“For godly sorrow produces repentance…worldly sorrow produces death.” (2nd Corinthians 2:10)

 

“For godly sorrow produces repentance…worldly sorrow produces death.” (2nd Corinthians 2:10)

We live in a world that basically believes, “if it makes me sad, it’s bad.” Thus, we want nothing to do with sorrow. In fact, we detest it so much, that people will generally try and drown their sorrows in alcohol, drugs, sex, food, busyness, and overspending. Yet sorrow – the right kind of sorrow – can be beneficial; it’s not always a bad thing.

Worldly sorrow is bad because it simply centers around the guilt and shame at being caught; being found out. Therefore, it does not encourage true repentance or a change of heart.  But godly sorrow is the realization that one has fallen from grace, turned away from God, and causes a desire to repent and return to our Lord. Godly sorrow inspires hope and change through a “broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart” (Psalm 51:17) as King David so aptly wrote in his own manifest of repentance.

In other words, worldly sorrow produces “fears,” while godly sorrow produces “tears.”

Fr. John