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.
The Corinthians have followed men rather than God and are easily
deceived as Eve was. Paul is warning them that they are far too willing to
follow a person preaching false doctrine and far too easily fooled by what
those men say. They are like the modern Christian who will not read the Bible
themselves but simply believe whatever any so-called ‘man o’ god’ tells them is
so. Unlike the Bereans of Acts they will not search the scriptures.
Acts 17:10 ¶ And the brethren immediately sent away Paul
and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11 These were more noble than those in
Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and
searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.
The Corinthians were in danger of accepting a corrupted idea of
who Jesus was, denying His divinity and the resurrection itself. The Gnostics
would remove identification of the man Jesus Christ as the Lord Jesus Christ as
is evidenced by many modern translations that remove His name and title from
the letter to the Corinthians based on the evidence of their minds and the two
Gnostic-inspired manuscripts Sinaiticus and Vaticanus.
Many modern, Christians follow a Jesus who reflects their personal
political bigotry, or social fears, or even historical revisionism. They see
the Bible through a lens that colors and distorts the image of Christ and they
will not come to the Bible with a fresh mind waiting for the Holy Spirit to
fill their cup. In fact, the water in their cup is corrupted by their own
prejudice.
Paul warns the Corinthians not to depart from the simplicity that
is in Christ.
11:5 ¶ 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.
Paul continues this argument by pointing out that he is among the
Apostles of Christ. He admits he is not a good speaker but has been open with
the Corinthians in teaching them the gospel of Christ. He did not get any
financial support from them but depended on other churches to assist him in his
ministry to the Corinthians.
Paul wants to make it clear that he is not making merchandise of
them. What he does and says it is for their benefit. He warns them about the
false apostles who are the Gnostics who deny the Lord came in the flesh. John
gave this warning.
1John 4:2 Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every
spirit that confesseth that Jesus
Christ is come in the flesh is
of God: 3 And every spirit that
confesseth not that Jesus Christ
is come in the flesh is not of
God: and this is that spirit of
antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is
it in the world.
2John 1:7 For many deceivers are entered into the
world, who confess not that Jesus
Christ is come in the flesh.
This is a deceiver and an antichrist.
Paul’s nemeses also include the Judaizers who try to put the
Christian back under the Law. He admonished the Galatians.
Galatians 3: 1 ¶ O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you,
that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been
evidently set forth, crucified among you? 2
This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of
the law, or by the hearing of faith? 3
Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect
by the flesh?...24 Wherefore the law was
our schoolmaster to bring us
unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after that faith is come, we are no
longer under a schoolmaster.
Paul has also noted that there are those who, like the Sadducees
of the Jews deny the very Resurrection that is the cornerstone of their faith.
He is dealing with a great many heresies and divisions already springing up.
Verse 14 should give us all a shudder. Satan appears to be
something good by deception. He masks himself as an angel of light and his ministers of unrighteousness can look like ministers of righteousness.
Just think of all of the Catholic priests and fundamentalist
pastors and youth workers who have been charged with and convicted of sexual
crimes against innocent children or even crimes against adults like rape and
other forms of abuse.
Think of the Unitarians of colonial America in New England. Most of
them started out in churches that were staunch Congregationalists, Puritans,
strict in doctrine and dogma and eventually began to move into the fold that
denied the divinity of Christ. Eventually it didn’t matter what you believed in
as long as you believed in God. Then, that was optional. Our second president
John Adams was married and buried in such a church. In his letters to Thomas
Jefferson later in life he denied the trinity, disbelieved that the Devil
existed, and expressed in a belief in a religion of good works saying that every
good man was a Christian. Don’t believe me. Read his own letters and a letter
from Abigail, his wife, to their son, John Quincy Adams, denying the divinity
of Christ. It doesn’t mean they didn’t respect Christ as a teacher or even deny
His resurrection or miracles. It just means that they denied the Scriptures’
testimony that he was God and that salvation was by faith alone with good works
a result, not the cause, of faith.
We must always be wary of false doctrine disguised as truth,
bathed in a glow of good works and acts of kindness, denying the fully-God and
fully-man Christ Jesus. I know good people right now who regard themselves as
Christians in philosophy only and hold to the so-called Golden Rule as their
guide but who, in their religion of good works, deny the One who created them
as clearly written in the Bible.
Regardless of what they call themselves they are practicing atheists.
John 10:30 I
and my
Father are one.
John 14:9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long
time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen
me hath seen the Father;
and how sayest thou then, Shew
us the Father?
Romans 8:9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the
Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God
dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none
of his.
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