◄ What Does 2 Corinthians 11:3 Mean? ►

Paul had been entrusted with the good news of the gospel of grace and the hidden mystery of the Church, which is His Body, and had been commissioned by God and Lord Jesus Christ to share these glad tidings of great joy to Jew and Gentile alike.

But in both quarters Paul found much resistance to his message, and we discover him once again defending his apostleship to the spiritually immature, carnal Christians at Corinth. These believers were turning away from the truth of the gospel of God, to the lies and deceptions of false teachers.

The sensational boastings about his dedication to the gospel of Christ and his apostolic authority, have been labelled as 'holy irony'. But Paul justified his motive (in straying from Christ's example of humble servant-hood to openly boasting of his personal qualities and qualifications), because of his deep desire to see this unruly congregation of believers renounce their worldly ways, and become living sacrifices unto God.

Paul desired to present the Church as a chaste virgin: "Without spot or wrinkle or any such blemish," to her betrothed husband, the Lord Jesus Christ. Because of their attitude and actions, he feared that they were being enticed away from the glorious gospel of grace to another, false gospel.

Paul was afraid that in the same way that Eve was deceived by the craftiness of the serpent's lying words, so too would the Corinthian believers be enticed away from the simplicity and purity of the gospel of Christ.

Paul was concerned that the cunning way that Satan twisted the truth of God's Word in the garden of Eden and spread his deceptive lies to Eve (which infected the whole of humanity), would happen to the believers at Corinth.

Paul did not want these false teachers with their fraudulent 'gospel' to deceive these believers and entice them away from the simplicity of the true gospel of Christ and the pure milk and meat of the Word of God.

The same lie that was perpetrated in the garden of Eden by the serpent, and which was being fed to the gullible believers at Corinth, is an identical deception in the Church today; a false gospel that distorts the Word of God and twists the truth of the glorious gospel of Christ.

Let us study to show ourselves approved unto God. Let us search the Scriptures daily so that we will not be led astray from the simplicity of the gospel of grace and from purity of devotion to Christ Jesus our Lord.

Heavenly Father, thank You for the Word of truth and the pure gospel of salvation, which I have received by grace through faith in Christ Jesus my Lord. Give me discernment as I study Your Word and help me to recognise when the truth of Scripture is being distorted in any way. I pray that I will not be led astray from the simplicity of the glorious gospel of grace and from pure devotion to Jesus Christ. In Jesus' name, AMEN.