Too often we get absorbed with the consequences of our sin in relation to other people, and we don't recognize the breach in fellowship with God that it makes often when we sin. I think that we fail in many cases to have a deep enough relationship with God to understand that our repentance must be oriented to Him and Him primarily because it's Him we must turn to. The turning from aspect of sin is one thing, but unless we have turned from sin and to God, very little has been accomplished.
What are characteristics of worldly sorrow?
Dennis Gunderson explains in this video that those who demonstrate only worldly sorrow are absorbed with the consequences of their sin in relation to other people and don’t recognize the breach of fellowship with God when they sin. They fail to have a deep enough of a relationship with God to realize that repentance must be oriented to Him. It is to God that we must turn to.
Unless we have turned from sin and turned towards God, it is not true repentance. True repentance does not result from merely wanting to please others or wishing to avoid temporary, earthly consequences of one's actions.
1 John 1:9 (NKJV) – “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
