Continuing the discussion of the sorrow that Paul's rebukes caused in the hearts of his Corinthian brothers...
Continuing the discussion of the sorrow that Paul's rebukes caused in the hearts of his Corinthian brothers, the apostle distinguishes between it as a purely psychological reaction ("worldly sorrow") and what he calls "sorrow for God's sake" (v. 10). Any reproach or rebuke, of course, cannot fail to provoke a response in the person to whom it is addressed. The human psyche, in a certain sense, is no less vulnerable than the body, and the soul's reaction to reproach and rebuke, in its sharpness and involuntary nature, resembles the body's reaction to sudden piercing pain. But the first reaction is not the same as reflection and judgment.
The causes of pain can differ, and those who cause it do not always wish us harm. Medical procedures meant to help us are often painful. The same could be said of emotional pain: those who cause it do not necessarily wish us harm at all. Resentment at pain as such is, of course, not sin; it is more a kind of spiritual immaturity, an unwillingness to understand the cause and learn to distinguish it from the effect. But if that resentment turns against the people who caused the pain, the situation changes.
Of course, there are cases when pain is inflicted maliciously, and then resentment is fully justified. But sometimes pain is caused with the good of the sufferer in view, when that good cannot be reached otherwise, or it is caused unintentionally; then rejection and repulsion toward the one who causes the pain can become a sin against a person who is not at all guilty of the sufferer's distress. The right attitude toward someone who has become, willingly or unwillingly, a source of pain can come only from understanding the situation, not from the first immediate reaction. And if that understanding is sound, then a just rebuke becomes an impulse leading to repentance and a new turning (v. 11). In that case the person rebuked is no longer grieved by the emotional pain of hearing the rebuke, but by the sin that called it forth. The relationship between the one rebuked and the one who rebukes then naturally does not suffer, and Paul, seeing that this is the case, rejoices over the success of his rebuke (vv. 12-16). And not only because his relationship with the Corinthian church was not damaged, but above all because only an adequate spiritual assessment of rebuke allows the person rebuked not to lose the Kingdom to which the apostle's whole life bore witness.
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7:10 The sorrow of the world - Sorrow that arises from worldly considerations. Worketh death - Naturally tends to work or occasion death, temporal, spiritual, and eternal.