Sadness without Joy

“As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us.” 2 Corinthians 7:9

April 13, 2023

There is sadness with joy and there is sadness without joy. Perhaps there is some generalized sadness in your life at the present time. You might even call it depression. Paul in writing to the Corinthian congregation speaks of both kinds of sorrow, or depression if you will. Sadness without joy lacks God at the center of our downness. Sadness is the God-given opportunity to respond with hope in the losses that accompany pain and suffering. In the case of the Corinthians, disordered sadness was due to a lack of repentance, “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death” (2 Cor. 7:10). Sorrow minus God produces remorse, self-pity, bitterness, and hopelessness. The salvation Paul is referring to is not initial justification by faith, but the growth process in the Christian life. There are many different causes of sorrow. When submerged in a sea of hopelessness, it is the darkest of nights in the soul. The cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ have cut the roots of all disordered sadness. Jesus Christ was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief (Isa. 53:3). There is more to be said. But we must start with the power of the gospel and the sufficiency of God’s Word, if we are going to tackle joyless sadness.
H
“There are some things good but not pleasant, as sorrow and affliction. Sin is pleasant, but unprofitable; and sorrow is profitable, but unpleasant. As waters are purest when they are in motion, so saints are generally holiest when in affliction.” William Secker