The term ‘godly sorrow’ seems to be a contradiction. In this age of Grace, we are taught that ‘God is love,’ and we assume that means He is always a God of pleasure and happiness.

In this text, Apostle Paul has written a stern letter to the church at Corinth. So much so, that they were sorrowful as a result. The letter was pointing out clearly and directly those things they were doing that were contrary to God’s will and, if continued, in danger of removing them from His presence.

We can all put ourselves in that position from time to time by our words and deeds in our life. Hopefully, we will have the blessing of someone like the Apostle Paul who loves us enough to call out our wrongdoing. No such correction at the time is easy to endure and it is how we react to it that ensures whether it is a benefit or not.

In the time and culture in which we live such correction is often reacted against with angry defiance.

In the case of the church at Corinth, the choice highlighted above shows a better path we can choose. They chose to follow godly sorrow and repent. Verse 9, “Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing.”

The resulting blessing shows us the importance of humility and acceptance of correction, even if we don’t think it is justified at the time. Verse 11, “For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.”

The Apostle Paul went on to explain that his care for them was the reason for his correction. Verse 12, “Wherefore, though I wrote unto you, I did it not for his cause that had done the wrong, nor for his cause that suffered wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear unto you.”

The Godly love the ministry has for all souls is still the reason that correction is sometimes required.

We recognise this verse as a rephrasing of the Sabbath commandment given to Moses on Mount Sinai. This version is recorded in the Hebrew language at the renewing of the covenant following the breaking of the original stone tablets. It reinforces God’s plan from creation that mankind should set aside every seventh day as a day of rest which God would then make holy. “Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:  For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. Exodus 20: 9-11. “And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.” Genesis 2:2-3.
What is of interest to Bible scholars is the use of a different word, ‘ậbad’ for ‘work’ in this verse. Although still translated into English as work the original word also meant ‘to serve’.
Psalm 100:2, “Serve (ậbad) the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.”

One of the criticisms levelled at the Christian Church over time is the perceived hypocrisy of worshipping God on a Sunday but living an ungodly life for the following six days. Perhaps we should revisit God’s original instruction which implies, by request, that we serve him every day.

Malachi 3:18, “Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth (ậbad) God and him that serveth (ậbad) him not.”
John 12:26, “If any man serve (ậbad) me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me (ậbad), him will my Father honour.”

We have all been taught of the importance to have a faith that is alive and, therefore, healthy, active, and growing. The biblical definition of faith, as above, is very clear that we should not place it in things that can be seen.  Apostle Paul also linked it to hope and love or charity as the three things worthwhile in our life to give it meaning. All three are valuable because they cannot be seen. Romans 8:24, “For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?”

The word ‘substance’ means something that is strong and reliable and hope in Jesus Christ can be an anchor for our soul. Hebrews 6:19, “Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;”

By extension, nothing that can be seen can ever have the power to take them away.

The real wisdom is to know that just because something can’t be seen does not mean it does not exist. The best example that can be used is that of God as the Almighty Creator. The evidence seen in the complexity and design of so many aspects of the natural world speak of the unseen God who made them. The  miracle of life, which can only arise from existing life, has no other adequate explanation than the creating from an eternal, Almighty God and is evidence irrefutable.

Together, these concepts of substance, hope, things not seen, and evidence, show us the way to grow our living faith.

Apostle Paul gives an apparently simple instruction to the Colossians in regard to how to answer questions posed to them from those who do not believe about their belief in Jesus Christ. In the time we live this is almost a daily occurrence so what can we learn from his lesson?

The Apostle Paul was telling us to remain humble and not elevate ourselves when we are discussing what we believe whilst also being confident in our knowledge of the truth. Whenever we are sharing our faith, this balance between humility and confidence is essential.

In practical terms, it means that our words should express tolerance, thankfulness, and kindness. As with so many things in life it is so much harder to achieve than it is to say.

God gives Grace to the humble and if we don’t remain in humility, the person we are speaking to will think we are criticising them, or worse judging them. One of the ways to achieve this sharing is to confirm that we are all in the same imperfect state and all require Grace.

Salt is used for cleaning and preserving. Having what we say guided by the Holy Spirit is the way that we can have our speech seasoned with wisdom and consideration. The Holy Spirit is within and has the role to speak of Christ and so this message tells us that when we speak in such a manner the message of Christ is preserved in the hearer. If we take this analogy further, we can see that if the hearer then allows the Word of God, Jesus Christ, into their heart, it has the ability to preserve their life.

The Apostle Peter confirms the same message as to how to answer genuine enquiries of faith. 1 Peter 3:15, “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:” He uses the words ‘meekness’ and ‘fear’ meaning ‘gentleness’ and ‘reverence’ to express the same need for balance in our answers to those who question.

