I think Selwyn makes two excellent points (regarding anger) in today’s study.
One: ” … we can pray that God will enable us to feel godly sorrow – sorrow for our own loss, sorrow for the loss in the heart of the offender and sorrow also for the pain God feels as He sees His creation war against itself.”
Two: “Destructive anger will be transformed into righteous anger as we grow in the hatred of evil and the love of good. The simple fact is this: people hurt. The challenge we face as Christians is to handle hurt in such a way that it is not overlaid with unrighteous anger. This is one of the biggest challenges we may ever have to respond to, but respond to it we must.”
The verses selected for reading and meditation also highlight an important fact; godly sorrow, leads to repentance and there are also, no regrets, Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, 7: 8-13a (NLT):”I am not sorry that I sent that severe letter to you, though I was sorry at first, for I know it was painful to you for a little while. Now I am glad I sent it, not because it hurt you, but because the pain caused you to repent and change your ways. It was the kind of sorrow God wants his people to have, so you were not harmed by us in any way. For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death.
Just see what this godly sorrow produced in you! Such earnestness, such concern to clear yourselves, such indignation, such alarm, such longing to see me, such zeal, and such a readiness to punish wrong. You showed that you have done everything necessary to make things right. My purpose, then, was not to write about who did the wrong or who was wronged. I wrote to you so that in the sight of God you could see for yourselves how loyal you are to us. We have been greatly encouraged by this.”
You can see from the above verses, that the Corinthians may have be hurt by the severity of Paul’s criticism – but instead of dwelling on their hurt and becoming angry with Paul; they understood the reasons for his criticism and changed their behaviour. This is a lesson, all of us can take on-board because as a general rule, today’s people, don’t like to be corrected – even when they need it! What are your views on this topic?
Godly sorrow
I think Selwyn makes two excellent points (regarding anger) in today’s study.
One: ” … we can pray that God will enable us to feel godly sorrow – sorrow for our own loss, sorrow for the loss in the heart of the offender and sorrow also for the pain God feels as He sees His creation war against itself.”
Two: “Destructive anger will be transformed into righteous anger as we grow in the hatred of evil and the love of good. The simple fact is this: people hurt. The challenge we face as Christians is to handle hurt in such a way that it is not overlaid with unrighteous anger. This is one of the biggest challenges we may ever have to respond to, but respond to it we must.”
The verses selected for reading and meditation also highlight an important fact; godly sorrow, leads to repentance and there are also, no regrets, Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, 7: 8-13a (NLT):”I am not sorry that I sent that severe letter to you, though I was sorry at first, for I know it was painful to you for a little while. Now I am glad I sent it, not because it hurt you, but because the pain caused you to repent and change your ways. It was the kind of sorrow God wants his people to have, so you were not harmed by us in any way. For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death.
Just see what this godly sorrow produced in you! Such earnestness, such concern to clear yourselves, such indignation, such alarm, such longing to see me, such zeal, and such a readiness to punish wrong. You showed that you have done everything necessary to make things right. My purpose, then, was not to write about who did the wrong or who was wronged. I wrote to you so that in the sight of God you could see for yourselves how loyal you are to us. We have been greatly encouraged by this.”
You can see from the above verses, that the Corinthians may have be hurt by the severity of Paul’s criticism – but instead of dwelling on their hurt and becoming angry with Paul; they understood the reasons for his criticism and changed their behaviour. This is a lesson, all of us can take on-board because as a general rule, today’s people, don’t like to be corrected – even when they need it! What are your views on this topic?