One could argue that the biggest denominator in our lives is not that we will sin, or get sinned against, or experience trials—but rather, how we will respond to those realities when they do happen.
Only naivety would suggest we could circumnavigate the mountains of sin or hardship. Problem is, in reality, sin and hardship aren’t the ‘mountains’ of our existence as much as they are the ‘oxygen’ of our existence—something that is all around us and all inside us. The pervasiveness of sin is strewn into the very air we breathe as broken people living in a broken world. It simply affects everyone and in every way. No one is safe.
Therefore, it is not sin that will ultimately have the last word in your life; it’s what you do next when you sin, what you do next when you get sinned against, and what you do next when you endure seasons of hardship.
2 Responses to 1 Reality
The Bible ultimately conveys that there’s two ways to respond when you go through the valleys of sin and hardship. There reality of sorrow is a common denominator of life, but there’s 2 ways we can choose to express it.
1) You can have godly sorrow
2) You can have worldly sorrow
Before we unpack each type of sorrow, I think it’s first important to note that the Bible never condemns sorrow in and of itself. Christianity never encourages a ‘religious’ stone-cold stoicism in the face of real pain. Nor does it ever espouse putting on a plastic ‘religious’-mask of inauthenticity to cover over feelings of real shame. It never leads one to pretend or to hide. It only endorses the fullest expressions of vulnerability, sincerity, and even… sorrow.
That’s because sorrow is an emotion God himself even feels, too (Gen. 6:6, Jud. 2:18). In fact, we feel emotions, such as sorrow, precisely because we are made in God’s image (Gen. 1:27).
However, it’s what we do next with sorrow that can be either constructive or destructive, life-giving or life-taking, godly or worldly.
Godly Sorrow vs. Worldly Sorrow
So, what’s the difference between godly sorrow and worldly sorrow? What makes one expression of sorrow godly and another expression of sorrow worldly?
I think the best answer lies most clearly in 2 Corinthians 7:10.
“Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.” (NIV)
Godly sorrow is essentially a type of sorrow whose trajectory is repentance. Too often, we unfortunately define ‘repentance’ to mean ‘confess’ or ‘acknowledge’. But the term actually denotes changing, not just confessing. It denotes a new direction, not just a mere confession. It’s like a river that moves proactively towards a source and, in the process, cleanses itself. Godly sorrow begins with the reality of your sin, but ends with the Source of your repentance defining your reality.
Worldly sorrow, however, is essentially a type of sorrow whose trajectory does not involve repentance. This type of sorrow could involve confession of sin. Or it could not. Regardless, the force of repentance—the impetus for change—is nonexistent. Thus, worldly sorrow is not moving towards a source like a river does, but instead, is stagnant like a reservoir—filling itself up with the murkiness and algae of pain and hurt, day by day, with no outlets and only build up. Worldly sorrow begins with the reality of your sin, and ends with the sin becoming your reality.
All in all, godly sorrow has its trajectory set upwardly towards God, while worldly sorrow has its trajectory set inwardly on sin or outwardly on circumstance. Godly sorrow is most like a river in that repentance functions like a tributary that carries us to the Source and cleanses us in the process. Worldly sorrow, however, is most like reservoir that harbors the gunk of sin, builds up the algae of bitterness, and explodes from the pressurized build-up of its own no-outlet policy.
More specifically, Paul Tripp describes that, “Worldly sorrow is only sorry that you were caught, or that you failed to live up to your own standards and potential, or that you are experiencing the consequences of your sin. Worldly sorrow is self-centered, while godly sorrow focuses on how God was offended and how others were hurt. Godly sorrow especially sees that God’s love (not just his commands) has been treated lightly. Worldly sorrow produces tears of self-pity, but godly sorrow produces tears of true humility.”[1]
Those are great words. Practically speaking, worldly sorrow plays the victim and sees sin as the ultimate definer of reality. Godly sorrow, on the other hand, while it doesn’t diminish pain or hurt, it certainly doesn’t allow sin to have the final word, either. It declares that the ultimate definer of reality is not circumstance, but Christ, in whom the Promises of God were made real to us in our human experience.
Digging Deeper
Furthermore, it’s interesting to note that the apostle Paul almost uses parallel structure, but for some reason, doesn’t go through with it. It almost reads awkwardly when you read it out loud. For example, it reads… “Godly sorrow brings repentance… worldly sorrow brings death.” If I had written the letter, I would have said “godly sorrow brings life… worldly sorrow brings death.” That would have made more sense structurally; it would have been parallel.
But Paul didn’t do that; instead, he uses ‘repentance’, not ‘life’. And I think this is significant and intentional. I think it’s because he wants his readers to strongly associate repentance with life anyways—not as fundamentally different terms, but as virtually synonymous or interchangeable terms.