Let us listen to our own words to others. Are we using words of tolerance rather than judgement, thankfulness rather than complaining and kindness as opposed to bitterness?

Why do we need our thoughts to be established or to stand stable and sure during our life?

We only have to watch the news, or be on social media for a short time, to witness the high levels of stress that everyone seems to be functioning under in their work and day to day life. We have been all told the myth, that in order to get everything done in our busy lives we must be ‘multi-tasking’. In fact, research has shown that the human brain cannot focus on more than one task at any one time and what we are really doing is constantly switching between tasks. This is not an efficient way to work and results in increased distress. When we become too stressed our thoughts are unruly and jump all over the place. We can be anxious about the future, worry about the past, fret, or at best, just daydream.

New research on meditation and mindfulness is teaching people to control their thoughts by focusing their attention on the Here and Now. This mindfulness is shown to then have a positive effect on our well-being. The nature of our thinking affects how we feel. That is what Solomon, in his wisdom said; if we focus our work and commit it to the Lord then our thoughts will be established or stable. In addition, the cognitive process of choosing our thoughts and then our actions can help with controlling our emotions. When we think negative thoughts and put them into negative words, they can take hold of us and cause us to feel negative. If we think and say things like, “I can’t take it anymore” or “I feel like giving up” we are not helping our emotions to be positive.

It is not easy to control our thoughts when feeling down which is why we need a conscious choice and a process to work through before we go down too far. Apostle Paul wrote (2 Corinthians 10:5) that we battle internally a war to bring ‘into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.’ Jesus desires us to be positive and joyful in life. He said He came to earth so that we might ‘have life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10)’ with His peace and joy available by submitting, in faith, to Him.  The works that aids this submission and then the ability to control our thoughts is to ‘seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness’. Praying, reading the Holy Bible, helping others.

In practice, this can also be by changing negative thoughts and words to positive. Rather than saying, “I feel like giving up” we could say, “Jesus has overcome the world and He can help me to overcome this too”. Instead of, “I can’t take it anymore” try, “The Holy Spirit in me is strong enough to keep me going”. This is what the Bible is telling us in Romans 12:2. “And be not conformed to this world: but be transformed by the  renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

To renew our mind requires the Holy Spirit as the Comforter to be in control because He is greater within us than that which is in the world (1 John 4:4). The Holy Spirit allows us to have the Mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:12-16) and become stable in our thoughts. We all have the free will to choose.

We see in this message from the Apostle that he had to urge the Hebrews, “Let us go on unto perfection”, as he was distressed that he found them bogged down with the arguments of repentance, with the doctrines of baptisms, with the doctrine of laying on of hands, with the doctrine of resurrection of the dead, and with the doctrine of the last judgment. We find today, almost 2,000 years later, that these arguments are still the same things that are constantly brought up and bog us down also today. We should all be content with his advice “And this will we do, if God permit“. Meaning we should understand that we need repentance, we should continue with  the sacrament of baptisms, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, we should continue with the sacrament of laying on of hands, we should believe in the resurrection of the dead, and we should believe in the final judgment of God, and then try to move on with our spiritual growth. If we do not; we run the risk of even putting those beliefs at risk, because as he writes further, we begin to judge others and when we do this, we ourselves fall away. God’s word found in various parts of the Bible, gives us advice on how we can make spiritual progress in our lives and some of these are:

Job 17:9 – “And he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.”

We see that we need to look at the way we go about our deeds in our lives to be sure that we try to only do good with our actions and do not get into mischief. By this we will soon enjoy doing good and be seen to be following our Lord.

Psalm 92:12 – “The righteous shall flourish like the palm.”

We must seek this righteousness at all times in our lives, by believing the word of God.  It can be gained in three ways, by the blood of the Lamb, by overcoming the temptation of sin, and by doing good deeds for others, without looking for praise. As we grow, these things will become easier to obtain in our lives.

Proverbs 4:18 – “But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.”

If we are to be Just, we must always act in accordance with what is right, equitable, impartial, fair and proper in all our dealings with those we come in contact with. The perfect day will be when the Lord returns.

Ephesians 4:15 – “But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things.”

If we can always speak the truth, this will bring spiritual growth.

1 Peter 2:2 – “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby.”

We see if we have a desire to hear more of the word of God preached unto us, it acts in the same way as milk to a newborn baby, and we will grow in the same way.

2 Peter 3:18 – “But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”

We see we must be constantly trying to learn more of Christ, His life, His teachings, His promises etc, by searching them out so that this brings about our growth. It is only by grace that spiritual growth will be completed.

1 Timothy 4:15 – “Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting may appear to all.”

We see the need to not formalise our ways in our faith and just do things by habit, but every day, set aside a quiet time to meditate on the things we have read, heard, or seen, or experienced concerning faith and our Lord, and then give ourselves to follow them through our lives, and this will show up in our lives for others to see. If we can apply these principles in our lives, we will set ourselves a target to achieve, and this is aptly put by Apostle Paul in Ephesians 3:17-19 – “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, and ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height: and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.”

