Repentance: From Sorrow to Salvation

Well, the title of our sermon today is, Repentance from Sorrow to Salvation. Repentance from Sorrow to Salvation. And that whole concept of the title is found, and I invite you to turn then now, in 2 Corinthians chapter 7 verses 8 through 13. 2 Corinthians chapter 7 verses 8 through 13. This is where we will begin. And as you turn there, I would like to ask and start off with a question this afternoon. And the question is this, have you ever thanked God for making you sorrowful? It might be a little bit of a strange question, because I think I can speak for all of us.

We all spend a lot of time trying to avoid sorrow. And in fact, when it comes, we pray for sorrow to leave us. And if we have a loved one who's suffering from sorrow, we will endeavor to comfort them. And we rejoice when the sorrow has left, or has been diminished. Where initially, we think that sorrow is something to escape. But what if I were to tell you today that there is a kind of sorrow that is actually one of the greatest gifts that God can ever give to an individual.

Because this sorrow from God leads the individual down the pathway to salvation. Of course, salvation being one of the greatest joys that we could ever receive. Well, this is exactly where the Apostle Paul is. It's exactly what he tells us in this passage that's before us this afternoon. Before we begin reading, let me give you a little context. Paul had written what we could say is a difficult letter to the church in Corinth. And it wasn't an easy letter to write, certainly wasn't an easy letter to receive, because in this letter Paul confronted the church over their sin.

In this passage we will see that we're actually not given the source of the sin or really any details of this particular sin. But what we know is this letter was written from Paul to expose the fact that there was a moral compromise occurring in the church in Corinth at that time. And so, for certain, this letter caused their hearts to be wounded.

And for a time, Paul actually wondered if the letter was too severe that he wrote to them. Too severe in his words that he used in calling out their sin. But when he saw God's Spirit had accomplished something through that sorrow, he no longer regretted it. And in fact, he rejoiced because not because the Corinth church had been hurt, but because the sorrow that emerged from them had accomplished something remarkable.

It led them to repentance. Repentance, which turned them from sin and back to God. Let's read this. 2 Corinthians 7. Let's begin in verse 8 and read down to verse 13. Paul writes, For even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it, though I did regret it. For I perceived that the same epistle, the same letter, made you sorry, though only for a while.

And now I rejoice, now, that you were made sorry. Wait, I rejoice not that you were made sorry, here it is, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing.

Verse 10. For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted. But the sorrow of the world produces death. For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner. And what diligence it, this sorrow, produced in you? What clearing of yourselves? What indignation? What fear? What vehement desire? What zeal? What vindication? In all these things, you proved yourself to be clear in this matter. Therefore, although I wrote to you, I did not do it for the sake of him who had done the wrong, nor for the sake of him who suffered the wrong, but that our care for you in the side of God might appear to you.

Therefore, verse 13, we have been comforted in your comfort, and we rejoice gladly more for the joy of Titus, because his spirit was refreshed by you all. Let's stop there. Well, this is an amazing moment in history, isn't it? And I'd like for us to deeply consider these words here that begin in verse 10 here, the beginning of verse 10, where Paul writes simply, "'For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation.'" And so this is where we get the title, repentance from sorrow to salvation.

What a statement to consider here! And now let me just say that from this one statement alone by Paul, we should understand and never think that repentance is merely some kind of secondary or some kind of minor doctrine. We should never think that repentance is somehow an optional response to the gospel, or somehow think that repentance is just something you do at the beginning of your Christian life, but soon thereafter you move on to greater things. No. In fact, repentance is woven into the very fabric of God's salvation plan. If you were to remove repentance from the gospel, you would no longer have the gospel that Jesus Christ brought.

That clear? That's not my opinion. That is the indisputable fact revealed in Scripture. Because think for a moment. Think of how the gospel of the good news was introduced in New Testament times. After 400 years of prophetic silence, the first voice God raised up in preparing the way for none other than Jesus Christ himself and his ministry, the first voice raised up was John the Baptist, right? And what was heaven's opening message? Keep your marker here, and we'll come right back here to 2 Corinthians.

