what he's saying in verse 10.

But let's look at verse 10 in its entirety now.

For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, but worldly grief produces death.

Think of it this way Worldly grief, which obviously doesn't produce repentance, leads to spiritual death.

Worldly grief is pain that's experienced really with no benefit.

It's just pain, and that leads to spiritual death.

But grieving our sin is what leads us to recognizing that we need a savior.

Verse 11.

For consider how much diligence this very thing, this grieving as God wills, has produced in you.

You know, we really should have a disgust for our sin, which then makes us turn, as we talked about, repentance means to turn away from and head in the opposite direction.

And our disgust for sin should make us do that.

And these things that are listed next in verse 11 are probably part of Titus's report to Paul of how the Corinthian church has turned, has repented from their disobedience.

Verse 11, look at the second half.

It says, this is what it has produced in them.

What a desire to clear yourselves.

You know, to clear the camp of sin.

What indignation, he says.

So not only to clear out the sin, but to be disgusted by it.

He says, What fear?

You know, once Corinth realized their sin, they were alarmed once they recognized it.

And we should also be alarmed by our own sin once it's recognized as well.

He goes on, what deep longing.

You know, they had a longing to get things right with God.

And then he says, what zeal?

So they were passionately taking action to get things right.

And then he says, What justice?

You know, a desire to get things right, to bring justice to the situation that Paul was addressing in his letter.

And then he says, Finally, in every way you showed yourselves to be pure in this matter.

So in the end, they handled this great once they took action.

And it's the result of that godly grief which leads to this purity that Paul's talking about now.

They were stained with sin, but now they are pure by forgiveness, by the washing of the blood of Jesus Christ.

They were convicted of their sin, they did something about it, and that really is a huge mark of maturity, not only for this church, but for any believer as well, to be convicted of sin and then to do something about it.

You know, Jesus tells a parable in Matthew 21, and he says, What do you think?

A man had two sons.

He went to the first and said, My son, go work in the vineyard today.

He answered, I don't want to.

But later he changed his mind and he went.

Then the man went to the other son and said the same thing.

I will, sir, he answered, but he didn't go.

Which of the two did his father's will?

You know, the Corinthians were confronted on their sin, they pushed back, they got defensive at first, but then did what God was convicting them to do.

And Paul is now commending them for that.

All while saying, Don't shoot the messenger.

You know, I didn't cause the grief.

It was God doing his perfect will in you through the words that he had given to Paul.

And I just pointed it out, but Paul's saying, you know, now I rejoice that you followed through on all of the things that you were convicted about.

Look at verse 12 with me.

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.

You know, God's overarching purpose of this previous grief-filled letter was not to shame some individuals, but was to make sure that the church was functioning in a healthy way.

That the church was addressing sin issues within the body and taking care of those things themselves.

And that they were following through on what the authority that God placed over them was telling them to do.

That's why he ended verse 12 with that your devotion to us might be made plain to you in the sight of God.

Look at verse 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.

So not only was Titus's report comforting, but Titus's testimony of how he was treated by the church was also comforting to Paul.

Paul left, if you remember, the last time he was at Corinth, he left painfully.

It was a painful visit.

Titus got to leave Corinth comforted and refreshed.

Paul left probably with a knot in his stomach, and Titus leaves like, man, I can't wait to get back.

Those people are amazing.

Quite a difference.

Look at verse 14.

For if I have made any boast to him, again, we're still talking about Titus, 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.

Paul boasted about Corinth to Titus and boasted about Titus to Corinth, and neither party ended up being disappointed after this trip.

Everyone, it seems, is now working towards the same goal, under the same yoke, and finally functioning in a healthy way as they are becoming more and more like Jesus.

So Paul says, let's open our hearts to each other now.

Let's partner in the kingdom of God.

Verse 15.

And his, again, we're still on Titus, 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.

I rejoice that I have complete confidence in you.

This is just one last reassurance from Paul that their current attitude and heart is in the right place.

This is one more vote of confidence.

And he will have no problem boasting about them even more to others now.

Boasting about the Corinthian church to others.

You know, we need to note, I think, one more time, that Paul was able to rebuke and correct them and continue fellowship and ministry together.

He's still going to visit them.

He's still going to gather the collection for Jerusalem, which we're going to be talking about next week.

But he was faithful to do what God called him to do, and through God's Spirit, he was able to remain in relationship even after the really hard relationship that he's had with them and the hard things that he has had to address with them.

So the question is, what is our takeaways for today?

What can we apply to our our own life?

Well, I think the first thing we learned is we need to yoke ourselves first to Jesus and then make sure that all our other partnerships are with like-minded believers.

The second thing is that fear and worry is sin.

And we need to be intentional to renew our minds with the truth of God's word to turn away from that sin and get out of that fear spiral that we've been talking about.

And the third thing is godly grief toward our sin is a good thing.

It's what leads us to repentance.

You know, we need to feel the weight of our sin and hate it with zeal so it can lead to godly grief, which leads to salvation without regret.

You know, to sum it all up, we need to link arms with Jesus and link arms with other people that want to be more like Jesus.

Let's pray.

Lord, we again we thank you for your word.

Lord, we pray that you would have your perfect way and your perfect will in our hearts as we go about our weeks, as we apply these things to our day today.

Lord, I pray that you would show us how to live without fear and worry, but to trust you completely.

And Lord, I pray that that our idea of you, of who you are, would only grow to be bigger, bigger in our hearts and in our minds, we pray.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.