What’s The Difference Between Worldly Sorrow And Godly Sorrow After Sinning?

Q: According to 2 Corinthians 7:10, how can I distinguish worldly sorrow from godly sorrow when trying to return to God after sinning?

2 Corinthians 7:10 – For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.

A: The answer is right there in the verse: godly sorrow produces repentance. Godly sorrow leads to a change. Repentance means to change your mind, or to change your actions along with changing your mind. It’s a very important idea that godly sorrow leads to repentance. There are people who have real, intense sorrow over their sin, but it never leads them to repentance. That’s a superficial and worldly sorrow.

The dividing line between the two is revealed right there in the wonderful verse you recommended to us: it’s whether or not there’s repentance demonstrated. Now, I don’t think we need to suppose that repentance must be perfect before it’s real. We are human beings, and we’re not yet glorified. You could say that there’s nothing that we do that is perfect. So, repentance can and should be real, even without it being perfect. And there also will be some demonstration of a change in true repentance. We can be overly impressed with demonstrations of sorrow, but that’s not the same thing as repentance.