For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough. Indeed, I consider that I am not in the least inferior to these super-apostles. Even if I am unskilled in speaking, I am not so in knowledge; indeed, in every way we have made this plain to you in all things. -- 2Corinthians 11: 2-6 (ESV)
The key verses today are from the Apostle Paul writing his second letter to the church at Corinth that he founded. At the beginning of the 11th chapter we see him address false teachers/apostles/prophets that were infiltrating the church and that were being widely accepted. The parallels to the church today are quite striking as we see a compromised apostate church that welcomes all sorts of silliness and falseness as long as the person can spell the name Jesus correctly. The church today is biblically illiterate and spiritually apathetic, which is why they are easy prey for such charlatans and snake oil salesmen. Let us walk through these verses and reason together once more. After this, we will examine the latest mockery of God offered up by the Queen of Calamari, Jennifer Leclaire, linked above. This should serve to drive the point home in a real tangible way.
For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. -- Verse 2
I almost started at verse three because sometimes we rush past the significance of who we are supposed to be in Christ. Paul reminds us here that we are supposed to be betrothed to Christ as a pure virgin. The word betrothed means engaged to be married. There will be a Marriage Supper of the Lamb upon His return when the church, not us individually, will be married unto our husband. God uses this imagery so that we can comprehend what is beyond our finite minds. The point of emphasis here is on remaining a virgin. Unsoiled. A harlot sleeps with many other gods. She entertains many other beliefs. She does not care about what her betrothed wants. Once again, this imagery is used so we can see. We are not talking about sex here but idolatry. What is it that we worship? What is it that we allow to corrupt our faith? When someone comes along with tales of sneaky squid spirits do we readily accept such unbiblical garbage or do we stay true to our Husband? When Bethel teaches that our experience equals or surpasses Scripture do we stain ourselves by accepting this false teaching or hold the verity of God's Word up to it and dismiss it for the false teaching that it is? Do we stay in churches that do not present the whole Gospel for fear of losing friends or not having carnal fellowship anymore? These are all questions we need to examine when we do as the bible says and examine ourselves.
But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. -- Verse 3
There are a couple of truths to glean from verse three. First of all the schemes of the devil do not really change that much. His sin was desiring to ascend to the throne of the Most High and he tempts us with the same sin. He told Eve that God forbade the fruit because He knew she would be like God if she ate it and she bought the lie. What lies does Satan speak through the mouths of false prophets and teachers today? Joel Osteen teaches that your words can create, just like God. Creflo Dollar and Joyce Meyer teach that we are in fact little gods. Places like Bethel and IHOP believe they can teach the powers of God to you. The NAR teaches that Christ cannot even come back unless we take over the world. These may all seem different but at their heart they are all Lucifer desiring to ascend to the throne of the Almighty. The second important point here is that false teaching has a cost and that is being drawn away from a sincere and pure devotion to Jesus Christ. The bible says they we are either gathering people to Him or scattering them away from Him. There is no third option. What do we see today beloved. Go to the website linked above and see that 99% of the material presented by Charisma News simply scatters people away from the biblical Jesus. They are busy drawing you to worship politics, angels, and false prophecy after false prophecy. Through their cunning our thoughts can be easily led astray.
For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough. -- Verse 4
