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Sermon on 2 Corinthians 11:1-15, Weak Christians, Bad Teachers
There are two intriguing proverbs in the book so named, sitting side by side, and seemingly contradictory:
- Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you yourself will be just like him. (Proverbs 26:4)
- Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes. (Proverbs 26:5)
Why would the wise instruct us in this manner? Because different situations demand different approaches, and the wise will discern which approach to take in which situation.
All the letter of 1 Corinthians and all the letter of 2 Corinthians up until this point has been Paul NOT answering a fool according to his folly. Paul has been patiently and wisely seeking to clarify the truth of the gospel for these precious converts of his, hoping that his counsel would suffice to expose the foolishness of those at Corinth who have adopted wrong doctrine and practices and hoping to undo the attempt of the false teachers there to whittle Paul’s character and knowledge down to nothing.
But in chapter 11 of the epistle Paul switches tactics. Paul goes from Proverbs 26:4 to 26:5. Look at verse 1.
1 I hope you will put up with me in a little foolishness. Yes, please put up with me!
The time has come for Paul to clearly call out what these false teachers are and who he is, in a way that the foolish Corinthians will understand. He has been putting up with the Corinthians, but now he is asking them to put up with him. His tongue is in his cheek. Look at verses 2-4.
2 I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. 3 But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 4 For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.
Paul compares himself to the friend of the bridegroom, the one responsible for putting together the wedding of bride and bridegroom, bringing the pure bride to the bridegroom at the appointed time. In his comparison, Jesus is the groom and Paul is charged with presenting the bride, this church, as a chaste virgin, safeguarded for the wedding day. But unfortunately, Paul has found out that the bride has been messing around, has been anything but faithful. She’s become attracted to another man, she has been deceived into thinking she is doing things right, when, in fact, it is Satan’s way she is following.
Paul has been faithful in fulfilling his role. Look at verses 5-9.
5 I do not think I am in the least inferior to those “super-apostles.” 6 I may indeed be untrained as a speaker, but I do have knowledge. We have made this perfectly clear to you in every way. 7 Was it a sin for me to lower myself in order to elevate you by preaching the gospel of God to you free of charge? 8 I robbed other churches by receiving support from them so as to serve you. 9 And when I was with you and needed something, I was not a burden to anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied what I needed. I have kept myself from being a burden to you in any way, and will continue to do so. 10 As surely as the truth of Christ is in me, nobody in the regions of Achaia will stop this boasting of mine. 11 Why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do!
Paul has demonstrated over and over that he has knowledge. He has shown his effective handling of the Scriptures. He has shown that he has been faithful in keeping the sacred gospel intact. He has answered with wisdom all their questions of him about how to live the Christian life. And he has shown them his knowledge of what it means to live under the New Covenant.
And he did all this without charging them. He has worked for them for free. The “super-apostles” have turned this against him. “Well, if Paul were worth his salt he would charge for his services,” they were saying. But Paul was no traveling teacher charging fees for his work, but an apostle of Jesus Christ, concerned about the souls of these Corinthians and sensitive to the charge that he was only doing what he did for personal gain. He wanted it perfectly clear that his only motive was love for the Corinthians and for the truth. Look at verses 12-15.
12 And I will keep on doing what I am doing in order to cut the ground from under those who want an opportunity to be considered equal with us in the things they boast about. 13 For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. 15 It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.
There it is. As clear as crystal. It should have been obvious by all the corrections and explanations of the gospel that Paul has given in 1 Corinthians and up to this point in this letter. But the Corinthians show a propensity for dullness. So he says it outright. These men are false apostles. They don’t serve Jesus Christ. They serve Satan. They are not true light. They are darkness disguised as light. They aren’t servants of righteousness. They teach and practice a righteousness that is morally bankrupt. God will judge them.
So…..
What sparks the concern Paul feels for the Corinthians is their weakness for false teachers and false gospels, and the dangerous acceptance in their midst of false apostles.
It wouldn’t be so bad if they had a weakness for false teaching but there were no false teachers in their midst. But that isn’t the way it works, is it. A weakness for false teaching is like a vacuum, sucking into its orbit someone willing to tickle your ears. Why do people have the leaders they have? As Stephen preached last week, they get what they deserve.
So, as the friend of the bridegroom, Paul is afraid he may have failed in his duty because the Corinthians appear to be under the sway of someone other than their betrothed. Like Eve in the garden, the Corinthians are showing a propensity for deception by Satan.
What is the answer? (1) Learn not to be foolish, and (2) get rid of those who are foolish.
