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2 Corinthians 7

JonC

JonC

Moderator
Moderator
Paul, writing to the church in Corinth (2 Corinthians 7) speaks of grief. He expresses no regret that his letter had caused them sorrow because that sorrow was what he called a “godly grief.” In verse 10 Paul explains that “godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.”

Paul is obviously writing to a local church (and therefore can be viewed as addressing both believers and non-believers….wheat and tares). But it appears to me that Paul is also addressing genuine believers specifically.

In this passage, Paul is speaking of the conviction of the Spirit causing a “holy grief,” producing repentance leading to salvation. Is he speaking of conversion, sanctification, or both?

Also, what is the meaning of verse 11?

“For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing,what zeal, what punishment! At every point you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter.”
 
V

Van

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
Great topic, thanks for the question. I think this passage is addressed to born anew (indwelt) believers. Thus they have been placed spiritually in Christ (positional sanctification) and are eternally saved. But salvation is referenced in three ways: positional sanctification in the past tense, we have been saved; progressive sanctification in the present tense, our godly grief spurs us toward our goals of becoming more Christlike and becoming better ambassadors of Christ in His ministry of reconciliation; and thirdly our future salvation when we are resurrected in glorified bodies at Christ's second coming. Here the "to salvation" refers to progressive sanctification in my opinion.

I think verse eleven is going over our reactions as we evaluate ourselves in the light of the Spirit's convicting influence, first some of our efforts measure up (our vindication) but other effort do not producing indignation, and fear our actions are displeasing to our God, and longing to measure up, resulting in our zeal to push on toward the goal. Internally our avenging of wrong - putting to death our shortcoming failures all demonstrate their innocence through progressive sanctification.
 
R

Revmitchell

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
JonC δοῦλος said:
Paul, writing to the church in Corinth (2 Corinthians 7) speaks of grief. He expresses no regret that his letter had caused them sorrow because that sorrow was what he called a “godly grief.” In verse 10 Paul explains that “godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.”

Paul is obviously writing to a local church (and therefore can be viewed as addressing both believers and non-believers….wheat and tares). But it appears to me that Paul is also addressing genuine believers specifically.

In this passage, Paul is speaking of the conviction of the Spirit causing a “holy grief,” producing repentance leading to salvation. Is he speaking of conversion, sanctification, or both?

Also, what is the meaning of verse 11?

“For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing,what zeal, what punishment! At every point you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter.”
Click to expand...

What you need to discover is what exactly was he saying they repented of?
 
JonC

JonC

Moderator
Moderator
Van said:
Great topic, thanks for the question. I think this passage is addressed to born anew (indwelt) believers. Thus they have been placed spiritually in Christ (positional sanctification) and are eternally saved. But salvation is referenced in three ways: positional sanctification in the past tense, we have been saved; progressive sanctification in the present tense, our godly grief spurs us toward our goals of becoming more Christlike and becoming better ambassadors of Christ in His ministry of reconciliation; and thirdly our future salvation when we are resurrected in glorified bodies at Christ's second coming. Here the "to salvation" refers to progressive sanctification in my opinion.

I think verse eleven is going over our reactions as we evaluate ourselves in the light of the Spirit's convicting influence, first some of our efforts measure up (our vindication) but other effort do not producing indignation, and fear our actions are displeasing to our God, and longing to measure up, resulting in our zeal to push on toward the goal. Internally our avenging of wrong - putting to death our shortcoming failures all demonstrate their innocence through progressive sanctification.
Click to expand...
I had always looked at the passage as dealing with nonbelievers, but this morning I was reading the passage and thought differently. My problem was understanding the worldly grief producing death to be directed at believers, and I almost asked about that but upon reflection I realized that it doesn't. I agree that this comment has the believer and sanctification in mind, but can also be applicable to conversion (worldly grief opposed to godly grief). Thanks for your reply, Van.
 
M

Martin Marprelate

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
Revmitchell said:
What you need to discover is what exactly was he saying they repented of?
Click to expand...
I don't think its difficult to discover that. The 'letter' must be 1 Corinthians unless we are going to speculate wildly, and the incident brought up in that letter must be the immoral man of 1 Cor. 5. If it's not that, I don't think we have a clue what it is.

In 2 Cor. 2:3-11, Paul writes of this man and we learn that he was expelled from the church and is now repentant. So Paul asks the Corinthians to forgive him and take him back, 'lest such a one becomes swallowed up with too much sorrow' (v,12).

So in Chapter 7, he brings the matter up again to commend the Corinthian church on its prompt response to his command in 1 Cor. 5:13. He does this because he knows that a little later in the letter, he's going to have to be strict with them again in Chapters 10-13.

So in answer to Revmitchell's question, I think they repented of their liberal attitude (1 Cor. 5:2) towards the immoral man after Paul's first letter.
 
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