I'm Not Sorry!
by Tom Smith, Wooddale Church of Christ
Written By: Joe Slater:
The title of this article sounds like something a naughty child might
say after being commanded to apologize.
Can you feature it coming from
the lips of the apostle Paul?
Actually it came from his pen, but the
effect is the same.
Why would he say such a thing?
"For even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it"
(2 Cor. 7:8a).
In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians he took them
to task for a number of errors and abuses. I like the way my friend and
fellow-preacher David Harlow (Sylvia, KS) put it, that Paul wasn’t very
"warm and fuzzy" in that letter. He hurt their feelings with such words
as "you are still carnal" (3:3), and "I say this to your
shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you, not even one,
who will be able to judge between his brethren?" (6:5). For a time
Paul wondered if he might have come on too strongly. In the final
analysis, however, Paul had done what the Corinthians needed. His letter
produced within them a godly sorrow for their sins, which led to their
repentance (2 Cor. 7:9).
Have your children ever cried after you scolded them?
Maybe it broke
your heart; you wondered if you had been too severe.
Later, though,
their changed behavior and attitude demonstrated that you were right to
scold them.
Confronting people with their sins has never been pleasant.
Our
feelings-oriented culture multiplies the difficulty. Hurting someone’s
feelings gets you labeled "mean-spirited" and "extreme." (Such labels
hurt people’s feelings, but then who ever said political correctness was
consistent?) Piercing a sinner’s heart by convicting him of sin
contradicts the world’s warm, fuzzy mis-definition of love.
Indeed, the
theme song of the old movie "Love Story" says, "Love means you never
have to say you’re sorry."
But that certainly isn’t what God said!
"Now
I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to
repentance . . . For godly sorrow produces repentance to salvation, not
to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death" (2 Cor. 7:9, 10).
Until and unless people understand the gravity of their sins and feel
godly sorrow, they have no motive to repent; and unless they repent,
they cannot be saved.
May we, like Paul, be bold in confronting sin
forcefully in hope that godly sorrow will produce repentance unto
salvation.
Biblical love will not stand by and let a soul be lost
because we were afraid that confronting him might hurt his feelings.
