2 Corinthians 11:1

Would to God that you would bear with me a little in my folly... For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy, for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that comes preaches another Jesus, whom we have not preached... you might well bear with him. For I suppose I was not a wit behind the very chiefest apostles, but though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge... (2 Corinthians 11:1–6)

When false teachers come bearing "another Jesus," Paul reluctantly defends himself—not from pride, but to guard the betrothed bride of Christ.

Boasting as Folly

It was bittersweet for me to be away last week. Sweet because I was invited to Maranatha in San Marcos, where Pastor Dan Gordon asked me to share on sanctification—the process of salvation working out in our lives. As we gathered to worship in song, I was thinking of Hebrews 10:24, where we are told to consider one another, to stir one another up to love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. God uses our gathering—worship in song, in giving, in His word—to transform us more and more into His image.

As we come to 2 Corinthians 11, remember that in Paul's mind, boasting of oneself and one's ministry is completely irrelevant and unnecessary. He summed this up in chapter 10, verse 12: "we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves... are not wise." Another translation says those who compare themselves to one another are fools.

His disdain for self-commendation appears throughout the letter. In 3:1 he asks, "Do we begin again to commend ourselves?" And in 5:12, "we commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf." It is easy to make a show of ourselves to people—we are in a political season, and every day candidates push themselves forward and boast. That is what the world requires to get ahead. But within the body of Christ it is not to be that way.

The Church as His Letter of Reference

To Paul, the very existence of a church in Corinth was a living letter of reference. The thriving of its members was a commendation to the work God did through him. "Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men" (3:2). He did not need a letter from anyone; their existence was proof God was working through his ministry. Later he writes, "I ought to have been commended of you: for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles; though I be nothing" (12:11).

Paul did not view himself as anything great: "not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God, who hath made us able ministers" (3:5–6). Ideally, the life of the minister and the work of the ministry ought to be sufficient commendation—the fruit of the Spirit evident in the way we live. But the reality is often far removed from the ideal, and in chapters 10 through 13 Paul is reduced, reluctantly, to self-promotion.

Glory in the Lord

Just before our passage, Paul wrote, "He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth" (10:17–18). The one who humbles himself will be exalted by the Lord. Jesus taught this in His parable: do not seat yourself at the head table, lest the host move you down; sit at the last table, so he may say, "Come, sit with me." It is far better to be called up than told to get down.

Paul did not boast about himself, but his critics did. So in verse 1 he says, in effect, "I'm going to play their game—bear with me in a little foolishness." He does it apprehensively, reluctantly, and several times uses biting sarcasm. He would have loved to end this letter at chapter 9 with a glowing homily of praise. Yet he must return for four chapters to defend himself. And frankly, I'm thankful he does, because it gives us great insight on how to determine the genuineness and integrity of a worker of God.

Heavenly Armament, Not Carnal Warfare

The basis of Paul's censure was the meekness and gentleness of Christ: "Now I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ" (10:1). As human as anyone, Paul got frustrated and upset—anyone who has driven the 15 freeway can relate. On my way to San Marcos last Sunday, a car cut me off, and I thought it would be priceless if they turned into Cross Connection. We all formulate plans for what we'd do if we didn't have the fish on the back of the car. But Jesus reveals in the Sermon on the Mount that such fantasizing is itself sin.

So Paul did not want to fight after carnal methods. He was, however, sufficiently armed with heavenly weapons to cast down the vain imaginations of those who exalted themselves as obstacles to people knowing the truth. These false apostles—whom he sarcastically calls "super apostles"—were hindrances to people coming to the truth. The remainder of chapter 10 is a preface, assuring the Corinthians that the foolish boasting to come is ultimately for edification, not destruction.

The First Two "Fours": God's Jealousy

If personal boasting is foolish, why does Paul engage in it? Why come down to their level rather than stay above the fray? This passage gives four reasons—four "fors," each beginning with the word "for."

The first is in verse 2: "For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy." We react negatively to the word jealous, because covetousness and envy are human vices we teach our children to avoid. How can Paul attach God to this jealousy? During a web broadcast years ago, Oprah Winfrey said she began to be turned away from the church when a preacher said, "the Lord your God is a jealous God." She thought, "God is omnipresent—and also jealous? Jealous of me?" Something didn't feel right, and her search for "something more than doctrine" began.

In one sense she is right: if God in heaven is jealous of Oprah Winfrey, that is twisted. But the Scriptures teach that God is not jealous of us; He is jealous for us. We were created to love, honor, worship, and serve Him, and our greatest good is found in Him. It is not cliché to say of God, "You complete me." So it is not wrong for God to be jealous for us. The false apostles in Corinth were, by their work, inciting the jealous attention of a zealous God—and in the Old Testament, whenever God's jealousy was aroused, it did not end well.

Betrothed to One Husband

The second "for" follows: "for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." By preaching the gospel, Paul not only planted a church but connected those people to Christ. When you put your faith in Christ, you began an engagement period with the Lord, looking forward to the marriage supper of the Lamb, hopeful that on that day we will be a bride without spot or blemish (Ephesians 5).

During that betrothal, there is a real danger that others might seduce the church to commit spiritual adultery. The Corinthian church was God's church, not Paul's. "I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase" (1 Corinthians 3:6). Any would-be suitor who shows up to distract the church's attention to himself arouses the righteous, jealous anger of God. These critics wanted disciples of themselves; they wanted their name upon the work in Corinth. Paul, by contrast, planted a church, ordained elders, and left it to the Lord—writing back only to caution and encourage.

