Holy Rambo

2 Corinthians 11: 5-11 It seems Paul was considered to be a less than desirable teacher. He was not a polished orator. He was not up on the latest styles. He just taught. He let his "superior knowledge" shine rather than his oratory. The Corinthians seemed to have been caught up in the fashion of the day, however. Paul calls these special people "eminent apostles" (NASB), or "super-apostles" (CSB). Whatever these folks were teaching, it was not the gospel Paul had spent 18 months teaching them! Imagine investing a year and a half in a group of people and having them follow someone else because they're just more charismatic! It's interesting to observe how we decide who is worth investing our time in. When I was in High School, I was in the band (yep, full-on band geek). Our band director charged a whopping one dollar for admission to our concerts. He didn't want the ticket to get in the way of family coming to hear us perform, but people viewed...

 2 Corinthians 11:1-4 I am especially struck by the image of the church in this passage. Verse two says "For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin." (NASB) In our human relationships, purity is seen as something that must be preserved and protected, for once it is lost, it is gone forever. The church, however, is populated by people who were born impure and are purified and continue to be purified by the Holy Spirit by the power of the blood of Christ.  Paul's concern here is that silver-tongued preachers of a different gospel have captured the imaginations of the church at Corinth. Though he spent a year and a half with them, grounding them in the one true gospel, they followed ideas that sounded good to them, but which represented a different message than the one Paul had presented.  We, today, have an advantage over the folks at Corinth. We have the benefit of the collected ...