2nd Corinthians 11:1-15 | Godly Jealousy
We’re there in 2nd Corinthians Chapter 11. Of course on Wednesday nights we’ve been going through 2nd Corinthians. We are starting Chapter 11 tonight. If you remember from several weeks ago in chapter 7, Paul was focused on dealing with some problems in the Church here in Corinth. Of course this Church has had several problems. In chapter 10 he was dealing with criticism of himself coming from the Church at Corinth. Paul continues in this chapter dealing with this theme of dealing with problems and criticism. He gets into what he calls “folly”.
2nd Corinthians 11:1 “Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly: and indeed bear with me.”. That phrase means to be patient with me or put up with me. Paul is going to deal with something that he calls “folly” which means foolishness. This is something that he repeats throughout this chapter. You’ll notice that where he speaks with that, he’s speaking as a fool and he’s dealing with some foolishness.
2nd Corinthians 11:1 “Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly: and indeed bear with me.”. Again that phase “bear with me” means to put up with me or be patient with me as they deal with this folly. Now Paul is going to deal with something that he calls folly or foolishness. He really deals with it in the 2nd part of this chapter. Before he brings up the folly, he sets up why he is talking about the folly. What we are going to do is deal with Paul’s folly in the 2nd part of this chapter. In the sermon tonight, we’re going to deal with the verses at the beginning of the chapter. Tonight we’re going to see the build up to that and we’re going to see the issues that Paul’s having and the problems that he’s having with the Church at Corinth.
I want to just see show you how Paul sets this up and what it is that brings him to this place where he feels like he has to deal with some folly. If you want to bring it up to some modern ghetto vernacular, what Paul’s saying is “You guys are going to make me act a fool.”. He is kind of fed up with these people and he is going to say some things that are really drastic.
Verse 2 “2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy:….”. Now let me just begin by talking about this word “jealous”. Usually when you and I in our modern terminology use the word “jealous” or “jealousy”, we see that as a negative word. We see that as a word that is not a positive. However, here Paul says that he is jealous over speaking to the Church of Corinth. He says he is jealous over them with godly jealousy. What he means by that is it is the same type of jealousy that God has.
You need to understand something about this word “jealousy”. When we think of the word “jealousy”, we think of a negative connotation. In the Bible there are two different words that are very similar in their meaning but one is good and one is bad. The two words are jealous or jealousy and envy. In the Bible you’ll notice the word “envy” and the word “jealous” are very similar in their definition. However, as you read the King James Bible, you’ll notice that the word “jealous” or “jealousy” is always used in a positive way. In fact “jealous” or “to have jealousy” is not a negative thing. In the Bible what is always negative is envy. Why is that? Go to Exodus 34.
Exodus 34:14 “14 For thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:”. When it says “no other god”, you see a lowercase g. That is because it is a false god. With the word “LORD”, you see all capital letters. That’s Jehovah God. I want you to notice that the word “jealous” is not a negative thing. God describes himself as jealous. He is a jealous God. He says that his name is Jealous. You say “I thought jealousy was a bad thing.”. Here’s what you need to understand. Biblical jealousy is never negative in your King James Bible. Here’s why. When you’re jealous over something, the word “jealous” is in reference to being jealous over something that you have the right to be jealous over because it belongs to you. There’s no sinfulness in that and you’re justified in that. Let me give you an example of that.
Numbers 5:14 “14 And the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be defiled: or if the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be not defiled:”. Here is an example where the spirit of jealousy comes upon him. I want you to notice that this is a positive thing. When something belongs to you, that’s not called “envy”. That’s called “jealousy”. By the way, a husband should be jealous over his wife and a wife should be jealous over her husband. A wife shouldn’t like her husband getting too comfortable with other men and a husband shouldn’t like his wife getting too comfortable with other women. The Bible calls this jealousy. God is a jealous God. It is God’s right to be jealous because we are his people. When we worship other “gods”, he is jealous over us and that is his right to be jealous. So there are things in the Bible that we can be jealous over.
