Grief that Serves a Purpose
Pastor Jake
“As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. ”
In Chapter 7 of the second letter to the Corinthians, Paul is “rejoicing” in the confidence he has in the Corinthian church. He is proven right in his boasting on their behalf. In a small portion of the chapter, Paul discusses the effects of his first letter and the difficult emotions he had as he was made aware of their response. Paul presents two sides of himself – a Paul who initially heard the news of the grieved Corinthians and therefore was regretful of his letter, and a Paul who saw the result of that grief which was a convicted Corinthian church spurred toward righteousness. Paul stands by his letter because he has seen the result of the Corinthian’s “godly grief.”
This expression captured my interest. It is most compelling to me that the modern day believer understand the function of our grief as it relates to sin. What Paul calls “godly grief” I believe is the same concept as “contrition” – that is, my definition of it. To put it simply, contrition is sorrow; sorrow that realizes the Christian’s distance between himself/herself and God. In short, contrition is the mourning of why God must be holy. Contrition helps us understand “godly sorrow” because contrition is the humble mind that acts like fertile soil for our repentance. Its the state of being that says “God is holy; I am not, and I need his help to pay the difference.” Paul provides a preliminary definition of “godly grief” in the first half of verse 9. His definition of Godly grief is the kind that grieves to “into repenting.” Notice how productive this grief is.
The original languages make this point as well. In observing the Greek, we see that the expression “godly grief” is the English tranlsation of four Greek words comprising of a verb (to grieve), a conjunction (for), preposition (under) and a noun (God). “Wait… grieve for under God? How do we go from here to the words we see in verse 9 ‘For you felt Godly grief’?” The way Greek works is strange to our English ears, but if I moved the word “for” to a better place, you may begin to see how things change: “For you grieved under God.” When you used to speak the pledge of alliegance, perhaps you remember the phrase “One nation, under God.” What did we mean when we said this phrase? It meant that we are a nation with our hearts rightly directed toward God. A nation in service of Him. This is the same idea of “under” that we see here. To grief under God is to grieve in a way that directs our attention toward him; it’s to grieve in a way that serves his purposes. In other words, its as though he is saying “grieving for directing us toward God.”
In essence, this is grief that serves a purpose. This grief points toward something. This grief always has God as its object – thus providing the English translation “Godly grief.” Grief that points us toward nothing is, as Paul describes it, “worldly grief” that has one result – “death” (v. 10). Godly grief is reproductive in the sense that it spurs toward righteousness; it motivates us to do better. In a unique way, Paul is revealing a function of God’s Word. Just as the first letter to the Corinthians produced in them “Godly grief,” Scripture will serve to function in a similar way in our lives. We will always have to contend with the sin within ourselves. As we read God’s word, we are going to notice just how often we don’t measure up. This should produce in us “godly grief.” Grief that shouldn’t discourage or point us away from our loving savior. But grief that should direct us toward God. We should feel an exciting deficit. In other words, an eager willingness to “…with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16 ESV).”
While “Godly grief” reminds us we are never enough, it should always remind us that Christ was. If we ignore contrition and godly sorrow then we ignore a leading tool designed by God to spur us toward righteousness – to grieve us toward God.