2 Corinthians 11:1-21

2 Corinthians 11

Paul and the False Apostles

 ¹ I hope you will put up with a little more of my foolishness. Please bear with me. ² For I am jealous for you with the jealousy of God himself. I promised you as a pure bride^[a] to one husband—Christ. ³ But I fear that somehow your pure and undivided devotion to Christ will be corrupted, just as Eve was deceived by the cunning ways of the serpent. ⁴ You happily put up with whatever anyone tells you, even if they preach a different Jesus than the one we preach, or a different kind of Spirit than the one you received, or a different kind of gospel than the one you believed. ⁵ But I don’t consider myself inferior in any way to these “super apostles” who teach such things.⁶ I may be unskilled as a speaker, but I’m not lacking in knowledge. We have made this clear to you in every possible way.
 ⁷ Was I wrong when I humbled myself and honored you by preaching God’s Good News to you without expecting anything in return? ⁸ I “robbed” other churches by accepting their contributions so I could serve you at no cost. ⁹ And when I was with you and didn’t have enough to live on, I did not become a financial burden to anyone. For the brothers who came from Macedonia brought me all that I needed. I have never been a burden to you, and I never will be. ¹⁰ As surely as the truth of Christ is in me, no one in all of Greece^[b] will ever stop me from boasting about this. ¹¹Why? Because I don’t love you? God knows that I do.
 ¹² But I will continue doing what I have always done. This will undercut those who are looking for an opportunity to boast that their work is just like ours. ¹³ These people are false apostles. They are deceitful workers who disguise themselves as apostles of Christ. ¹⁴ But I am not surprised! Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. ¹⁵ So it is no wonder that his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. In the end they will get the punishment their wicked deeds deserve.

Paul’s Many Trials

 ¹⁶ Again I say, don’t think that I am a fool to talk like this. But even if you do, listen to me, as you would to a foolish person, while I also boast a little. ¹⁷ Such boasting is not from the Lord, but I am acting like a fool. ¹⁸ And since others boast about their human achievements, I will, too.¹⁹ After all, you think you are so wise, but you enjoy putting up with fools! ²⁰ You put up with it when someone enslaves you, takes everything you have, takes advantage of you, takes control of everything, and slaps you in the face. ²¹ I’m ashamed to say that we’ve been too “weak” to do that!   But whatever they dare to boast about—I’m talking like a fool again—I dare to boast about it, too.


Devotional
Obviously Paul uses a lot of sarcasm here to iterate his point. But he makes the point in the beginning of this passage that he is jealous “with a godly jealousy” for them. Paul is referencing Exodus 34:14:
“Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.”
This concept of God being jealous baffled me not to long ago and after some studying I found that “Jealous” in this context is the same type of jealousy used in other references of the Bible in the context of adultery and comes from the Hebrew “El Qanna”.
And is specifically used in the context as when a spouse loves their spouse unconditionally, even after they have cheated on the other time and time again, they still have deep love for them but don’t understand why their spouse would cheat on them because they are loved so much.
This is the kind of love God has for us, an “El Qanna” kind of love. Paul warns us not to be misled by by false and deceitful people that “masquerade as apostles of Christ.” But I also believe Paul’s point goes further than just applying to being led astray by people and also applies to being led astray by things and philosophies and stuff. We have a tendency to put people, things, and stuff before God in our lives and when we do, we in essence are committing adultery against God like a spouse cheating on their husband/wife even though the spouse does all they can to love them.

(Prayer)
Lord thank You for your patience and unconditional love towards us. Reveal to us those areas of our lives where we have put the things of this world before you. Forgive us for not understanding what we have even done. In Christ’s name, Amen