>> Jen: Good morning, faithful listeners, and welcome to the Bible Explained podcast. My name is Jen, and I am so excited that you're here to share a cup of coffee or a cup of tea with me. This morning, we're going to be discussing 2 Corinthians chapter 7, the whole thing. I had the best weekend of my life. This past weekend, I went on a winter retreat with my students. A lot of you guys know that I am one of the youth leaders at my church. And wow. Like, even though I went as a leader,
it was the most impactful weekend of my life. Just seeing the development of the students, seeing them get closer to Christ, seeing them worshiping, and we had three students except Christ, and I'm just like, oh, my gosh, I am just so overwhelmed and excited over that. So, um, it was truly the best weekend of my entire life. We're going to be reading 2 Corinthians chapter 7 and actually talking about God's refreshment today. And after going on that winter retreat, I get it.
I understand a little bit more about the refreshment that God gives. So let's read the entire chapter of 2 Corinthians 7. As usual, I'll be reading from the web version. Having therefore these promises, Beloved, let's cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Open your hearts to us. We wronged no one. We corrupted no one. We
took advantage of no one. I say this not to condemn you, for I have said before that you are in our hearts to die together and to live together. Great is my boldness of speech towards you. Great is my boasting on your behalf. I am filled with comfort. I overflow with joy in all our affliction. For even when we came to Macedonia, our flesh had no relief. But we are afflicted on every side. Fightings were
outside, fear was inside. Nevertheless, he who comforts the lowly God comforted us by the coming of Titus, and not by his coming only, but also by the comfort with which he is comforted in you. While he told us of your longing, your mourning, and your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced still more. For though I grieved you with my letter, I do not regret
it, though I did regret it. For I see that my letter made you grieve the though just for a little while, 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, uh, 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. So although I wrote to you, I wrote not for his cause that did the wrong, not for his cause that suffered the wrong, but that your earnest care for us might be revealed in you, in the sight of God. Therefore we have been comforted in our comfort. We rejoice more exceedingly for the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all.
For if in anything I have boasted to him on your behalf, I was not disappointed. But as we spoke all things to you in truth, so our glorying, which also I made before Titus, was found to be true. His affection is more abundant toward you, while he remembers all of your obedience, how with fear and trembling you received him. I rejoice that in everything I am confident concerning you.
Chapter seven starts out with this. Having therefore these promises, beloved, let's cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. So what promises is Paul talking about? Well, that is found in the previous chapter, Second Corinthians 6. And if you remember what we talked about last week, we talked about how we can't yoke ourselves
together with things of the world. If you remember what the last verse of 2nd Corinthians 6 said, it says, therefore, come out from among them and be separate, says the LORD. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you. I will be to you a father. You will be to me sons and daughters, says the LORD Almighty. So God promises to adopt the people who truly follow him. We are going to become children of God. And so that's a promise that
God has given us. And that is what Paul is referring to in 2 Corinthians 7, the first verse. Having therefore this promise, beloved, let's cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. So Paul says, look, because we have this promise that God is going to adopt us, then let's remove all of the things in our lives that cause us to turn away from him, because that's basically what sin is.
