DEVOTION
THE 2ND
LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS
NOTHING BUT THE
TRUTH
2 Cor 11:1-6
11:1 I hope you will put up
with a little of my foolishness; but you are already doing that. 2 I am jealous
for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so
that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. 3 But I am afraid that just
as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led
astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 4 For if someone comes to
you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a
different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one
you accepted, you put up with it easily enough. 5 But I do not think I am in
the least inferior to those "super-apostles." 6 I may not be a
trained speaker, but I do have knowledge. We have made this perfectly clear to
you in every way.
NIV
It is evident that there were
others traveling around with a gospel that was not the true and sincere gospel
of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was sent to earth in the form of man,
being conceived by the Spirit within a virgin and lived as fully man, who at
the exact right moment gave his life as a ransom to redeem us from the penalty
of sin, so that whosoever believes in Him will not perish, but will have
eternal life. Some were perverting that truth somehow and we can only think it
was for their personal gain in some way. This is still true today. There are
those who would change up the truth of the gospel so as to gain such a following
order they might have personal gain. They have that serpent’s cunning that
deceived eve. There are two things we need to be careful of. First, that we
make sure we are not deceived by any of those silver-tongued purveyors of a
perverted gospel. Second, that we make sure that we always speak of the true
gospel and always point people to the true Jesus Christ. We know what it is to
not be a trained speaker. We know our weaknesses and inabilities. We know we
cannot look as professional as those who make their abundant living by tickling
the ears of people who words of deception. But we do have the knowledge, as
Paul says he has. We know the gospel and we can explain it. We may not be able
to use eloquent words, but we know that we speak the truth, and our goal is to
lift up the lives of others, to point them to Jesus. We also know that we have
in no way ever been as effective as Paul was in pointing people to Jesus. He
was called by God to travel to the gentiles, those who served other gods to
bring them to Jesus. We are certainly not that kind of an apostle, that kind of
messenger, although all Christians have been called to go out into the world
and spread the good news. Still, we may use other methods than traveling around
as Paul did. But the fact remains that we must always be true to the gospel of
Jesus Christ and not allow it to be perverted for personal benefit. Sayings,
like, “God helps those who help themselves” are just an example of how the
truth can get twisted. God helps those who put their trust in Him, who look to
Him for their lives. We are responsible to God to convey the truth, nothing but
the truth, so help us, God.
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