Sorrowful Repentance for the Believer

 

Read 2 Corinthians 7

Why do bad things happen to good people?

That’s the question that people have struggled with since the time of Job, likely earlier than that.

And we answer, “It’s a broken world.” We retort, “Sin is still at work in the world.”

We postulate our godly theorems to address the why of everything, and come up short every time.

We have dissonance when we think of a perfect God and a broken world and wonder why he doesn’t fix it. I want to be with God and like God in so many ways, but we live in this world and much of it does not live God’s way.

God says that I am his, but I feel like I belong to this world. It’s got its hooks in me, for sure. Why can’t the Christian be free of the world?

Why are we not set free?

But we are. And this is where the preacher steps on toes. We like the bondage of the world. Just as the Hebrew people complained to Moses that life was better back in Egypt, we hold on to and long for our old ways.

We are made new. The old has gone. The new has come. You know these words, but it seems so hard to live them.

We still hold on to the old self—the person that we were. We won’t let go. We try to make the old me fit into the godly new me and it doesn’t work, but we keep trying.

You know what’s easy to let go of? An electric fence. We have all touched an electric fence, got the little shock, and pulled our finger back. But have you ever grabbed the fence wire while it’s hot?

That takes a little more effort but you sure let go and don’t want to grab it again. It’s the same voltage either way but you feel the sting when you are holding on and there is no doubt that you want to let go.

Paul said that he wrote the church body in Corinth and chastised them in many ways. He didn’t want to, but it was necessary.

Paul didn’t want to lose the sense of fellowship that he had with this body of believers, but he couldn’t short change them either.  He had to do what he coined as speaking the truth in love when he wrote to the Ephesians.

Paul had to speak the truth in love, and it hurt him a little to have to say what he said, but Paul didn’t opt out of difficult tasks. He now told the Corinthians that he had to bring them to this sadness, this sorrow, this state of being that was ready to repent.

These were believers who had repented. They were saved, but their discipleship was lacking, and Paul could not ignore it. Love demanded that he address many issues.

This hurt the Corinthians. They knew Paul. They enjoyed Paul. They loved Paul, but now they had come to a point where truth was essential, and the truth might hurt a little. It did and it did its work.

Paul noted that Titus validated all of this. The Corinthian believers were wonderful people who sought God. They messed up a bunch, but they never gave up. Paul’s words were hard to receive, but they were received.

Paul’s words were hard to send, but he sent them, and the godly sorrow of the Corinthian believers brought about repentance. This is not the repentance that precedes salvation. This is a daily repentance where we measure ourselves against what God expects of us now that we have been saved from sin and death.

Perhaps Paul should write a few letters to the churches in America. We could use some stern counsel, but Paul finished his race and has his crown. I keep checking the mail and email, but no letter.

What do we do? Let’s try God’s word.

·       God’s words seem to be alive.

·       His word is more powerful than the best sword.

·       It can divide that which is spiritual and that which is physical.

·       It will cause us to examine ourselves as nobody else can.

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, capable of dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

The word of God can bring us to sorrowful repentance. Sometimes, that is what we need because our comfort zones are so comfortable that we don’t even recognize they are present.

We are not getting a letter from Paul. We have more than just Paul’s letters. Everyone here has access to the word of God. It is available to you 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.

Here’s the question. Will we let it do its work?

Will we let it do its work?

God has completed us. We are whole, complete, and reconciled to God. He did all of this.

Don’t you think we could look in that spiritual mirror which is the word of God and receive its counsel, even if it chastises us much of the time.

We celebrate because God has rescued us, but from time to time, we need to revisit repentance, not to be saved but to fully live and to bring glory to God.

We are more than conquerors, but we still need humility for none of us truly have attained a life lived completely in love.

Sometimes there must be something introduced into our comfort zones to bring us to our knees so that only God can pick us up again.

Sometimes, the blessing of life is forgotten until we lose someone or someone is seriously hurt. Sometimes there must be trouble and hurt to get us out of our comfort zones.

James tells us to celebrate our trials.

Jesus told us that if we go through trials because we follow him, we are in league with the prophets.

Why do bad things happen to good people? I don’t have an all-encompassing answer, but add this one to your list.

Sometimes, it takes sorrowful repentance to wake us up and refocus us on Jesus.

So what do I take home from this?

·       Don’t get too comfortable in your discipleship.

·       Don’t check the mailbox for a letter from Paul. Read the text from God.

·       Quit fighting the new creature that you are now. Be transformed. That begins in the mind and manifests itself in action.

What do I do?

·       Let the word of God examine you.

·       Embrace sorrowful repentance.

·       Celebrate that the truth will set you free so don’t be afraid. Don’t be anxious.

What do I get?

·       Grow in grace.

·       Look more like our Master.

·       A preview of standing before the Judgment Seat of Christ.

But what will I do? And I return to a familiar thought.

The curse of modern Christianity is to acknowledge God, acknowledge Jesus died for our sins, and acknowledge that the Spirit lives within us, and then live unchanged lives because we hold our own understanding in such high esteem.

Will we remain unchanged even in the light of the blessings and promises we know in Christ Jesus?

Will we quit fitting Jesus into our comfort zones and let sorrowful repentance do its work?

Let the word of God do its work. It is better to do that now than wait until we stand before Jesus.

Amen.