2 Corinthians 7:10 Commentary and Bible Study

Now here is the amazing component of true repentance, of godly sorrow – ‘For godly sorrow,’ or God-ward sorrow, ‘worketh repentance to salvation.’ It has an effect: salvation from that sin. The Corinthians had already been saved, but now they had fallen and they needed to repent to be restored to fellowship with God and they had obeyed. They had undergone a real change of heart. But the sorrow of the world: that is just embarrassment, a kind of self-pity that I have been found out in my sin so I feel sorry for my sin, but really only sorry for myself. That is not going to cure me. I am going to go back to sin again. That is not going to change me. It is only sorrow towards God that will change me and strengthen me in my resolve to avoid that sin, and bring down the pardon and the strength of God to avoid it in the future. There is a difference.