The Response of the Corinthians to The Letter of Sorrow

Okay, well today we're going to, as was read, we're going to go back and review a little bit. And so I've labeled this the response of the Corinthians to the letter of sorrow. So this is going to kind of end up this long discussion that Paul's had about the Corinthians and their response to his letters. Of course, we have two of the letters. We have 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians. But there was another letter, which is called the Letter of Sorrow, that he sent, which we don't have in Scripture. And also there was a visit he made there.

So Paul had a tremendous interaction with the Corinthians. And this is kind of the, finally the summation, the good news about that interaction. Okay, so in the outline, you know, we started back in verse 5 here, and we saw that, and this is kind of picked up the theme from way back in chapter 2, verse 13. and his anticipated meeting with Titus. And so Titus does come to Macedonia, and he does report to Paul, and it's wonderful news. He's very encouraged. But then what's really amazing here, there's a really cool section I talked about last week a little bit. Paul enters this discussion about the sorrow that leads to repentance.

And if there's nothing else you take away from my message today, in your mind, Repentance equals what? A change of mind. You know, sometimes I have where you have responsive reading or whatever, you know. Repentance in Scripture in the New Testament, actually in the Old Testament as well, is a change of mind. It's a thinking change. God is in the business of changing how we think. And that's what repentance is about.

So we're going to go spend quite a bit of time on that. And then we're going to try to finish up 11 through 16. And that has some good stuff in it too. And then at the end it has this wonderful, encouraging response that the Corinthians made. And then next week, Mike's going to get into your pocketbooks. He's going to talk about giving.

But actually, it's going to be, you know, if you read chapter 8, it's different. It's different. You know, you think, well, all they want is my money at church. Well, no, we don't want your money at church. We just want you. The Lord just wants you. He doesn't care about your money, in a sense. He wants you. Because He loves you. He died for you. So, come next week and learn about giving. Okay, so let's So I'm going to go back and look at verse 8.

So the first phrase is, for though I caused you sorrow by my letter, or actually you could put in there the letter, and he refers to a specific letter. He says, for I caused you sorrow. And sorrow here is the idea to cause pain or grief. Actually it's translated grief in the original, and it's a past point fact, aorist tense. So his letter, the letter, caused sorrow.

So what letter is Paul talking about? And I mentioned this in the introduction a little bit. Paul evidently wrote a letter between the letter of 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians. And this letter sometimes is called the letter of sorrow or the stinging letter. So Paul had some harsh words for the Corinthians. And he was very concerned about their reaction to it.

How would they take it? And I was thinking about today And unfortunately, letters are, you know, handwritten letters. Raise your hand the last time you received a handwritten letter in the last year. Okay. Actually, there's quite a few, actually, because we have an older crowd, I guess. Grandkids. Okay. All right.

But anyway, have you ever sent a text or an email that you regretted? Paul is going to talk about how he regretted, but then he didn't regret. He starts out, I do not regret it, letter of sorrow. So now he's come to that position, and regret here is this idea to be bothered or to feel bad about something, to be upset about something.

Regret is not the same thing as repentance, a change of mind, we're going to see that. Regretting something isn't changing your mind. Changing your mind is an action. You change your thinking, how you view things. Regret is just feeling bad. And we all feel bad about things all the time. This is how Paul feels now about what he wrote. He doesn't regret it now, but he did regret it initially. Very much a human thing. Okay. For though I did regret it in the past time, the letter of sorrow.

This is how Paul felt in the past before hearing Titus's report. Last week we spent some time talking about, you know, Paul was very anxious about what would the report contain. He got back. He didn't have, they didn't have cell phones, they didn't have any kind of Communication other than letters and word-of-mouth and he had to get a word-of-mouth response from from Titus about well How'd the Corinthians respond and Titus actually was there and hung out with the Corinthians?

So he knew exactly how they responded to the letter So Paul goes on for I see that the letter of sorrow caused you sorrow So it accomplished its objective, but we're going to see that sorrow really wasn't the objective. I Verse 10 will explain that objective. We'll cover that shortly here.

Though only for a while, or for a season, it reminded me of this verse I really like, and we maybe all have memorized it. Weeping lasts for a night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning. Sometimes we experience sorrow, but when some time passes, maybe it's just in the morning, we change our mind about that sorrow. We say, well, maybe it wasn't as bad as I thought. Maybe some good came out of that. So that's kind of Paul's point here. So let's go on to verse 9. So he says, I now rejoice. I'm glad, first of all, not that you were made sorrowful. So Paul is not rejoicing in his state of sorrow. He isn't saying, I'm glad that you were sorry.

