Chapter 7

A dissertation on three words

1. The Hebrew word nacham. It is translated many times in the Old Testament by the English word ‘repent.’ It is generally used for God. Apparently the translators were in a quandary because in each case it says ‘God repented,’ and in each case they couldn’t bring themselves to talk about God repenting and so they said, “Then repenteth God” — a silly compromise. But actually it means that God changes His mind.

How can God change His mind? Immutability says that it is impossible for God to change His mind. Repent when God is the subject is an anthropopathism, which means that God doesn’t really change His mind at all. God never has changed His mind, He knew the end from the beginning, God knew all things before they ever happened , and to say that God changes His mind at any point is blasphemous. This is simply ascribing to God a human characteristic so that God’s action or thinking, or something pertaining to God can be understood by the people who read the scripture.

Seven passages where this verb is used, and in all of them God is the subject:

a) Genesis 6:6, God changed His mind about the creation of mankind. He never changed His mind about the creation of mankind but God was now going to have to do something in connection with the angelic conflict. This meant that the angelic infiltration into humanity caused a radical change of policy and to explain this radical change of policy to human beings it says, “Then repenteth God.” But God didn’t repent at all.

b) Exodus 32:14 — God changed His mind about disciplining Israel. Actually He didn’t, He knew about it in eternity past but in order to integrate with the context and to show the Jews that they were under discipline and that the discipline was from God we have, “Then repenteth God.”

c) Judges 2:18 — God changes His mind about Israel’s groanings and oppressions. The Jews had made a very bad mistake, had gone down spiritually, and from a military standpoint. They were taken over by an outside force and were under such terrible slavery, and God ‘changed His mind.’ But He didn’t change His mind at all, He always intended to deliver them but they had to understand their discipline. To understand that their discipline was over an anthropopathism is used.

d) 1 Samuel 15:35 — God changed His mind about appointing Saul king over Israel. God never changed His mind, He just knew that the free will of the Jews would demand Saul as a king. It was never His idea in the first place, but God permitted this thing — which is, of course, the secondary will of God — and having permitted this thing it is over and God demonstrates this by using an anthropopathism. He really didn’t change His mind but in order that the Jews that a discipline is now occurring, both to Saul personally and to the nation as a whole, an anthropopathism is used.

e) Psalm 90:13 — here God ‘changes his mind’ about His servants. This doesn’t mean that He changes His mind but it means that He must now switch from blessing to discipline and it must be explained in terms of human activity.

f) Jeremiah 15:6 — God ‘changes His mind’ about changing His mind and giving the Jews another chance. He is not going to do it. The fifth cycle of discipline is coming on.

g) Amos 7:3,6 — God ‘changes His mind’ about the discipline of Israel.

In every case the verb is nacham and in every case the subject is God.

Three points:

i) These expressions of repentance and a change of mental attitude are all anthropopathisms.

ii) God is immutable and does not change, therefore any expression of change is merely designed to explain divine acts of discipline in terms of human attitudes and expressions.

iii) God’s attitude toward man can only be explained in terms of human attitudes. Therefore the human attitude of repentance is used to explain the divine attitude.

2. The Greek word metanoew is a compound verb [meta = change; noew = thinking] which means a change of thinking. It is translated ‘repent’ in the New Testament. There is no emotional connotation in this verb at all. The verb expresses a complete change of mental attitude about something. It often means a reversal of mental attitude about something. It is a transitive verb, it has a subject and it has an object. The subject and object define the basis of repentance.

There are two categories within this verb. Category #1 for the unbeliever as the subject; category #2 for the believer as the subject.

Category #1:

a) Category #1 is repentance in an unbeliever. The unbeliever does the repenting.

b) In each and every case the subject is the unbeliever and the object is Jesus Christ.

c) Prior to faith in Christ, or coterminous with it, the unbeliever changes his mental attitude toward Christ. No one ever expresses faith in Christ apart from repentance, a change of mind about Christ, and the change is made on the facts of the gospel. The Holy Spirit sheds the light on the truth, human perspicacity picks up the false, but volition operates on what is true. That means repentance and immediately there is exhale of faith in Jesus Christ.

d) This change of mental attitude is wrought by the ministry of the Holy Spirit — John 16:8-11; 2 Timothy 2:25.

e) Many times in scripture the unbeliever is not called the unbeliever. The word ‘sinner,’ for example. “Angels rejoice over one sinner that repenteth.” The sinner is the unbeliever and he is the subject. Repentance is the transitive verb, and the object is understood — Jesus Christ.

f) The sinner does not repent regarding sin but he changes his mental attitude toward Christ. The result is always the same, he believes in Christ.

g) Mark 1:15; Matthew 12:41; Luke 13:3,5; 15:7,10; 16:30,31; Acts 17:30; 20:21; 26:20; Hebrews 12:17; 2 Peter 3:9.

