When I have done wrong, I am prone asking for forgiveness and looking for repentance. But, from and for who am I asking forgiveness and repentance.
“9As 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. 10For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.” — 2 Corinthians 7:9-10 (ESV)
Per my ESV Commentary: “Grief that comes from God is characterized by repentance, i.e., remorse caused by having lost God’s approval and the consequent resolve to reverse one’s conduct and live for God. Grief that comes from the world, i.e., a remorse brought about by losing the world’s approval, leads to a resolve to regain that approval, and this produces death, or divine judgment.”
I am to be looking for forgiveness and repentance from God and the sins against Him that I have committed. What wrongs I have committed against the world and society, as long as they are in line with God’s will, are of no consequence. I should not concern myself with those and focus my attention on that which is for and from God.
Now, I want to be clear in that focusing on my repentance for God does not mean that I have free reign to treat others without concern for them. I am still bound, as I mentioned above, to living a life in line with God’s will. I am still tasked with spreading the gospel and loving everyone. The thing is that if there is a conflict in the seeking of forgiveness and repenting from and to the world or God, God wins out, hands down.
God’s is the only one that can provide forgiveness for sins. Even with my salvation, I am still a sinner and must repent regularly for those sins and “reverse one’s conduct and live for God”. I have to repent to Him and concern myself with my relationship and action with/for Him as opposed to the worry of what is going on in the world and what it thinks of me.
Where are you concerning yourself related to your repentance and forgiveness seeking? Are you concerning yourself with what others and the world thinks as you are working to do the will of God? What if you concerned yourself with repentance for God and doing His will as opposed to what the world thinks?
Trevor's Thoughts 