How do we know if we are right or wrong? If it belongs to you. You can be jealous over your spouse or jealous over your Church or something that belongs to you. The negative thing is envy. Go to Proverbs 23. Envy is pretty much the same emotion except it’s for something that does not belong to you. When you see somebody and they have something or they’re doing something that you want but it doesn’t belong to you, that’s envy. Envy is when you’re upset because you know some girl is talking to some other guy but she is not your girlfriend or she is not your wife. That is envy.
Proverbs 23:17 “17 Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long.”. Here the Bible is using the word “envy” as a bad thing. Proverbs 24:1 “Be not thou envious against evil men, neither desire to be with them.”. Here the Bible commands us not to envy but the Bible promotes jealousy. What’s the difference? Jealousy is over something that belongs to you, something that you have the right to be jealous over, something that you have the right to want to defend or want to have for yourself. There’s nothing wrong with a man wanting to have his wife solely for himself or a wife wanting to have her husband solely for herself. That’s a Godly jealousy. Envy is when you want something that doesn’t belong to you. It belongs to someone else. In Proverbs, God is saying not to have envy.
I want you to notice that when he says this word “jealous”, it’s not a negative thing. He says “2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy:…”. Paul has a right to be jealous over the congregation at Corinth because he is the one who started the Church at Corinth. He’s the one that got those people saved. He’s the one that baptized those converts. He’s the one that discipled them and helped them grow. Now they’re doing things that are causing him to be jealous. He says “I am jealous over you with godly jealousy”. You say “Well what is Paul jealous about?”. He’s jealous for the same reason that a husband would be jealous about his wife or a wife would be jealous about her husband. Because they’re starting to give their affection and loyalty and respect to another preacher other than Paul. It’s really starting to piss him off. In fact he says he is about to “act a fool” because it is upsetting him. They are giving their loyalty to someone else.
Loyalty is pretty much dead in today’s world. I mean this idea of people understanding what loyalty is and what it means to be loyal to someone and when someone has loved you and invested in you and cared about you and been there for you. That’s what Paul’s upset about. These people are criticizing Paul and saying other preachers are better than him and Paul is jealous over that. It’s not envy. It’s jealousy because this Church belongs to Paul. Sometimes people get upset when you say things like “This is my Church.”. However, listen to me. I hope you say “This is my Church.”. In fact, it’s always a good sign. You can tell people are growing when they go from saying things like “I go to this Church” to saying things like “My Church is”.
2nd Corinthians 11:2 “2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.”. Here’s what Paul is saying. He has worked really hard to help prepare them for when they one day meet the Lord Jesus Christ. The jealousy mentioned here is a godly jealousy. It is not envy. Envy would be when a Preacher looks at another Church that is maybe bigger or more successful and desires to have what they have. That is wrong. We ought to be content in whatever state we find ourselves. However, there is nothing wrong with being jealous over the people that God has given you and the Church that God has given you. Don’t be envious about another man’s wife but be jealous about your wife. Don’t be envious about another woman’s husband but be jealous over your husband. Paul is saying that he is jealous over the Church or Corinth because they are cheating on him. They are seeing another man spiritually speaking.
First of all, Paul is jealous over the Corinthians Christians. Secondly, not only is Paul jealous but Paul is afraid. He’s afraid for the Corinthian Christians. Notice verse 3 “3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”. The word “beguiled” means to trick, to mislead, to deceive. The serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety. What’s it mean to be subtle? It means to be cunning or wily or difficult to perceive. When someone is subtle, they’re doing something but it’s not just right out in the open. It’s not very obvious. They’re just kind of trying to trick you or trying to plant thoughts into your mind.
He says “3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”. Paul is saying that he is afraid the Devil is going to deceive them. Notice where it says “the simplicity that is in Christ.”. Paul is stating that what they have in Christ, referring to salvation, is simple. It means it’s free. It not complex. The gospel is simple to understand and believe. Go to Mark 10.