Category #2:

a) Repent is used of believers in Christ. Here the believer is the subject.

b) The subject is always the believer while of the object of repentance varies with each context.

c) Hebrews 6:2. The subject is the believer and the object of repentance is works [human good] — ‘repentance from dead works.’

d) Revelation chapter 2:5,16,22. The object of repentance is these verses is carnality, the sins of the believer. Cf. 2 Corinthians 12:21.

3. The Greek word metamelomai [meta = change; melomai = to regret] means to feel sorry and it has an emotional connotation. It means a change of emotion and ‘regret’ is probably the best translation. This verb means to feel sorry for something — Matthew 21:29, it is used for the expression of regret of a previous action of refusal. In Matthew 27:3 Judas Iscariot felt sorry for his sin of betraying Christ. It had no spiritual connotation, he just regretted what he had done. In Romans 11:29 God has no regrets regarding your salvation and the spiritual gift He provided for you. This is an anthropopathism. Hebrews 7:21 — the Father has no regrets regarding the appointment of Jesus Christ as High Priest.

2 Corinthians 7:1 — “Having” is a present active participle of e)xw which means to have and to hold; “Having and holding therefore” — in view of the previous dissertation on separation, and so on.

“these promises” — a reference to the promises quoted from the Old Testament is 2 Corinthians 6:16-18. The principle goes beyond those promises to any promise related to a doctrine; “dearly beloved” is ‘beloved ones.’ The word means ‘beloved’ and it has to do with our union in Christ. Christ is the beloved one, we are in union with Christ and therefore God the Father loves us as much as He loves His Son, Jesus Christ.

“let us cleanse ourselves” — kaqarizw, aorist active subjunctive. This recognises the believer as out of fellowship. The aorist tense is the point when the believer uses rebound. The active voice: every believer must rebound for himself, and privately. The subjunctive mood: rebound is potential. It depends on the individual believer.

“from all filthiness” — molusmoj. This is anything that you did not put on but that you picked up on the way to the party and is offensive to the other guests. It is generally translated ‘defilement.’ It comes to mean to us today mental attitude sins when you are with other believers, or the expression of mental attitude sins — sins of the tongue with other believers: maligning, gossiping, judging. In other words, sins that are committed in the presence of other believers.

Why is Paul saying this? Because he is persona non grata with the Corinthians. They don’t like him, they have threatened to lock him out if he tries to come to church in Corinth. They hate him, they are bitter, they are implacable. They despise him, they are antagonistic, and Paul calls it molusmoj, and he does it in the power of the Spirit. Molusmoj must be removed and this is the rebound technique. The mental attitude stains in the soul must be removed.

“of the flesh [old sin nature] and spirit [negative volition toward Bible doctrine] — when the believer is negative it intensifies that malusmoj in the soul.

“perfecting holiness” — the word ‘perfecting’ is e)pitelew [e)pi = upon; telew = finish or conclude] which means to reach a goal. The goal which must be reached is the ECS. If you are going to keep malusmoj out of the soul the ECS does it. So this is a reference to the necessity for the daily function of GAP. This is a perfect active participle. The perfect tense is the process of getting there, a day by day study of the Word. The active voice: the believer produces the action of the verb — GAP. The participle means that God has set this up as a grace process.

“holiness” refers to the doctrine of sanctification — a(giosunh. This actually refers to the function of GAP. This is phase two sanctification which has two parts: the filling of the Spirit — 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 Peter 1:2; the function of GAP — John 17:17; Ephesians 5:26.

“in the fear of God” — the preposition e)n plus the instrumental of foboj which is ‘respect,’ occupation. Foboj is produced by e)pignwsij in the human spirit and exhaled toward God. It should be translated ‘by means of fear [respect] toward God.’ Notice that foboj comes before love because foboj is respect for authority. first of all, when you get doctrine in the human spirit and start to exhale you have respect for God and for God’s authority — doctrine. So you exhale foboj, then you exhale a)gaph, and finally if you grow you exhale filoj toward God. There must be respect for God’s authority [doctrine] before there can be respect for God’s person; it is through the Word that we learn of the person of God. Our love for God comes from cognisance of His person but there cannot be cognisance of His person until we have respect for His Word.

Verse 2 — “Receive us” is xwrew. It means to welcome with love, to make room for, to make space for. That means make space in your soul. But how can you do that if you have malusmoj in the soul. You cannot make space in your soul for someone when you have mental attitude sins toward them. The Corinthians have mental attitude sins toward Paul. Mental attitude sins destroy their norm and standard lobe and short-circuit cycling of e)pignwsij into the right lobe. Paul says, “Receive us with love.” That means they are going to have to get the malusmoj out of the soul.

