"Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted, because I preached the gospel of God to you without charge? 8 I robbed other churches by taking wages from them to serve you; 9 and when I was present with you and was in need, I was not a burden to anyone; for when the brethren came from Macedonia they fully supplied my need, and in everything I kept myself from being a burden to you, and will continue to do so. 10 As the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting of mine will not be stopped in the regions of Achaia. 11 Why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do!"
In our ongoing study of the Scriptures, we are blessed to return to the eleventh chapter in the book of second Corinthians. I’m confident that God has used this particular portion of the Word, in my life, to strengthen my resolve to be faithful to the truth, and to be guarded against the seducing error that Satan so subtly brings across our path.
It’s another one of those passages, that deals with the potential vulnerability, and the gullibility of the church, and its susceptibility to satanic deception and seduction of error. Throughout the history of the church, the most damaging assault on the church has not come from atheism. It has not come from the rise of scientific skepticism and humanism. Though damning aberrations, they do not pose the greatest threat to the church.
What does threaten and devastates the church is the convergence of spiritual deception and public gullibility; Christians who lack discernment, who lack wisdom, being seduced by what appears to be divine truth, however, it is not. When people abandon God's truth, it's not they do not believe in nothing; it's that they believe in anything!
History has validated, that when the church is assaulted by false doctrine and deceptive lies concerning God. Therefore, the external assaults on the church, do not threaten the religious conscious of believers, because the greatest danger is not unbelief, but is wrong belief!
Let's bow our heads in prayer.
Heavenly Father,
Thank You for this Word You have for us today. Lord, we pray that You would open our eyes, our hearts, and our minds, that we might receive the needed knowledge, discernment, clarity and understanding of these truths, which You are about to reveal to us, that we would not be led astray by Satan's subtle manipulations and deceptive lies.
Lord, we know that the father of lies, the false accuser cleverly, and cunningly seeks to destroy Your church, Your work, the effectiveness of Your people, who lack discernment. Lord, we ask for Your protection, and pray that we would not be tossed to and fro. Help us, O Lord, raise us up to be faithful guardians of the truth, protectors of the Gospel and make Your work part of our daily lives.
Satan is a very powerful, very clever, very subtle, very manipulating adversary. Out of all Christians in all the ages, we should be the most discerning. We must be able to discern truth from error, it's imperative in our world today. However, over the years, primarily in the last decade or so, I have noticed a massive shift in the gullibility, the vulnerability of the modern church. Fewer and fewer Christians, actually read their Bibles, they receive their theology from smooth talking, charming, charismatic, deceptive false teachers, espousing alluring satanic doctrine, seducing the congregation with more philosophy, that theology, and just enough talk about God, just enough Jesus, that just sound spiritual enough to be convincing. The major problem is, however, this is not the same God and Jesus in the Bible, but a modern day Genie, who longs to fulfill your every wish.
As I have said many times, over the years, if you don't know what the Scriptures says, you cannot know what it doesn't!
This rich, magnificent portion of Scripture, primarily consists of Paul defending his apostleship, his character, his integrity, his ministry and his authority. However, it’s helpful to all of us, because it gives us some very valuable criteria, by which to measure and compare the true teachers of today with the false teachers.
I invite you to open your Bibles with me, to the book of II Corinthians chapter 11. Today, we'll be taking a look at verses 7-11. Following along with me, as I read from our text, to get it settled in our minds. II Corinthians 11:7-11
"Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted, because I preached the gospel of God to you without charge? I robbed other churches by taking wages from them to serve you; and when I was present with you and was in need, I was not a burden to anyone; for when the brethren came from Macedonia they fully supplied my need, and in everything I kept myself from being a burden to you, and will continue to do so. As the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting of mine will not be stopped in the regions of Achaia. Why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do!"
There are many today say that it doesn’t matter when you believe as long as you are sincere. While, others, hold the idea of "living your own truth." However, the Bible does not hold to that ludicrous concept. It’s essential that we sincerely believe that which is true. The purity of the church matters.
It matters that the pastors message is true.
Last time, we read that Paul noted, that in the beginning Eve was led astray by temptation, by deception. Then, Paul shared several ways that people allow themselves to be deceived.
He uses the term "super-apostles." This is not meant as a compliment. The false teachers were claiming authority exceeding Paul and the other apostles. So, Paul is actually mocking them here.