But he wants to see the result of that sorrow. Sorrow was only... Sorrow only was not the objective. But you were made sorrowful, and it says to repentance, or you could put there unto repentance. So sorrow had a purpose. Sorrow the emotion led to repentance. That's from Macaulay. And repentance here is this word, and this is where I want you to remember. What is sorrow?

It's a mental activity, a change of mind. to change thinking or viewpoint and thus conduct. This is not a repentance for salvation of their souls. Let me just read you. I'm going to spend some time talking about this quite a bit but here's a verse in 2nd Peter that uses the word repentance or a change of mind in connection with saving grace or saving a person to eternal life.

So in 2nd Peter 3.9 The Lord is not slow about his promises, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to a change of mind, to repentance. Okay, we're going to see some of the wrong views about repentance shortly here in a bit.

Okay, so the last part of verse 9, For you were made sorrowful according to God. And this is really good. So this is sorrow that's connected with the person of God. Literally, for you were grieved according to God. And we're going to see that phrase, you were grieved or made sorry according to God. We're going to see it three times. This is the first of the three times. And I mention it there.

It's sorrow according to God's standard. So God had a purpose and a plan for sorrow. He utilizes sorrow. And He doesn't always utilize sorrow. And that's where the problem kind of comes up. We see verses like this and we say, well, God's using sorrow for a purpose, then does that apply to man's salvation? And you can kind of get wrapped around the axle, I think, or confused. So hopefully we can straighten that out. Sorrow that ends up in a change of mind is sorrow that is according to God. He had a purpose. It produced a change of mind.

Now remember, the Corinthians were all believers. We assume they were all believers. They were in the church at Corinth. So Paul is speaking to believers. They didn't need to change their mind about repentance. They need to change their mind about their attitude to Paul's teaching and to who was Paul an honest person. And they doubted his teaching and they doubted his being an honest person or upright person.

For you are made sorrowful according to God, so that, so here's the purpose, you might not suffer loss in anything through us. So what he's saying here is that if you continue in your current state, which is actually they have sinned, You'll suffer loss But when you repent you change your mind you will now be back in the will of God or in fellowship with him So now to verse 10, so now he's going to explain more about the purpose of sorrow For the sorrow that is according to the will of God So here's the second time and and when I say literal here I mean literal according to the the inner linear version word by word translation from the inner linear and For the grief according to God, second time we've seen that phrase, to God's standard, and it's the subject of the rest of this passage here, at least this first section, produces, so sorrow according to God's standard, according to God's purpose, does something.

You just don't feel bad, it does something. It's to work something out to produce, to stimulate our minds to a change of thinking, repentance, and so here it says, For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance to salvation not to be regretted.

So let's see if we can kind of work through this. Repentance is a thinking change resulting in a conduct change. I said that a few times already. God is changing the believer's mind through sorrow. And again, this is not about salvation. It seems like it is. You say, well Roger, it says salvation there. Okay, let's see if we can explain that in a second.

And regret should not be part of this. That's the last part. Not to be regret. Just feeling bad is not part of this. There's a purpose. And the verse I quote there is a verse about Judas. I mentioned it last week. It's where he felt remorse when he saw that Christ had been condemned. And he gave the 30 pieces of silver back. He felt bad about that. But he didn't change his mind about Christ, right? He had an opportunity, it seems like. Okay, last part of 10. To salvation. So what salvation is being talked about here?

Well, I believe if you're careful, this is salvation in the sense of deliverance. And if you're careful looking through scripture, salvation is used in both the Old and New Testament. You'll see there are times when salvation just simply means deliverance from maybe a battle. Or from some bad situation, it doesn't mean deliverance to eternal life. Or salvation to eternal life. So it's used in a sense of deliverance.

Paul wants them to be delivered from their actions, from what they were doing. So Merriman says the Corinthians needed a change of mind about what they were taught and about the attitude toward Paul. But the sorrow of the world produces death. So now he kind of contrasts. He says, well, the world, the world has a sorrow. Man has a sorrow in general, but that doesn't, that's not very helpful. This sorrow is not sourced in God.

And actually many times when you see the word death and like a context like this, it means separation because death means separation. So they're separated. So what are they separated from? Well, they're separated from fellowship. In a sense, the world's typical superficial response, we're talking about believers here, does not result in a change of mind, but leads to resentment and bitterness. So if a believer goes down the worldly path, he's going to experience an outcome which is separation, because he's not following God's standard.

Okay, so I decided to add in a couple of charts here, kind of contrasting repentance and salvation. And this comes from Jaffer out of his doctrinal books. He has a book that contains many of the doctrinal words in scripture. And then also there's another book which I'd recommend which we've taught here at Holly Hills before. It's from Marchbank. It's Great Doctrines of Salvation. And actually repentance is the first aspect of salvation. But as we're going to find out shortly, there's some things to be cleared up about the word repentance.