He gives three reasons, and each reason answers some complain that someone in Corinth has made. First of all, they claimed that Paul had acted unrighteously and unfairly toward certain Corinthian believers. He says, “we have wronged no man,” aorist active indicative. This is a flat statement, a permanent statement: a)dikew which means not to be unfair. And it is not ‘no man,’ it is o)udena which means no person, male or female.

The second reason was that he had been accused of corrupting many of those in Corinth. They claimed that his grace message was a corrupting message: “we have corrupted no one” — fqeirw.

The third is that he has cheated someone financially: “we have defrauded no man” — pleonektew. This means that Paul was wild for money and came to Corinth to milk them out of all of their savings. He denies emphatically all of these claims, all of which come from mental attitude sins or molusmoj.

Verse 3 — notice Paul’s graciousness. “I speak not this to condemn you” is literally, ‘I speak not in a spirit of condemnation.’ The words ‘I speak” not is legw, present active indicative. Then we have a prepositional phrase, proj katakrisin in the accusative — ‘face to face with condemnation’ means in the spirit of condemnation.

“for I have said before” — perfect tense, prolegw: ‘I have said before with the result that.’

“you are” — you keep on being, present active indicative of e)imi; “in our hearts” — the right lobe, the norm and standard lobe. In order to keep these Corinthians in his heart he has to keep cycling doctrine up there. The point of doctrine: If you want to stay in someone’s heart, if you want them to stay in yours, you’d better keep on cycling doctrine.

In other words, you have been stinko towards me but that didn’t change me at all. There were no mental attitude sins to short-circuit Paul’s attitude.

“to die and live with you” — you are with us if you are dying, you are with us if you are living . Paul is stable, and the stability of love is in the daily function of GAP; “to die” is an aorist active infinitive of sunapoqnhskw which Paul anticipates a violent death. A)poqnhskw means a violent death and sun means that ‘you are with us if we are dying.’ We will love you with our last breath!

“to live” is in the present tense because that goes right on — suzaw, present active infinitive, means to live with.

Paul is depressed at this particular time. Interestingly enough the thing that is going to remove his depression is a little right bank activity with Titus. On his left bank he is occupied with the person of Christ. He is constantly exhaling e)pignwsij, there is nothing wrong with his spiritual life. Depression is just a very common thing among people and believers are no exception, and we are going to see that this is what happened to the apostle Paul at the beginning of verse four.

Verse 4 — “Great is my boldness of speech toward you.” The word ‘great’ is poluj. It also means ‘much.’ Why is his boldness great? The apostle has just recovered from depression and he recognises the importance of doctrine as he never has before. As never before doctrine is important. But what has snapped him out of his depression was another human being. “My boldness of speech” is literally ‘my courage of speech’ — parrhsia means courage. It has to do with his right lobe, the source of moral courage.

“toward you” is literally, ‘face to face with you,’ proj plus the accusative. The Corinthians were saying that when Paul was face to face with them he was a mouse. He wasn’t a mouse at all. 1 Corinthians hit them so hard that they had forgotten how Paul was when he taught. When they received that epistle it was a traumatic experience, Paul really slugged them. And it was God the Holy Spirit writing through Paul. They had forgotten that it was that way and therefore they remembered vaguely Paul as a teacher but when they received that letter it sounded like Paul had the gift of exhortation of the gift of executioner and they were utterly shocked. It leveled them. It is typical of believers that when some preacher steps on their toes they don’t like him, they don’t like it, they don’t like the place where it happened, and they like to disassociate themselves with the entire thing. People do not like to be stepped on and that is understandable, but when it is God’s Word communicated then it is time to take heed even if you are very resentful.

“great is my glorying of you” — or, ‘my boasting,’ kauxhsij is the act of boasting. There is a legitimate boasting and there is a sinful boasting. What is the difference? The presence or absence of pride is the difference. Boasting is legitimate. The word kauxhsij is used constantly in the New Testament, usually mistranslated in the KJV but it is there. Boasting isn’t sinful, it is pride that is sinful. Paul has written to them a letter, he has leveled with them, he has exposed their carnality for a purpose. He had to get tough. But at the same time, after that letter was sent and before that letter was sent, but especially afterwards, what has he been doing? Kuaxhsij! He has been boasting about them. He says, ‘great is my boasting on your behalf.’ The preposition here is not ‘of you,’ it is u(per which means ‘on behalf of you.’ Now he says, ‘Why am I telling you this?’

