Violin Music - Part 1

For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death. For behold what earnestness this very thing, this godly sorrow, has produced in you: what vindication of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what avenging of wrong! In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be innocent in the matter [2 Corinthians 7:10-11].

I believe each of us can remember times like this:

I went to visit a friend. He appeared a bit bummed out, hair disheveled, grizzled whiskers look, sunken eyes with hanging bags—an all-around haggard appearance. His clothes matched his face too: raggedy, patches showing, obviously in search of the lost iron.

I was taken aback and queried, “What gives, bro? You look the mess!”

Wrong question to ask. Wrong question indeed. I spent the next who knows how long getting an earful. I don’t believe there was a topic in all creation I didn’t hear about!

He began, “Oh, man, the world is all wrong. I just cannot catch a break. The TV’s on the blink, the car needs repairs, my cat was run over, and the dog chewed up my shoes.”

If you think that was it, sorry to disappoint you! He continued, “I lost my job, and the bill collectors rented the house next door so as to be near me. My wife went back to her mother and took the kids. What’s next?!”

Admit it. You’ve encountered such a scenario once or twice yourself, haven’t you? Well, guess what? You were invited to a pity party with lots of violin music. All you needed to do to attend was to join in with the sympathizing. Your attendance was much appreciated, but it probably accomplished nothing worthwhile.

Pity parties are usually thrown because the one issuing the invitations feels sorry for himself. He might very well have a right to do so. That per se isn’t the problem with pity parties. The problem is they just don’t accomplish anything…unless it be to drive people to drinking!

When problems attack, either we can sit around and mope or else we can do something constructive about them. Moping and throwing pity parties only compounds the problems, by dwelling on the problems as if they last forever and are unsolvable. The accompanying violin music merely serves the same function as Job’s three “friends”!

The Apostle Paul addressed this very issue in the two verses quoted at the beginning of this study. He even followed Biblical Hebrew poetic convention in doing so. He employed parallelism in his narrative form of writing, antonymous parallelism to be exact. Let’s diagram it:

A. the sorrow that is according to the will of God

B. produces a repentance without regret

A. the sorrow of the world

B. produces death

Notice the two “A’s” and the two “B’s” at the front of those four lines. The “A’s” depict two opposite types of sorrow, while the “B’s” portray two opposite results of sorrow. On the one hand there is godly sorrow, on the other worldly sorrow.

Godly sorrow is demonstrated by its result, viz., repentance. This repentance brings with it no regrets for having to repent, and no regrets for being made sorrowful in the first place. This type of sorrow doesn’t throw pity parties and invite everyone to play violin music.

If I have true godly sorrow, I accept that I did something wrong and was made sorrowful because of it. In consequence I own up to my sin and repent. I receive the sorrow as justly deserved. I am thankful that it accomplished its desired effect in me, viz., my repentance and restoration into fellowship with the Lord and with anyone whom I wronged.

We are out of time today, so we will pause and return to the topic on the morrow. Enjoy some quiet time with the Lord Jesus now, okay?

To further research this issue, I direct you to my books in the Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes Bible study series. To purchase my books please click on the "Shop" tab at the top of this page, where you will find a complete list of my books. Each book is available in both paperback (Createspace) and eBook (Kindle).

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