So that's just a plug. We actually have it electronically, and I think we have it in paper copy too. So if you're interested, talk to me or talk to Sue. It's available. So let's go through this. A lot of bullet points, but let's just see if we can get through this quickly.

So the usual idea of repentance, if you were to ask somebody on the street, so to speak, what does repentance mean? Most people think, I've got to feel bad. Vern used to do something, right? He'd have a little phrase he would use, a little expression he would do. But basically, you feel bad. Maybe you've done something wrong. Maybe you've sinned. It's a feeling of, well, I've done something bad. It's a feeling bad.

But the true meaning of the word shows that repentance is a change of mind. And sorrow itself is not repentance. Just feeling bad, being sorrowful is not repentance. Even though we just covered the section where it does, for the believer, have some good things that happen when it's God's will. It is true that repentance can very well be required as a condition of salvation.

Many times people will, when they come to know Christ as their Savior, they will look at their lives and they will feel sorrowful. They will say, Look at my life. It didn't count for anything. Now it counts for everything. They can feel sorrowful. So it doesn't say sorrow never shows up, but sorrowful isn't part of the equation.

Because a change of mind, which it is, has been involved when turning from every other confidence to Christ. When man sees that there's nothing else he can place as confidence but Christ, that's what repentance is. The vital newness of the mind is part of believing.

After all, therefore, it's used... A lot of words, I'm kind of stumbling here a little bit. But what he's saying is that you'll see in many passages of scripture, you'll see the word repentance used, or repent. And actually, it means a change of mind. But it doesn't mean feeling sorry or feeling bad. So let's look at that for a second.

Acts 7.30, and it will be synonymous with salvation. Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to all men, declaring that all people everywhere should repent. And in this case, He's speaking of men changing their minds, coming to know Him.

It's not repentance of feeling bad. So here's a word, repent, is used. And if you're not careful, you can think, well, I have to repent here. And He doesn't mean that. He means to change your mind. And that's what God is about. He wants men to change their minds about who He is and what Christ has done. Okay. A few more points. Also, what happens is people want to add something. They want to say, you have to repent and believe. You have to repent and feel sorry. They want to add repentance as a part of the equation.

And that just isn't true to the scripture. Repentance, nevertheless, cannot be added to believing as a condition of salvation. I have a couple of bullets here that I thought were just outstanding from Chaffer. He says up to 150 passages of scripture condition salvation on believing only.

And he quotes John 3.16. So we all can quote that by heart. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall have eternal life. So do we see repentance in that passage? We don't. So Schaeffer's pointing out that there's at least 150 passages that It only talks about believing as a condition for salvation.

Another point, in the Gospel of John, which is written to men, remember it says in John 20.31, which has been written that men might believe, and believing they might have life through Christ's name, does not once mention the word repentance. That's all the Gospel of John. We've got 150 passages all over Scripture. We've got nothing in the Gospel of John. Let's go to Romans.

Romans, where it formulates a statement about salvation by grace alone, does not use the term repentance in relation to salvation. So we've got an awful lot of Scripture that does not mention the word repentance. And here's an example where people will mistakenly use the word repentance in terms of the kingdom. It says, Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. This is not a gospel call, but one leading to restoration of a covenant people, Israel, into a right and original relationship to God.

And then lastly, the verses that we've been studying, this is where it fits. I like this. He kind of went through the whole thing with his little dissertation. He got down to the very last one and I said, wow, he covers our patches today. He says, in like manner, a Christian, a Christian, once having sinned may repent as a separate act, which is something far removed from being saved over again. God's not calling us to be saved over again. He wants us to change our mind about our, as a believer, change our mind about our actions, and confess our sins, and move on.

Okay, so that was a short, hopefully not too long. Hopefully that helped, and like I said, there's several, you can look in Chafer if you have him, or this March Bank book is available. I recommend it to you here. So, enough of an announcement there. Okay, so now let's go on to today's verses. Okay. So let me just, I'm not going to read the whole thing, but let me just point out in the first two or three verses here, it says, for behold, what earnestness, this very thing. So the question is what's what this very thing is.

What's he talking about there? And this godly sorrow has produced in you, what vindication of yourself, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what avenging a wrong in everything you demonstrated yourselves to be innocent in the matter. So although I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of the offender nor for the sake of the offended, but that your earnestness on your behalf might be made known to you in the sight of God. And then he goes on. So we're going to focus on, this is like the third aspect of this, of being sorry and leading to repentance. And this is kind of the, this is what happened in the Corinthians lives. And he's going to state these seven different words that describe that. Okay, so let's start out here.

