2 Corinthians 11
McGeeCHAPTER 11THEME: Vindication of Paul’s apostleshipPaul writes very intimately and very personally in this chapter. Paul reminds these folk that they are joined to the living Christ, and he expresses his deep concern for them. I can certainly say that the message of this epistle has been beneficial to me. I have spent a great deal of time studying it, and I have found it has had a real message to my own heart. This final section of the Epistle to the Corinthians concerns the calling of the apostle Paul. In chapter 10 we found the authentication of Paul’s apostleship. Now we come to a very personal section which is the vindication of Paul’s apostleship.
2 Corinthians 11:1
Paul came to Corinth. He preached the gospel. A church came into existence because Paul had espoused these people, these believers, to Christ.
2 Corinthians 11:3
I cannot overemphasize the need of more simplicity in getting out the Word of God. So many of our young preachers are the products of seminaries which are trying to train intellectuals. I was listening to one of these men the other day, and I couldn’t tell what he was talking about. After about fifteen minutes, I was convinced that he didn’t know what he was talking about. They try to be so intellectual that they end up saying nothing. What he needed to do was give out the Word of God. Oh, the simplicity that is in Christ Jesus! Paul is still making an appeal to that minority group which had stirred up trouble against him and was trying to discredit his ministry. He has already explained the reason he didn’t come to spend more time with them. He had not been called to be a pastor. He was an “evangelist"literally a missionary who did not want to build on another man’s foundation. He traveled onward and he moved out to the frontier. That was his service, his ministry. Now he wants them to know that he is an accredited apostle. He writes, “I am jealous over you with godly jealousy.” Why was Paul willing to actually make himself a fool, as it were, for them? Although he would rather speak to them about Christ than to spend the time defending himself, now it was necessary to defend himself"So I am speaking foolishly.” He mentions this several times in this chapter. “Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly: and indeed bear with me,” in verse 2Co_11:1. “I say again, Let no man think me a fool; if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me, that I amy boast myself a little,” in verse 2Co_11:16. He says it is going to be necessary for him to defend himself, to speak foolishly. The Greek word which is translated “foolish” or “fool” can mean stupid or ignorant or egotistic. Literally it would be “mindlessness,” with no purpose. Paul is saying that spending time in his defense is mindless because it is not getting out the gospel. It doesn’t serve the purpose of his ministry, and yet he feels he must do it because of the opposition of this critical group in Corinth. This is why he asks them to bear with his folly, to suffer him to be foolish so that he can defend his apostleship. We see the working of Satan in all this. At the very beginning of the early church the Devil used the method of persecution, but he found that he wasn’t stopping the spread of Christianity. The fact of the matter is that the church has never grown as it did those first one hundred years after Christ lived. It swept across the Roman Empire, and by A.D. 315 it had gone into every nook and corner of the Roman Empire. That was during a period of persecution. When the Devil saw that persecution would not stop the church, he changed to a different tactic. He joined the church. He began to hurt the church from the inside. He still does that today. He attacks the validity of the Word of God, and he tries to discredit the gospel. If that doesn’t work, he tries to discredit the man who preaches the gospel. So he tried to discredit Paul. Paul makes it very clear that he would rather be preaching the gospel than be spending time defending himself. He takes the time to defend himself because he is jealous over the Corinthians. He loves them. He is afraid they will be beguiled by Satan just as Eve was beguiled by his subtlety. Paul knows that Satan works “so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”
2 Corinthians 11:4
We still face the problem today of the preaching of another Jesus, another spirit, another gospel. Some time ago there was a musical production called “Jesus Christ, Superstar,” which denies His deity and presents a “Jesus” who never lived. It is the “Jesus” of liberalism dressed in a new wardrobe. And the Jesus of liberalism never existed. If they deny the virgin birth of Jesus, they are talking about some other Jesus, not the Jesus Christ of the Bible. If they do not believe that He performed miracles, they have a different Jesus in mind, because the Jesus in the Gospels is the One who performed miracles.
He is the One who died for the sins of the world, which they deny. They deny that He was raised from the dead bodily. They deny that He is the God-Man. Yet one of the oldest creeds declares that He is very God of very God and very man of very man. If that is denied, then a different Jesus is being presented.
2 Corinthians 11:5
I would rate Paul as the number one apostle; he says he is not the least of the apostles. He wants these Corinthians to know that he is just as much an apostle as any of the others. Just because he came to them as a tentmaker and because he walked in the meekness and gentleness of Christ does not mean that he is not an apostle. You see how Paul is forced to defend himself.