Sin is anything that causes us to be further away from God because God is perfection. Sin is the opposite of perfection. And a lot of times people think of sin as something that we do. For example, sin is adultery. Sin is going out and doing drugs or partying or drinking. Sin is being promiscuous. Sin is viewing pornography. Sin is this or that something that we do. But notice that Paul says that sin is also of the spirit. So not just external things, but things that are inside of
ourselves. He says, let's cleanse ourselves from all defilement of, uh, flesh and spirit so we know what the sins of the flesh are. I just listed a whole bunch of, um, them. But what are sins of the spirit? Sins of the spirit would be sins like jealousy, unresolved anger, bitterness, pride, and other sins of the heart. Those sins are just as egregious to God as any of the other external sins that we just talked
about. In fact, if you look in the book of Proverbs, it lists out a whole bunch of sins that God hates. And the very first sin, above all the other sins that God hates is the sin of pride, which is a heart sin. So every single person sins. It's not just the people who are doing external sins, it's every single person. So all of us, including Paul himself. Because Paul includes himself in this verse, he says, let's cleanse ourselves from all defilement of the flesh and
spirit. So because we love God and because we fear God, we should be constantly striving for holiness, getting rid of all of these sins of the flesh and of the spirit and perfecting holiness on a day to day basis. And it's very difficult. Even Paul obviously didn't have it down and he wrote a large portion of the New Testament. So even Paul never achieved perfection. So none of us are going to achieve perfection. But we strive for it. Not because we want people to look at us and be like, oh,
wow, she's perfect. Because actually that's just the sin of pride. But we seek after perfection because we want to be more like God. So it's for God, not for how other people view us or something like that. So that is why Paul tells us to completely remove and cleanse ourselves from all these things that defile us. Everything from pride to some sort of external sin that we are doing. Then Paul says, open your hearts to us. We wronged no one, we corrupted no one. We took advantage of no
one. Now this is a continuation again of 2 Corinthians 6, the, uh, previous chapter where Paul was telling the Corinthians, you know, your hearts are so open to all of these other things to These false teachers to these weird ideas. But your hearts aren't open to us, to the apostles who care about you and who are trying to spread the truth to you. Your hearts are closed off to us. So we urge you to open your hearts to us because we
love you guys so much. I mean, Paul called the Corinthians beloved in the first verse. And in fact, he's going to go on and say how much he cares about them. But he once, uh, again defends himself and his team of apostles. He says, we did nothing that is worthy of dishonor. You know, we didn't corrupt anything. We didn't wrong anyone. We didn't, uh, take advantage of anyone. Even if people are saying that about us, that is not true.
Verse 3. I say this not to condemn you, for I said before that you are in our hearts to die together and to live together. I believe this verse means that he wants to live together harmoniously with them, but he's actually willing to die for them. And that is very true with how, you know, Paul lived his life. He was always, uh, being targeted and trying to get killed by somebody. So Paul was not afraid of potentially dying for the Gospel message. Then he continues on in
verse four. Great is my boldness of speech towards you, but great is my boasting on your behalf. I am filled with comfort. I overflow with joy in all our affliction. So Paul's saying, yeah, you know, I'm m very blunt towards you. I know I am. My speech is very bold towards you. I'm not going to sugarcoat things, but I am constantly boasting about you because I think you guys are awesome and I think you're doing great things for the city of
Corinth. I overflow with joy for you in spite of all of my affliction. And then in verses five through seven, Paul continues on with the story. So remember a few chapters ago I mentioned how Paul was explaining to the Corinthians why he didn't go visit them the second time. But then halfway through his explanation, he like rabbit trails really hard for several chapters about various topics. And it's lovingly called the Great
Digression. That's what people call it because, uh, Paul digresses for like five chapters before getting back to the story. But now he's back to the story as to what happened and why he did not visit the Corinthians. So he says in verse five, for when we came to Macedonia, our flesh had no relief, but we are afflicted on every side. Fightings were outside. Fear was inside. Nevertheless, he who comforts the lowly God comforted us by
the coming of Titus. So you'll remember several chapters ago, before Paul digressed very hard, he mentioned how he couldn't find his friend and coworker Titus, because Titus was the one who was supposed to deliver the harsh letter that Paul wrote to the Corinthians. And so Titus went to the Corinthians, delivered the letter, and was supposed to meet Paul in a specific city. But then when Paul got to that city, he couldn't find Titus
anywhere. And, you know, news traveled very slowly. Back in these days, they didn't have cell phones. They didn't have, you know, modern conveniences. So Paul had no way of knowing if Titus was, like, dead on the side of the road somewhere or in prison or who knows what could have happened to Titus. Because back in these days, you know, the apostles were very targeted by the Jewish leaders who didn't like the message of the Gospel. So for all Paul knew, Titus could have been dead or in prison.
He did not know what happened to Titus. So he traveled on to Macedonia, probably praying and hoping that Titus would eventually show up. And indeed, Titus showed up. Things were going really rough for Paul and his team of people. They were being afflicted and persecuted, and conflicts were arising all over the place. But then God sent Titus to Macedonia to cheer up Paul and the team. And Paul was overjoyed to see Titus. He says, nevertheless, He who comforts the
lowly... God comforted us by the coming of Titus, and not by his coming only, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted in you, while he told us of your longing, your mourning, and your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced still more. So apparently the Corinthians didn't hate Paul, didn't give up on the Gospel message like Paul kind of thought they were.