And I found the interlinear again was the most helpful because it arranged it in an order that made it easy to see. For behold, the same thing, the same thing here is to be grieved according to God. And then he starts in with his first one. What diligence is produced in you? For behold, this same thing, I think refers to the, we talk about, I talk about the fact that there's three occurrences of this phrase made sorrowful or grieved according to the will of God. This is the third time he mentions it. So here he wants to point out another aspect.

But the other aspects we saw, the first aspect was the purpose so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us, you might not be out of fellowship. And secondly, produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation or deliverance, more precisely.

To be grieved according to the will of God, this is the third one. And so it's a list of seven things and they're all being, this is a product This is actually the product of his letter. This is what they realize about themselves and their relationship to Paul. These are the products of godly sorrow.

The first one, what diligence. And the challenge here is, you know, Scripture will have lists of stuff. The challenge is to present it without people falling asleep. Here's another one, another one, another one, another one. But I think in each one, And the way you approach something like this, you look up the word and you say, what's the definition of the word? And then you say, is there any context where he talks about that? So that's kind of the approach. And sometimes it's difficult. You only have a definition to go with. So here we go.

What diligence or earnestness is produced in you? And the word is meticulous eagerness as opposed to neglect and indifference. It reminded me of this verse in Romans 12, 10, and 11, to be devoted to one another in brotherly love, giving preference to one another in honor, and here's our word, not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. So, according to Merriman, since their minds had been changed, they repented, their mind had been changed, they now would not be indifferent to Paul and his teaching. So this is the first positive effect of Paul's letter and this being grieved. Secondly, what vindication of yourselves. Vindication is a word for apology or apologia, which is a word for apologize. To give an answer or speech in defense of oneself. The Corinthians learned that it was okay to admit they were wrong.

Isn't that a refreshing thing? Tough to do sometimes. But actually, don't you think more of a person, not a person, don't you think more of a person when they admit they're wrong? But sometimes that's a, you know, I feel bad, sometimes I'm not quick to repent. Or not repent, I shouldn't say. Apologize. Okay, what indignation?

Resentment about being misled. So they were, they resented that. Misled by false teachers or by themselves. They realized they were misled by some of these teachers that led them down the wrong path. The idea is I did it to myself. I'm misled and I did it to myself. What fear? Fear about correcting the situation. We see this come up in verse 15 which we'll read shortly again.

So it says, Titus' affection abounds all the more toward you, Corinthians, as he remembers the obedience of you all, how you received him with fear and trembling. So when Titus visited the Corinthians on behalf of Paul, they were shaking in their boots, so to speak. Here comes Paul's emissary. But they responded well to that. Five, what longing, earnest desire, strong affection. The Corinthians were looking for direction. They realized that they needed Paul's direction. They needed his teaching. They needed his direction.

And then sixth, what zeal. And it's used in a good sense here, not a bad sense. Let nothing be undone. A determination to make things right. And then seventh, an avenging of wrong. the execution of right, justice, to act rightly in the matter. So Constable says the means to act rightly toward all those involved in the matter, the offender and Paul. We're going to talk, we're going to see here, there's going to be a discussion here about the offender, E.R., and the offended, E.D. That's coming up shortly.

In everything, you demonstrated yourselves, speaking to the Corinthians again, to be innocent, pure and blameless in the matter. So they really turned the corner after all this discussion and letters and visits. They finally turned the corner and they realized what God had provided for them. So these seven things are the product of Paul's working with these body of believers.

So now we're going to verse 12. So now we're going to have a discussion about the offender, E.R., and the offended, E.D. So although I wrote to you, Corinthians, it was not, so Paul's going to say, he's going to do a disclaimer if you will, he's going to say, the reason for his letter was not the following. It was not for the sake of the offender, the person committing the thing, literally the one having done wrong, fact, it actually happened.

Paul now focuses on one person. He says the one. Then Merriman makes the observation is that it looks like there was one person. You know, you look at what Paul has been through in 1 Corinthians, what he wrote about. It seems like there's more than one person, but you know, it says the one, so you think, wow, maybe it was really only one person at the root of all this? Think about how many times what one person can do. It's amazing. Look at our society. One person can do a lot of bad or a lot of good. So here it looks like it's possible it was one person that was the cause of a lot of this heartache. Okay, so now we kind of get into the area of, I know, What event is he talking about here?

Because Paul doesn't name names. He doesn't say it was Joe Blow. He talks about the act sometimes. So Barnett via Constable says, many opinions have been expressed as to the identity of the wrongdoer and the nature of his act of injustice toward Paul.

