What happens when you realize you’ve blown it? You have done something, said something, held an attitude about something—and somehow you get called on the carpet. Perhaps it’s by the Holy Spirit, maybe by a Bible study, or listening to a sermon, or even someone else telling you directly that you are wrong.
Our first response is usually defensive. We deny that we have done anything because we are essentially self-rationalizing beings. To go the other direction we could feel terrible about ourselves and just wallow in self-pity. We can also displace what should be true sorrow into anger either at God or the person who delivered the news. None of those responses is as healthy as what we see in this chapter.
Chapter 7 of 2 Corinthians gives us a powerful example of what went right in this troubled church, and how both disciples and leaders can appreciate and affirm each other to support God’s effort to transform us into his character.
2 – 4
These words of Paul’s are so different than what he has just been saying. In chapter 6 verse 12 “you are limited by your own affections.” In other words, you are holding yourselves away from us, perhaps out of defensiveness.
But in Chapter 7 Paul is telling them that their response has been great. Here’s the context: Paul started the church and led many of them to faith in Christ. Some men had come into town and called Paul’s authority into question. It got so bad that when Paul came to visit, one of the members of the church publically came against the Apostle. Paul wrote them a letter (not 1st Corinthians) to rebuke them and sent it to them by way of Titus.
Paul was very worried how this letter would be received. In fact, it was received very well. We’ll get to more how that happened in a few minutes.
Verse 2 suggests that the false apostles were actually defrauding the people financially. This is sadly a common occurrence with some ministries even today and I believe it grieves the heart of God. “You can trust me,” Paul is saying. “I’m on your side.
Verse 3: Paul says he will stick to the Corinthians no matter how tough things get, and they should stick by him as well. Add to that verse 4 where Paul shares his feelings of affirmation: he has confidence that they will receive his words in the spirit they are given. He takes great pride in them. You know, pride is not a bad thing when it expresses a feeling of affirmation towards someone else. Pride is bad only when it makes us feel we don’t need God. You can just feel the relief in Paul’s heart as he is “filled with encouragement and overcome with joy” even in the midst of bad times.
So next he goes on to describe how these feelings came about:
5 – 6
Paul had no idea how either Paul’s letter or Titus would be received. After things had gone so south in Corinth perhaps he feared that Titus himself might possibly be in danger. So here’s Paul, with people on all sides trying to kill him, and he’s worried about how the Corinthians will respond to a letter containing some really hard things to hear. What a heart. It is a humble heart, as it turns out. Paul was not coming at them as a stern dictator but a concerned father.
Notice something else here. Paul says “fears inside.” You know, it is okay to be afraid of what is going on around you. The key is to reach out for and receive the comfort of God. You are in a good place when you know you can handle life. You are in an even better place when you realize God can handle it for you.
So Titus coming to them provided so much relief and comfort, and it was the response of the Corinthians that did it—a response we can learn a lot from.
7
Not only did they receive Paul’s letter well, but they received Titus well too. Look at the reaction: deep longing, sorrow, zeal. He’ll get into more specifics in the next verses but this forms the heart of a healthy response to deficits of character pointed out in our lives.
Do you have a deep longing to be godly?
Do you feel sorrow when you realize you have fallen short?
Do you respond not with just words but with actions?
So next you can feel Paul’s sigh of relief.
8 – 9
It was a big gamble for Paul to express his concerns to the Corinthians about their rebellion, and specifically to combat this individual who had publically come against Paul. Paul didn’t want to hurt the Corinthians, but help them. That should be the motivation any time you speak correction into someone’s life. Sometimes we do it to feel superior in our behaviors or our knowledge. The motivation should always be to see someone healed and able to assist their walk. After he wrote the letter he worried (regret) but the response they had was correct: grief followed by repentance. He rejoiced because the letter didn’t result in either self-pity or more rebellion (defensiveness) and so there was no harm done, only good (“no loss from us”).
