II Corinthians 7:3

Second Corinthians 7:3

Paul wrote to the believers in the city of Corinth and said to them in Second Corinthians 7:3-6, “I speak not this to condemn you; for I have said before that you are in our hearts to die and live with you. Great is my boldness of speech toward you, great is my glorying of you: I am filled with comfort, I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation. For, when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side: without were fightings, within were fears. Nevertheless God, that comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus.” We see in these verses as we have seen so often in this epistle and in other epistles written by the Apostle Paul how much he cared about the spiritual needs of those to whom he ministered. Paul lived and died just to hear of spiritual progress in those to whom he had given his life. He said to the Corinthians, “you are in our hearts to die and live with you.”

One more time Paul mentions just how difficult of a task it was for him to pursue spreading the gospel and teaching the truth in the city of Corinth and other places in the same region of Macedonia. Paul described the spiritual battles and the opposition that he faced when he said, “our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side: without were fightings, within were fears.” There will be attacks from without and there will be attacks from within. You must be ready for both. The attacks from without are the physical and material things that go against you: they include your finances, your health, relationships with other people. The attacks from within are called fears. You will either fear or you will have faith. You will not have both. The one will cast out the other. But the fears will come to tear down your faith: the negative thoughts, the thoughts that things just will not work out for you. Don’t let the fears win. Remember the promises. God cannot lie. He may do not things on your timeline, but He will keep His promises.

One of the promises that God has made is that He will comfort those who suffer. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are those that mourn, for they shall be comforted.” Paul wrote here in Second Corinthians 7:6, “God, that comforteth those that are cast down.” There are great tragedies that people can suffer in this life, but no matter how great is the sorrow, there is one who is closer than a brother and who can always find a way to comfort the bereaved. Don’t ever think that someone has suffered so greatly that they never can be comforted. God is able. That is why it says here, “without were fightings, within were fears. Nevertheless God...”

Notice the method that God used to comfort Paul. Paul said that God comforted him “by the coming of Titus.” In one way this demonstrates the importance of Christian fellowship. God is in me, but He is also in you if you are a believer; and just might speak through you to encourage my heart. If I am not around you and if I do not hear what you have to say in the Lord, then I will not gain the godly comfort or the encouragement that I would have gotten. “Forsake you not the assembling of yourselves together.” The information that Titus gave to Paul that was such a joy to him had to do with the believers in Corinth. The things that Paul had been suffering for Christ and for the gospel were not in vain. Remember when Jesus said, “There is more joy in heaven over one sinner that repents than over ninety and nine just persons that need no repentance?” We can know a similar joy when we see that our lives had a part in people growing spiritually. As we follow Christ there are things that we suffer only because we follow Him. One thing that makes it worth it is when we see that God used us in the lives of others. The spiritual condition of others is what is important because of the value of their spirit.

Paul spoke of the joy that he had in seeing the spiritual progress in the lives of the Corinthians and he wrote in Second Corinthians 7:7-10, “And not by his coming only, but by the consolation wherewith he was comforted in you, when he told us your earnest desire, your mourning, your fervent mind toward me; so that I rejoiced the more. For though I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent, though I did repent; for I perceive that the same epistle has made you sorry, though it were but for a season. Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that you sorrowed to repentance: for you were made sorry after a godly manner, that you might receive damage by us in nothing. For godly sorrow worketh repentance not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.”

Paul spoke of a previous letter that he wrote to the Corinthians. Of course, we call it the First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians. A good part of the first epistle is a scathing rebuke of the spiritual failures and wrong-doing of the believers at Corinth. The first thing that Paul rebuked them for was the divisions that had come in among the church at Corinth. Paul wrote to them in First Corinthians 1:10, “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.” Christians are supposed to love one another and be united. That is the way it is supposed to be. What causes the divisions? Several things listed in First Corinthians tell us the cause of divisions. Christians that are carnally minded instead of spiritually minded cause divisions. Also, Christians that are followers of men, even good Christian men, instead of followers of Christ will cause divisions.

There is another thing that causes divisions and that is a lack of forgiving others when they need to be forgiven. One of the big problems that had existed when Paul wrote the first epistle was a particular sin that had been committed by an individual in the church. Paul wrote about this sin in First Corinthians 5:1 where it says, “It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife.” Returning back to the book of Second Corinthians, we see that the teachings of Paul and the rebuking by Paul had had a positive effect. The reason that they had a positive effect is because of the reaction of the believers to the rebukes.