To be sure, repentance and spiritual life are different things in themselves, but Paul seems to imply that they cannot exist without one another in the life of the believer. He’s alluding to the idea that a repentant trajectory of life is the means of tapping into the source of spiritual vitality. It’s the tributary that connects us to the Source of Life. In fact, the tributary of repentance might even be an extension or proof of the Source after all.
Where repentance ends and spiritual life begins is not so easily divisible after all, but rather, congruent. I think that’s what Paul is trying to communicate here when he creates a dissonant sense of parallelism by swapping ‘repentance’ for ‘life’. He uses a discordant type of structure to further emphasize a truth, similar to how musicians accomplish emphasis by intentionally incorporating a dissonant note upon the backdrop of a harmony. It sticks out, but intentionally so. Overall, by swapping repentance and life, it would appear that Paul is trying to get us to see how repentance and spiritual life are not two separate entities, but that they are integrally channeled together as one.
In sum, there is spiritual life in godly sorrow precisely because there is a repentance that looks upwardly to God, our Source of spiritual life. On the converse, there is only spiritual death in worldly sorrow precisely because it looks inwardly to sin or outwardly to circumstances, where there is no transcendent source of hope. Godly sorrow, through the eyes of repentance, sees God’s promises as the final definer of reality whereas worldly sorrow, through the eyes of victimization, sees sin or circumstance as the final definer of your reality.
And finally, it would be remiss to not mention how sorrow is a key battleground for spiritual warfare.
Satan vs. Holy Spirit
I don’t think it’s out of bounds to say that Satan and the Holy Spirit can both convict you of sin. However, they do so with completely different purposes in mind. In a moment of conviction, Satan wants to steer you dangerously down the road of worldly sorrow while the Spirit wants to veer you safely onto the road of godly sorrow.
Here’s how Satan works versus how the Spirit works:
Satan starts with what you’ve done–how you’ve sinned, how you’ve been sinned against, and what you’re going through now–and will use that as the basis to condemn who you are. But the Spirit starts by affirming who you are in Christ–which supersedes what you’ve done, how you’ve been wronged, and what you’re going through–and will use that as the fuel to empower what you’ll do next. In other words, Satan takes what you’ve done and condemns who you are. But the Spirit affirms who you are in Christ and commends what you’ll do next.
Satan wants you to continue to spiral down, and down, and down on a positive feedback loop, increasingly instability. But the Spirit wants you to spiral up on a negative feedback loop, reducing instability.
Each accomplishes it by defining who you are, your identity.
When you sin, Satan points to your sinful performance and then uses that moral failure as the basis for your identity. But the Spirit, on the other hand, points to your identity in Christ first and then uses that redeemed identity as the basis that informs your future performance. Satan declares what you have done as the basis of your identity; but the Spirit declares what Jesus has done as the basis of your identity.
Both Satan and the Spirit can convict you of sin, but Satan will make your past performance the basis of identity, while the Spirit will make your identity in Christ the basis of your future performance.
Certainly, if your identity is based on what you have or haven’t done with sin, you will inevitably stumble your way down the road of worldly sorrow… morbidly navel-gazing… hopelessly self-victimizing… despondently stagnating… spiritual death.
But, if your identity is based on what Jesus has done for you, you will stumble, yes, but down the road of godly sorrow instead… confidently clinging to grace… hopefully trusting in his promises… steadily transforming… spiritual life.
What’s Next?
Godly sorrow is both stunning and beautiful. Paul continues his thoughts about godly sorrow in the very next verse.
“See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done.”
Paul states that godly works itself out practically in a constructive way: it’s full of humility (in light of our sin), full of confidence (in light of Christ’s love), and full of hope (in light of the Spirit’s work). It begins a process in the heart of the believer that is transformative precisely because it assesses reality correctly. It is optimistic, without being idealistic, and realistic, without being pessimistic—and in doing so, it tills the soil our hearts for growth.
It’s optimistic, but it’s not idealistic.
Meaning, it doesn’t concede to the lies of idealism because it acknowledges the reality of sin.
It’s realistic, but it’s not pessimistic.
Meaning, it doesn’t fall into the deep pitfalls of pessimism because it acknowledges the power of grace.
It’s balanced and hopeful. It’s already-not yet.
Worldly sorrow looks inwardly at yourself and outwardly at circumstance.
Worldly sorrow brings spiritual death.
Godly sorrow looks upwardly at Christ, who is himself our spiritual life.
Godly sorrow brings repentance, which brings life.
Don’t be afraid to be sorrowful. Christ has all authority on heaven on earth. And in light of that, we can certainly trust him with our lives–where we’ve sinned, how we’ve been sinned against, and what we’re currently going through.
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Footnotes:
[1] Tripp, Paul David. How People Change. Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press, 2008. Chapter 12, iBook loc. 475.
