Tuesday 30th May
Read 2 Corinthians 11:2-4
“2 I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. 3 But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the snake’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 4 For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.” (NIVUK)
The first two (of three) reasons that Paul puts forward for the Corinthians to ‘put up with his foolishness’ as he prepares the grounds for his eventual ‘boasts’ are thought-provoking indeed. The first seems straightforward; they should put up with his words because they are motivated by love. A love so strong that he describes it as ‘divine jealousy’ (v2). This is not merely sour grapes that these interlopers have come in and have trashed him and run him down, that would be entirely understandable and would accurately be described as ‘human jealousy’. No, Paul describes this as ‘divine jealousy’, ascribing to his motives a purity that, if we pause to think about it even briefly, is shocking! The image Paul uses is of a parent seeking to hand over a virgin daughter in marriage and is desperately trying to prevent her running off with someone else before she even gets to the altar. The ‘someone else’ though is Satan, or at least people doing Satan’s work. His love for them is real, as is his fear for them.
The second reason they should put up with his foolishness is they have already demonstrated profound gullibility. Deceived by these false apostles, perhaps they will also allow themselves to be deceived by Paul’s humiliating boasting back into a sincere devotion to Jesus. We may laugh inwardly at Paul’s ironic argument – but the body of it should concern us greatly. Throughout history people have added to or taken away from the simple message of Christ crucified and the message Jesus brought when teaching and preaching two thousand years ago. How concerned are we that we are not equally deceived? Have we chosen a more palatable, less offensive Jesus for ourselves? Paul’s ‘divine jealousy’ is in response to the very serious consequences of picking and choosing the things about Jesus we like and discarding those that make us uncomfortable. Every time we do that we do Satan’s work for him. It calls for discernment and prayer.
