2 Corinthians 11:3 - Homilies By R. Tuck

"So your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." Some manuscripts read, "simplicity and chastity." By the term "simplicity" is first meant "singleness of affection," "single-minded devotion to Christ," and the word is used in connection with the marriage figure of 2 Corinthians 11:1 , 2 Corinthians 11:2 . It should be remembered that, in the East, the time of espousal is regarded as sacred, and any infidelities during the time of espousal are treated as adulteries are after marriage. In St. Paul's conception the Church is the espoused bride of Christ, and he had been the means of arranging the espousal in the case of the Church at Corinth. "What the apostle now urges is that it is as natural for him to be jealous for the purity of the Church which owes its birth to him, as it is for a father to be jealous for the chastity of the daughter whom he has betrothed as to a kingly bridegroom." The older theocratic figure of idolatry as adultery, which so often appears in the books of the prophets, should be compared with this. The term "simplicity" may, however, be more full and suggestive to us, and mean singleness of devotion to Christ, entireness of service to him, unmixed love for him. F.W. Robertson says that the expression, "the simplicity of the gospel," is constantly mistaken. "People suppose simplicity means what a child or a ploughman can understand. Now, if this be simplicity, evidently the simplicity of the gospel was corrupted by St. Paul himself; for he is not simple. Who understands his deep writings? Does one in a thousand? St. Peter says there are things hard to be understood in St. Paul's Epistles. We often hear it alleged as a charge against a book, a lecture, or a sermon, that it is not simple. If we are told that what we are to preach must be on a level with the most inferior intellect, so that without attention or thought it may be plain to all, we are bound to disclaim any obligation to do this; if it is supposed that the mysteries of God, of which we are the stewards, can be made as easy of comprehension as an article in a newspaper or a novel, we say that such simplicity can only be attained by shallowness. There must be earnestness, candour, patience, and a certain degree of intelligence, as well as a sort of sympathy between the minds of the preacher and his hearers, and there must be a determination to believe that no man who endeavours to preach the gospel will deliberately and expressly say what he knows to be false or wrong. 'Simple' means, according to St. Paul, unmixed or unadulterated."

I. THE PLACE OF CHRISTIAN THE CHURCH . It is as unique as that of the husband in relation to the wife. A place that can know no rivalry. Christ is Head, Lord, Husband. "One is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren." The old testimony is renewed for the Christian spheres, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one Lord ." "One Lord, one faith, one baptism." No earthly teachers may push into his place. No claim of Judaic ceremonies may spoil the trust in and devotion to him. "Him first, him midst, him last, him all in all." The bride has but one Husband, even Christ.

II. THE SPIRIT OF THE CHURCH TOWARDS CHRIST . It is that full loyalty which follows upon setting our whole affection on Christ, and which finds expression in all loving submissions and obediences. It is precisely set before us by the great apostle when he says, "To me to live in Christ." "I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me."

III. THE TEMPTATIONS TO WHICH THE CHURCH IS EXPOSED . Answering to the disloyalty of a wife. And such temptations may take forms of subtlety, like those presented by the serpent to Eve. In every age there are things which tend to take the mind and heart from Christ. Nowadays it is worldliness, self-indulgence, the beautiful in art, and the fascination of scientific knowledge. We want now to love and serve so many things much and Christ a little, and still the old message sounds forth, "If a man forsake not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple." St. Paul counted "all things loss for Christ," and would have nothing—Mosaic rite, human philosophy, or aught else—come between him and his one Lord.—R.T.

2 Corinthians 11:4 - One Jesus, one Spirit, one gospel.

Evidently St. Paul recognized a vital distinction between the Christ whom he preached and the Christ preached by the teachers of the Judaic party. The Christ whom he preached was the "Friend and Brother of mankind, who had died for all men that he might reconcile them to God." The Christ whom they preached was the "head of a Jewish kingdom, requiring circumcision and all the ordinances of the Law as a condition of admission to it." St. Paul could see no gospel, no good news, in such a Christ as that. By "another Jesus" we may understand Jesus otherwise presented; "another spirit" is something opposed to the spirit of liberty in Christ from Mosaic ordinances; and by "another gospel" the apostle means something different from the good news of God reconciled to faith. "His gospel was one of pardon through faith working by love; theirs was based on the old Pharisaic lines of works, ritual, ceremonial and moral precepts, standing in their teaching on the same footing." Here St. Paul makes distinct claim to be the authorized teacher of the truth, and we consider this claim.

