For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, which brings no regret. But the sorrow of the world produces death.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 10. For the sorrow, and so forth Sorrow for the loss of temporal goods, such as friends, riches, honours, and so forth is productive of no good effects; but on the contrary, it ruins the constitution, exciting in the soul emotions of anger, murmuring, revenge, and brooding melancholy. It moreover betrays an inordinate attachment to creatures. But sorrow for our own sins, and for those of others, sufferings which we endure for the glory of God, work penance unto salvation, which is lasting; or, as the Greek has it, worketh penance unto salvation, of which we shall never repent. For tears shed in prayer unto God are sweeter, says Saint Augustine, (Ps. cxxvii) than any pleasure that can be procured from the stage, and so forth The tears of the saints are like sweet wine, which inebriate those who love God. Saint Augustine Ps. lxxxiii.—Contrition, or a hearty sorrow for sin, and not faith alone, as some pretend, is essential to salvation.