Mark 10:15 “15 Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.”. The Bible says that when you got saved and when I got saved, we got saved the same way that even a little child gets saved. The gospel is simple enough for even a child to receive. Why? Because the gospel is a free gift. If there’s anything children can understand, it’s a free gift. That’s why children are excited for their birthdays. It doesn’t matter how old a child is, when they understand the concept of birthdays equal gifts, they’re excited for their birthday. When they understand that Christmas equals “I get gifts”, they’re excited for Christmas. Why? Because the easiest thing for a child to understand is a gift. The Bible tells us that the simplicity of the gospel is something that even a child can understand. Why? Because the gospel is simple. It is the fact that you owe a debt, you’re a sinner and can’t pay for it but Jesus paid for it on the cross and he offers you a free gift of salvation. All you have to do is receive it. Call upon him for salvation.
The false teachers today make the gospel difficult. They make it complicated. Instead of just “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” like the Bible teaches, they add lots of steps. They have the confessional booth, baptism, repentance of sins, speaking in tongues. They make it very complicated. One of the examples of how complicated they make it is with repentance of sins. People that preach repentance of sins for salvation are on this spectrum. Some of them will say that you have to be willing to quit sinning in order to be saved. Then the question is, “Which sins?”. Because all of us sin. Then they just make a list of sins they aren’t guilty of. Some of them would say that is heresy but will say you have to feel bad about sinning before you get saved. Some will say that you have to cry to be saved. The question then is “How many tears?”. Literally repentance of sins preachers have these arguments about do you have to be willing to stop sinning or do you have to be willing to be willing to stop sinning. It’s complicated. Paul said that the God is simple and don’t let the Devil beguile you. If you ask someone what they believe about salvation and they pull out this chart to explain then there is a problem. Why? Because the gospel is simple.
Verse 4 “4 For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.”. He’s saying that he is afraid they might go accept other teachers who preach another Jesus or another gospel. This is a common theme in the Pauline epistles in regards to Paul teaching and preaching and defending against these things. Jude talks about this when it talks about the “common salvation”. He felt that it was needed that he would write about the fact that we must earnestly contender for the faith. We have to defend and contend and fight for the gospel. Why do we preach against these people teaching other things? We are defending the gospel.
People will say things like “Salvation is by faith but faith always produces works.”. Why do we make a big deal about it? Number 1 – Because that is complicated instead of simple. Number 2 – We must earnestly contend for the faith. There is no such thing as another gospel or another Jesus. What does that mean? It means there are people who preach a Jesus that is not the Jesus of the Bible, not the gospel of the Bible, not the Spirit of the Bible.
Galatians 1:6 “6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:”. He is saying that he is amazed or shocked by it. The word pervert is the same as corrupt or corrupted. He says “7 Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.”. Being accursed is basically saying let him be condemned. Basically he is saying “Let them go to hell.”. If that offends, first of all that is the Bible. The word “hell” is a Bible word.
It’s interesting that he brings up an angel speaking another gospel because certain religions have angels preaching another gospel to them. The Mormon Church says the Angel Moroni preached this new religion. Let me tell you something. It’s another Jesus. It’s another gospel. They say this angel came with these plates and preached this gospel to them. Well it’s another gospel. Muhammad says that an angel appeared to him and brought him the religion of Islam. Well “8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.”.
Notice verse 9 “9 As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.”. So we see that Paul is jealous over the Corinthian Christians. It’s godly jealous, not envy. He has been hard working with this group to present them to Christ. Someone else is coming to ruin that. He’s afraid that the Devil is going to deceive them and take them away from the simple gospel unto another gospel, another Jesus, another Spirit.
Let me tell you something, these tongue talking Pentecostals, that is another Spirit. That is not the Holy Spirit. The Bible says that the spirit is subject unto the prophets. The Holy Spirit does not take over your body. The only time you see in the Bible where a spirit comes in and they take over someone’s body is demon possession. I’m just here to tell you that just because someone knocks on your door with a Bible and a tie on doesn’t mean they are preaching the right gospel.