I. THE SENSE IN WHICH APOSTOLIC TEACHING WAS FINAL . In relation to this modern opinion differs from the older opinion, and therefore the subject needs to be treated with extreme care and prudence. When the generally received doctrine of inspiration was that known as the verbal theory, which affirmed the direct communication from God of every word of Scripture, the apostles were regarded as inspired forevery detail of Gospels and Epistles, and appeal to their expressions was regarded as final. We now more clearly see that they were inspired to guide men's thoughts, but not to fetter them, or force them into precise moulds. The apostles do fix the lines along which Christian thought may safely run, but they leave full room for the diversities and idiosyncrasies of men to find free expression. They make a firm stand, and plainly show the boundaries of Christian thinking, but within the lines they leave us free. We properly use our own cultured Christian judgment—in the leadings of the Holy Ghost—upon the value of their arguments, and the precise applications of their counsels. And this appears to us quite consistent with a becoming reverence for these divinely endowed men, and necessary to that personal leading of the Holy Ghost, which we are permitted to realize as well as they. God's truth for the race can be set within no permanent bonds, even though men may call them apostolic.

II. THE LIMITS WITHIN WHICH DIVERSITY CAN BE PERMITTED .

1 . There can be no dispute with regard to the great Christian facts .

2 . There can be no attempt to alter the supreme position of Christ in his Church and relation to his Church. There is nothing so essentially Christian as the truth of the direct relation of the soul to Christ, a relation that is independent of doctrine, creed, ceremonial, or priesthood, though these all have their place.

3 . There are great foundation truths and principles which may be stated in simple and comprehensive terms, but outside of which, or contrary to which, Christian thought cannot safely run. None may take from us our "liberty in Christ," but we may wisely "hold fast the form of sound words."

III. THE WAYS IN WHICH APOSTOLIC TEACHING MIGHT BE IMPERILLED . Unfold and illustrate the following ways.

1 . By overloading it with the old.

2 . By overstraining it to tit the new.

3 . By applying it in a spirit that is out of harmony with its principles.

4 . By the pressure of the peculiarities of men who are strongly self-willed.

5 . By translating the claims into the things we should like to do, rather than into the things which we ought to do.

6 . By permitting the common philosophy and sociology of men to give tone to the Christian revelation, rather than to make Christianity tone them.

IV. THE TESTS BY WHICH SUCH PERVERSIONS OF APOSTOLIC TEACHINGS MIGHT BE DISCOVERED . The all-sufficing tests of any teaching, under the influence of which we may come—whether it be teachings of the pulpit or of the press—are these.

1 . Is it in harmony with the first truth of the Christian revelation—the fatherhood of God?

2 . Does it uphold the honour, and the supreme administrative rights in souls, of the Lord Jesus Christ?

3 . And does it practically tend towards the things that are pure, and true, and holy, and good? Everything, godly is helpful to godliness. In conclusion, argue this point—Can we still safely receive truth upon the authority of men? and if so, are there any limitations under which such reception is properly placed? And are we still open and exposed to the persuasions of self-interested or self-deluded teachers? We have to find out for these times in which we live what is the scorer of "holding fast the faith once delivered to the saints."—R.T.

2 Corinthians 11:10 , 2 Corinthians 11:21-30 - Apostolic boastings.

This is a most reproachful passage, and the intensity of St. Paul's feeling can only be accounted for by some knowledge of the bitter and shameful treatment he was receiving from the antagonistic Jewish party at Corinth. Archdeacon Farter, in a very vivid and forcible manner, presents the kind of things that were being freely said at Corinth about the apostle. "He had shown feebleness in his change of plan; his personal appearance, feeble and infirm, did not match the authoritative tone of his letters; his speech had nothing in it to command admiration; he threatened supernatural punishments, but he did not dare to put his threats to the proof. What right had he to claim the authority of an apostle, when he had never seen the Christ in the flesh? Was it certain that he was a Hebrew, a Jew of the pure blood of Palestine, or even that he was of the seed of Abraham? Who was this Paul, who came without credentials, and expected to be received on the strength of his everlasting self-assertions? Was there not a touch of madness in his visions and revelations? Could he claim more than the tolerance which men were ready to extend to the insane?" "Conceive all these barbed arrows of sarcasm falling on the ears, and through them piercing the very soul, of a man of singularly sensitive nature, passionately craving for affection, and proportionately feeling the bitterness of loving with no adequate return; and we may form some estimate of the whirl and storm of emotion in which St. Paul began to dictate the Epistle." As a rule, boastings are only evil both for him who boasts and for those who hear the boasting; but no rule is without exception, and there are times when a man is absolutely driven to boasting—it is the one thing that he can do, and that he ought to do. It becomes the plain duty of the hour. A man may never boast until he is thus driven to it, and then his boastings will have their foundation in his humility. The apostle's boastings had direct reference to the accusations made against him.

