“2 Corinthians 7”

Friday, April 07, 2017

As a result of God’s promises to walk with Christians, to dwell among Christians and to be a Father to Christians, as His sons and daughters, we are expected to seek to live pure, holy, godly lives. We do so by getting rid of “all filthiness of the flesh and spirit.” That is not always easy for us to do; we have grown accustomed to enjoying certain sins, but with God’s help, we can cleanse ourselves of these sinful habits and desires.

Perhaps the key to success in seeking holiness is true repentance. (There is not really such a thing as false repentance, except when we deceive ourselves into thinking we have repented, when we really have not.)

“Paul’s description of true repentance is one of the most powerful passages in all of the Bible (2 Corinthians 7:8-12). The theme of comfort in suffering which was first introduced in 2 Corinthians 1-2 is fully understood in light of this passage. Often it takes confrontation, conflict, and sorrow to help us come to terms with the sins that are deeply rooted in our characters. Through love, hard talks, and facing such issues, we find God’s power to overcome. We see the damage that the devil has done to us through such sins, and then we work hard because of our love for God to correct our characters and avenge the wrongs done. Evidently, Titus had visited Corinth and had reported back to Paul that the Corinthian disciples had repented of the sins about which he had written them in the book of 1 Corinthians (2 Corinthians 7:12-16)” (Preston Shepherd, Manna for the Morning, Book 11, page 35).

The sorrow of the world can lead to an apology or “confession of sin.” But, in reality, this type of sorrow regrets only having been caught doing wrong. Godly sorrow, a proper to response to the Holy Spirit’s conviction in our hearts (John 16:8-11), will cause us to genuinely change our minds (that’s what real repentance is) about our sin. Worldly sorrow will lead us to try and figure out more clever ways to commit our favorite sin without being discovered.

When Titus returned to Paul after his visit to Corinth (verses 6 and13), he convinced Paul that the repentance of the Corinthians was genuine and so the apostle states, “Therefore I rejoice that I have confidence in you in everything.”

--Roger Hillis

Share