2 Corinthians 11:13

For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, fashioning themselves into apostles of Christ.

These men at Corinth were in no sense genuine, being phony self-seekers playing the religious game for money. Lies and deception were their stock in trade; they were evil hypocrites pretending to be apostles of Christ. It is a marvel that they had managed to put together a following at Corinth; but such is the mystery of iniquity that they were fully able to do so; and the marvel of our own times is that wicked and lying deceivers are still doing the same thing. Hughes described such a marvel thus:

It is no less so in our own day when an individual has only to make the most preposterous claims for himself in order to gain for himself an enthusiastic and undiscerning following. In every age, the church is under the necessity of holding fast to the doctrine of those who are Christ's true apostles. That doctrine, in a word, is that which we possess in the writings of the New Testament.[37]