Knowing The Word in 2 Corinthians 7:10-13, Repentance

10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. 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. 12 So although I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of the one who did the wrong, nor for the sake of the one who suffered the wrong, but in order that your earnestness for us might be revealed to you in the sight of God. 13 Therefore we are comforted.

Paul was worried his flock was moving toward apostasy, so he had to write the painful letter. The pain of God in repentance leads to salvation whereas the pain of the world only leads to death. Their repentance demonstrated their innocence. Fortunately, the guilty Corinthians were not falling into apostasy. In his trial balloon letter, Paul was testing their earnestness before God.

O Lord, who has taught us that to gain the whole world and to lose our souls is great folly, grant us the grace so to lose ourselves that we may truly find ourselves anew in the life of grace, and so to forget ourselves that we may be remembered in your kingdom.

Reinhold Niebuhr, 1892-1971