Notes on 2 Corinthians 11

1 Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly: and indeed bear with me.
2 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.
3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
4 For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.

Now Paul arrives at the real nature of his concern for the Corinthians, not that they would prefer some other leader over him, but they might prefer another god other than the God he served, and look for another way of salvation than in Jesus Christ. God referred to himself as a "jealous God," (Exodus 34:14, and others), and he will not share the reverence and worship due him. Paul experiences that same jealousy, in Christ. His fear that the Corinthians might well follow after a false gospel, or worship a false god, presented by one of those men who take such pains to bring flowery letters of introduction with them.

5 For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles.
6 But though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge; but we have been throughly made manifest among you in all things.
7 Have I committed an offence in abasing myself that ye might be exalted, because I have preached to you the gospel of God freely?
8 I robbed other churches, taking wages of them, to do you service.
9 And when I was present with you, and wanted, I was chargeable to no man: for that which was lacking to me the brethren which came from Macedonia supplied: and in all things I have kept myself from being burdensome unto you, and so will I keep myself.
10 As the truth of Christ is in me, no man shall stop me of this boasting in the regions of Achaia.
11 Wherefore? because I love you not? God knoweth.
12 But what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from them which desire occasion; that wherein they glory, they may be found even as we.
13 For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

The implication of 1 Corinthians 13, about the love of God, is that the Corinthian church did not truly manifest it. They were subject, not only to spiritual pride, but carnality. They judged the motives of others based on their own, which were far from pure. Their assumption was that Paul wanted something in return for what he had given them, and if he had accepted gifts from them while working in their midst, they would have used that against him. Rather than accept anything from them, knowing from the Lord what the result would be, he drew on the unstinting charity of other churches, especially the one in Philippi.

In order to defend his own status as God's apostle, and not because of any false pride, he proceeds to give those who support him ammunition, in the form of his spiritual credentials, against those who would tear him down. Those credentials come from Christ himself, and are of the same nature and quality as those of the original eleven who walked with Christ in his earthly ministry. Just as those false teachers boast of their achievements, Paul himself boasts as well, but his glorying is in Christ, not in his own achievements. Satan is able to appear in many guises, and one of these is as a minister of the Gospel. It happened in the early church, and continues today. Jesus himself warned us of these "wolves in sheep's clothing" (Matthew 7:15), and Paul repeats the warning to the church at Ephesus (Acts 20:29). Those who truly belong to Christ will not be led away to worship other gods ( John 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:), but they may be led into doctrinal error, which will be passed on to others, and they may prevent others from finding the truth, because they themselves have believed a lie. I have no doubt that many ministers who occupy pulpits today, professing to serve Christ, are actually servants of Satan, preaching a lie cleverly packaged as the truth. That applies not only to those in cults, but to many in so-called liberal denominations, and to others in denominations of every description. They are the tares, or weeds, among the wheat, and their ultimate destiny is the same as that of the tares, when they are judged according to their works (Matthew 13:24-30). Our duty, as individual Christians, is to test every saying, every teaching, from the pulpit against the truth of the Word; if it does not measure up, we should reject it. The Holy Spirit, Jesus said, will lead us into all truth, and he is the one teacher we can rely on (John 16:13)..

16 I say again, Let no man think me a fool; if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little.

17 That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting.

18 Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also.

19 For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise.

20 For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face.

21 I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak. Howbeit whereinsoever any is bold, (I speak foolishly,) I am bold also.

For the sake of argument, Paul was taking the attitude of those who boasted about their accomplishments. Such men, he says, are fools, but the Corinthians tolerated them, even congratulating them. It was the equivalent of the sheep thanking the wolves for devouring them; once they accepted someone's rights and authority, they were willing to be led wherever the false teachers wanted them to go, including into spiritual bondage, or abuse, or robbery. We in fundamental churches love to point to television evangelists as prime examples of those kinds of charlatans, but they are just as likely to be found within the four walls of a church building. They all serve the same master, and all of them are enemies of Christ.

22 Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so am I.
23 Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.
24 Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.
25 Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep;
26 In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;
27 In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.
28 Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.
29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not?
30 If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities.
31 The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not.
32 In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king kept the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me:
33 And through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall, and escaped his hands.

It seems that the people coming in and causing trouble in Corinth were the same kind as those troubling the Galatians, Judaizers who wanted to make Christians over as Jews, teaching salvation by the works of the law. Verse 22 makes that clear; they weren't just unbelieving Jews who were trying to gain proselytes, but professing Christians who were Jews, but never really accepted salvation in Christ alone. Paul dealt with such men throughout his ministry, and even after the council at Jerusalem that freed Gentile Christians from the strictures of rituals like circumcision (Acts 15:1-31), the problem persisted. The credentials that Paul offers are not ones that exalt him, but a testimony of what he has willingly endured as a minister of the Gospel. What follows is a litany of trials, punishment, and dangers that are hard for most of us, with our comfortable existence, to comprehend. The purpose was not to show how physically strong and tough that Paul was, but to show that God's strength was sufficient to sustain him, no matter what came his way. It was God who carried him through all that happened to him, or who led him out of harm's way, as when he was let down from the wall of Damascus to escape arrest. The Lord doesn't always lead us through troubles; sometimes he helps us avoid them; the same thing happened to Paul in Ephesus (Acts 19:30), when he was prevented from going in to talk to the mob aroused by the silversmiths. If he leads us to stay away from a place, person, or situation, and we insist on going anyway, we must be willing to suffer the consequences.

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