15 False Apostles: Why Were They So Convincing? (2 Corinthians 11)

in this episode of Wednesday in the Word, we wrestle with a tough reality: just because someone looks like a spiritual leader does not mean they are pointing us to the true gospel. Drawing on 2 Corinthians 11, the Apostle Paul exposes the danger of “false apostles,”impressive-speaking teachers who distort the message of Christ. He invites us to discern leadership by substance, not style. 

In this week’s episode, we explore:

• How Paul uses the language of a betrothal to illustrate the church’s loyalty to Christ and the risk of being seduced by something false. 
• What Paul means when he calls his opponents “false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.” 
• Why eloquence and polish are not themselves proof of gospel truth and how Paul’s example flips our expectations. 
• The role of suffering, weakness, and authenticity in credible gospel leadership. 
• Practical ways to evaluate the teachers and voices you listen to: what questions to ask, what red flags to watch for, and how to hold to Christ even when others diverge.

By the end of this episode you’ll be equipped to recognize when a message sounds right but leads wrong. You’ll feel empowered to trust substance over surface, and you’ll be better able to choose leaders who reflect the true gospel. You’ll walk away with a clearer sense of how to ground your faith in Christ alone and follow him, no matter how polished the alternatives may appear.

 Series: 2 Corinthians: When Church Hurts

Start Strong: A New Believer’s Guide to Christianity is available now wherever books are sold.

Transcript

Krisan Marotta 0:01

Welcome to the Wednesday in the Word podcast. I'm Kristan Morata, and this is my podcast about what the Bible means and how we know. Today is the 15th talk in our series on 2 Corinthians, and we will be studying 2 Corinthians chapter 11. One of the most confident, polished, spiritual sounding teacher you know is actually leading you away from the gospel. That was a problem in ancient Corinth. In 2 Corinthians 11, Paul pushes back against a group that sounds impressive, but distorts the truth. He exposes how easily we're drawn to showmanship and reminds us that real authority in the church comes through service, not image. If you've ever felt unsure about who to trust virtually, this passage will offer you some clarity and wisdom. I'm glad you're with us today. Thanks for listening. We are reaching the end of our study on 2 Corinthians. After defending his authority and ministry for the first seven chapters, Paul goes to war in the last four. Paul takes on his opponents in Corinth. Last week we looked at the first part of this section in chapter 10. Some of Paul's opponents were outsiders who came to Corinth and challenged Paul's leadership. They say that Paul is not really an apostle, and he's something of a paper tiger. He writes really strong letters, but in person he is meek and unimpressive. And they mock the way Paul speaks, and they urge the Corinthian church as a whole not to listen to Paul, but to listen to them instead. And now Paul's going to respond in these final chapters with fighting words. Last week in chapter 10, Paul said, My opponents say that I am meek and unimpressive in person, but I warn you not to join them, because the next time I visit you, the gloves will be off. My weapons are the divine empowerment that God gave my ministry. I, Paul, will fight their errors with truth. I will call people back to the truth, and I will deal harshly with those who oppose the truth. And we saw that Paul is quite willing to boast in what was truly significant about himself, and that is his authority as an apostle of Jesus Christ. He doesn't want to boast as his opponents do, he won't compare himself to them as to who is the better speaker, who's more successful, or who has the larger following. He will not, as they have done, step into another man's work and take credit for it. Instead, Paul says he will boast using the appropriate measure, the calling of God. God gave Paul the assignment of being an apostle to the Gentiles, and so Paul will boast in what God is doing through him. That brings us to chapter 11. I'm going to back up a little bit and start reading at the end of chapter 10 just to give us some context. So we'll just look at the first verse. This is 1017 through 111. Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord, for it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends. I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me. Let me set up what Paul's about to do. Paul is about to indulge in what he calls foolishness, and he is saying, I hope you bear with me in that. The foolishness is that he is going to boast in the same way his opponents do. Now he doesn't tell us yet what foolishness he's about to commit. He spells that out later in the chapter. Before he boasts in this foolish way, in verses 2 through 21, he explains why he's going to do it. And in those verses we see a clear description of the problems in Paul's relationship with the Corinthians. He starts by describing how worried he is about the situation. Let's look at 11, 2 through 4. 