Paul finds out from Titus. No, actually, the Corinthians are more on fire than ever, even though you sent them a very harsh letter, which Paul goes on to explain that he says in verse 8, for though I grieved you with my letter, I do not regret it, though I did
regret it. So when Paul first went to go visit the Corinthians the first time a couple years after starting the Corinthian church, and that visit was very difficult for Paul because a lot of the Corinthian Christians were challenging him, were discouraging him, were saying a lot of really nasty things about him, m believing some of the lies that people were saying about Paul. So Paul, in misery, leaves the Corinthians to go up to northern
Greece to preach the gospel there. And while in northern Greece, his friend Titus was there with him. He sent a harsh letter to the Corinthian Christians. And we don't have any evidence of that letter other than what Scripture says here. We don't know what was in that letter. But Paul sent Titus down to the Corinthians to give them that letter. And after Paul wrote that letter, he was like, uh, oh, I kind of regret doing that. I hope they take it the right way. And it turns out that they
did take it the right way. They got the letter from Titus. They read it. They were really sad about all of these things Paul was saying about them, that they ended up repenting, you know, turning away from their sins and also accepting Titus with open arms. He says, I, uh, initially did regret sending that letter, but now I see that my letter made you grieve only for a little while. And I now rejoice not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved to
repentance. So there's a difference between feeling sorry for something that you did wrong and feeling sorry and repenting for something that you did wrong. We've talked about this concept before over on the Old Testament side of stuff. For example, the first two kings of Israel were Solomon and. And David. Solomon was a very different king from David. Solomon would do something wrong, and he'd be really sorry about it, but there would be no
repentance. And because Solomon did not truly repent in his heart, even though he was like, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. He never really repented. God took the kingdom from Solomon and gave it to David, who truly had a heart for God. So when David sinned and did wrong things, he was sorrowful and sad about it, but he was also deeply repentant. And he would go to God and he'd be like, God, I sinned so greatly. I don't
deserve your grace. And God called David a man after his own heart because of David's true repentance. So, yeah, you can definitely be sorry for something without repenting from it. And repent just means to turn away, to truly have a heart change, to understand what you did wrong and not want
to do it again. So Paul's not happy over the fact that the Corinthians were sorrowful, but he's happy that that sorrow that they felt over receiving this harsh letter led them to repentance for Godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, which brings no regret. But the sorrow of the world produces death. So there's two types of godly sorrow and worldly sorrow. Godly sorrow produces. What does he say here? Repentance leading to salvation.
Godly sorrow is when you truly understand what you have done wrong and you turn away from that sin and you turn towards God. That is godly repentance. But worldly sorrow, on the other hand, doesn't lead to anything good, doesn't lead to any type of godliness. Worldly sorrow leads to bitterness, leads to anxiety, leads to guilt, leads to all these negative emotions and negative feelings. And those things don't produce any kind of godliness.
You know, when you're bitter about something, that doesn't cause you to turn towards God and seek out God. When you're jealous over something because you're sorrowing that something was taken from you and given to somebody else, that doesn't produce any kind of feelings of wanting to get closer to God. In fact, your sorrow might make you feel that you have the right to feel jealousy or to feel bitterness or to feel anger or any of the other negative emotions that lead us away from
God. Which is why Paul wants the Corinthians and everybody reading this letter to have a godly sorrow rather than a worldly sorrow. For behold this same thing That you were grieved in a godly way. What earnest care It worked in you. Yes. What defense, what indignation, fear, longing, zeal and vindication. Let's read that out of a more modern version, out of the NIV version, verse 11. See what this godly sorrow has produced in you. What earnestness, what eagerness to
clear yourselves. What indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. So godly sorrow produces all of these things. It produces an earnestness within ourselves. It produces an eagerness to clear ourselves, to make ourselves right with God. It. It causes us to have indignation for our own sin. It causes us to have alarm, meaning, uh, just the need to do something immediately. It causes us concern and longing, longing for God
and concern for ourselves and other people. It causes us readiness to see justice done for ourselves and others. So that's what godly repentance produces in ourselves. And obviously those are all very good things, whereas worldly sorrow doesn't produce any of that. But it produces, like a more, uh, sin within ourselves.
