That ye sorrowed to repentance. — Here the true word for “repentance” is used in all the fulness of its meaning. (See Notes on Matthew 3:2; Matthew 3:8.) There is nothing in the Greek corresponding to the variation “ye sorrowed” and “were made sorry,” the same word being used in both clauses.
After a godly manner. — The English is but a feeble equivalent for the Greek. Literally, according to God — i.e. (as may be seen by comparing the sense of the same or like phrases in Romans 8:27; Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 2:8), after His will and purpose. “God allowed you,” he tells them, “to be grieved in order that you might sustain no loss, as you might have done had we held our peace.”