Paul said in Second Corinthians 7:9 that they “sorrowed to repentance.” That’s the best kind of sorrow to have: sorrow because of your sins that leads you to repentance. If you have sinned, then you need one thing: repentance from your sin. Jesus said, “Except you repent, you shall all likewise perish.” Notice that there are two kinds of sorrow. The Bible says in Second Corinthians 7:10, “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.”

There is a certain kind of sorrow that is true sorrow all right, but the Bible calls it “the sorrow of the world.” Great tragedies can happen to people, and they will happen, and they cause great sorrow. It is genuine sorrow; and God knows and He can help you. But you had better be careful about how you handle that kind of sorrow. It can easily become the sorrow of the world. It can depress you, it can make you feel sorry for yourself, it can steal your joy and even your will to live, and it will eventually lead to death. You will either learn to take your sorrows to Jesus and leave them there, or you will take your sorrows to the grave. In order to have the joy of the Lord to become your strength, you must turn away from the sorrow of the world.

There is one kind of sorrow that will have a good benefit: godly sorrow. That is the kind of sorrow that the Corinthians had. Godly sorrow will lead you to repentance. You will be sorry that you sinned, you will be sorry that you failed God and the Savior, and your sorrow will bring you to the feet of Jesus where you will ask Him for forgiveness. That is the good result of godly sorrow. Once you have repented of your sins, you will have joy again: the joy that comes from knowing that your sins are forgiven and the joy that can only come when you are rightly related to the Savior and are walking in fellowship with Him. David said in the Psalms, “Restore unto me the joy of my salvation.”

Repentance from sin will fix a tremendous number of problems in the lives of people who need to repent. Some of the good benefits from repenting that the Corinthians had are listed in Second Corinthians 7:11. It says, “For behold this selfsame thing, that you sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things you have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.”

The first thing that repentance accomplished in the Corinthians was “carefulness.” Carefulness refers to earnestness and diligence. This refers to an earnestness and a diligence for the things of God. When you repent you are turning from your sins and turning to God. If someone does not have an earnestness and a diligence for the things of God, it may very well be that they need to repent of something. Another good result in the Corinthians is what is called here “clearing of yourselves.” This refers to what the Corinthians had to say. The same word is used in First Peter 3:15 where it says, “be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you…” It says in the Psalms, “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.” If Christians have a speech problem: if they are not saying things that they ought to be saying, maybe they have a need to do some repenting.

Paul said that the Corinthians had “indignation.” What indignation they had against sin. They grieved at it. They disliked it. The people of the world enjoy the pleasure of sin for a season. God hates sin. If you become rightly related to God, you will also. You will love the sinner, but you will hate the sin. Because they had sorrow at their sin and repented, the believers in Corinth had indignation at sin, and they had “fear.” They had a fear of God, a reverence and respect for God, and they had a fear of sin and the consequences of sin. Watch out for the lies of the world. The world will keep telling you that there are benefits to the sinful, selfish, and self-centered actions and life-styles that they pursue. But do not listen to the lies. Have a fear of God, who punishes evil-doers and who brings to nothing the way of the wicked.

Paul mentioned once again how greatly the hearts of the Corinthians had been turned towards God because they repented. He said of them, “Yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal.” What needs to happen that would cause people to have a vehement desire and a zeal to serve God? They need to repent of their sins. Sin is the problem of the world. The judgment is coming. The horrible result of all the sins are mounting up. People have hard hearts and selfish hearts. They need to repent and turn to God.

The last word in this passage that the Bible uses to describe the Corinthians is the word “revenge.” It refers to vindicating one’s self from one’s wrongs. If you are guilty and someone accuses you, then you are in big trouble. You are susceptible to suffer all the punishments that the law can throw against you. But once you repent, you are vindicated just as someone would be who is totally innocent. Once you repent and are forgiven, some may still attempt to condemn you, but God will not and you should not either.

Just make sure that you offer the same forgiveness to others that has been given to you. Another reason for the divisions among Christians is the lack of forgiving one another. People will sin because they still possess a sinful nature. Don’t allow a root of bitterness to come up between you because you are unwilling to forgive. Jesus told us to pray, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

If you have not been forgiven of your sins, today you could repent and turn to Jesus and ask for forgiveness.

___________________________________________________