Number 1 – Paul is jealous over the Corinthian Christians. Number 2 – Paul is afraid of the Corinthians Christians. Thirdly – Paul is warning the Corinthians Christians. Now in this warning, he gives them 5 different warnings in regards to the fact that there are other preachers coming in to try to steal them away, to try to take them into other doctrines, to try to take them into other things. He wants to warn them about these individuals. Let me give you these 5 warnings as quickly as we can.
2nd Corinthians 11:4 “4 For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.”. It’s interesting to me because in verse one he’s pleading that they would bear with Paul. He feels like they’ve lost patience with him and he has to ask them to just bear with him. He’s saying that it is interesting though because they are willing to bear other preachers. The first thing he warns them about is putting up with false preachers.
In Revelation chapters 2 & 3, the Lord Jesus Christ gives 7 messages to 7 Churches in Asia. One of the Churches he mentions is the Church of Ephesus. Revelation 2:1 “Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks;”. If you remember from chapter 1, the Lord Jesus Christ is the man holding the 7 stars in his right hand who walked into the midst of the 7 golden candlesticks.
Verse 2 “2 I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:”. Now Jesus has some negative things to say about the Church at Ephesus as well. However, 1 positive thing he had to say about them is that they would not bear with those that are evil preachers, those who are false preachers. That’s a good thing. He’s saying that he is glad that when these preachers showed up, they tested them.
Go to 1st John 4. Notice what John says here. 1st John 4:1 “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.”. The word “try” means to test. See, you shouldn’t just listen to everything that every preacher says. The Bible says that you are supposed to try the spirits. Let me tell you something, if you came to Verity Baptist Church for any length of time and then you leave here and go to a NIV preaching, rock and roll Church then we failed. We failed to teach you what proper Christianity is. My goal is that you will grow in knowledge of our Lord and Savior. I don’t want you to be put up with false teachers. These false preachers that are in their 40’s wearing skinny jeans and trying to act 18. You say “I don’t think you should attack them.”. Well show me a preacher that looks like that which is boldly preaching the word of God. Listen, you should not put up with false teachers that don’t believe in eternal security or don’t believe in the King James Bible.
It was interesting to me that during the whole COVID lockdown, a lot of people rallied around John MacArthur who is a Calvinist. There are all of these Baptist preachers praising him and saying how great he is because he is standing against the government. Look, I’m not going to yoke up with a false preacher to stand up to the government. Paul firstly warns them about false preachers. Be like the Church of Ephesus which wouldn’t bear or put up with false teachers.
Number 2 – Paul warns the Church not to put up with people criticizing him. Verse 5 “5 For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles.”. Remember that the Church of Corinth was criticizing Paul and comparing him to others. Notice what Paul says in verse 6 “6 But though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge; but we have been throughly made manifest among you in all things.”. Paul is basically saying that they may not like his writing or preaching style but he has taught them true doctrine. So Paul is warning not to put up with false teachers and not to put up with those criticizing him.
Let me just tell you something since we are in this passage. You shouldn’t listen to those people that are criticizing your Pastor and your Pastor’s wife. If someone wants to try to bring up some juicy gossip about us then you should say “Let’s go to Pastor Jimenez and talk to him about it.”. If they say “I don’t want to talk to Pastor about it” then keep something in mind. The Bible says that those which love darkness rather than light are like that because their deeds are evil. If someone has a problem with bringing things out in the open then they are hiding something. If you have something to say about me then we can talk about it in my office or before the whole Church and deal with it. I don’t have anything to hide. You say “Well this person criticized you or your wife to me but I wanted to be respectful and polite to them so I listened.”. That’s called being a coward. If they want to accuse me then let us bring the situation to the light. Paul is stating that if they don’t like his style then at least his knowledge is right.