I. THERE WERE BOASTINGS OF HIS JEWISH BIRTH AND RIGHTS . These had been assailed. He was a foreign-born Jew, and the Palestine Jews rather looked down upon all such. It was easy to raise prejudice against the apostle on this ground. He therefore pleads the facts of his pure birth, his Pharisaic relationships, his Jerusalem training, and his manifest Jewish sympathies. He was proud of the fact that no Jew could plead superior Jewish birthrights to his. So far he did but boast of facts of his life that were beyond his own control

II. THERE WERE BOASTINGS OF SUFFERINGS BORNE IN MINISTERING FOR CHRIST . See 2 Corinthians 11:21-30 , the most amazing catalogue of woes ever written. One wonders how so frail a body could have endured them all. But even this record we feel is holy boasting, for one can but feel that, under all the intensity of the utterance, there is a great sadness of heart in being thus compelled to speak of such things. He never would have said one word about them had it not been that attacks upon his apostleship meant dishonour to Christ, and mischievous hindrance to Christ's work. St. Paul never would have boasted if he had not thus been compelled to boast for Christ ' s sake . And this is the one law for us. Never put self in the front unless so putting self will glorify our Master. We may even boast if it is clear that our boasting will serve him.—R.T.

2 Corinthians 11:14 - Satanic subtleties.

"Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light." This expression suggests that the Judaic party at Corinth laid claim to some angel manifestations or revelations, and set these off against St. Paul's claim of apostolic inspiration and authority. He really asserts here that they are deluded. It is not Divine revelations which they have received. These things in which they boast are Satanic subtleties and transformations, by which they are deceived and ensnared. There may, however, be a reference to what was so evidently in St. Paul's mind—the serpent's deception of Eve ( 2 Corinthians 11:3 ). The mode in which reference is made to the incident in the garden of Eden suggests to us that St. Paul thought the serpent put on some form of beauty, or that he, in a very subtle way, explained his superior wisdom and intelligence by the fact that he fed on the fruit of that forbidden tree.

I. THE SATANIC POWER OF DISGUISE . Illustrate the very various ways in which evil is made attractive. Apply to the temptations of vice and self-indulgence, to mental error, to religious wanderings and backslidings. He said a great thing, who, knowing much of the evils of Christian and Church life, exclaimed, "We are not ignorant of his [Satan's] devices."

II. SUCH POWER ILLUSTRATED IN RELIGIOUS LEADERS . Such as Joe Smith, the Mormon leader. All who seek to delude men for self-seeking ends are really Satanic; they are doing Satan's work. According to the standpoint of the preacher, it may be shown that the methods by which men are deluded still are

Therefore we have the very earnest advice, "Prove [test and try] all things; hold fast that which is good."—R.T.

2 Corinthians 11:23-30 - The evidential value of sufferings borne for Christ's sake.

Recall Paley's use of the labours and sufferings of the early Christians as an argument for the truth of Christianity. Carefully observe under what limitations such an argument must be set. There have been martyrs of all sorts of opinions. Men intense on any subject are usually willing to bear much for its sake; and the enthusiast or fanatic does not shrink from giving his life for his faith, though his faith may be unreasonable or absurd. We can only go so far as to say that willingness to bear suffering proves—

I. PERSONAL SINCERITY . Men's hearts must be in that which they will maintain at cost of toil, sorrow, disability, and pain. Christianity must be true to the man who can die for it; but it is not therefore proved to be absolutely true.

II. A DIVINE CALL OR COMMISSION . It is one of the indications of such a call. Not sufficient if it stands alone, but very helpful as a buttress to other arguments and considerations.

III. THAT THERE IS A FINE MORAL STRENGTH CULTURED BY CHRISTIANITY . This, perhaps, is its chief value. The noble endurance illustrates Christianity, and shows what the almighty grace in it can do. That must be worthy, and it may be Divine, which nerves men to such heroic labour, such patient submission, and such triumphs over ills and death. So, when kept within due limits and carefully combined with other considerations, the sufferings and martyrdoms of the Christian saints become an evidence of the Divine origin of Christianity.—R.T.