How do we do that? Well, Paul gives us some guidelines in v.4:
4 For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.
- Learn to recognize a false Jesus.
- Learn to recognize a false Holy Spirit.
- Learn to recognize a false gospel.
How Do We Recognize a False Jesus?
Well here’s what we know about the true Jesus:
- He is God yet a distinct person from the Father and the Holy Spirit, and we know that because he claimed to be God (John 5:17 “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” 18 For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God”) and the apostles declared that he was God (John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”).
- He is Man, and we know this because Scripture declares it (1 Timothy 2:5 “For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus”).
- His two natures, divine and human, were not mixed, and we know this because Jesus himself said he did not know the hour of his return, only the Father knew (Mark 13:32).
- He is only one person, as he represented himself to be throughout his life.
The Council of Chalcedon put it this way:
We, then, following the holy Fathers, all with one consent, teach men to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man, of a reasonable soul and body; consubstantial with us according to the manhood; in all things like unto us, without sin; begotten before all ages of the Father according to the Godhead, and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the virgin Mary, the mother of God, according to the manhood; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one Person and one Subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten, God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, as the prophets from the beginning have declared concerning him, and the Lord Jesus Christ himself has taught us, and the Creed of the holy Fathers has handed down to us.
So,
- do not accept the Jesus of Jehovah’s Witnesses, who deny that Jesus is God, insisting that he is the first and highest creation of God.
- Do not accept the Jesus of the Latter Day Saints, the Mormons, who teach that Jesus’ was literally procreated by the Father and one of His heavenly wives and so inherited divine qualities, and his human body was procreated by the Father and Mary.
- Do not accept the Jesus of the Jesus Seminar, who is an influential man whose disciples created legends about him to increase his value.
How Do We Recognize a False Holy Spirit?
- False teaching will deny the deity of the Holy Spirit.
- False teaching will emphasize human achievement instead of Spirit-empowered living
- False teaching will deny or minimize the miraculous presence of the Spirit
- False teaching will encourage division from true Christians
So,
- do not accept the Holy Spirit of the Unitarians, who originally rejected the Trinity and thus the deity of both the Son of God and the Holy Spirit, but who now embrace many views of God and faith.
- Do not accept the Holy Spirit of the Oneness movement, an offshoot of Pentecostalism that says the Father, Son and Spirit are all one person, not separate persons.
How Do We Recognize a False Gospel?
- A false gospel will require works as a means of salvation.
- A false gospel might require the discovery of special knowledge. (gnosticism)
- A false gospel might advocate for new revelation in addition to the Bible.
- A false gospel might denigrate those who originally preached the gospel by which you were saved.
So,
- do not accept the gospel of every other religion except Christianity (Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Bahaism, and even Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy) because they all introduce works as necessary for salvation and faith as insufficient as a means of salvation.
- Do not accept the gospel of the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Judas, the Gospel of Mary Magdalene and several other so-called lost Gospels, which are actually teaching gnosticism, salvation through secret knowledge and good works in accordance with that knowledge, nor the modern advocates of gnosticism like Carl Jung and Scientology.
- Do not accept the gospel of the Book of Mormon and other Latter Day Saint scriptures, of Christian Science with its Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, and many other religions that have their own scriptures.
- Do not accept the gospel of someone who puts down the one who led you to Christ. Do you know why they’re doing that? So they can turn you toward themselves and their false gospel.
We are responsible to be faithful to Christ and not be attracted to false Christs, false Holy Spirits, and false gospels. That means we must learn how to evaluate such falsehoods. It also means we must remember the one who truly rescued us. Think about it. What really transformed your life, reoriented your life and gave you hope? What gave you purpose? I was sixteen when I believed in Jesus to save me. I remember how radically my life was changed. I remember taking a trip back to the town where I was raised the first 13 years of my life and standing on the corner in front of the house we used to live in. A wave of hopelessness rushed over me as I contemplated my life without Christ. But now I had hope and purpose. Now I knew who I was and that God was my Savior and Lord. It was the message preached to me by a man named Mark Clements, it was the Jesus he shared with us, it was the gospel he explained to us, that had rescued me. I’ve faced innumerable false explanations about Jesus and the Holy Spirit and the gospel since, and rejected them, because they did not accord with Scripture and because it was this Scriptural Jesus, this Scriptural Holy Spirit and this Scriptural gospel that proved itself in my life.
Brothers and Sisters, Stay true to Jesus!
About the Author Randall Johnson
A full-time pastor since 1979, Randall originally graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary (ThM) in 1979 and from Reformed Theological Seminary (DMin) in 1998. He is married with four grown children and a pile of epic grandchildren.
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