2 Corinthians 11:2

Verse 1 opens the part of the letter often called Paul’s “fool’s speech”, which runs on through 2 Corinthians 12. After writing about the collection for the saints in Jerusalem in 2 Corinthians 8 and 2 Corinthians 9, Paul returned in 2 Corinthians 10 to the defence of his ministry, a theme that runs through the whole letter. Teachers travelling from place to place had come into the church at Corinth and were turning people against him. They found fault with his presence and his speaking (2 Corinthians 10:10) and with his refusal to take money from the church (2 Corinthians 11:7–9), and they boasted of their own credentials, spiritual experiences and eloquence. Corinth was a wealthy port city where fine speaking and displays of wisdom were highly prized, and some in the church were being swayed.

“Would to God” renders óphelon, an expression of strong wish, like “Oh that!” or “I wish that!” The verb “bear with”, anéchomai, pictures holding oneself up against something, and so it means to put up with, endure or tolerate. Paul asks for patience “a little” (mikrón), for a short while, because what he is about to say will be hard to hear for those who have been swayed. Then he presses the request again with “and indeed”, allá, a word usually translated “but”, which here gives weight to the plea, much as if he said, “But truly, bear with me.” The plea “bear with me” stands twice in the verse.

The word for folly, aphrosýnē, means senselessness or lack of understanding, and it can cover foolishness, recklessness and even egotism. Paul uses it with irony. Boasting was his opponents’ way, and he shuns self-praise, so speaking of himself at all is folly to him. Yet the church’s safety and the truth of the gospel are at stake, so he takes up the fool’s part and boasts, and what he boasts of is his sufferings for Christ (2 Corinthians 11:23–28) and his weakness (2 Corinthians 11:30). Before the speech is over he tells of the Lord’s strength made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9–10), and the “very chiefest apostles” of verse 5 come back in 2 Corinthians 12:11.

This folly has deep roots in Paul’s teaching. He had already called himself a fool for Christ’s sake (1 Corinthians 4:10), and he had taught the same church that God chooses the foolish and weak things of the world to put the wise and the strong to shame, so that no flesh should glory before him (1 Corinthians 1:27–29).

“For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy.” The verb zēlóō means to have warmth of feeling for or against someone, and “godly” translates theós, God, so this is a jealousy that belongs to God. The LORD takes it as his very name: “the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God” (Exodus 34:14). God wants the whole devotion of his people, and Paul feels that same fervent, protective love for the Corinthians. What he guards is their bond with Christ, and his own reputation or gain has no part in it.

“But I fear” shows how deep Paul’s pastoral concern ran, and “lest by any means” allows for deception in any form. Then he reaches back to the beginning: “as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty”. The verb exapatáō means to seduce wholly, to deceive utterly, to lead astray by deception. Eve owned it herself: “The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat” (Genesis 3:13). The word for subtilty, panourgía, means adroitness, and in a bad sense trickery or craftiness, the clever, artful kind of work that misleads before anyone notices.

The serpent of Genesis 3 is Satan, and his methods have stayed the same. In the garden he questioned God’s word and held out something that looked desirable, and false teachers likewise make error look appealing, even more spiritual than the truth. That is why believers are told to put on the whole armour of God and stand against the devil (Ephesians 6:11). Paul warned the Romans about those who cause divisions and deceive (Romans 16:17–18), and the Colossians about empty philosophy (Colossians 2:8).

What Paul fears for is their “minds”, noēma, their understanding and the seat of their spiritual judgment. “Corrupted” is phtheírō, to spoil, ruin or deprave. Eve’s deception brought the fall of mankind, and Paul sets it before the Corinthians so that they feel how grave their own danger is.

Verse 4 names the danger. “He that cometh” is the newcomer, one of the travelling teachers who arrived in Corinth after Paul. “Another” stands three times in the verse: “another Jesus”, “another spirit” and “another gospel”. The word behind “another Jesus”, állos, means simply “other” or “another”, and the weight lies in what each one is measured against: the Jesus “whom we have not preached”, the spirit “which ye have not received”, and the gospel “which ye have not accepted”. The standard is what the apostles preached and the Corinthians first received. These three are the foundations of the faith: who Jesus is, the Spirit of God, and the message of salvation.

“Gospel” is euangélion, the good message, from the same root as euangelízō, to preach good news. It is the message of salvation through Jesus Christ, his life, death, resurrection and ascension, and it is “the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth” (Romans 1:16). Paul tells the Galatians just as plainly that there is one gospel (Galatians 1:6–9).

