What do you do when you see someone crying? Does the sight of red eyes and wet cheeks compel you to wonder, “What’s happened here?” If so, realize that you’re being signaled by sorrow—alerted to someone’s need for comfort and aid. In this way, sorrow isn’t only meant to propel people toward repentance. It’s also meant to compel believers to “fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal. 6:2) through one-another care.

What comprises a biblical view of sorrow? Perhaps some of the Scriptures that come to mind in soul care ministry are Paul’s references to worldly and godly sorrow in 2 Corinthians 7. There, he speaks of a guilt-induced heaviness of the heart that stems from sin and is remedied through repentance. But what happens when our understanding of sorrow is limited to this passage—when we only see sorrow in connection to personal sin? Is repentance always the remedy for sadness? Is the goal of biblical counseling to make people impervious to grief?

Wise counsel takes the whole Word of God into account when engaging in whole-person care.

While Paul’s distinction between worldly and godly sorrow is critical, the Scriptures speak more broadly to the function of sorrow in a fallen world. Perhaps the most under-appreciated insights about this “affliction of exile” are found in the book of Ecclesiastes. There, sorrow isn’t narrowly viewed as a consequence of personal sin, but as a consequence of the curse suffered by the righteous and wicked alike. This has important ramifications for discipleship. If we think of sorrow purely as something to be resisted or repented of, we steal someone’s opportunity to grow in wisdom and gospel joy (Eccles. 7:2-4).

While we don’t want to counsel sorrow to the exclusion of moral responsibility, we also don’t want to downplay unavoidable suffering or the purposes of providence. In my ministry, I’ve seen hope restored as perspectives on sorrow are enlarged to include a theology of suffering—a framework that’s unafraid to acknowledge the “unhappy business” (Eccles. 1:13) of life. Ecclesiastes helps us to build such a theology. It offers a redemptive perspective on sorrow as well as counsel for engaging it wisely.

Sorrow as a Symptom

In Ecclesiastes, we see sorrow presented as a symptom of post-fall life. Before the curse, creation thrived and functioned the way God intended: Adam knew nothing of sorrow, and Eve nothing of pain. But when their disobedience in the garden brought these foreign experiences upon them (and subsequently, upon us), flourishing became an exercise in futility (Gen. 3:16-19; Eccles. 2:22-23). Under the curse, “all things are full of weariness” (Eccles. 1:8); the “days of darkness” (Eccles. 11:8) are many and man dies just like the beast (Eccles. 3:19). Losses abound as adversity comes again and again—oftentimes, through no fault of our own (Eccles. 7:14).

As we read through Ecclesiastes, we see that sorrow is symptomatic of what we lost in Eden. It isn’t exclusively a fruit of personal sin—it’s also what we feel as we suffer the unavoidable effects of original sin. This category is key to engaging sorrow wisely. It explains why life is so hard to begin with and leads us to look to our Redeemer for hope.

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