So I'll hold off and give you my thought in just a second here. Okay, let's go on. Let's take the other side of the coin. Not for the sake of the one offended. And this may surprise you. Literally one having been wronged. So this is the one that was wronged, and he's been acted upon by the ER person, the offender, the offendee. Okay, so who is the offended? And I thought, well, who's the offended? And we should take a hand. We should do a poll here. I'm not going to do that, but anyway. So the more I thought about it, and actually, it's kind of obvious. Constable says the offender is Paul offended. ED is Paul himself. He was the offended one. I thought maybe it was the church.

I don't know. I've had a lot of people. He says, I'm not sure I can disagree. So then Barnett, my constable, made this comment. The most consistent reconstruction of Paul's scatter remarks, I like that, on this subject is that this man, the offender, publicly opposed and to some degree thwarted Paul's attempts to discipline during a faithful visit. So, you know, I look through and I have an opinion.

I don't know. It seems like the event back in 1 Corinthians where the man was with his father's wife seems to be the event. But people make cases for other situations, but there's very little solid information we have. So we have Paul's dissertation here. So I'm just going to leave it at that. That's an exercise for the student, as they say. Okay, so let's go on. Paul's pretty, from now on, for the rest of the verses here, he's really, he's riding high, so to speak. He's excited about these Corinthians. So most of it's very positive stuff from now on.

But your earnestness on our behalf, Paul and his team, earnestness here is, we saw this word before, meticulous, eager care, as opposed to neglect and indifference. might be made known to you in the sight of God. He's so thankful. He's saying that should be on display in the sight of God. The true meaning is to uncover, reveal, lay bare.

For this reason, we have been comforted. Because of the Corinthians' earnestness and openness, Paul was comforted. And 13, and besides our comfort, we rejoice even more at the joy of Titus. The Amplified has it. And in addition to our own personal consolation, we are especially delighted at the joy of Titus. And this is a situation where, as I mentioned last week, that Paul is very encouraged by the good report of Titus. And the more he hears from Titus, the more he's encouraged. Because he had no other way, outside of letters and being there personally, he had no other way to know what was going on there. Titus, who had observed the Corinthians' repentance, had increased Paul's joy further by responding to him.

And then the last part is, because his, Titus' spirit had been refreshed by you all, Amplified has it, because you all set your minds at rest, soothing and refreshing his spirit. So 14, so I'm just going to read the Amplified here. For if I boasted to him at all concerning you, I was not disappointed or put to shame. So apparently Paul had bragged on them. These guys really, he was excited about them and he had bragged about them to Titus and Titus went there in person and they did exactly what Paul said they did. And then the Amplified has it here, the last part. But just as in everything we ever said to you was true, so our boasting about you to Titus has proved also true. Okay, in the last two verses, and his heart, Titus' heart goes out to you more abundantly than ever as he recalls the submission to you, to his guidance that you all had, and the reverence and anxiety to meet all your requirements, which you accepted and welcomed." I, Paul, am very happy. I wasn't too happy with that translation. Because rejoicing in joy is not necessarily happiness. So I wasn't too happy with that translation. Because I now am of good courage.

Perfect confidence in you all so very very upbeat this whole last part look to a few verse very upbeat about the Corinthians So just a final summation. I'm not going to summarize the repentance part, but so just about the Corinthians and Titus and Paul the Corinthian some submissive response to Titus even though initially feared they feared him had endeared these Christians to Titus greatly and Their speedy acquiescence constituted both the basis of Paul's appeal to them to open their hearts. Remember how he said, I open my heart to you, please open your heart to me. He wanted them to reciprocate. And they did. And on the grounds of their confidence, they would do so.

And then lastly, Paul was now completely confident of the Corinthians' continued submission and obedience to him as their spiritual father, an apostle. But I, as I was, I finished up this, and I looked a little bit ahead to Mike's, but then the next chapter, he's right back at it again. He doesn't, you know, Paul doesn't, he has a bunch more chapters to go here. So he's right back again.

Okay, now about giving you guys, I gotta tell you about the Macedonians. You Corinthians, you don't know anything about giving. The Macedonians know what giving is all about. So Paul, you know, he was very sweet and nice here. And then he says, OK, now let's talk about giving. So Paul hasn't given up on that. He's still going to give the Corinthians some more to talk about. And the more for us to understand. It's pretty, it's amazing how practical this stuff is. And it's pretty, pretty cool. OK, let's close in prayer. Dear Father, we thank you so much for your word. Father, thank you for your care for us, for the many blessings we have in our Savior. And we thank you for your word. In Christ's name, amen.