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 than the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough. Paul describes the problem in Corinth with a classic love triangle. Paul was hoping that the Corinthians had given their hearts to Christ through him, but now they are listening to his opponents, and the question on the table is will they remain faithful or will they give their hearts to another? That's the triangle we've got going on here. But notice Paul crafts his analogy carefully. Paul is not the jealous bridegroom concerned that he's losing his beloved's affection. Christ is the bridegroom. In the analogy, Paul is more like the father of the bride, the person who arranged the match. Metaphorically, Paul arranged a betrothal between Christ and the Corinthians. In the analogy, the Corinthians are the betrothed bride, Christ is the bridegroom, and Paul's opponents are the rival seducer. Since Paul arranged this marriage, he is concerned to keep the bride faithful until the wedding day. Outside the metaphor, Paul taught the Corinthians about Christ. He urged them to believe and embrace the faith of the gospel, and now he's acting like their guardian until the metaphorical wedding day. And he's trying to keep them from running after these false teachers. He's afraid they will be unfaithful to Christ and they're going to follow some other teachers who teach some other gospel. That means the stakes are high. Paul's opponents are not just encouraging the Corinthians to dislike Paul personally. It's not that these guys are coming along and calling Paul names and dismissing him as a teacher, and that's no big deal. Paul's saying they are leading you astray, and he uses pretty strong language. Paul's opponents are like the serpent in the garden, seducing Eve away from God. They're attempting to seduce the Corinthians away from simple, straightforward devotion to Christ. And Paul's afraid they might succeed, and the Corinthians' eternal destiny is on the line. As he says in verse 4, Paul thinks his fears are justified because of how he's seen the Corinthians act in the past. He doesn't have a lot of confidence in how they're going to act now. Basically, he says, you would think that if someone came along and preached a different Jesus than the one I taught you, you would tell that person to get lost. Or if they came along urging you to receive a different spirit than the one I taught you, you'd run away. If someone told you good news that was different than the gospel I told you, you would say, no thanks, I'm sticking with Paul. But no, when someone comes and urges you to abandon what I, Paul, taught you, you are patient and tolerant with them. You bear with them beautifully. That's not a compliment. Paul is using sarcasm here. He's basically saying, Why are you listening to these guys? Why is this even a problem? Because Paul believes that as an apostle, he is worthy to be listened to. And that should be a familiar theme. He's been saying that throughout this whole letter. But here in 5 and 6 he gets explicit. 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. Now I think that's an important statement of how Paul understands his apostleship. But before we can decipher it, there are two things we need to talk about. First, what does he mean by superapostles? Many scholars think that Paul is talking about his opponents here, and he is being sarcastic, speaking from their perspective, saying, I am not in the least inferior to these so-called imminent superapostles who are bad-mouthing me to you. In a few more sentences, he's going to refer to them as false apostles. So that's a plausible interpretation. Maybe he is sarcastically referring to his opponents as superapostles, and he's insisting, I am not inferior to them. That view doesn't convince me. The problem for me is Paul is vastly superior to them. He just compared them to serpents in the garden and he'll call them servants of Satan later in the chapter. It just seems like Paul would make a much stronger argument than, oh, I'm not inferior to them. I think it makes more sense to see Paul as addressing the criticism of his opponents. His critics say Paul is not impressive enough to be a true apostle, and I think he's saying, pick whichever apostle you want, even the most eminent of apostles like Peter or James or John, pick one of them. I am not inferior to them in any way. I do not consider myself inferior to even the most eminent of apostles in terms of my authority or my right to be called an apostle. And that makes Paul's statement a very strong one. I am not inferior to the original twelve apostles like Peter and John. The second question we have to talk about is what does he mean by this word unskilled? Paul's opponents say he is unskilled in speaking. The Greek word usually has the sense of a layman or an amateur, someone who is not trained in something. The person lacks skill because they don't have professional training in that area. So the skilled, impressive speakers were the ones who were trained in rhetoric. They made their living by publicly demonstrating their skills at debating and arguing. As is often the case, the person who can speak well is often the one who is listened to, regardless of whether he has any actual wisdom to impart. I think it's likely that Paul's opponents claim Paul hasn't been trained in rhetoric. He doesn't have that polished speaking approach that professional teachers have. So he is not to be listened to. He doesn't speak with that rhetorical cutting skill that would show him to be a wise person. So I see this as another defense against his critics. They question whether Paul is really an apostle, and they think Paul is a contemptible, unimpressive amateur speaker, and Paul contradicts them very bluntly. He says, I am as much of an inspired, authoritative apostle as Peter or John. Suppose I grant you that I don't have the skills of a trained orator, so what? Even if I lack something as a public speaker, I do not lack in knowledge. Just because a person has been trained as a public speaker doesn't mean he has anything to say. But I, Paul, have wisdom and knowledge. God entrusted me with a profound knowledge of the gospel, just like the other apostles. It doesn't matter how I say what I'm saying, I know what I'm talking about because God made me his apostle. And he says basically, I shouldn't have to tell you this, Corinthians. You should know this. I have demonstrated the depths of my understanding of the gospel to you over and over again. Everything I have said and done should show you that my critics are wrong. Now in verse 7, he turns to another criticism. His opponents are leveling at him. Let's look at 7 through 12. Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted? Because I preached God's gospel to you free of charge? I robbed other churches by accepting support from them in order to serve you, and when I was with you and was in need, I did not burden anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my need. So I refrained and will refrain from burdening you in any way. As the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting of mine will not be silenced in the regions of Achaia. And why? Because I do not love you, God knows I do, and what I am doing I will continue to do in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission they work on the same terms as we do. Now in verse 9, I think Paul is referring to his first visit to Corinth. When Paul first came to Corinth and founded the church, he came by himself and supported himself by doing tent making, or more precisely, leather work. He was a laborer, he supported himself with his craft when he didn't have any other means of support. But when Silas and Timothy joined him, they brought with them a financial contribution from the churches in Macedonia, and then Paul stopped working and devoted himself full-time to preaching the gospel. Paul never took any money from the Corinthians themselves. And in 1 Corinthians chapter 9, Paul explained why he didn't take money from them. After arguing that it was an entirely appropriate thing to do, that it was okay for apostles to make a living from the people they were serving. He goes on to say that he didn't want to take any money from them because he didn't want anyone to accuse him of peddling the gospel. He didn't want anyone to claim he's just preaching for the money. He doesn't care about the people he preaches to, he just wants the money. If he doesn't take any money, then nobody can claim that he's taking advantage of them. Now we do know that other churches sent Paul money as he was traveling around, so that begs the question: why didn't he take any money from the Corinthians while he was there? It may be that Paul's practice was not to be paid directly by the people he was ministering to at the time he was ministering to them. We don't really have enough evidence, I think, to know whether that was a pattern of his. It's always sounded to me, it sounded more like he recognized the Corinthians were on shaky ground. He decided that to ever accept money from them would be a problem because this was a group who was likely to accuse him of something. But as we see, his plan backfired because the Corinthians criticized Paul for not taking money from him. Now, why would they criticize him for not taking their money? Let me give you a few possibilities. First, it may be related to this charge that as a speaker Paul was unskilled and an amateur, because those who went around making a living off their services as speakers made a living, they were paid to do so. The general perception at the time was if your knowledge was worth something, then you would get paid. If you don't get paid, then your knowledge can't be worth anything. And we often see that attitude today. If you're giving something away for free, people think, well, it must not be worth very much. So maybe Paul's critics argued that Paul's knowledge, Paul's wisdom, wasn't worth very much because he didn't charge for it. He's not a professional. Related to this may have been looking down on those who work with their hands. When Paul came to Corinth, he was a tint maker or leather worker, he wasn't a professional teacher, he's a laborer, and his critics might have used that against him, looking down on him because he was a blue collar instead of white collar. Another possible criticism could have been that Paul was insulting the Corinthians by not taking their money. In that culture, if you had a financial patron, someone who was supporting you, then you had a certain social obligation to that patron. So by not taking their money, it looks like Paul was saying, no, I don't want to be dependent on you, Corinthians. I don't want to be beholden to you. I don't want you to be my patron. I think that's the idea behind him saying, is it because I don't love you, well, you know I love you. His critics are saying, Well, you're trying to maintain your financial independence because it shows you don't value us, you don't love us. So you're trying to keep your distance because you don't like us and you don't want to be obligated to us or entangled in any kind of financial relationship with us. And it might be all the more insulting because Paul did accept money from the Macedonians. And as we've seen, the Macedonians by and large were poorer than the Corinthians. So it might have seemed insulting to the Corinthians that Paul wouldn't take their money. It could be seen as a kind of a disrespect. Another possible criticism is that Paul was being devious. We saw this when we looked at the chapters on the Jerusalem collection. Some of his critics said, well, it only looks like Paul's not taking your money, but what he's really doing is he's lining his pockets from this collection he's taken up. And we know from chapters eight and nine that Paul insisted