But turn with me for a moment to Mark 1 verse 4. We'll come back to 2 Corinthians 7 in just a moment, but turn over to Mark 1 verse 4 because I want you to consider and see how repentance is the essential aspect of the gospel. Again, what was heaven's opening message from the voice of John the Baptist? Well, here it is. Mark 1 verse 4, well here it is. Mark 1 verse 4, the gospel writer records.

Mark 1 verse 4, John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. There it is, repentance. The baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin, for the remission of sin.

Well, I don't know. Maybe that's just John, you know. He was an odd character. Well, consider the Son of God himself, Jesus Christ. When he began his ministry, allow your eyes to go down to Mark 1 verse 15. Jesus's first recorded command. What do you suppose it was? Mark 1 verse 15, Jesus says, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. Then Jesus sends out the twelve. What do you think their message was? Well, turn with me over to Mark 6 verse 12. If you'll turn over there. Is repentance some kind of secondary doctrine? Should we have moved on from repentance by now?

Well, look at the message that the disciples were sent out to proclaim. Mark chapter 6 and verse 12. Mark records, so they, the disciples, went out and preached that people should repent.

Wait, there's more. Peter, the Apostle Peter, Acts chapter 2 verse 38. Let's turn over there. We're kind of going through a rapid fire here just to establish the essential aspect of repentance here. I don't want there to be any question. Acts 2 and verse 38, here Peter standing up on the very day of Pentecost and thousands had cried out, men and brethren, what shall we do? Acts 2 verse 38, well Peter said to them, repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Sounds a lot like John. Sounds a lot like Jesus. Sounds a lot like the message that the disciples were sent out to to proclaim.

And what about Paul, this one to whom is writing this difficult letter to the Church in Corinth? Well, was that a one-off in him addressing the Church at that time? No, not at all. Not at all. Well, Acts chapter 20 beginning in verse 18. Turn there, if you will. Acts chapter 20 beginning in verse 18, and we'll read down through verse 21. This is Paul, and he has gone everywhere. He's testified to men and women here, and he's now kind of reflecting back on his ministry in a kind of an overarching way. And look at what he says here, Acts 20. Let's read verses 18 through 21. Paul says, the writer of our difficult letter, he says here also, and when they had come to him, Paul, he said to them, You know, from the first day I came to Asia, in what manner I always lived among you, serving the Lord with all humility, with many tears, trials which happened to me by the plotting of the Jews, how I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you, and taught you to talk to you publicly from house to house. Verse 21, testifying to Jews and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward Jesus, our Lord Jesus Christ. How about one more? One more. Because in the end, in the culmination of it all, did you know that it's God's will that all come to repentance? One more. 2 Peter 3 verse 9. If you turn there before we get back to our difficult letter to the Corinthians. 2 Peter 3 verse 9. This is all just to punctuate the foundational truth of repentance. What is God's ultimate desire for mankind? 2 Peter 3 verse 9. Peter writes, The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness, but is long suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Let's stop there. Brethren, brethren, all this to establish in our hearts and minds today the fact that repentance is at the very heart of the gospel. There's no way out of it. Why? Why would repentance be at the very heart of the gospel? Why would that be so? Well, with any kind of quick consideration, I think each of us could come to the conclusion that that makes sense. Because there must be this movement, okay? There must be this movement, this moving, which involves turning from sin, that which represents what's contrary to God, and turning from and turning to the one who has called us into repentance and into this relationship with Him. Before there can be any reconciliation, before there can be any reconciliation, a bringing back, a healing of a relationship, there must be this turning from and turning back to. And in thinking back on Paul's letter that we begin with, this makes sense that this would be at the heartbeat of the gospel. Because before there can be any spiritual diligence, you know, produced in you, before there can be any clearing of yourself, before there can be any vehement desire or zeal established in us toward God, before there can be any vindication in any such way, there must be this repentance movement, if you will, where the individual responds to God's call and comes back to Him into that relationship. And so, Paul would say and does say, before there can be any salvation, there must be repentance. Repentance. Atturning from and turning to.

Now, this may immediately then raise the question, okay, we're all in agreement. I'll assume that at this point. Okay, if repentance is essential, how do I begin this process? Where does this process begin? That would be a logical question. How does a proud heart become humble? Where does that begin? How does a rebellious heart learn to obey or begin to learn to desire to obey? How does someone who once embraced sin begin to have indignation against it? Hatred of it? How does a sinner truly repent and turn toward God? Well, you might be ahead of me. The answer is found in sorrow. Sorrow. Sorrow must come into our experience. It is a sorrow, a deep sorrow, that comes from within, that turns against. It's a sorrow against our sinful actions and thoughts.