“I am filled with comfort” — the word for ‘filled’ is plhrow, perfect passive indicative. Plhrow means to implement where something is lacking. He has been depressed because of circumstances, because of great adversity, because there are constant fightings on the outside. Paul was a human being. He was neither God nor angel, he was a human being just like we are. And there came a time when he was depressed, and yet even during that time of depression, even though he had to chew out and discipline the Corinthians he was still boasting about them. But then there came a point of comfort, some relief — ‘I have received comfort.’ The perfect tense: ‘I have received implementation.’ Something that happened before he wrote and he now expresses it. What happened? Titus came. Titus made the difference. One person had the key, the basis of removing this depression. Paraklhsij is the act of comfort. The suffix means ‘the act of.’ It is an active noun ending. There was someone who came along and provided comfort, a right relationship. People are going to be depressed; there is a ministry of comfort but it is a ministry that can only be provided by someone where there is capacity to love. This isn’t a)gaph love, this is filew. A thousand people could have come and said words to Paul but there comes a time when a person is depressed and lonely, even though he is surrounded by people. Paul was depressed and lonely, he was suffering from battle fatigue — ‘outside are battles.’ And just one person could be of comfort to him. Perfect tense: Paul is filled with comfort at the moment of the news from Titus with the result that he continues in a state of comfort and even happiness. The passive voice: Paul receives the comfort from God through the news of Timothy regarding the Corinthian rebound. The indicative mood is the reality of the comfort inside of Paul. You do not go from depression to happiness. Instead, you go from depression to comfort, and from comfort to happiness. When depression which is offset by happiness neither the depression of the happiness is stable, one will replace the other — wide emotional swings. The comfort is doctrine, and if you are depressed it is doctrine that stabilises you, and then you have happiness. The stability of happiness is in Bible doctrine.

“I am exceeding joyful” — literally, ‘I overflow with happiness.’ The words ‘I am exceeding’ is u(perperisseuw and it means to overflow. First of all he is stabilised, he was relaxed. Then he says, ‘I overflow with,’ a present middle indicative. The present tense is linear aktionsart. Middle voice: I am doing it myself — Bible doctrine. The indicative mood is the reality of the reassertion of happiness in his life.

“in all our tribulation” — qliyij means ‘pressures, adversities.’ “I overflow with happiness upon all of our pressures.” The word ‘in” is e)pi and should be translated ‘upon.’ In the midst of great pressures he was depressed, in the midst of great pressures he was comforted, in the midst of great pressures he overflows with happiness. The pressure didn’t change, he changed — or rather, doctrine changed him. But it is doctrine and a relationship on the right bank. He received comfort which brought doctrine back into focus and it is the doctrine that provided the comfort and it is the comfort that provided the happiness.

Verse 5 — Paul’s previous unrest because of the Corinthian situation. Here is the explanation of his depression. Remember that Paul goes through a great many things. He is constantly having trouble, having problems, having difficulties, having trials. It goes on and on and on.

“For, when we were come into Macedonai” — ‘we’ refers to Luke, and he is depressed. He has Timothy with him, and he is depressed. He has Epaphroditus, and he is depressed.

“our flesh had no rest” — he was the depressed one, the others were just simply disturbed. “Had” is the perfect active indicative of e)xw. It means they had this condition and it was getting worse and worse and worse. No rest, no peace, no blessing. Why?

“we were troubled on every side” — present passive participle of qlibw. It is not the ordinary word for being troubled, in fact is doesn’t mean that at all. It means to be constantly in a squeeze, to be constantly hit, to constantly be slugged with pressure. The present tense is linear aktionsart — no letup. Passive voice: he received it. He didn’t run around and stick his neck out. These are pressures which are brought from outside sources, pressures that are related to the angelic conflict. It is a constant series of pressures which an individual receives because of who and what he is. Because of who and what Paul is he is a primary target and he was constantly being hit. The forces of Satan were against him; the forces of legalism were against him. Christians were constantly maligning him, he was always ‘in it’ up to his neck. This is undeserved and unsolicited suffering.

Now he describes in two categories what he means by qlibw:

“without were fightings” — e)cwqen [outside] makai [battles, combat]. Paul is constantly having personal combat, he is constantly in conflict.

“within” — e)swqen means ‘inside’; “fears” — foboj. The outside affects the inside. This is not discipline here but Paul is constantly fighting.

Paul says that he overflows with happiness even though he has these pressures. He was depressed but the happiness was there all the time. He had happiness in his ECS. But that happiness was stifled by battle fatigue and while it was there it was not active. Why? Titus came that activated his +H. First of all, there had to be comfort. That is cycling e)pignwsij up to his frame of reference, and there is divine viewpoint. Once he has comfort in his right lobe then the happiness which has been in his soul all of this time is activated again.

Verse 6 — the occasion for this. What did God use? “Nevertheless” should be ‘But God’ — there is no relationship in life worth having unless there is left bank activity with God. That comes from Bible doctrine. “God” is in the emphatic position, God and only God.

“that comforteth” — the word for ‘comfort’ is the verb, parakalew, and it means here to comfort. Notice that all comfort is from God. This is a present active participle, linear aktionsart; “those that are cast down” — there is no verb here. ‘But God who comforts the depressed.’ The word for depression here is tapeinoj. Paul is applying the principle to all believers and therefore he gets away from the word he used for himself. Tapeinoj means to be depressed, it means to be pushed down. It is the result of pressure. The pressure becomes so great that it finally compresses the soul, it squeezes it tight. It is a noun, not a verb.