Let us adopt the proverb – “Do not remain at the beginning but learn to go on.”

It is so easy for us all to fall in the trap of doing what our text tells us not to do, without realising it, we begin to fall when in our conversation we begin to compare our lot or blessings with those around us. It is so easy to look over the fence and think things are greener there, and without realising it, we are soon complaining about our lot. I am reminded of the old saying, “I used to complain that I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet.” The stark realisation of course is that the person who first wrote this, was jolted back to being content with the things that he had.

Contentment in all facets of our life, whether naturally or spiritually is a great blessing and this shows outwardly. Those who are contented with their lot, always seem to be happier and enjoy their life often getting enjoyment and talking about simple things that have happened to them. Usually one will find a love and thankfulness to the Lord for His blessings to them and this then makes that person closer to their Provider, and it is then that out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks. Others begin to be trapped by loosing that contentment by comparing with others and then to the next dangerous step of speaking about the comparison with covetousness. We have then breached one of the ten commandments, “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbours wife, house possessions, etc.”

Once we do not keep the commandments, we lose touch with the Lord, and so often we then allow jealousy to take over and it soon becomes very clear by our conversations that we are not content with such thing as we have been given. This non-contentment and jealousy can then lead to other evils, such as trying to belittle our neighbour, who is blessed more, or even telling falsehoods on how they may have achieved the extra blessings. Some even become obsessed to try to equalise themselves by taking tickets of chance, lottery, gambling machines etc, to the extent that the cost of these, robs the family of food and clothing that could be used to purchase these needs.

Now our text does not imply that we should not try to improve ourselves or our life, but rather teaches us how we should approach these things. If we try to improve ourselves just to show off, or make ourselves better than our neighbour, we will find no contentment in this, as soon we will be seeing someone else with more and so the chase will continue until we are serving mammon and believing we are creating these things and neglecting to thank the Lord. If we try to improve our lot by following our text, that is letting our conversation be without jealousy or complaint, being content with our blessings and our tests, and remembering to at all times, give thanks to the Lord, acknowledging that it is only because He never leaves us, nor forsakes those who keep His ways, that these improvements in our blessings take place, then we will experience this contentment and be able to enjoy them in the way the Lord intends.

This lesson applies also to our spiritual blessings, if we wish to improve the gifts given by the Holy Ghost, the same advice applies as in our text word and that is given by Christ in Mathew 7:7-8, “Ask and it shall be given you. Seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” If we do this in contentment and acknowledgment of His words, we will all experience the fulfilment of those promises.

We see these instructions from the Lord to Moses that bells had to be placed on the robe of Aaron so that when he walked, all of God’s people would hear the bells ringing and would know that their high priest was to intercede for them to God. It was designed to attract the people’s attention to make them realize that a great blessing was to be done on their behalf by their high Priest. Prayers would be offered, atonement made for their sins, thanksgiving offered on their behalf, and blessings dispensed on them. So that the people would not worship Aaron the Lord instructed that he had to wear a gold plate inscribed “Holiness to the Lord”. Almost 1,600 years later the prophet Zechariah again spoke of these bells, and he saw them on horses being taken to different parts of the world, and he still saw that they were associated with the words “Holiness unto the Lord”; chapter 14:20. This was signaling that a universal High Priest was to come into the world for all people, and we know that came to pass when Jesus Christ become our High Priest forever. That is
why to-day, we sing the Hymn:

“The Gospel bells are ringing,
Over land from sea to sea;
Blessed news of free salvation,
Do they offer you and me.
For God so loved the world,
That His only Son He gave;
Whose’er believeth in Him Everlasting life shall have.”

When we hear the Church bells ringing out each Sunday and festivals it should also be to us a way to attract our attention, to alert us that our High Priest, Jesus Christ is about to once again intercede for us to offer our prayers, to offer atonement for our sins by the dispensation of Grace, to accept our thanksgiving offerings, and dispense to us many blessings. An extra blessing is also heralded by these bells tolling out, and this was seen by the Apostle John in Rev. 19, almost 500 years after Zechariah saw the horses, the Apostle saw the horse come forward with a faithful and true rider, and he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood and his name is called “The Word of God.” We see that we also receive from answering the call sent forth by those bells, the opportunity to partake of the Word of God so we can shape our lives to that Word and not fear judgement by that
word. The Apostle saw also that a name was written in the vesture as in the beginning, but those words were “King of Kings and Lord of Lords.” The next time we hear the bells ringing to attract our attention, let us all think a little longer on their meaning to us in our lives and to remember into whose presence we are being summoned.