Who Do We Think We Are

 DEVOTION

THE 2^ND LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS

WHO DO WE THINK WE ARE

2 Cor 11:7-15

7 Was it a sin for me to lower myself in order to elevate you by preaching the gospel of God to you free of charge? 8 I robbed other churches by receiving support from them so as to serve you. 9 And when I was with you and needed something, I was not a burden to anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied what I needed. I have kept myself from being a burden to you in any way, and will continue to do so. 10 As surely as the truth of Christ is in me, nobody in the regions of Achaia will stop this boasting of mine. 11 Why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do! 12 And I will keep on doing what I am doing in order to cut the ground from under those who want an opportunity to be considered equal with us in the things they boast about. 13 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. 15 It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.

NIV

It sure seems as those these false apostles were taking up large offerings for themselves wherever they went. It is not that Paul did not receive support, but he made it clear that he did not expect the Corinthian church to pay him for his services. There were others, who wanted to support his needs and like anyone who works fulltime spreading the gospel, does need to be looked after for the needs of life. Of course, today we some denominations actually hire their pastors, giving them a salary and some even are given expense accounts, with housing included. Other denominations work differently as the pastors are paid by the denomination itself and assign the pastors to their place of service. But the results are all the same, each receives support for their service to the kingdom of God, as it should be. Paul is just saying that he did not want this particular church to pay him while he was there. Again, this speaks to those silver-tongued preachers of today that fleece their followers to live abundantly. Paul did not live abundantly, for his calling was from God. Paul says these false preachers are masquerading, just as Satan does. The point is that it is important to be real, rather than building those facades to look better than we are. Who really knows another person’s, inner man? We know that God looks at the heart of man, rather than his outside, but most of us only see the outside of each other. How can we tell the genuine person? We suppose to a certain extent, we must accept who someone is by their actions, rather than our ability to see into their heart. We can gain some insight into a person through their personality, but that can even be suspect to be a façade. Of course, we cannot go around being judge and jury for every person we come in contact with, that would be both exhausting and sinful. What we can control, and judge is ourselves. We can make sure that we live as real as we can, honest with others as well as with ourselves, not thinking more highly of ourselves than we should, as well as thinking sobering about who we are, taking a close look at who we are, and how we think, for our behavior is a result of our thinking, as the word says that as a man thinks, so is he. So then the question is, who do we think we are.