And that brings us back to the letter of Paul and this whole notion of godly sorrow, which his letter produced in the men and women in Corinth. So turn back with me, if you will, to 2 Corinthians 7 and verse 8 through 13, where we begin. 2 Corinthians 7.

Turning back there, we see that, again, that God used this letter by Paul to bring the church to sorrow over their sin. And that sorrow became the door which moved them to repent and turn from it. So it stirred them. Verse 11, it stirred them to diligence versus complacency. That's what the sorrow did. Verse 11, it stirred them to a desire to clear themselves instead of making excuses. It desired them to have that righteous indignation, that strong anger over the sin in their lives, instead of tolerating it. It stirred them to a fervent desire, a zeal for holiness. And in the end, they were then vindicated and cleared in the matter. So you see what the sorrow did and what the sorrow produced. You have to have sorrow. It is a vital ingredient. It's the only ingredient for us to achieve true repentance. This is what Paul's putting forth here. In verse 12, that's his whole point, because he says the purpose in me writing this letter, verse 12, it wasn't simply to expose the offender. It wasn't even to defend the one who was wronged. All that's important, but I want brethren for you to see, he was writing them, that there's something bigger here. I'm using this as an opportunity to teach you something. And his deep concern, he says there in verse 12, is so that they would recognize God's loving care for them, ultimately, and respond properly to the correction. And they did. And verse 13 says that Paul and Titus, Titus was there, and they were greatly comforted and filled with joy. Because they had responded to God's discipline, the sorrow became humble repentance and banished any stubborn resistance to it.

So again, this letter and this part of the letter beautifully illustrates this principle of the gospel. God uses sorrow as the doorway to repentance and repentance as the doorway to salvation. And I don't know about you, but I find this process so fascinating, absolutely fascinating. When you begin to think about this sorrow process, it is quite remarkable here. And you begin to see that there are so many who don't see it, who don't see the value in sorrow, and therefore they don't give themselves to it and open themselves up to it. Because I'll tell you, this process, this concept, it actually flies in the face of even modern Christian preaching. A type of biblical preaching that begins and ends with the idea that God solely wants us to be happy. I'm sure you've heard that. If you haven't, turn into any modern Christian podcast. Listen to any Sunday morning live stream, perhaps, and you will hear pretty regularly that when you attend church or when you give yourself to God's Word, you're only supposed to experience joy or a wonderful time. You're only supposed to be happy. So no matter what happens, the preacher in the end says, now what I don't want to do is send you home unhappy because God wants you to be very happy, you may hear.

Well, Paul, perhaps the preacher of all preachers, second to Jesus Christ himself, he writes his congregation and says, God wants you to be sorry. God wants you to experience sorrow and that's not the same thing as happy, is it?

Except God does want us to be happy, but sometimes only after we are sorry, in this lies this remarkable understanding as to why we find so many men and women, even those who are professing Christians, they find themselves stuck in perpetual, habitual sin, unhealthy behavior as defined by God. So many are stuck in this habitual sin that the behavior that they want to overcome. But, you know, people don't ultimately become happy as they have this weight that they carry around with them. And the reason they don't ultimately become happy is often they resist becoming sorrowful. Because they don't want to be sorrowful, they want to be happy, but if they would ever discover what it is to be sorry first, truly sorry, then they could be really happy. I'll have to play that back and see if I said that right. You understand? God wants to bring sorrow to our lives in the areas we need to turn from. So the sorrow over our sin, then, is effective in moving us from it to God. Okay, we got that. We got that. But with that, Paul reveals something even more remarkable and even more education he wants to give them. Because Paul here also reveals in order to have the proper benefits of sorrow, we must make sure we have the right kind of sorrow. So, in other words, it's not just any kind of feeling bad over behavior that we want to turn from. No, not all sorrow is the same. And this is what Paul reveals, that there's a godly sorrow that produces repentance leading to salvation, but there's also a worldly sorrow, a false sorrow, a sorrow of the world. And in case there's any question of how serious that is, he says it produces death. So this is very black and white. One sorrow produces saving salvation. One sorrow produces death. So we need to make sure what we're dealing with here, this distinction here. There's a godly sorrow and there's a worldly sorrow. Now, if you do a little research, you will see this worldly sorrow and the distinctions of it front and center. And this is important for us to understand, because once we've brought our hearts and our minds to understand and be ready to receive sorrow over areas that we need to repent of, we need to also take this extra step to make sure we understand that we're receiving and living in the proper kind of sorrow. And when you do a little research, and even your lived experience, you will see on full display, there is a worldly sorrow. There is a kind of worldly psychological process in and of itself.