that was not the case. He handled the collection of the money for Jerusalem with integrity, and other people were involved who could testify that the money was handled well. But if you're defending your integrity in the way you're handling money, it's probably because someone is saying you're not handling the money with integrity. And perhaps there's a little bit of all those charges involved. When you put them together, it becomes a significant charge against Paul's character. And so he says, Did I commit a sin in not charging you for the gospel? Is that what my opponents have convinced you of? Well, I'm sorry I didn't charge you. I intend to keep on not charging you. This boasting of mine will not be stopped in the regions of Achaia. That's where the Corinthians are. Paul says, I will continue not taking money from you. And then he gives us the reason why in verse 12, and what I am doing, I will continue to do in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission they work on the same terms as we do. So he's basically saying, I'm going to continue offering the gospel to you for free. Here's why. There are those among you who boast that they speak for Christ like I do, and they are quite willing to take your money. So we are not the same. If they take your money while I teach you for free, then it undermines their argument that we are equals and the same. I'm not taking your money, so it's clear that my opponents have a very different agenda than I do. Okay, let's go on to 13 through 15. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it's no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds. Paul's opponents are claiming to have the same authority that Paul does. Paul says they disguise themselves as apostles of Christ. They may not be claiming to be apostles like Peter or John, but they are certainly claiming to be an apostle like Paul. They are claiming they are Jews, and they speak with the authority of Jerusalem. Now we don't know exactly what they claimed or what they taught. We don't know how their gospel differed from Paul's. We can speculate, but Paul doesn't talk much about that. He talks about how they oppose him more in these letters. He doesn't really talk about their theology. But here he uses very strong language to describe them. False apostles, deceitful workers, servants of Satan who, like Satan, disguise themselves as servant of righteousness. Their end will be according to their deeds, which doesn't sound like that's going to be very good. And this is a big deal from Paul's perspective. They have made false claims about themselves. To listen to them will lead you astray. This goes back to that image of them being like serpents in the garden. So let's step back and look at this whole picture. He started this by saying he's jealous and fearful. He's jealous that the Corinthians may be running off with other teachers. He's fearful that his opponents are going to lead the Corinthians astray. He responds to some personal criticisms made against him, and he reminds them that they have no reason to mistrust him. Now remember when Paul Started chapter 11. At the beginning he said, Bear with me in a little foolishness. Well, we haven't gotten to the foolishness yet. He's been telling them why he's about to do this foolish thing. He has this jealousy for them, this fear that they are going to be led astray. Well, now in verse 16, he returns again to this question of the foolish thing that he's about to do. Let's look at 16 through 21. I repeat, let no one think me foolish, but even if you do, accept me as a fool, so that I too may boast a little. When I am saying with this boastful confidence, I say not as the Lord would, but as a fool. Since many boast according to the flesh, I too will boast, for you will gladly bear with fools, being wise yourselves. For you bear it if someone makes slaves of you or devours you or takes advantage of you, or puts on airs or strikes you in the face. To my shame, I must say, we were too weak for that, but whatever anyone else dares to boast of, I am speaking as a fool, I also dare to boast of that. This is sarcasm. In essence, he's saying, Look, my opponents like to boast according to these outward, fleshly things. You've been listening to their boasts made according to the flesh. Well, I'm going to join them. I'm going to do a little foolish boasting of my own. Now I don't want you to think of me as foolish, but I know that what I'm about to do is foolish. The Lord would never boast in this way. But this is how my opponents talk, and you've been listening to them, and they've been persuading you. So I'm going to join them and try talking to you this way too. When I speak in this foolish way, I know you're not going to have any problem with that because hey, look at how you responded to them. They could do anything. They could make you slaves, they could slap you in the face, and you'd say, ooh, these guys are great. Let's listen some more. I think that's the gist of this section. I'm about to do some foolish boasting just like my opponents, and I know that you will listen to me because you listen to them. And then finally in 21 through 33, we finally get to the actual foolish boasting. To my shame, I must say we were too weak for that, but whatever anyone else dares to boast of, I am speaking as a fool, I also dare to boast of that. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they offspring of Abraham? So am I. Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one. I am talking like a madman, with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes, less one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I was adrift at sea, on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own people, dangers from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers, in toil and hardship through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure, and apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of all my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak and I am not weak? Who is made to fall and I am not indignant? If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, he who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying. At Damascus, the governor under King Eratas was guarding the city of Damascus in order to seize me, but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped his hands. Okay, this list is the foolish boasting that Paul is indulging in because he's going to match his opponents. They're going to boast this way, okay? Let me boast the same way. The first set of boasts has to do with being Jewish. Evidently, Paul's opponents relied on their Jewishness as evidence of their authority. They must have said something like, You don't want to mess with us because we're Jews from Jerusalem. We're children of Abraham. Now, we know that Paul doesn't believe his Jewishness gives him any real authority or any right to be heard. After all, he sends Titus to the Corinthians with a great deal of authority. Titus is a Gentile. To boast in his Jewishness is what Paul calls a foolish boast. It's made in the flesh, but Paul is only doing it because that's what they're doing. Are they saying they're a big deal because they're Jewish? Well, so am I. So strike that one off the list. The next set of boasts concerns the hardships that Paul has undergone as a servant of Christ. It seems his opponents must have claimed, look how we've sacrificed for you. Look how we've suffered to come and teach you the truth, and how we've suffered to be servants of Christ. And so we deserve respect for all the sacrifices we have made in order to teach you. While Paul says, okay, let me tell you about my life as a servant of Christ. Now again, I think Paul hates this way of talking. He keeps inserting these little comments like I speak as if I'm insane, because this kind of boasting is really distasteful to him. But he wants to put an end to this, so he says, look, they're going to portray themselves as these noble, sacrificing servants of Christ and dismiss me in the process. Well, let's compare their service to mine. And then he gives this list from which we can see Paul had a really, really hard life. Now let me remind you of a story from Acts. We looked at this as background for chapters 8 and 9. Paul went to Jerusalem. He goes to the temple to show that he still respects his Jewish heritage, and he gets accused of bringing a Gentile into the temple. Then a huge crowd riots and starts beating him up. The Roman soldiers intervene and they allow Paul to speak before the people. And as Paul speaks, he starts another riot. So the commanders take Paul out and they're going to scourge him to beat him to find out what he did wrong. He's already tied up and ready to be beaten when Paul says, Hey, are you allowed to do this to a Roman citizen? And the guard goes, Oops, because he's not, and so Paul doesn't get beaten up. But the commander takes Paul to appear before the Sanhedrin, where things get so heated it looks like Paul's about to be torn into pieces. So the Roman soldiers have to remove him again. And at this point, 40 Jews make a solemn vow that they are going to kill Paul or they are going to die trying. So the commander takes Paul to Caesarea for his own safety, and to ensure his safety on the way, Paul is escorted by an entourage of 200 soldiers, 70 horsemen, and 200 spear carriers, so that no one can kill him on the way. At Caesarea, Paul makes a defense before the governor Felix, and Felix is kind of intrigued. He gives Paul a little freedom, but he also keeps him in detention for two years. Eventually, Felix is replaced by another governor, and in order to save his life, Paul again appeals to Caesar, and this is how Paul gets sent to Rome. He goes on a hazardous sea journey and ends up being shipwrecked. And when they land, he's bitten by a viper, but he kind of shakes that off. And so the people on the island decide that he's a god and he does various miracles there. Finally, Paul arrives in Rome and he stays there, essentially under house arrest for two years. So Paul was under arrest for at least four years because he was falsely charged with bringing a Gentile into the temple by those Jews who opposed his gospel. Now, why did I tell you that story? Well, the interesting thing about that story is that had not happened when Paul wrote 2 Corinthians. So that list that Paul gives us of being shipwrecked and being beaten doesn't include the story I just summarized from Acts because he wrote Corinthians before the stuff in Acts happened. So when he says he was shipwrecked three times, that doesn't include the one that we read about in Acts on his way to Rome. When he says he was often in danger from his own countrymen, that doesn't include these riots in Jerusalem where he was beaten and nearly torn apart. When he says he was beaten three times with a rod, which is what the Romans would have done, that doesn't include the one he barely escaped in Jerusalem. It was the practice of Jews at the time to take blasphemers into the synagogue and give them 39 lashes. And Paul says that was done to him five times. Then Paul adds to the list the psychological suffering of being a servant of Christ, the daily pressure of the concern for all the churches he founded. He says, Who is weak and I am not weak? Who is made to fail and I am not indignant? I think