Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance, for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. 2 Corinthians 7:9
Some girls at a local school had tortured and bullied another girl to such an extent that the police were brought in to investigate. As the police tried to determine who was responsible for the bullying, people in the community began to speculate about the punishment that should be meted out. Because of what they had done, the girls should face some sort of chastisement, but it is unlikely they ever will, because of the current attitudes about such matters. Years ago, troublemakers were placed in the stocks on public display where they could be properly humiliated. But nowadays, young people who commit crimes are protected from being identified in public, because of the so-called harm it might do to their self-esteem. Apparently the harm they do to their victims doesn’t matter. And nobody needs to be made to feel remorse for wrong-doing. Is it any wonder that nobody knows anything about repentance these days?
In our text, Paul speaks about rejoicing over the repentance of the Christians in Corinth. He had sent them a letter that pointed out their sin in tolerating an adulterer in their Assembly. The Assembly had responded as Paul had hoped, and the sin was judged. Their evidence of repentance, their sorrow over their sin, was a wonderful thing, in Paul’s estimation. I don’t think Paul would get along well in today’s world, where we are not supposed to make people feel sorry for anything. Maybe if we spent more time emphasizing the sinfulness of sin, we would see more people repenting of it. And that would surely lead to more souls being saved in our Gospel meetings.
Several wise men have noted that, in order to see people saved, we need to get them lost. Unless people understand God’s attitude about sin, they can never understand their need to repent of that sin. Repentance is as necessary a prerequisite to salvation as light is a prerequisite to seeing. But we will never bring sinners to repentance without making them sorry for their sins. That means when somebody is made to feel sorry for their sins, it is cause for rejoicing, not apologies.
Wouldn’t it be a tragedy if sinners went to hell because we were too afraid of hurting their feelings? Faithfulness to their souls demands that we seek to make them sorrow after a godly manner. -Jim MacIntosh