Going back to the web, verse 12. So although I wrote to you, I wrote not for his cause that did the wrong nor for his cause that suffered the wrong, but that your earnest care for us might be revealed in you, in the sight of God. So Paul says, you know, when I wrote that letter, I wasn't trying to rehash things. I wasn't trying to talk about all of the wrongs done to me or to anybody else. I wasn't trying to rehash any of that. That's all been over and done with. We talked about all of
that. The reason for me writing that harsh letter was to produce this godly sorrow. And thankfully, it worked. Therefore, we have been comforted in our comfort. We rejoiced more exceedingly for the joy of Titus because his Spirit has been refreshed by you all. So Paul and the other apostles are actually rejoicing also over Titus. Because Titus went down to the Corinthians, delivered that letter, and had to deal with the potential confrontations that possibly would
have arisen because of that letter. And Titus did not have to deal with any of that. In fact, instead of dealing with confrontation, he was overjoyed by how the Corinthians responded to this letter. He was accepted by the Corinthians. They took very good care of him while he was there. In fact, it seems like they took such good care of him that his trip was delayed. And so Titus was taking his time down with the Corinthians, not meeting Paul at the
designated spot. Paul's freaking out and wondering where Titus is. Meanwhile, Titus is just overjoyed at the, uh, state of the Corinthian Church, even in spite of this harsh letter that they received. So Titus has been fully refreshed. And who knows how much Titus might have needed all that. Who knows how discouraged Titus might have been? You know, I told you guys that we took our kids on a winter retreat this past weekend. And there was some parts of it where I was so
discouraged. But then on Saturday night, we had three students stand up to accept Christ. And that, like, totally refreshed me to see that. It was the most refreshing thing I have experienced in years to see students that I care about so much stand up to accept Christ. It was, like, overwhelming for me and all of the irritations that I had previously to that. It was like they were gone. It didn't matter anymore because of the joy that I felt when I saw these students
stand up to accept Christ. God, uh, truly is the one that comforts us. He comforted me during that winter retreat. And He will refresh your spirit too. He is the God of rest, I can tell you that during that winter retreat, I didn't feel physically rested at all. You know, I was getting probably about four hours of sleep every single night because I was hanging out with the kids, just having a good time. But it was the most refreshing weekend I have honestly ever
had. And that includes vacations that I have taken with my husband. That weekend with those students, seeing their growth and their development, seeing how they got closer to Christ, seeing those students stand up to accept Christ, seeing some of the other students rededicate their lives to Christ, that was truly the most refreshing thing I ever experienced. And, man, when God refreshes you, He refreshes you. His refreshment is so much better than anything the world has to
offer. You know, in a couple weeks, my birthday is coming up, and I'm actually going to be taking a short little trip with my husband, just a weekend trip just to hang out for my birthday. And, you know, before the winter retreat, I was debating in my mind, I was like, I wonder which trip I'm gonna like more. Like, I know I'm gonna enjoy going with the students and, you know, hanging out with them to know them more, but I really think I'm going to enjoy my birthday trip a
lot more. And so I was really looking forward to my birthday trip. Now I'm just like, can I go back to the winter retreat with the kids instead of going on my birthday trip? That is how much God refreshes people. He refreshes, uh, people so much. And to conclude, for if in anything I have boasted to him on your behalf, I was not disappointed. But as we spoke, all these things to you in truth, so our glorying also, which I made before Titus, was found to be the truth. So Paul's like, look,
you know, Corinthians, I do boast about you. In fact, I boasted so much about you to Titus that I was a little bit concerned when Titus went down to you guys what he would find and if my boasting would have been the truth or not. And Paul's like, I'm really glad that, uh, my boasting ended up being the truth and that you proved me right. He remembers all of your obedience. His affection is more abundantly towards you. How in fear and trembling, you received him. I rejoice that
in everything I am confident concerning you. So Paul's like, good job, Corinthians. I was boasting so much about you, and you ended up proving me right. But you know the moral of this entire chapter? First and foremost, repentance is necessary in our day to day life. turning away from all the sins that corrupt us, sins of the flesh and sins of the spirit. We have to repent of those sins and focus on being
godly. That's the first thing. The second thing is that we have to have a godly sorrow that leads to that right kind of repentance. Not an earthly sorrow where we're just sorry that we got caught doing something, but a true sorrow that leads to repentance. And thirdly, God refreshes us. If you need refreshment from whatever you're going through right now, just ask God for that refreshment. Because man, when He refreshes you, He is going to refresh you.
I honestly cannot rave to you enough how much I enjoy enjoyed this past weekend and how much I kind of connect with what we talked about today just based upon what happened this past weekend. But anyway, faithful listeners, I hope you have a fantastic rest of your week. I will see you guys tomorrow for an episode from 2nd Kings 6am or whenever you choose to wake up and listen. Happy listening and God bless.