Beloved, believe it or not, straying off the path is not all that difficult to do, if you don't read and know your Bible. Careless Christians can be easily deceived, and careless believers can end up in trouble, without even trying. This speaks volumes as to why we all must be diligent to pursue all of the truth that we can get.
Obviously there are countless ways to get off-track, Paul shares some of this valuable insight, to keep us from being led down the wrong path. I find it astonishing, quite appalling really, that here we are, living this far beyond the biblical age, some 2000 years earlier, and the church is just as gullible today.
Because everyone born into this world, is cut off from the truth, alienated from God, therefore is easily deceivable, highly seducable, extremely temptable. In other words, there’s a sucker born every minute! That's depravity. That's total depravity.
You may recall, that Paul, in the previous chapter, acknowledged the Corinthians’ accusation that he was a great writer of letters, however, was a weak preacher. In fact, Paul says something interesting about that, he acknowledges that he is not a trained speaker. I don’t believe that he’s saying, "I’m a terrible speaker." Its more as though he's saying, "Some of these false teachers, sure know how to tickle your ears with their flashy sermons."
Of course, there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with an engaging sermon, however, its been my experience, that a flashy presentation, often masks a flawed theology. Unfortunately, many Christians are so focused on how the preacher is saying it, that they don’t pay attention to what he’s saying.
However I believe, more importantly, is that what the preacher is saying is true. Truth matters.
Or, as Paul puts it, he has "knowledge." In other words, what he's saying accurately conveys what Jesus taught. And then he notes that while his sermons might not have been flashy, his presentation of the truth was "clear to you in every way." Unlike some of those false teachers, flashy super-apostles, who delighted in speaking of mysteries that only they had insight into, Paul’s preaching made the truth clear. Clear to anyone that would listen.
In verse 7, Paul tells the Corinthians that he willingly sacrificed in order to preach the gospel to them free of charge. He "lowered" himself to do this – that means that he was worthy of being paid but he didn’t demand what he was worth. To put it another way, he is saying "Has my preaching to you the gospel without accepting any money made me guilty of some sin?"
Then, in verse 8, he tells of the support that he received during that time from other churches in order to maintain his ministry among the Corinthians. I'd like to mention, that the word "robbed," or esulēsa, in the Greek, meaning to plunder, this isn’t to be taken literally, as though Paul stole from other churches. Rather, what he means is that there were other churches that were equally worthy of help but he allowed his ministry with the Corinthians to be the focus during that time. Other churches sacrificed, in order that the Corinthians might benefit.
In the Greek culture, and you can find this in Greek history - Greek culture actually measured the importance and value of a philosopher by the fee he could command. The more he could command, the more valuable he was. In fact, it is recorded, that Antiphon once said to Socrates, whose custom was not to charge for his teaching, "If you consider your conversation to be worth anything, you would demand for it no less remuneration than it was worth." And since Paul wasn't commanding a wage for his teaching, he was being accused of being an amateur, therefore, his teaching worthless.
Paul further details his sacrifice in verse 9, where he says, "and when I was present with you and was in need, I was not a burden to anyone; for when the brethren came from Macedonia they fully supplied my need, and in everything I kept myself from being a burden to you, and will continue to do so."
Then, in verses 10 and 11, Paul states that he is proud of his sacrifices that he has made for them. And tells them, that his sacrifices, show his love for them.
"As the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting of mine will not be stopped in the regions of Achaia. Why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do!"
In Closing...
The majority of people, think of good and evil in this way: Good, on one side and evil on the other with little intermingling of the two. However, that’s just not the way evil works! It typically takes something good, manipulating and twisting it enough, so that there is appeal to it, but ultimately leads away people from God.
Sex is a great example of this illustration. Sex, is a beautiful gift from God, to be shared by two in the covenant of marriage. Satan doesn't say "Sex is terrible! Stay away from it." Absolutely not! Why? Because there is too much appeal there. So, instead, evil twists the truth just enough. "Sex is a good thing, but, it should be for pleasure, so you don’t have to wait until you’re married. There’s nothing wrong with having sex before you get married. Go ahead, shop around a bit, even try several out, so that you'll know what you want. In fact, it’s the smart way to avoid divorce."
These false teachers were taking from them, while Paul had sacrificed for them. It spoke to their motives and their heart. Evil most often twists the truth just enough to be convincing.
Just as God, has demonstrated His love for us, by sacrificing His only Son, Jesus Christ!
The question now is, do you love Him enough to sacrifice your will for His?
May it be so...
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen