2 Corinthians 11:1-15 Faithful?
A classic scene in films and books, especially romantic comedies is the scene where everything goes wrong at the wedding. Someone trips and falls into the cake, or there is a horrific speech, a third party runs in at the last moment to declare their love for the bride or groom. Or most classically the bride doesn’t turn up at all. The 1990’s romantic comedy “Runaway Bride” told the story of a woman played by Julia Roberts who kept running from the altar time and time again.
In today’s reading this image of a bride that can’t quite commit is used as a metaphor for the church at Corinth. This metaphor raises a question about the church’s faithfulness and Paul’s concern that they remain faithful to God.
We’re taking a look at chapter 11 today, so let’s turn there together in our Bibles.
Here once again Paul finds himself toe to toe with his opponents – a major theme in 2 Corinthians.
So just to get a sense of the context, we are going to look at verses 6-11 where we get a sense of where the conflict was, and accusations Paul’s opponents were throwing at him.
6 Even if I am unskilled in speaking, I am not so in knowledge; indeed, in every way we have made this plain to you in all things. 7 Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted, because I preached God’s gospel to you free of charge? 8 I robbed other churches by accepting support from them in order to serve you. 9 And when I was with you and was in need, I did not burden anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my need. So I refrained and will refrain from burdening you in any way. 10 As the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting of mine will not be silenced in the regions of Achaia. 11 And why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do!
Here we see two major points of contention:
1) Paul’s speaking skills
2) Paul not taking money for ministry
First. Paul’s opponents at Corinth have accused him of not having good speaking skills. Paul concedes this, though it certainly seems as though he had the gift of the gab. In the book of Acts Paul preaches convincingly leading people to Jesus. Yet he wasn’t necessarily like the flashy speakers of the Roman world. His aim wasn’t to dazzle or impress but simply to point to Jesus.
What Paul does make clear is that he is skilled in knowledge.
Paul’s knowledge bears witness to Jesus Christ – it is a deep and personal kind of knowing grounded in the historical events of his life, death, and resurrection.
In contrast, it seems that those who Paul refers to as the super apostles or the false apostles are by comparison all “sound and fury signifying nothing.”
Secondly, Paul’s opponents also seem to have a problem with him not taking money for his ministry.
Why would Paul not take pay for his ministry?
In his first letter to the Corinthians Paul makes an argument for paying those in ministry (1 Cor 9).
Yet Paul chooses not to do this.
In the ancient world there were certain ways of thinking about gifts and money. When Paul talks about not burdening the Corinthians, he is likely referring to any kind of financial and social dependence.
For Paul to accept the Corinthians money would make them his patrons.
To accept a gift in the ancient world was to be placed under some kind of social obligation to show gratitude.
As one commentator puts it: “(Paul) cannot be free to preach the gospel with boldness if he is having to run around kissing men’s hands, sending them gifts, groveling before them, and slavishly flattering them. He is a slave of Christ, not a slave of fashion or of his sponsors.”[1]
So, what we see here is Paul distancing himself from these ones he calls the “false apostles.” He is keen to be free to preach Jesus simply without obligations otherwise.
It’s interesting to note the two objections to Paul raised here are about speaking and money. In the world Paul was writing in there were itinerant philosophers and teachers who made money by travelling to speak. Some of these may have had good intentions to inform, sure. Yet there is evidence that others simply were interested in making a quick buck. There were charlatans and hucksters keen to earn a living and make a name for themselves.
Yet Paul avoids this at all costs. He doesn’t boast in his speaking skills and he doesn’t want the Corinthians money. He simply states in verse 11 that he does what he does because he loves the Corinthians.
His motivation and heart is to bless them and that they might know Jesus.
And out of this love Paul preaches his message.
We could say in a nutshell that the message Paul preaches is about the faithfulness of God.
The faithfulness of God being God’s commitment to his people. The faithfulness of God is illustrated in God’s giving of his son Jesus to bring hope and healing to a world in desperate need of it.
And so, Paul always has this good news on his lips.
In chapter 11 we see him urging the Corinthians to respond by being faithful in return, and this word resounds for us too today as we read it.
11:2a – Divine jealousy
Paul opens by urging that the Corinthians bear with him as he presents his case. At the beginning of verse 2 Paul says: “For I feel a divine jealousy for you.”