And often you see this in the therapy realms, the self-help realms, where you have a moving toward an understanding that sorrow is needed.

They acknowledge that we must be sorrowful over behavior that we want to eliminate out of our lives. And they will encourage individuals to have sorrow. They won't use the word sin, but have sorrow over destructive behavior. Again, the world's psychology systems, they actually are proponents of the benefits of having sorrow over destructive behavior. But often, there is this vital distinction that's missed of the kind of sorrow to ultimately achieve, because God is not in their equation. And the most significant difference between coming to a worldly sorrow versus a godly sorrow is this. Godly sorrow always begins with God and His glory. Worldly sorrow always begins with man and his need. I'll repeat that. I'll repeat that. This is the overarching distinction to ensure that you're living in and moving toward the proper kind of sorrow. Godly sorrow begins with God and His glory. Worldly sorrow begins with man and his need. So when a man is confronted with a man or woman is confronted with godly sorrow, when they're made aware of that destructive behavior, that man or woman will respond as the psalmist responded by saying, Against you, God, and you alone have I sinned and done evil in your sight. For your notes, that's—we won't turn there—but that's Psalm 51 verse 4, written by David. David had all these individuals that were all wrapped up in his sin. But what did he say? Against you, he says, Father, against you, God, and you only have I sinned and done evil in your sight. So no matter the sin, no matter who's involved, the psalmist's sorrow was ultimately concerned with God in honoring and upholding His righteousness—God's righteousness. But when an individual is suffering from worldly sorrow, instead of explaining their predicament in terms of what it's done between their relationship between themselves and God, instead of doing that, instead of speaking these words of the psalmist, they will explain their predicament with phrases like this, I feel so bad because I let myself down. I feel so bad because, you know, I failed my moral compass.

I was just so sick of myself, you know? But if you hear yourself repeating those phrases or a type of that phrase, just know being sick of yourself may not be and probably is not godly sorrow.

You can—it's perfectly possible to be sick of yourself with destructive behavior and never come to the change which true repentance produces. That's why worldly sorrow in the end never truly produces lasting repentance and change. It can't. Theologian David Wells, in speaking of this godly focused sorrow, he wrote, quote, Without the holiness of God, sin is just failure. But not failure before God, it is failure without any serious moral meaning at all. Unquote. Again, without the holiness of God, sin is just failure. But it's not failure before God, he says. It's failure without any serious meaning at all.

So that individual never ultimately becomes grieved properly. They may be grieved over their destructive behavior, but they're not grieved over their sin before a holy and righteous god. They kind of become grieved over themselves. Over themselves. It's really self-focused. And worldly sorrow, it's this mixture of being grieved over the consequences of the destructive behavior. It's kind of being grieved over being embarrassed by it. It's not a grieving over the sin before a righteous god. So this is the distinction that Paul is putting forward for us here. So, any modern therapy that addresses destructive behavior, absent any reference to God, will ultimately not be successful. It'll be a sorrow that will mourn embarrassment. It'll mourn the consequences of broken relationships, lost opportunities, consequences of painful consequences. It will never mourn over the fact that the sin has offended a holy righteous god because it's centered upon itself. This is what the self-help, self-discovery, self-therapy lives in many times.

Now let me be careful here. Let me be careful. Because many counselors, many mental health professionals do provide genuine help to men and women who are struggling with behavior they want to modify. It's an absolute fact. And those practical helps from those professionals can be very valuable, and we should be thankful for any good gift that brings relief to anyone who is suffering. But there is one burden that no human system can ever fully remove. It's the burden of guilt before God. You see, whenever a person is brought face to face with their sinful behavior and they begin to understand, I've done wrong, I've sinned, I need a clearing from this, the question then becomes, where does that person go with that guilt? And if God is removed from the equation, there is no there's no savior involved. There's no true forgiveness. There's no cross.