“comforted us” — aorist active indicative. of parakalew. In a point of time; God always comforts. The aorist tense is the point of time when Titus came into the picture. The active voice: Titus provided the comfort. The indicative mood is the reality of comfort through Titus.

“by the coming of” — ‘by means of,’ e)n plus the instrumental; “Titus.” Titus is a human being and a great believer. He not only straightens out Corinth but he comes and makes his report. When he does then first Paul is comforted and then he overflows with happiness.

Verse 7 — the reaction to the Titus report. “And not by his coming only [the coming of Titus]” — he was always a great blessing to Paul. Of course, it is the news that Titus brings; “but by the comfort” — paraklhsij, the act of comfort; “wherewith” is literally, ‘in which,’ aorist passive indicative; “he was comforted by means of you [or, upon you]” — this means that when Titus walked into Corinth and straightened them out the Corinthians rebounded and got back into fellowship. That was a blessing to Titus and Titus passes the blessing on to Paul. Paul is now comforted and after his comfort comes the overflow of happiness — “wherewith he received comfort.” Paul received comfort when the Corinthians responded to his authority. The secret to Titus was how he used his authority. He used his authority and made it stick. Titus was blessed by the response to his authority. It took authority and leadership to bring the Corinthians church out of the spiritual doldrums.

“when he told us of your earnest desire” — ‘told’ is a)naggellw [a)ggellw = announce; a)na = again] means to being back word. This is the basis for comfort, ‘he brought back word about you.’ A present active participle. This is the verbal report of Titus.

“your mourning, your fervent mind toward me; and this caused me to rejoice.” When it says ‘earnest desire’ that is one thing, that is positive volition. When he said they mourned that had to do with something else. There is no word for ‘mind’ here; it is ‘zeal.’

At this point the Corinthians carnality has been changed to spirituality through rebound, and their mental attitude sins have been wiped out and replaced by three characteristics which are mentioned. Where did Paul get these three words? He received them from the Titus report. So basically we now have an outline of the Titus report in three words:

a) “your earnest desire” — this is actually one word, a compound noun e)pipoqhsij. Notice the active noun suffix. The word is derived from the Attic Greek [e)pi = over or upon; poqhw = to have a craving desire for something or to love someone to the point of insatiability]. In other words, poqew is an Attic Greek word for true love, it is not found in the New Testament as such. It is found in its root form in this noun. It means to love someone to the extent that you never lose your desire for them. Even though the Corinthians have been very critical of Paul and have been running him down, once they get back into fellowship their capacity for love is restored, they have a great desire to hear him teach doctrine, they have a great desire to be with him in an assembly situation.

b) “your mourning” — this noun, o)durmoj, means a lamentation but it means a loud and noisy lamentation at a funeral. It means a lamentation that doesn’t change anything. Even though there is loud and weeping lamentation over the grave of a dead one it didn’t change anything, the dead still remained dead. All of the emoting in the world does not bring anyone out of the grave. The whole point of the word’s use here is to indicate that once Titus began to clarify the issue they realised that they had done a very terrible thing. They had spoken against Paul, that had had mental attitude sins against him, and they awoke to the realisation of their terrible maltreatment of Paul. They began to weep and wail and to carry on, especially when they realised how much they loved him — category #3 love. But the fact remained that they had still clobbered him verbally and this particular word doesn’t give him any comfort because o)durmoj means that they will have to snap out of that, there is too much emotion. To be emotional about your sins or failures is all right but it doesn’t do any good spiritually.

c) “your fervent mind toward me” — the word ‘fervent’ is zhloj, generally translated ‘zeal.’ So this is literally, ‘your zeal toward me.’ Toward Paul means toward the ministry of Paul: toward his doctrine, what he teaches. Doctrine has become first now in their scale of values and doctrine is now their life. The emotion is a beautiful thing expressed but the thing that is going to make the difference is the third item, it expresses positive volition toward Bible teaching. This is the thing that will stabilise and will change. Emotion will not carry a person two feet in the spiritual life. Emotion is your appreciator, you ought to enjoy things in life.

There are two Greek words relevant here, the first is metamelomai. That is the emotion deal. That’s fine but it doesn’t do anything for you spiritually. But the thing that counts is what happens next — metanoia, the noun. The trouble is that these two words are translated in the KJV ‘repent.’ The first word means to regret and the second means to repent or change the mind. It was the metanoia, and later on the verb metanoew, which really counted because it meant a change of mental attitude toward doctrine. It is described in this verse by the word zhloj, ‘zeal.’ There is no word for ‘mind’ here, or the word ‘fervent,’ it just simply a positive attitude toward doctrine. This is the word that caused Paul to realise that the work wrought by the ministry of Titus will be permanent because the change is based on the Word, not based on emotion. The change was accompanied by emotion but it was not based on that emotion. The change was based on doctrine. Why is Paul so happy here, why does he snap out of the doldrums? Not because of the first two words but because of the third — zhloj, which is the positive attitude toward doctrine.

