Lesson #34

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1 – 2 Corinthians

September 21, 2015

Lesson #01

January 16, 2010

Lesson #02

January 16, 2010

RETURN TO THE SYLLABUS

2CORINTHIANS 11
Lesson #34
DEALING WITH CRITICISM

• Memory Verse: 2Cor 11:13

• Paul’s personal life:
• In this chapter, Paul continues to defend his position as an apostle against the Judaizers that went to Corinth to undermine Paul’s work of ministry in that area. The most distressing thing for a pastor or a teacher is to see his people deceived by false teachers.
• In this we see Satan’s tactics in his war against God and God’s people:
• Satan’s first line of attack is external persecution.
• Satan’s second line of attack is to discredit the true gospel.
• Satan’s third line of attack is to discredit those Christians that preach the Word of God.
• It is this third line of attack that we see in this chapter.
• What we need to understand from this chapter is how to deal with severe criticism.

• Read 2Cor 11:1-4
• Paul’s folly: (1)
• Paul considered it a necessary foolishness (mindless) to have to defend his position as an apostle. Self-promotion was what Paul did not like to do. He would rather talk about Christ and the gospel. Paul is so bothered by this foolish necessity that he mentions it several times in this chapter. (1, 16, 17, 21)
• A Pertinent Question: When should the Christian defend himself?
• The answer is, only when the truth of the authority of God comes into question.
• This was Jesus’ mode of operation.
• This was Paul’s mode of operation.
• Paul’s jealousy:

• “For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.”

(2)

• Paul had visited Corinth and preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The people believed the Word of God and were saved. Therefore, Paul considered that he was their spiritual father.
• In the same way that a father gives his daughter in marriage to another man, Paul gave these people to Jesus Christ.
• Paul uses the words of marriage to represent the Christian church’s relationship with Christ.
• The church is the bride of Christ presented to Christ as a beautiful bride of purity and holiness.
• Paul used this same imagery in Eph 5 where he speaks of the husband and the wife in a relationship like Christ and the church. (Eph 5:22-33)
• The church of Jesus Christ has a unique position and relationship with Christ by the fact that the Holy Spirit lives inside of believers. He is the seal of the eternal promise in the same way that an engagement ring and a wedding ring are a seal of a permanent commitment.
• God’s jealousy:
• Read Exo 34:14
• God expressed his jealous relationship with His people, the Israelites, in the same way that Paul expresses it in 2Corinthians.
• What is the difference between human jealousy and godly jealousy?
• According to Webster’s 1828 Dictionary, we are able to contrast the two meanings:
• Human jealousy is self-centered with an apprehension of rivalry that will deprive me of some personal benefit or possession.
• Godly jealousy is an earnest concern for the welfare or honor of another person that ends in indignation with those that violate God’s character by breaking God’s laws.
• The origin of the word, jealous, gives us the characteristic of positive, active, a zealous action toward a person.
• This zealous kind of godly jealousy that has love and concern for a person’s welfare is the way that God feels toward his people. In the same way is how Paul feels toward the Christians in Corinth.
• “…as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety…”

(3)

• Satan’s deception of Eve was subtle in that he twisted God’s words into some other meaning.
• Read Gen 2:16-17
• Read Gen 3:1-5
• Notice that God did not tell Adam and Eve not to touch the tree of the knowledge of good and evil as Eve said.
• Eve extended God’s restriction and made it more severe.
• Therefore, in order to make God seem more lenient, Satan told Eve just the opposite, God is not that bad, “ye shall not surely die.”
• Why did Paul introduce the subject of Adam and Eve and Satan’s subtlety?
• The Judaizers that were visiting Corinth were very subtle in their deception in order to deceive the Christians and draw them away from the living Christ.
• The simple gospel:
• The Judaizers were corrupting the simplicity of the gospel. What did Paul mean by “the simplicity that is in Christ.”? (3)
• The facts of the gospel are very simple that even children can understand it:
• All people are sinners in need of forgiveness.
• Jesus Christ paid the penalty for sin on the cross for all of us.
• Receive Christ into your heart to gain Christ’s forgiveness of sin.
• The Judaizers added the necessity of keeping the Law of Moses.
• From the time of the Judaizers until today, different religions have developed a complex body of rules, regulations, traditions, and doctrines that people must keep to gain salvation.
• Paul says all this is subtle deception by the same enemy that deceived Eve.
• Paul calls this “another Jesus” or “another gospel”. (4) (Gal 1:6)
• In other words, people will say that they are Christians. They will quote scriptures fluently. They will claim to worship the same God that Christians worship. They will say they believe in Jesus Christ. However, if they do not believe in the person and work of Jesus Christ in the same way that the apostles taught it, their belief is misplaced, and they do not have eternal life through Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, because they do not have the indwelling Holy Spirit that gives a person new life.
• The true Gospel has various aspects:

Scriptures	The Various Aspects of the Gospel	The Emphasis
Mat 4:23 Mat 9:35 Mat 24:14 Mar 1:14	The gospel of the kingdom	This title emphasizes the kingly authority of Jesus Christ
Act 20:24	The gospel of the grace of God	This title emphasizes the sinner’s salvation
Eph 1:13	The gospel of salvation	This title emphasizes the faith of the believer
Rom 10:15 Eph 6:15	The gospel of peace	This title emphasizes man’s peace with God through Jesus Christ
Rom 15:16 2Cor 4:4 2Cor 11:7 1The 2:2 1The 2:8-9 1Tim 1:11 1Pet 4:17	The gospel of God The glorious gospel of God The gospel of the glory of God	These titles emphasize God’s eternal plan of reconciliation
Rom 15:19 Rom 15:29 1Cor 9:12 1Cor 9:18 2Cor 2:12 2Cor 9:13 2Cor 10:14 Gal 1:7 Phi 1:27 1The 3:2 2The 1:8	The gospel of Christ The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ	This title emphasizes Christ’s sacrifice
Rev 14:6	The everlasting gospel	This title emphasizes Jesus Christ as the only one that gives eternal life

• The Judaizers preached: (4)
• …another Jesus.
• …by another spirit. (The spirit of Satan)
• ….another gospel.
• Read Gal 1:6-9
• The Judaizers were excellent speakers and very persuasive, but they did not have the truth and neither salvation.

• Read 2Cor 11:5-15

• “…not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles.”

(5)

• Paul is saying that he had a position and authority equal to all the other apostles.
• Wasn’t Paul a little egotistical in his boasts?
• Yes, it would seem so, but we must remember that he is telling them this with great reluctance by saying that this is foolish talk. In other words, his jealous love for the Corinthian Christians has forced him to defend himself so as to protect those Christians from the deception of the Judaizers.
• “…though I be rude in speech…”

(6)

• Paul is saying that the language he uses is very course or rough compared to the eloquent Judaizers.
• Wasn’t Paul a little too humble?
• Perhaps, for Paul was a very educated man with a brilliant mind. However, he did not try to impress people with his education or with eloquent speech. He lowered his vocabulary and speech to the level of the Corinthians. He wanted to speak plainly so they would understand him.
• He did say that he did not lack knowledge. (6)
• Paul’s rhetorical question: (7) Is humility a mistake?
• Paul asks if he had made a mistake in appearing to be like an ordinary person, working hard to make tents to earn his own living, and speaking in ordinary and simple language.
• Of course, the answer is no. It was not a mistake. It is exactly what Jesus Christ did.
• Jesus had the position of the second member of the Holy Trinity equal with God. He came to this earth in humility as a baby. He appeared to be weak and ordinary for the purposes of identifying himself with lost humanity.
• Paul went to Corinth in humility identifying himself with the simple working-class people for the purpose of winning them to Christ.
• “I robbed other churches, taking wages of them, to do you service.”

(8)

• Paul did not take money from the Corinthian church to pay his expenses. He worked as a tent maker to pay his own way.
• The Judaizers said that Paul was not an apostle because he did not take money from the Corinthians. Remember that in the Old Testament the offerings that came to the temple supported a true priest of God.
• While he was in Corinth, Paul did accept money sent to him from the churches in Macedonia for his expenses so that he could continue to preach in Corinth. But Paul refused to take money from the Corinthians because of his great love for them and because they would mis-understand his motives.
• Paul’s boast: (10-12)
• Paul said that he was boasting about his methods of ministry because he had this jealous love for them.
• Other Christian preachers and evangelist of the gospel operated in a different manner than Paul, but he was not going to change his methods to accommodate anyone.
• His methods only highlighted his love for the people in Corinth.
• False apostles and deceitful workers: (13-15)
• Paul calls the Judaizers false apostles and deceitful workers.
• The Judaizers did not have the true experience of the new birth in Christ. Therefore, they transform themselves into apostles.
• A person that has not had a born-again experience with Jesus Christ and has not received the Holy Spirit that comes to live inside the believer, can never become a true apostle of Jesus Christ.
• The difference is that Paul did not make himself an apostle. He had that born-again experience with Christ on the road to Damascus. The Holy Spirit came to live inside of him. Then God called him to be an apostle to the Gentiles.
• The Judaizers did exactly what their father, Satan, did.
• Satan transforms himself into an angel of light so that he receives glory.
• The Judaizers, ministers of Satan, transformed themselves into ministers of righteousness so that personally they received the glory.
• The light is attractive. That is the deception.
• But that deception ends in eternal damnation and destruction.

