A teacher discovered three students, all heading for the ministry, colluding together to misrepresent their quiz scores. The evidence collected was decisive and irrefutable — all three students cheated. But the teacher wanted the students to come clean on their own before confronting them with the evidence. So, he called the students into his office individually, and asked them about their quiz scores and if they had been honest, gently trying to coax them toward honesty. The first two students adamantly denied any wrongdoing, and even after seeing the evidence made excuses, and demonstrated more concern about their academic consequences than the deeper spiritual issue. The third student, on the other hand, needed little prompting. He broke down in tears almost before he sat down, and his remorse was both sincere and encouraging. He ended up finishing the class respectably, and later thanked the teacher for confronting him. This student demonstrated what the Apostle Paul in the Bible calls “godly sorrow”— sorrow that regrets the offense, not simply its discovery, and effects genuine repentance.
The reason Paul wrote about repentance is because after he had formed a church in Corinth, the area of Macedonia in his day, or what we would call southcentral Greece today, an after a friendship had grown deeply between him and the people, outsiders came and tried to convince them that because Paul was not wealthy and not polished in his speaking, that he was a fake preacher. This caused a huge division between Paul and his congregation with a lot of pain and embarrassment.
Divisions are nothing new. But what was new was that this major division was healed and Paul and the Corinthians became closer than before the division occurred. How is that even possible? Repentance! Paul described repentance this way:
For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death. Just see what this godly sorrow produced in you! Such earnestness, such concern to clear yourselves, such indignation, such alarm, such longing to see me, such zeal, and such a readiness to punish wrong. You showed that you have done everything necessary to make things right. (2 Corinthians 7:10-11 New Living Translation)
Once this congregation realized that they had been led astray, that Paul loved them, that he was a genuine pastor, and the things that they said to him and felt about him were sinful, they became deeply sorrowful. This sorrow, called repentance, produced within them a beneficial anger that motivated them to end the wrong and make things right. The relationship was restored and stronger than even before.
This kind of repentance is needed everywhere because true repentance humbles us, causes us to swallow our pride, and look another person in the eye and say: “I am sorry, will you please forgive me?” This kind of repentance heals division, restores marriages and families and even restores our relationship with God. Jesus said in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 1:15: Repent and believe in the Gospel. When, we say to God, “I am sorry, please forgive me,” our relationship with him is also restored.
Perhaps you are facing a very divisive relationship. Since hurt genuinely runs both ways, repentance is needed from both sides to heal the division. But, if you initiate godly repentance, you might see the power of healing begin.
— Reflections appears regularly on the religion page. The column features a variety of local writers, coordinated through the Monroe Area Clergy Group. Rick Haworth is pastor of Hope Evangelical Free Church in Monroe.