This idea of “divine jealousy” is central to this passage today.
What is divine jealousy about?
We see in the Bible plenty of times, God being described as a “jealous God.” Let me give you just three examples.
-Deuteronomy 4:23-24 “Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the Lord your God has forbidden you. 24 For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.”
-Exodus 20:3-5 3 “You shall have no other gods before me. 4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God.”
-Psalm 78:58 “For they provoked him to anger with their high places; they moved him to jealousy with their idols.”
Notice here that God’s jealousy sits in the context of idolatry.
God is jealous when the people he creates and loves worship false gods.
God is jealous because he desires relationship with people and that they rightly recognize Him as God.
Charles Spurgeon put it well saying “Let it be remembered then, that jealousy, like anger, is not evil in itself, or it could never be ascribed to God; his jealousy is ever a pure and holy flame.”
God’s jealousy is set in the context of love and his relationship to us as Creator.
Paul borrows this language of divine jealousy and says he feels this for the church at Corinth.
He builds on this in the second part of verse 2 saying: “since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.”
Elsewhere Paul has referred to himself as the spiritual Father of the Corinthians.[2]
Here it’s like he is saying “I’ve walked you down the isle to be married to Jesus, so don’t runaway now, stay faithful!”
Paul again borrows from images in the Old Testament.
Israel is referred to as God’s bride in Hosea, and in Ezekiel and Isaiah.[3]
In a beautiful passage in Hosea 2, we hear the metaphor of marriage used to talk about God showing mercy upon Israel.
14 “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. 15 And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt. 16 “And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ 17 For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. 18 And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. 19 And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. 20 I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.
This beautiful prophetic word can be seen fulfilled in Jesus, the one through whom we can know God, the one through whom we are reconciled with God, as Paul reminds us in chapter 5 of 2 Corinthians.
Paul uses this biblical picture of marriage to talk about the Corinthians relationship with Jesus.
Betrothal was similar to engagement yet with a higher commitment. To break it off would mean getting a kind of divorce. The Corinthians have entered into the commitment of betrothal, and the wedding is perhaps a picture of the fulfilment of all their hopes in the kingdom come.
Paul’s concern is that the Corinthians are wavering in their commitment and that the false apostles are drawing them away from their fidelity to Jesus, much like Baal and the idols of the Old Testament drew people away from God.
11:3 – In verse 3 Paul draws on the story of the temptation of Even in the garden by the serpent. The cunning snake got into Eve’s head and convinced her she couldn’t trust God and instead should go her own way.
Paul is concerned that the Corinthians are being deceived in a like manner.
11:4 – Paul speaks about how they are being taught about another Jesus, a different spirit, a different gospel. Given what Paul has said before in this letter we might wonder if the Jesus they are being taught about is one without suffering, perhaps one made in the image of the super-apostles. This has been an issue all along. The Corinthians are tempted to trust their own strength and their own spirituality over the gospel message that through Jesus’ death and resurrection they are saved. It is not by their own might or power, their own education or cleverness, their own words or wit that they will be saved. In Christ alone they have hope, and Paul wants to remind them of this.
Both in Paul’s time and in ours we can be tempted to worship someone other than the genuine Jesus of Nazareth. We have our own ways of casting Jesus in our own image too I am sure, and so Paul’s words of warning are relevant for us.
In verse 12-15 Paul points out how high the stakes are here.
He says the false apostles are not just a nuisance, he actually compares them with the serpent in Genesis, with Satan. He says they are leading people in the church astray. Their end will correspond to their deeds. The presumption is that this end isn’t particularly good. That might be stating it lightly.
So, what are we to make of this passage?
First a caution. This passage has often been wielded by those who think that they are right to bash those who are presumed to be wrong over the heads.
This passage isn’t to be wielded as a weapon in arguments about doctrine or between denominations.
Rather, it is a call to faithfulness.
Paul’s pastoral heart rings out clear and true. He is calling the church to be faithful to Jesus who has been so faithful to the church. Do we hear this call too?
[1] David E. Garland “THE NEW AMERICAN COMMENTARY Volume 29 2 Corinthians.”
[2] 1 Corinthians 4:15
[3] Hos. 1–3; Ezek. 16; Isa. 50:1; 54:1–6