So that the deepest problem still remains unsolved. A person can learn healthier patterns of thinking. They can learn how to modify certain behaviors. But the guilty conscious will still long for more. More than what man's psychology alone can provide. We long for reconciliation with our Creator, simply stated. And that's what the Bible, and it's really why the Bible never presents a mere psychological experience. It represents repentance, a turning, a spiritual turning. And there's two parts. It's not merely turning from the destructive behavior. That's part one. Part two is turning to a loving and forgiving God. David understood when he had his sin with Bathsheba, he never merely said, I've made mistakes. Again, he said, against you, God. And that's where our repentance must start. You only have I sinned. Father, I'm so heartbroken. Yes, I see all the damage personally and to my loved ones around me that my sin has brought. But I want to start with you, Father. I'm so sorry this has caused a disruption, a separation between our relationship. I feel so lonely at the moment. David's bones hurt when he was in that space. So it's not simply that we've violated our own standards or society's standards or someone else's standards, you know. If you're a young person, it's not that you just disappointed your parents. That's a part of it, yes. But ultimately, I want you to feel the weight of disappointing your heavenly Father. Start there.

The greatest problem is that we've sinned against the God who loves us.

And brethren, this distinction changes everything because once sin is brought to the forefront and the offense against God, the solution no longer is merely found within ourselves. It's found in the grace of God through Jesus Christ. And that's where Paul says, Godless, godly sorrow will produce repentance leading to salvation.

Godly sorrow will not leave the individual trapped in endless guilt, rehearsing past failures after past failures. In fact, the whole society that deals in therapy, modern therapy, they're actually trying to rethink all of this. Modern therapy, in its history, has had a signature of having the individual come and sit before them and rehearse and go over the destructive behavior over and over and session after session after session. And they're in this perpetual guilt cycle. They don't know what to do with it. What do we do with this guilt? We've removed God from the equation. You see. But they're rethinking it now because they're seeing the benefits aren't there to the ultimate clearing of the individual. Godly sorrow does not stay or end in despair. It leads further. It actually leads to forgiveness, a wiping clean, a fresh start from forgiveness from our Father through Jesus Christ, a restoration. And that is what will produce the ultimate joy in our lives. So that's the remarkable contrast here. We don't want to...this repentance process, don't think of it as being in a hamster will, you know, rehearsing past destructive behavior over and over again. This, if you plug into this beautiful repentance process, it'll produce what was produced in the Corinthian church here. Now, rather than turn to God, what you find in modern therapy is they understand that they don't want to keep men and women in the hamster will of guilt. So today they're looking for solutions, and guess what the solution they've come up with? Well, they just simply attempt to convince the individual they're fine where they are. All right, maybe the behavior's not so destructive, you see. We're going to redefine. Let's maybe consider not turning away from anything. Maybe you'll find the way you are. Let's eliminate any kind of guilt. So that's where they're turning. They can't turn to God with the ultimate solution. And by not turning to God, they're eliminating the very thing which would lead them to the clearing they desire. Modern therapy, without any change, would go to the young son, the young prodigal son, there in the pixi, and instead of offering a hand to come out of the pixi, they would say, let's make you comfortable in it. You see, maybe the pixi is not so bad. You know, maybe you need to change your perspective on things. But, you know, that's not where the prodigal son was being urged. The prodigal son was having emerged from him a godly sorrow. It wasn't focusing on everyone else's issues. It was focused on he and his father. And the father that that represents in that story, of course, points us to our Heavenly Father.