• Read 2Cor 11:16-33
• Paul speaking according to the flesh and not according to the Spirit:
• Paul continued his mindless, foolish speaking by boasting in the flesh. (16-17) However, they should not think of him as a fool.
• The Judaizers foolishly glory in the flesh nature.
• Paul said that he could do that too. (17-19) He could speak according to the flesh and not the Spirit.
• Paul indulges in a little sarcasm by saying that the Corinthian people, because they were so wise, liked people to speak foolishly.
• Through this negative sarcasm Paul gives them a strong rebuke: (20)
• In their foolish wisdom, the people in Corinth liked it when the Judaizers made them slaves, destroyed their faith, and took advantage of them, elevated themselves, and treated them badly.
• Paul’s point by point comparison according to the flesh:
• The Judaizers spoke boldly. Paul just spoke to them boldly in the flesh through negative sarcasm. (21)
• The Judaizers were Hebrews (racial pride), Israelites (pride in being God’s people), from the lineage of Abraham (pride in the lineage of promise). Equally Paul was the same. (22)
• Are the Judaizers ministers of Christ?
• Notice that a statement in parenthesis follows in verse 23, “(I speak as a fool)”. In other words, Paul is saying that this is a very stupid question.
• The Judaizers did not physically suffer all the things that Paul suffered for the purpose of bringing the gospel. (24)
• These things that Paul suffered in verses 23-27 are the exterior physical hardships.
• Five times he was flogged with a cat-o-nine tails by Jews.
• Three times he was beaten with a rod. This was a gentile punishment. Only one of these beatings is mentioned in Acts in the city of Philippi.
• He was stoned at Lystra and left for dead.
• He suffered three shipwrecks. Acts gives us the details of one of these shipwrecks.
• He floated in the ocean a night and a day after one of these shipwrecks.
• Then there was the mental and emotional burden of being a spiritual father to all the churches he planted and all the people he had led to know Jesus Christ. (28)
• Then there were the psychological battles with temptations against his flesh nature like anger and pride. (29)
• Then there were the embarrassments that he suffered. (32-33)
• Only God knows that Paul was not lying about any of these episodes of suffering. (31)
• It is only because Paul was forced to boast that we know about all the things that Paul suffered. Some of them are not mentioned in any other place in scripture.
• Summary and Application:
• Through this chapter we see a man of God deal with extreme criticism that threatened to destroy everything Paul had worked for all his life. This group of Judaizers did not stop in their attacks against Paul. They followed him everywhere.
• What we need to learn is how to deal with this kind of extreme criticism that threatens to destroy what God has called you to do.

• Principles:

• =1= Stay with God in prayer.
• =2= Keep in mind specifically and clearly what God has called you to do. (2,7)
• =3= Know that God is in control and that you cannot fulfill God’s plan in your own strength.
• =4= Recognize the spiritual source of the criticism. (14-15)
• =5= Leave the criticism at the feet of Christ for He knows the truth. (31)
• =6= Do not get angry because anger is weakness and lack of self-control. (29) Instead maintain humility. (5-6; 12:6)
• =7= Ask God to reveal to you any legitimate truth in the criticism with an attitude of willingness to change. (7)
• =8= Continue to maintain the truth as God reveals it to you. (10; 12:6)

HOMEWORK
2CORINTHIANS 12
This is a self-study. Please do not send homework answers to the teacher forcorrection.

• Application of 2Cor 11
• How well do you respond to criticism?
• Which of the 8 principles for handling criticism do you need to strengthen?

• Preparation for 2Cor 12
• Read 2Cor 12:1-21
• What do you learn about Paul’s thorn in the flesh?
• How did Paul deal with this thorn in the flesh?

Memory Verse: 2Cor 12:10