2 Corinthians 7:8 Commentary and Bible Study

Perhaps our King James has chosen an unfortunate word in ‘repent’. The Greek means more here, regret. I do not regret having sent you a letter that made you sad, though I did regret it at the time. I was very heavy in having to say these words of reproof. ‘For I perceive the same epistle’ – 1 Corinthians – ‘had made you sorry, though it were but for a season.’This is a remarkable passage because it shows us how believers repent, the components of repentance. The Corinthians did not just sorrow because they failed. ‘Oh, we failed, we have tolerated sin, we have formed parties, and we have been childish. We are embarrassed by our conduct. It has brought us down in the eyes of the other churches. It has led to the apostle Paul being grievously disappointed in us. We have probably lost blessing from God. We are sorry at what we have brought on ourselves.’ No, it was a nobler sorrow. It led to a sense of shame and to a change of mind, change of conduct: picking up the pieces, putting the clock back, correcting what was wrong. They sorrowed before the Lord. That is true sorrow. And then the apostle adds to that in a remarkable way: ‘For ye were made sorry after a godly manner.’ Now at first, that puzzles us. A godly manner? A God-like manner? No, God does not need to repent. It means you were made sorry in a God-ward manner. And the meaning is this – you were not sorry so much because you sinned or you offended another person. You were sorry most of all because you offended Almighty God and your Saviour who suffered and died for you, and the Holy Spirit who indwells you and would have strengthened you. You offended the Godhead, your Lord, your God, your Saviour, your master. That is what meant most to you. ‘Yes, we are sorry,’ the Corinthians said, ‘because the husband was wronged, and his wife was stolen from him by a step-son, and we let it happen, and we looked on with apathy and indifference, and that poor man was cruelly wronged by that young man’s awful sin, and we sorry at the offence to him. But we are much more sorry at the awful offence to a holy God by a church of Jesus Christ. They were made sorry in a God-ward way. And that is how we should be.Remember David, so long ago in Psalm 51 – ‘Against thee, thee only, have I sinned.’ That was not strictly true. He sinned against others too but mostly he had sinned against God, and real repentance feels that.‘Ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing’ – a little complex. It means, because of that you were not hurt by us, you were blessed by us. Our reproof of you resulted in a blessing not a hurt, because it brought you to repentance.