“so that I rejoiced” — aorist passive infinitive of xairw which means inner happiness. It refers to true happiness, not emotion. The aorist tense is the point of time when Paul heard the report. The thing that caused him to have inner happiness was that third word, zhloj, the positive attitude toward doctrine. The passive voice: Paul now receives the restoration of his own inner happiness from the news that the Corinthian believers are back to Bible doctrine. The infinite is the expression of the result.

“the more” — he had inner happiness all of the time but now it is intensified.

The doctrine of inner happiness

1. Happiness is older than the human race. Happiness is a characteristic of God. Therefore happiness as a principle has always existed and always been resident in God.

2. In eternity past God desired to share His happiness with man in time. But to share His happiness with man something had to be accomplished: salvation and subsequent perception of doctrine. Salvation does not mean happiness, it must be salvation and subsequent perception of Bible doctrine — Nehemiah 8:10.

3. The transition and the accomplishing of the transition between God’s perfect happiness in eternity past and the provision of that for man in the Church Age: This was accomplished through grace. In grace God found a way to give His happiness to mankind in time. This means through GAP.

4. But such happiness is definitely confined to the plan of God. Man enters the plan of God by faith in Jesus Christ — Acts 16:31. Salvation means only the possibility, not the reality of happiness. Becoming a believer does not mean instant or automatic happiness. Happiness for the believer in phase two is potential and it depends upon GAP. Every facet of GAP is designed to bring human happiness.

5. Ultimate for the believer happiness is found in the ECS — John 17:17.

6. Happiness prior to salvation is temporary and superficial. There is such a thing as an unbeliever being happy. For how long and under what conditions is something else. The happiness which the unbeliever can achieve is strictly temporary and it does not sustain in any pressure or adversity situation. Happy unbelievers become unhappy in pressure or adversity. Therefore human happiness [the happiness of the unbeliever] is fleeting and unstable. As a rule the unbeliever’s human happiness depends on circumstances. Human happiness is a form of slavery; you are a slave to your circumstances, to the details of life. Human happiness associates with a pleasant circumstance or with a detail of life. Therefore the loss of such details or the change of circumstances or environment means loss of human happiness. Human happiness is associated with something and the association leads to a form of slavery. Manifestations of this slavery are boredom, restlessness, instability.

7. God has designed phase two happiness to be permanent and stabilised. God’s happiness is not a slave to anything; He designed phase two happiness to be permanent, to be stabilised, to be greater than the circumstances and the details of life. So it is possible for the believer to be happy in spite of circumstances and without the details of life. Here is happiness without slavery. This is through the ECS — John 17:17. The inner happiness of the ECS sustains in every circumstance of life. Therefore GAP is the key to this happiness — 1 John 1:4.

8. We have to recognise a principle which is found throughout the Old and the New Testaments. Many times the word ‘happiness’ is found in a translation of ‘blessed,’ the beatitude word. This word is actually a plural noun for happiness. In the Hebrew it is ashere and it really means literally, ‘happinesses.’ In the Greek the word makarioi, used in the sermon on the mount among other places, is in the plural and it means ‘happinesses.’ So the literal word for ‘blessed’ is ‘happinesses.’ Why is it in the plural? Why does this plural always apply to some form of a believer or to some member of the human race who is following a divine law? The answer is because the happiness is a double happiness. It is in the plural to indicate that basically there are two sources of this happiness, and especially in the Church Age. The first source of this happiness is the filling of the Holy Spirit which produces happiness or joy. Then the ECS also produces +H. So happinesses means that when you log a maximum amount of time in the filling of the Spirit and when you erect an ECS as a mature believer you have double H. So blessing is not happiness in the singular, it is happiness in the plural. Why? Because blessing is the perpetuation of happiness. There is no blessing if you are happy one minute and unhappy the next; there is no perpetuation, there is simply an unstable situation. But if you can perpetuate happiness from one minute to the next and from one day to the next, then it becomes a blessing. Happiness is never a blessing unless it is perpetuated.

9. Inevitably the basic source of inner happiness is the daily function of GAP — James 1:25; Jeremiah 15:16; Matthew 4:4.

10. Happiness or +H is a protector. Not only is happiness something you enjoy but happiness protects you. Divine happiness or +H protects from areas of disillusion. There are three basic areas of disillusion: a) Disillusion from the circumstances of life — Philippians 4:11,12; b) Disillusion from the details of life — Hebrews 13:5,6; c) Disillusion with regard to Christian people, fellow believers — Hebrews 12:2.