Departure from the Simplicity That Is in Christ

Paul's concern was not loss of control—he kept no administrative control over them—but verse 3: "lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." Eve and Adam were deceived by the serpent's subtlety; they did not knowingly march into ruin. The Corinthians were being led away from those beautiful six words: the simplicity that is in Christ.

These deceivers were leading the church into a salvation that involved their own works. Paul defines the essential gospel in 1 Corinthians 15:1–4: "Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and... he rose again the third day." Why? "He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (5:21). "By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast" (Ephesians 2:8–9). The Christian does good works—but as a response to Christ's finished work, not to earn salvation. Any teaching that adds to Christ's finished work is a seduction from the simplicity that is in Christ.

The Third "Four": Another Jesus, Another Spirit, Another Gospel

Verse 4 gives three steps in the seductive process. First, another Jesus. The danger is not someone openly claiming to be Christ—that is easy to spot—but someone whose words at first seem entirely right. The Mormon church has advertised heavily, promoting itself as a mainline Christian denomination. When their elders come to your door, you ask, "Do you love Jesus? Do you believe He died on the cross for your sins? Do you believe salvation comes by faith?" Yes, yes, yes—until you ask, "Who is Jesus?" "He's the spirit brother of Lucifer, a created being." That doesn't fit. Or another group brings the New World Translation, where John 1:1 reads, "the Word was a God." That minor change alters everything.

I will quote, probably for the only time from this pulpit, from the Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 25:23: "we labor diligently... to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God: for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do." Everything sounds right—until "after all we can do." So get to work. That is a hefty addition.

Second, another spirit. Where do these other Jesuses come from? "The Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils" (1 Timothy 4:1). Consider the origins of these faiths. Muslims believe the Quran was revealed through the angel Gabriel to Muhammad over 23 years. Joseph Smith said an angel named Moroni revealed the golden plates. Both received their revelation from an angel—and "Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light" (11:14). Accept a different Jesus, and you accept a totally different spirit, not from God.

Third, another gospel. False teachers bring doctrines of demons and seductive heresies that may sound like good news but are not the gospel. Paul warned the Galatians: "I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel" (Galatians 1:6). "Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed" (1:8).

Paul feared they "might well bear with" such teachers, because the Corinthians had a track record of tolerating sin. They even kept a man in an adulterous affair with his stepmother and counted themselves loving for it. Paul answered, "a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump."

The Fourth "Four": Departure from Paul

The fourth "for" is in verses 5–6: "I suppose I was not a wit behind the very chiefest apostles. But though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge." Before false apostles could bring in another gospel, they first had to tarnish the people's view of Paul so they would reject him and his message.

They said he was "rude in speech." The Greek is idiotes to logo—he's an idiot, untrained in Greek rhetoric. The Greeks honored polished speakers; these false teachers were apparently eloquent. Paul replies, "but not in knowledge"—I am no fool in what I know.

They also spoke ill of Paul's unwillingness to receive payment (verses 7–12). "I have preached to you the gospel of God freely... I robbed other churches, taking wages of them, to do you service." While in Corinth, Paul refused offerings from them, supported instead by Macedonia, so no one could think they had purchased their salvation. This was the very error of pre-Reformation Rome: "every coin in the coffer, a soul from purgatory springs," indulgences sold by the Pope. We support missionaries planting churches for the same reason. Yet the false teachers said, "See, he's not a true teacher—he won't take money. We will." Astonishingly, this offended the Corinthians, so much that Paul writes, "Forgive me this wrong" (12:13).

They questioned his heritage (verse 22): "Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so am I." They claimed Paul, from Tarsus, was not truly Hebrew like them.

Paul's True Credentials: Suffering for Christ

Finally, they questioned his ministerial credentials. "Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more" (verse 23). But Paul does not list the churches he planted in Galatia, Ephesus, Macedonia, and Corinth. Instead: "in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck... in perils of waters, of robbers, of mine own countrymen, of the heathen, in the city, in the wilderness, in the sea, among false brethren; in weariness and painfulness, in watchings, in hunger and thirst, in fastings, in cold and nakedness. Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches."

He lists not amazing accomplishments but his sufferings—because "all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." Strikingly, the book of Acts records almost none of this. It tells only of his stoning outside Lystra and his beating in Philippi. We read nothing of three shipwrecks, a night and day in the deep, or five whippings of forty lashes minus one—195 lashes from synagogue leaders following Deuteronomy 25. We hardly know the apostle Paul.

"If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities." Then he gives one humbling peek: in Damascus, under Aretas the king, he was let down through a window in a basket and escaped. This was the life of Paul—not the luxury of those who critiqued him.

Boasting for God

What we see here is the idea of boasting for God. Paul boasted because critics had come to devastate the cause of Christ. And know for certain that twenty centuries later there are far more such teachers than there were then, seeking to lead us away from the simplicity that is in Christ. Therefore we must be on guard, for it is so easy to be seduced—led astray into things that make us feel superior because we supposedly have something greater than others in Christ.

If you have Christ, you have all you need. If anyone says, "You must worship on the Sabbath," anathema. "You won't be right unless you're baptized in this church," let him be accursed. "You won't be saved unless you do this," get thee behind me, Satan—you are not mindful of the things of God. Jesus paid it all.

Closing Prayer

Father, we thank You for the simplicity of Your word. We thank You for the simplicity that we have in Christ, that if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation. All the old things have passed away; behold, everything has become new. Let us today, as we walk from here, walk in that newness of life, declaring Your praises wherever we may go. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.