Is it amazing to you that God wills for us to grieve? Yes. When we realize we are not accurately reflecting the character of our Lord we should grieve. Do you? The nature and result of that grief is very important and here we get into how grief can be used very positively in our lives.
10
Responding positively to God bringing grief into our lives over sin or the flesh leads not to just sorrow that we got caught or regret that it happened, but an actual re-orientation of our character. The word “repent” means to turn around and go the other direction. A repentance that is not godly but based on the model of this age produces death: self-pity, defensiveness, wallowing in sorrow, giving up. Godly sorrow forces us to rely even further on the grace and mercy of the Lord.
1 John 1:8-10 If we say, "We have no sin," we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
This process, of realization, confession, re-orientation, reception, and regeneration is at the heart of how the Corinthians reacted:
11
Diligence – Greek: “speed” suggests a quality of immediacy in response
Desire to clear – not denial of what you did but to cleanse out the evil
Indignation – from: “to be greatly afflicted”. What is your attitude about the evil?
Fear – phobos. To realize we have fallen short should make us afraid – not of God necessarily, but of having any evil inside of us because we are now new creatures.
Deep Longing – from: “to intensely crave.” Judge your level of repentance by how much you desire to be free from it!
Zeal – “heat”. It’s not just taking in the realization that you have messed up; it is putting energy into seeing God fix it in you that matters.
Justice – in this specific case it was important to make sure the man who had come against Paul was dealt with. To let it go would be to invite a cancer to spread. The word also means “vindication” and I think more generally it refers to the result of our zeal, not legalism but a real clearing in our lives of what God has put His hand on.
Purity – The end result is not a person who feels bad about themselves but a person who has cooperated in an energetic manner the power of the Holy Spirit in bringing cleansing into your life.
12
Paul didn’t write the letter to punish but to affirm his relationship with them. In fact, in chapter 2, verses 5 – 11, Paul doesn’t want the Corinthians to be overly harsh with the man who came up against him. A time of repentance and reorientation should be followed by reaffirmation.
13 – 16
Titus too rejoiced in how the Corinthians responded. The mutual admiration society was justified. Feel the joy here that what could have turned out so poorly turned out so wonderfully!
Conclusions
What is repentance, how do we get it, and what do we do with it?
Do you have a deep longing to be godly?
Sadly we often fool ourselves into thinking that we want to be like God but we also want to hold on to the values of this age (worship the creation and human thinking). You can’t do both. Jesus said you cannot serve two masters you will hate the one and love the other.
We need to reset our minds to truly want to be like God, no matter the cost to us personally. This will make you more aware of when you fall short and also more aware of God’s voice. Remember too that the heart is “deceitfully wicked” and will try to fool you into justifying fleshly behavior.
Do you feel sorrow when you realize you have fallen short?
The self-justifying nature of the human brain will default to defensiveness and justification of our attitudes and actions. We have to know this in order to begin to combat it.
Psalms 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart — These, O God, You will not despise. NKJV
Worldly sorrow is different than godly sorrow in two ways: 1) worldly sorrow has no hope because in our flesh there is no way we can change to get better. 2) Worldly sorrow is self-focused; godly sorrow is God-focused. It’s the difference between Judas and Peter. Judas regretted but did not turn to Jesus. Peter repented and came to Jesus.
Do you respond not with just words but with actions?
Here’s where things can get tricky. We can easily fall into legalism here: “I’ve just got to do better!” and we steal ourselves and berate ourselves when we fail, which we will do. I think they key is to keep short accounts with God. Realize it is He that is making the change, we are the cooperators. When you do well, praise Him. When you fail, ask Him for cleansing.
Are you an affirmer?
Notice how Paul encouraged the Corinthians. Make it your goal to affirm the work of sanctification in the lives of others.
Did you know that God also is an affirmer of His work in you? The thing is that we often have a hard time accepting that affirmation. So also make it your aim to receive encouragement from God, after all, Jesus was accursed so that you would be the righteousness of God in Him (Galatians).