11. Inner happiness enhances capacity for love. This inner happiness must be contained in the ECS. Again, the ECS depends upon the function of GAP, so Bible doctrine is the true basis for happiness — Jeremiah 15:16; John 13:17; 1 John 1:4.

12. The believer is commanded to be happy — Philippians 4:4.

“For though I made you sorry with a letter.” The word ‘though’ is literally, ‘if also,’ and introduces a first class condition. This is a fact. 1 Corinthians made them very sorry. The word for making sorry is found frequently in the rest of this passage, it is the aorist active indicative here of lupew. The word actually means to cause sorrow, misery. The reason for it is not always justified but in this case it was fairly justified. Paul also has a responsibility before the Lord. Paul received his authority and his responsibility from the Lord, and therefore in doing his job it becomes important for Paul to be very harsh, the be very critical, to lower the boom, as it were, on the Corinthians. He did this in written form. “If also I have caused you to be sorry [or, sad] by means of a letter.”

“I do not repent” — the word for ‘repent’ here should not have really been translated repent 300 years ago because it is the Greek word metamelomai and it means to regret. It has an emotional connotation whereas the true word for ‘repent’ is metanoew which means to change your mind. Until Titus came back with his report Paul was full of regret. He did that which was right and honest and fair before the Lord. He picked up those Corinthians and shook them in all directions. Then we he had written the letter he sat down and was full of regret. He was despondent, very discouraged. But now that Titus has come back with good news he is no longer in a state of regret. So when we have here the phrase, ‘I do not regret,’ it means that Paul has now snapped out of the doldrums. He no longer has any regard for what previously caused him great discouragement and despondency.

“though I did repent [regret]” — imperfect of metamelomai this time, linear aktionsart in past time. He had double despondency until Titus came back. Now he has no regrets — present tense. So Paul has been in a constant state of despondency and regret because he had to get tough with the Corinthians over carnality.

“for I perceive” — this doesn’t mean perceive at all, it means he took a quick glance and understood. He saw “that the same epistle hath made you sorry” — lupew again.

“it but for a season” — in other words, the pain and sorrow caused by 1 Corinthians only lasted for a short period of time.

Principle: The doctrine of inspiration guarantees the content of scripture, it does not guarantee the personal feelings of the human writer. In producing on paper the mind of Christ the Holy Spirit does not set aside individuality, personality, literary style, vocabulary, or emotion. God the Holy Spirit used Paul’s despondency to make a point here. The filling of the Spirit is not always sweetness and light. Paul wrote exactly what the Holy Spirit wanted to be recorded even though he personally later regretted the harshness which the situation demanded. Even though he was tough with the Corinthians this did not detract from the fact that he was filled with the Spirit in his toughness. Whether the filling of the Spirit is sweetness and light or toughness, one thing it never is is speaking in tongues.

Verse 9 — “Now I rejoice.” The gospel convicts the unbeliever of one sin: rejection of Jesus Christ — John 16:8,9. The Bible convicts the believer of many categories of sins. As a result of hearing Bible doctrine taught in a very forceful way the Corinthians were able to absorb almost every category if hamartiology. 1 Corinthians is the book of hamartiology. Once they heard these things then they understood the issue that they had committed sins, sometimes unknowingly, and rebound became the order of the day. Since the Corinthians have rebounded Paul can rejoice in their rebound victory.

“not that ye were made sorry” — lupew again. He was not happy because he gave them an occasion for grief; “But because you distressed yourselves to repentance” — a change of mental attitude, metanoia. 1 Corinthians made them change their minds about sin.

“for ye were made sorry after a godly manner” should be “you were made sorry according to the standard of God” — the prepositional phrase is kata qeon. The passive voice: the Corinthians received regret and distress because of their carnality. The indicative mood is the reality of the fact that the Corinthian grief caused them to change their minds and rebound. Therefore they were made sorry according to a Godly standard.

There is no merit in feeling sorry for your sins. The only merit in having any grief or distress or conviction about them is that you might rebound. So the change of mental attitude here results in rebound or identifying that sin to God as a part of the priestly ministry. As a result of that, even though Paul was very harsh, “that” introduces a purpose clause, “you might receive [suffer] damage by [from] us in nothing.” This means that the grief and the sorrow caused by Paul’s rebuke had a proper rebuke down the line. At first they reacted to it, they were very bitter toward Paul and they ran him down. Titus came down and stuck their noses in the letter and showed them it was true until they agreed. Therefore the Corinthians were not damaged by Paul’s first epistle to them but eventually were blessed by restoration to fellowship by the filling of the Holy Spirit. Teaching the Word often results in the conviction of sin and it is Bible doctrine which actually convicts with regard to sin. Therefore we have the principle of true and false repentance in the next verse.

Verse 10 — “For godly sorrow.” When you see this phrase it is literally, “sorrow according to the standard of God.”

