2 Corinthians 7 · a question people ask
"For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, which brings no regret. But the sorrow of the world produces death." (7:10). What's the difference between the two?
The chapter tells them apart by what each produces: godly sorrow "produces repentance leading to salvation, which brings no regret", and "the sorrow of the world produces death" (7:10). It also says what being grieved in a godly way did in its readers: they "were grieved to repentance" (7:9), and "what earnest care it worked in you" (7:11), with "defense, indignation, fear, longing, zeal, and vindication" (7:11). It says no more of the sorrow of the world than 7:10 does. These notes don't describe either sorrow beyond these verses, and apply them to no one's own sorrow.
The verses
“I now rejoice, not that you were grieved, but that you were grieved to repentance. For you were grieved in a godly way, that you might suffer loss by us in nothing. For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, which brings no regret. But the sorrow of the world produces death. For behold, this same thing, that you were grieved in a godly way, what earnest care it worked in you. Yes, what defense, indignation, fear, longing, zeal, and vindication! In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be pure in the matter.”