“For Godly Sorrow . . .

“For Godly Sorrow . . .

produces repentance to salvation, not to be regretted . . . .” 2 Cor. 7:10. Our attitude of mind dictates our works. In other words, it is our attitude of mind that is decisive. The better a person’s attitude is, the better are his works. “Lay hold of another mind . . . .” Acts 3:19. Thus you can lay hold of (acquire) a better attitude of mind than the one you currently have, and this will manifest itself in all the details of life.

Just as there are many degrees of a bad attitude of mind, there are also many degrees of a good attitude of mind, but God’s mind is and remains God’s mind; it is the absolutely perfect mindset.

“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5) who of His own free will humbled Himself so deeply and faithfully, and patiently suffered everything for our sake!!! Think—it is really possible! We see this most clearly in 1 Corinthians 2:16: “But we [Paul and Sosthenes—1 Corinthians 1:1] have the mind of Christ.” We can also see this clearly as we take note of all that is written about Paul’s life and ministry!! It is almost unbelievable, yet it is true!

From Acts 17:11 we can clearly see that there are several degrees of a noble mind: “These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily, to find out whether these things were so.” Those in Thessalonica were noble-minded, but those in Berea were even more noble-minded. Not only did they receive the Word in readiness and searched the Scriptures once in a while, but they received the Word with all readiness, searching the Scriptures daily. How many people have this kind of a noble mind?

However, exalted above all this is the mind of God and of Christ!!! Even this is attainable!

The central question is this: How can we achieve this? The exceedingly wise apostle, who himself possessed the mind of Christ, revealed this secret in 2 Corinthians 7. This secret is revealed to us as we grieve over ourselves because we have not nearly attained such a noble mind, and by having a hunger for being conformed to the image of Christ so that we in fact and wholeheartedly long for and are in need of desire something as godly as the mind of God!

We find these extraordinarily significant words in verse 11: “For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner: What diligence it produced in you . . . .”

This is exactly it, and nothing else has such a strong effect! We can say that this is like a magnet that draws God’s mind out of Him and into our heart. It is quite clear that, unfortunately, this profound sorrow is lacking in the vast majority of people’s lives! The fact that people agree about what is good and noble and have nothing against being able to partake of it, has almost no effect.

However, if people followed James’ exhortation it would help considerably: “Know your need and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.” Jas. 4:9. And what is the best way to become acquainted with our need? By paying diligent heed to all the exhortations in the Scriptures, meditating on them, and acknowledging how pitifully little we have loved to live according to all these good and noble things!

Doing this has the effect of a radical and wonderful repentance that no one regrets.