“works repentance” — for ‘works’ we have e)rgazomai which means to work out. It works out metanoia, the noun [noia = thinking; meta = change] which means a change of mental attitude. In other words, these people were sorry. One thing that must be understood is that people have to be punished until they hurt because people are all bullheaded. This is exactly what Paul did; he hurt them. His letter hurt them, but it wasn’t enough. Titus had to go in there and hurt them again. What is godly sorrow or sorrow according to the standard of God. It “keeps on working a change of mind.” Sorrow according to the standard of God is being hurt by the Word, hurt by divine discipline. “Whom the Lord loveth He chaseneth.” Chastening hurts. That is the way we learn. Sorrow according to the standard of God works out a change of mental attitude to deliverance.

“salvation” — should be ‘deliverance.” Deliverance from the sin unto death. Remember that certain people in Corinth were delivered over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. Therefore the sin unto death is removed from these people.

“not to be repented [regretted] of” — a)metamelhtoj.

Why is Paul very happy now? He made them sorry for a while but sorrow according the standard of God works out a change of mental attitude directed toward deliverance. The change of mental attitude led to rebound, the rebound took the sin unto death off of them. He is delighted that they are going to be around for a while and not going out under the sin unto death.

Translation: “For sorrow according to divine standards keep on working out a change of mental attitude to deliverance not to be regretted of: but sorrow according to the standard of the world keeps on working out death.”

“worketh death” — refers to the sin unto death. False repentance is maudlin sentimentalism, feeling sorry for sins, being sincere about it, breast-beating. Breast-beating and self-pity is nowhere condoned in the scripture. Feeling sorry for sins doesn’t change anything. It is the rebound technique that counts. It is the confession of sin and the restoration to fellowship, and all of the emotional activity does not do one thing for you, it has no spiritual connotation. False repentance is simply a carnal believer getting all emotional about his sins and when it begins to hurt feeling sorry about it.

Verse 11 — “For behold this selfsame thing,” this very thing. That is, being made sorry according to the standard of God; “that ye sorrowed” — i.e. received sorrow, aorist passive infinitive; “according to the standard of God.”

“what carefulness it wrought in you” — now he is going to describe some of the immediate results. The first word is translated ‘carefulness’ but the adjective is spoudh and it refers to diligence. In other words, they became diligent in their rebound. They started to keep short accounts. Once they realised through the ministry of Titus their carnality they were very diligent to rebound; “wrought out” — katergazomai, ‘worked out.’ Diligence worked out; something on the inside working out.

“what clearing” — a)pologia refers to ‘what a beautiful defense.’ They had the only defense open to them, rebound and the filling of the Spirit. Once you are filled with the Spirit, what a perfect defense. In other words, what did they do in their defense? They named their sins, they came to their own defense. They named sins that had been judged on the cross and that is a perfect defense.

“that indignation” is a a(pac legomena. It is a)ganakthsij which means ‘a new viewpoint.’ It doesn’t mean to be angry, it means a new attitude toward the things that one has done in the field of carnality. It means to take a complete new attitude toward the sins that are confessed. This is the result of being filled with the Holy Spirit. The new attitude will lead to a change toward Bible doctrine; Bible doctrine will become paramount.

“yea, what fear” — foboj which brings out occupation with Christ through the function of GAP. Then, when they began to take in a little doctrine, they next had “what vehement desire,” which is one word in the Greek — e)pipoqhsij, and it means an insatiable desire, and it was for doctrine. So the greater their craving for doctrine the greater became their action in the angelic conflict.

“zeal” — their orientation through Bible doctrine caused them to have tremendous zeal; “revenge” — the word is used here to counter human viewpoint. Divine viewpoint replaces human viewpoint in the right lobe.

“In all [these] things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in the matter.” All of the things that they have done here, all seven of them, have cleared them with regard to the purpose of 1 Corinthians. The words ‘ye have approved’ means to take a stand with the rest of them. To be clear means to be blameless.

Verse 12 — the purpose of writing this. “Wherefore, though I wrote unto you,” [If I wrote unto you, and I did] I did it not for his cause that had done the wrong” — literally, ‘not on account of the one having been wronged, nor on the one doing the wrong.’ Paul wrote it for neither of these reasons.

Translation: “Therefore, if I wrote to you [and I did], not on account of the one having been wronged, nor on account of the one doing the wrong, but that your diligence on our behalf in the sight of God might appear face to face with you.”

This means that Paul did not write to take sides in the Corinthians controversy but he wrote that they might be aware of their need of rebound, and that they might be brought back to GAP, and that they might understand the importance of their relationship with God. Therefore Paul’s purpose in pointing out their areas of carnality was to stimulate their rebound, not to hurt them. They still hurt, that is the ministry of the Holy Spirit, but it was not Paul’s objective to hurt them. It was Paul’s objective to stimulate them to come back to the grace of God. Remember the principle: People have to be hurt before they will come to the grace of God.

Verses 13-15, the successful mission of Titus.