2 Corinthians 11:6
Paul was a brilliant man, but he used simple language. There are two men who have had a great influence on my life. One was a scholarly man in Memphis, Tennessee, who taught in simplicity. The other was Dr. Harry A. Ironside who was known as a simple preacher. He was a brilliant man, but he preached with simplicity. He put the cookies on the lower shelf where the kiddies could get them. Simplicity was the method of Paul. Paul says that he was rude in speech. I think that he actually adopted the language that the Corinthians would understand, and I am of the opinion that it may have been a rather rude approach. However, Paul was a brilliant man. From his writings I would judge that he had the highest I.Q. of any man who has walked this earth.
2 Corinthians 11:7
Paul would not allow the Corinthians to contribute to his support at all. He had to work hard at making tents. Some others sent him some support to enable him to spend some time preaching the gospel, but the Corinthians did not help him. That his hands were calloused did not indicate that he was not an outstanding apostle.
2 Corinthians 11:10
Paul says that he is boasting because it is the truth and because he is jealous over them and fearful for them. Other men, such as Apollos, may have been more eloquent and polished than Paul and did not stoop to do manual labor. Comparison with others is not the issue. Paul worked as a tentmaker. He did not take remuneration from the Corinthians. This does not detract from his apostleship.
2 Corinthians 11:13
Evidently there were deceitful workers who attempted to make themselves apostles of Christ when they were not. They were actually servants of Satan. People have the idea that Satan has cloven hooves and horns. This kind of erroneous idea comes from the great god Pan of Greek mythology, who was portrayed as half animal and was worshiped as Dionysus. Likening Satan to Pan certainly is not the scriptural point of view. Satan himself is an angel of light. If he would make himself visible to you, you would see a being of breathtaking beauty. Paul draws from that this conclusion:
2 Corinthians 11:15
The frightening statement here is that Satan has ministers. It makes your hair stand on end. As Satan is transformed into an angel of light, so his ministers are transformed as the ministers of righteousness. They are very attractive. I remember as a boy in my teens I went to hear a lecturer from a certain cult. I was not brought up in a Christian family, and I didn’t know how to differentiate truth from untruth. This man read questions from the audience. I am of the opinion that no one really asked this question but that he made it up himself so that he would be able to make a point. He said someone asked whether he could explain the halo of light that was around his head. Well, I took a good, hard look and I couldn’t see any halo of light around his head.
But don’t you see what he was doing? He was making himself to be a minister of light. He was glorifying himself. All Satan’s ministries glorify themselves. This is one way you can tell whether a man is preaching the simplicity of the Word of God or whether he is preaching some other Jesus and some other gospel.
2 Corinthians 11:16
Paul says he must go on in this mindlessness, and they should indulge him in this.
2 Corinthians 11:18
He adds a bit of holy sarcasm.
2 Corinthians 11:20
He gives them strong reproof here. He says someone can come in to them, put them back under the bondage of the Law, he can live off them, exalt himself, smite them, and they will put up with that. They will take that kind of treatment from a false teacher. Now we come to a section where Paul describes his own life as a minister of the gospel. I must confess that I have been in the ministry for many years but when I read what this man Paul went through, I recognize that I have just been playing at it. I have not been a real servant of Christ as this man had been.
2 Corinthians 11:21
Paul says, “I can prove my genealogy.” There was no question who he was.
2 Corinthians 11:23
The Jews had a method in those days of delivering thirty-nine stripes, and to prevent killing the person, they would apply thirteen stripes on one side, thirteen stripes on the other side, and thirteen stripes on the back. Paul had had this kind of torture five times.
2 Corinthians 11:25
How many of us today could say that we have been through even the smallest part of anything like that? We sit in the lap of luxury. We live in an affluent society. We know practically nothing of hardship for the sake of Jesus Christ.
2 Corinthians 11:28
Those of us who are pastors have experienced the burden of a church. Paul had the burden of “all” the churches. We know a little of what that entailed.
2 Corinthians 11:29
Paul says, “Here is my report as a minister of Jesus Christ.”
2 Corinthians 11:32
How embarrassing it must have been to have been let down in a basket! When I (and I’m sure other pastors have the same experience) go to a city to hold a meeting or a Bible conference, they always put me in a comfortable motel and are very hospitable to me. I am received with dignity. Imagine Paul having to be let down by the wall in a basket to escape those who were lying in wait to kill him. How embarrassing! Paul did all this for Jesus’ sake. My friend, don’t brag about what you suffer for Christ. Read this over again. We must all bow our heads in shame and say, “Oh, Lord Jesus, help me to be true to You. Help me to be faithful to You.”