The prodigal son didn't try to redefine his destructive behavior or attempt to make it acceptable. No, as the story goes, like David, when the prodigal son came to himself, he said, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and I'm no longer to be worthy to be called your son. Will you take me back as your servant? So, you see this pattern here that is being taught to us. This is what godly sorrow is, and it's a vital aspect here. So, we first recognize sorrow is a beautiful gift, but then we also need to make sure we're achieving this proper perspective of godly sorrow. I encourage you to go back to Joseph and see what he said when Potiphar's wife propositioned him. He said, how can I do this and sin against God? You see, so you see when you begin to look in Scripture, you see godly sorrow on full display, and it's this vital understanding. And then, just to punctuate the fact that God does want us to be happy, he does want us to be joyful, after that prodigal son reached for and grabbed ahold of godly sorrow, what was the father's response? Well, he shoots off the front porch, runs to the sun, embraces him, kisses him on his neck, restores him. But the boy experienced the heavy sorrow first, and that moved him to turn away from the pigsty living and turn back to his father, which is showing us this whole process of repentance. And then forgiveness was given, and the boy was saved and brought back into his father's house. So keep a healthy indignation toward the sin in your life. Don't believe the lie that says, don't be too hard on yourself regarding that destructive behavior. Don't worry about it too much. Now, I want a healthy hatred of the areas of my life that I need to turn from. You see, I don't ever want to be comfortable, become comfortable in the pigsty.

Society today has a lot of people, unfortunately, living in the pigsty because they haven't received this corrective letter from God that Paul has written here meant to bring sorrow into their life with the ultimate joy of salvation.

Well, before we begin to bring this study this afternoon to a close, I want to leave you with just two simple appeals, not as burdens to be placed on your life, but as a loving letter of invitation inspired by Paul's letter, who was inspired by our Heavenly Father. Just two simple appeals. First, I appeal to you to invite God to search your heart and to reveal any wicked way in you. Now, you might know where that verse comes from, those words. Again, that's what David wrote in that beautiful psalm. He wrote, He wrote, So, first and foremost, invite God to know your heart today. Don't be afraid to do that. Don't be afraid of any conviction that arises in your heart. Don't run from it. Don't explain it away. Don't harden your heart. Invite it and sit in the sorrow for a moment, at least. Not fearing the conviction. Never fear the loving correction of our Father, because the correction is never meant to destroy you. It's meant to restore you. And when God lovingly exposes the sin in our lives, feel the wound of it, and that will begin the process for my second appeal. At that moment, fervently ask God to help you move to repentance.

That's the second and last appeal. Very simple, straightforward. It doesn't have to be complicated. Once you feel the weight of that sorrow, fervently ask God, let Him know your deep desire, that you want His help to move you from that, to have that movement in repentance, from the sin which is against Him, not honoring His glory, and to move toward Him, to make that change. And don't wait. If, through God's Spirit, if you're being spoken to today, don't wait till tomorrow. Start now. Resolve to start now. Over the years, I've realized that the greatest dangers to a Christian in their life is not really refusing to repent. It's delaying in their repentance. We'll deal with it later. Right now, I need to sit in this pigsty for a little bit, for whatever reason, because I've lived in it for so long, it's given me a superficial comfort. But we know that's from Satan the Devil. And Satan often uses disguise. The comfort you feel from sin, the comfort you feel from the pigsty is temporary, and right on the other side of it is destruction. And you know, I don't have to tell you, we've all experienced this. When we sit in the comfort of the pigsty, the initial comfort is followed by feeling even lower than you were before. That's the great deceit of Satan the Devil. So, pray that God would give you the will, even the desire, to come out of the pigsty, and the desire, and then the ability, to do so. So, if God has placed his finger upon something in your life, don't minimize it, don't excuse it, don't compare it to someone else's sin. It's between you and God, a habit, an attitude, a relationship, a source of bitterness, a secret sin. Maybe no one else knows about it, but God knows. Respond fervently. Don't make peace with it. Lay it before your father, and put all your prayer, all your study, even fasting into overcoming it. And I believe God, once he sees the the efforts of one of his child that he loves, will then pick that child up and give them the grace of change, the grace of repentance, and that'll be one step closer to our loving Father. Well, as we conclude, I think one of the greatest encouragements is to see the heart of Paul in this letter. You know, he loved these people beyond. It was such a depth. He prayed for these people. Paul's heart toward the Corinthian church, but just know, no matter how big of heart we see in Paul here, our Savior's heart, Jesus Christ, is even bigger toward us. And he loves us, and so never despise the sorrow that God will bring. For godly sorrow produces repentance, and a life of repentance will ultimately lead you to salvation.