Then comes the sting: “ye might well bear with him.” This is anéchomai, the same verb Paul used in verse 1. He had to plead with them to bear with him a little, while they put up with the newcomer readily. The words are sarcastic, and the sarcasm comes from anguish over people he loves. In effect he asks how they could accept such distortions when they already had the truth. What they lacked was the discernment John asks for: “try the spirits whether they are of God” (1 John 4:1). Jude calls believers to contend for the faith against those who have crept in (Jude 1:3–4), and Jesus sent his disciples out to be “wise as serpents, and harmless as doves” (Matthew 10:16).

Verse 5 opens with “For”, gár, which gives the reason for what came before: Paul has every right to warn them, because his standing is as good as anyone’s. “I suppose” is logízomai, to count, reckon or consider, so this is Paul’s reckoned judgment of where he stands. “Not a whit behind” joins mēdeís, “not even one” or “nothing”, to hysteréō, to be later and so to be inferior or fall short. Paul fell short of these men in nothing. Saying it by understatement lets him claim his full standing without the open self-praise he dislikes.

“The very chiefest apostles” translates hypér lían apóstolos: hypér, over or superior to, lían, much or exceedingly, and apóstolos, one sent, a delegate or ambassador of the gospel, a commissioner of Christ. The phrase means something like “exceedingly great apostles”, which many now render “super-apostles”. It is irony. Paul borrows their own grand title and shows that even these self-appointed superiors stand only level with him.

“But though I be rude in speech” concedes a point his critics pressed. “Rude” is idiṓtēs, the word from which English gets “idiot”, and in Paul’s day it meant a private person, a layman without professional training, here in the art of rhetoric. Paul admits that he lacked an orator’s formal training. In Corinth, as across Greek culture, polished public speaking was greatly admired, and orators and sophists skilled in persuasion were held in high esteem and often paid well. The church had come to value that kind of polish, which left it open to the impressive but shallow speech of the false apostles. When Paul first came to them he had chosen a plain way of preaching, resting on the “demonstration of the Spirit and of power” (1 Corinthians 2:1–5).

“Yet not in knowledge.” The word gnōsis means knowing or knowledge, and here it is the spiritual understanding of God’s revealed truth, the gospel and the mysteries of Christ, which Paul received from the Lord. The content and divine origin of the message count for far more than the skill of its delivery, as Paul had taught when he set the wisdom of the world beside the foolishness of the cross (1 Corinthians 1:17–25).

“But we have been throughly made manifest among you in all things.” The verb phaneróō means to render apparent, to show openly. Paul’s teaching, his conduct, the signs God worked through him, his sacrificial service and the very existence of the church in Corinth had all been on open display to them. His ministry was an open declaration of the truth (2 Corinthians 4:2), and he carried the treasure of the gospel in an earthen vessel so that its power would be seen to be God’s (2 Corinthians 4:7–12).

What Paul does in these verses follows the shape of the gospel itself. “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18). Christ, though he was God, “made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:7). He came as a humble man, and his authority lay in the truth of his words and in God’s power shown in his miracles, his teaching and his resurrection, for he is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15–20). A death on a cross, foolish and shameful in the world’s eyes, became the means of salvation. Paul’s “folly” and plain speech walk in the way of his Lord, and they leave the glory with God.

Christ is also the simplicity Paul wants the church to keep. He is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6), the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29), the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24), and the one in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:3). Believers have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16) and stand fast in the liberty he has given them (Galatians 5:1). Seeking fulfilment outside him, through legalism, human philosophy or sensational experience, is the very subtilty Paul warns against. His whole ministry preached Christ Jesus the Lord, with himself as the church’s servant for Jesus’ sake (2 Corinthians 4:5).

These verses show us the heart of God toward his church. He is jealous for us with a love that wants all of us, and he puts that same jealousy into the servants who care for his people. We belong to one husband, and Christ, who gave himself for the church, will present her to himself pure on the day of the wedding. The Jesus we have received is the Jesus the apostles preached, the Spirit is the Spirit of Christ, and the gospel is the one good news that saves. The serpent’s craft is real, and so is the simplicity that is in Christ, a whole heart given to him. God has also shown us how he works: through a man who was plain in speech and weak in the world’s eyes, whose life lay open to the people he served, so that the power and the glory are God’s.