There is a lesson here on preaching. The most important thing is the content and not the delivery. I’m all for good delivery and for dynamic preaching. However, it doesn’t matter how dynamic a preacher is if the content is wrong. If what he is preaching is not doctrinal then it is wrong. Paul said “6 But though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge; but we have been throughly made manifest among you in all things.”. Paul says that he is not hiding anything. Sometimes people will have something against their Pastor and come to a Church member and say “He didn’t let me wife teach this lesson.”. Here is the thing. I’m not hiding anything. I will say to your face that your wife can’t teach a lesson. I make the decisions around here for how this Church is run.
Verse 7 “7 Have I committed an offence in abasing myself that ye might be exalted, because I have preached to you the gospel of God freely?”. You really have to study this passage in its context to really understand it. Obviously as a Pastor and as a Pastor’s wife, we have lived through a lot of this over the last 11 years of ministry. I can really understand Paul and I can understand why he is frustrated and upset.
I realize that some of these things are just going to go over your head. We’ve ordained several men into the ministry and a lot of these men tell me after they’ve been in the ministry for 1 or 2 years “Now I understand all of those things you used to say.”. That encourages me. However, it also discourages me as well because I think “150 people at Church are probably headed home and they don’t fully understand what I am saying.”. If you don’t understand then I’m not mad at you.
Paul says “7 Have I committed an offence in abasing myself that ye might be exalted,…”. Paul is saying “I’m starting to think that because I didn’t show up at Corinth just bragging about myself and constantly reminding you how many preaching engagements that I’ve got and how many subscribers on YouTube and how many we get, etc…”. He’s talking about the fact that they have members just showing up and boasting and bragging about themselves.
2nd Corinthians 10:17 “17 But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.”. Glory means to boast or to brag or to show up. Verse 18 “18 For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth.”. What he is saying is that there are people who commend themselves. Paul is saying that the problem with not talking yourself up and bragging about yourself then they don’t realize the things you’ve accomplished. There are people that we’ve had here that will brag about themselves and act like they really know the Bible and talk about all the soulwinning they’ve done and a lot of people naturally think they are really godly and really intelligent. We don’t boast about the things we’ve done. I think to myself when people think highly of someone who brags about themselves “Do you see how they aren’t consistent with coming to Church and soulwinning?”. Paul is warning the Corinthians not to fall for self-boasting. The person who is actually getting things done doesn’t have to sit there and brag about themselves. They are just doing it for the Lord.
I’ll be honest with you. At this Church over the years, we’ve had this a lot. We’ve had this even recently at our Church. People will come to this Church literally from the east coast and other states with the stated purpose of checking out our Church because they are considering moving here. They ask to me with me and my wife so they can ask us questions to help make their decision of whether they will move here. We let them ask whatever questions they want. We try to be as informative as possible. However, we never just sit there and give them a 4-point spiel about why they should move to Verity Baptist Church. In fact, here’s the honest truth and some of you can attest to this. I will give people reasons why they shouldn’t move here. “Here’s what you might not like about our Church. You might not like this or that.”. Why would I do that? Because I am not going to just sit there and boast and tell people to come to our Church. Look, when people come here and visit from other Churches and they’re not planning on moving, I never take them out to eat. I’m nice to them but I don’t try to persuade them to move here because it is unethical. What’s the ethical thing? Knocking doors and building up a ministry through hard work.
Notice what Paul says in 2nd Corinthians 10:16 “16 To preach the gospel in the regions beyond you, and not to boast in another man’s line of things made ready to our hand.”. Paul says that he is reaching people with the gospel. Now I believe that God is an investor and that God invests people into different ministries and I’m thankful for that. However, I always want to have a clear conscience that God did that and not me being some sort of salesmen. I don’t want to tell people “Our Church is better because of all of these reasons.”. I believe that is unethical and wrong. Paul is warning the Churches not to fall for the self-boasting.
Then he gives them a 4th warning. 2nd Corinthians 11:7 “7 Have I committed an offence in abasing myself that ye might be exalted, because I have preached to you the gospel of God freely?”. Now I want you to understand this. In 1st Corinthians 9, Paul taught about the fact that Pastors should get paid. Here he’s telling the Church of Corinth that he didn’t take any money from them. Verse 8 “8 I robbed other churches, taking wages of them, to do you service.”. He is not being literally when he says that he robbed other Churches but he is using an analogy. He’s being sarcastic.