what he's saying is if I hear someone who is weak in the faith, someone who's having trouble standing up to the pressures of life or is tempted to follow the wrong gospel, that weakens me, that upsets me. Paul has a lot of compassion for the people he has taught, and he feels a burden when they go astray. I think he feels this for every group he went to. He founds a church and then he finds out, like in Corinth, that false teachers have arrived and they're leading people astray and they're in danger of abandoning the gospel, and it's an emotional burden. So on top of all this physical suffering, he's got this emotional grief of worrying about the people that he's preached to. Now remember, Paul is saying, here's my life. This is what I've gone through because I preach the gospel, and this is what I've suffered to bring this to you. And why am I saying this? Because my opponents are saying that they're doing the same kinds of things and you're listening to them. So how do the claims of my opponents stack up when you think about my life versus their life? And of course, the implication is they don't compare very well. Now, Paul knows that his sufferings do not prove that he's an apostle. This is all part of his foolish boasting. So in this chapter, I think Paul is doing three things. First, he expresses his fear that the Corinthians are going to be seduced away from the faith by these false teachers that have come among them. Second, he defends himself against various charges these critics are making. They charge he's not a true apostle. They charge that he is an unimpressive amateur speaker, and they claim he's suspect because he won't accept money from them. And Paul defends himself against these charges. He says, These are not good reasons not to listen to me. They don't amount to anything. And the third thing he's doing is he enters into this foolish boasting contest with his critics. He doesn't do this boasting because he thinks such boasting has value or is worthwhile. He does it because he wants to answer his critics, and the Corinthians are listening to them when they talk like this, and he hopes that they'll see the foolishness of that. So, what are we to learn from all this? Well, there's not a lot of theological points to make from this chapter, but I do find it very thought-provoking given today's TikTok culture. Paul is being rejected for his style over his substance. The whole thing about the way he speaks and that he doesn't have the polish of a trained professional speaker, that's really important to the Corinthians. And Paul challenges them. He says, Why are you throwing away the substance for the style? Why don't you think about the content of the message that I taught you and not the words I used to teach it? So he's challenging them to think about the substance of the gospel that he's imparted to them versus how that stacks up against the so-called professional teachers. Well, that seems to me to be a fundamental issue that we wrestle with today. A while back I was discussing with a friend this rather interesting theological debate going on in our denomination. And we both agreed that this one unknown blogger had the right solution. He had analyzed the problem well and he laid out a win-win perfectly reasonable resolution. But then my friend kind of off the hand commented, but no one's gonna listen to him. He won't have any influence in the debate because he's not famous and he didn't have the right degree from the right university. And he turned out to be right. No one listened to him because he didn't have the right letters after his name or speak with the right kind of rhetorical flair. Well, Paul is scolding the Corinthian church for exactly that kind of misplaced values. In our social media age, we ought to reflect deeply on Paul's warnings here. We ought to look past the multimedia concerts we're presented with on Sunday mornings and start examining the substance coming out of the pulpit. Too often today, the person who wins a political debate is usually the one who looks best on the camera and delivers the most memorable soundbite. And we can fall into that same temptation at church, just like the Corinthians. We seek preachers who tell us stories and make us laugh and tickle our ears with poetry and platitudes. And I think we ought to take Paul's warning seriously and consider are we guilty of rejecting the message of the gospel because we find the person speaking it too dull? I think a lot of us are guilty of that today. And one last comment, Paul shows us his heart in this chapter. His sufferings were almost unimaginable. I mean, I can't imagine living the life he led. But Paul did it, and he did it out of love. He loved the gospel, he loved the Corinthians, he loved all the people he preached to. And it seems to me we ought to value that kind of service in our teachers and preachers and leaders more than we value being entertained or professional rhetoric. Thank you for listening to Wednesday in the Word, the podcast that explains not only what a passage means, but also shows you how to figure it out. The blog version of this podcast is on WednesdayInTheWord.com slash 2 Corinthians 1.5. You can hear all previous episodes in this series on my website, WednesdayInTheWord.com. There's no charge, no spam, and no ads. If you've been blessed by this podcast, please rate and review it. Follow it wherever you listen, but most importantly, tell a friend what you learned and where you learned it. Our theme music is graciously provided by Reddy Coates. You can hear his music on heartfeltmusic.org. Thank you for joining me today. I'm Krissan Morata, and I'll see you next week at Wednesday in the Word.