2 Corinthians 11:1–18 (NKJV)
1 Oh, that you would bear with me in a little folly—and indeed you do bear with me. 2 For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. 3 But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. 4 For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted—you may well put up with it! 5 For I consider that I am not at all inferior to the most eminent apostles. 6 Even though I am untrained in speech, yet I am not in knowledge. But we have been thoroughly manifested among you in all things. 7 Did I commit sin in humbling myself that you might be exalted, because I preached the gospel of God to you free of charge? 8 I robbed other churches, taking wages from them to minister to you. 9 And when I was present with you, and in need, I was a burden to no one, for what I lacked the brethren who came from Macedonia supplied. And in everything I kept myself from being burdensome to you, and so I will keep myself. 10 As the truth of Christ is in me, no one shall stop me from this boasting in the regions of Achaia. 11 Why? Because I do not love you? God knows! 12 But what I do, I will also continue to do, that I may cut off the opportunity from those who desire an opportunity to be regarded just as we are in the things of which they boast. 13 For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. 15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works. 16 I say again, let no one think me a fool. If otherwise, at least receive me as a fool, that I also may boast a little. 17 What I speak, I speak not according to the Lord, but as it were, foolishly, in this confidence of boasting. 18 Seeing that many boast according to the flesh, I also will boast.
Be very careful whom you trust, especially in matters of the faith. St. Paul scolds the Corinthians in today’s reading for being too trusting of those who claimed to be apostles. They were proud of their “simplicity in Christ,” proud of their gullibility, proud of accepting the preachers who came to them without passing judgment on them. After all, didn’t Christ command us to “judge not”?
But the apostle warns that by failing to judge the message of those preachers, the Corinthians were not doing well; they were leaving themselves open to being deceived and led astray to a different gospel.
It is possible to be overly critical of those who preach the gospel; that flows from lovelessness and lack of respect for authority. On the other hand, it is very dangerous to be underly critical of them, because both Satan and his human ministers like to pretend to be something they are not. Satan pretends to be an angel of light instead of the demon of darkness that he is. His ministers pretend to be teachers of righteousness instead of the false teachers that they are. And even well-intentioned Christian ministers can err.
The true apostles and ministers of Christ are known by their fruit, both their doctrine and their life. Paul’s Scriptural teaching and Paul’s insistence on not taking a salary from the churches in Corinth should have made the Corinthian Christians more trusting of him and more critical of those who came with a different message and a different way of life. There is no virtue in the kind of intentional simplicity that says, “Jesus loves me, this I know—and this is all I care to know.”
Let us pray: Lord, keep us from being deceived by false prophets, and help us each day to grow in grace and the knowledge of You. Amen.