Let me give you an example to understand what he is saying. It would be like if we had one of our Church plants and it was going bad and I went to them and said “I preached the gospel of God freely to you. I robbed other Churches to be able to do that.”. Our Church obviously financed the starting of those Churches. He’s saying that the sending Churches were supporting him to go to Corinth to help start this ministry and the Corinthians didn’t pay a cent. The 4th warning that Paul is mentioning is about being appreciative of the fact that other people have invested in them to help them.
By the way, maybe I haven’t done a good job myself or abased myself too much and letting this be known. Let me go and get into a little folly like the Apostle Paul. The first 4 years of this Church, this Church didn’t pay me either. When we started this Church, I worked a full-time job. My wife and I just worked hard, not getting paid at all to try to get this thing off the ground. This is what Paul is saying. 2nd Corinthians 11:8 “8 I robbed other churches, taking wages of them, to do you service. 9 And when I was present with you, and wanted, I was chargeable to no man: for that which was lacking to me the brethren which came from Macedonia supplied: and in all things I have kept myself from being burdensome unto you, and so will I keep myself.”.
You might say that this doesn’t really apply to our Church because our Church has a philosophy of not selling anything. We don’t see DVDs or CDs or Bibles. You can take whatever you want. We don’t sell anything. Often I say this jokingly “Some of you are just spoiled.”. For many of you, every Church would charge you money to go to a Married Couples Sweetheart Banquet or Teen Event. I’m not saying that I agree with that but I do understand that. Here’s why they did it. They didn’t have to worry about paying for someone who doesn’t end up showing up for the event. At our Church, everything is free. You can have the tendency of developing this “welfare mentality” where you are grabbing every chair, every hymnal, etc…It is not free but a gift.
Let me give you a salvation illustration to help you understand. It’s free to you but somebody did pay for it. Paul is saying that sometimes when things are just free, you don’t appreciate it. Now I do believe the Bible says “freely ye receive, freely give.”. The Bible says “Make not my father’s house a house of merchandise.”. So we aren’t going to see anything at Verity Baptist Church. We’re not going to charge for anything. The only time that money is going to exchange hands is at the offering plate because that is scriptural. With that said, let me say not to develop this unappreciative attitude.
In verse 13, Paul gives them the last warning. 2nd Corinthians 11:13 “13 For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. 14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. 15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.”. Paul is warning not to be deceived by these false images. You like at Joel Osteen and he is always smiling and has this nice suit and his hair looks perfect. You have to be careful not to fall for someone because they look the part.
There are 2 types of false prophets. There are the Joel Osteens and people that come into our Church. People that come into our Church try to steal away disciples after themselves. One of the problems I’ve seen is that when we run away a false prophet who is actually a wolf in sheep’s clothing, people will say “They were so nice. They told me they read the Bible so much and loved God so much.”. They are people that are transformed into angels of light. It’s a façade. It’s fake.
There is a reason Judas is so scary. The Apostles are sitting there with Jesus at the Last Supper and Jesus says that someone will betray him. People questioned themselves but no one questioned Judas. Jesus even says that it is the one who he gives the sop to. He gives it to Judas and Judas walks out and they are blind to the fact that Jesus directly said it was Judas.
What happens is we will tell people about a person being a wicked reprobate. We will say “Let me give you all of the emails.”. People think they were so nice though and don’t believe it. They are transformed into an angel of light. “14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. 15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.”. Now Paul is getting ready to act a fool. He’s about to really just get into some things that he says are foolishness and folly. However, he’s doing it to make a point. We’re going to see that next week. Before we get into that, we needed to understand why is he going to do this. He’s jealous. He’s afraid. He’s warning them about giving their loyalty to someone who will lead them in the wrong direction that is not the way that God would have them to go.
Let’s pray.