ST. MARY’S CATHOLIC CHURCH – DUBAI

BIBLE FAITH SHARING

CONDUCTED BY: BR. CLIVE GONSALVES

HELD ON: 24th APRIL 2006.

2nd Corinthians

Chapters 11(1-23)

SCRIPTURE QUOTE:

2 PET 2:1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive opinions. They will even deny the Master who bought them – bringing swift destruction on themselves.

Last week we discussed that something had gone wrong in Corinth between the time Chapter 9 and Chapter 10 were written. Something was terribly wrong in Corinth because five months later St. Paul wrote Chapter 10. What went wrong in Corinth that required St. Paul to write a letter like this?

People had come from outside and they had started to preach in Corinth and if they had started preaching Jesus Christ for whatever motive, whether good or bad, it would not have mattered. Because if Christ is preached from a good preacher or a bad preacher would not matter as St. Paul was sure the point was not the motive behind what they were teaching but what they were preaching about Christ which was false, what was coming out was a false gospel.

When someone does something wrong in our church, in our prayer group, sometimes we do not like to speak out because we do not like to upset people; we do not like to turn the apple cart. We say it is better to keep quiet and that is true. That is something we must do. This is when we display the meekness and humbleness of Christ but yet we have a duty; you are required to speak out. There is a condition in which manner you are allowed to speak out i.e. if the group or the people and their faith is being destroyed. You are supposed to and are required to speak out whether or not the message is taken properly by the people to whom it is addressed. The main condition is not your own ego, not your own thoughts but what is happening, what is destroying the group; you are supposed to speak out.

You can also speak out to justify your position. Every tongue that rises against you, you are supposed to refute if it is a vindication to your action. You are entitled to justify yourself. ISA 54:17 No weapon formed against you shall prosper and you shall confute every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their vindication from me, says the Lord.

This is what had happened in Corinth. Some people had come and were speaking about Christ, about the gospel which was false. Just at the end of Chapter 10, St. Paul says I will not boast, if I boast I will boast in the Lord. But then he says something else, even though it is foolish to boast or justify or to speak in a worldly manner or to justify myself worldly, I will still use the very same weapons as my opponents are doing. They were speaking in a worldly manner and then he gives them a reason. He says he can also say, he can also act like a fool and use the same tone, the same argument and says I can talk the same language not out of choice but out of necessity.

2 COR 11:1-2

I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me! I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I promised you in marriage to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

He tells them to bear with him because the church in Corinth was so dear to him because he brought the gospel to them, he introduced them to Christ. He says, as in the Jewish tradition, he promised them to Christ like the Father would promise the bride to the bridegroom even before marriage. He is talking to the Corinthians as a body, as a church. He says I have promised you to Christ and when I have promised you to Him, I have promised Him a pure and chaste virgin. The church of Christ will be presented to the Lord without blemish, spotless and this is how he has promised them to Him.

2 COR 11:3

But I am afraid that as the serpent seduced Eve by its cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

He says another thing now. He says I am afraid because just as Eve was ‘seduced’. These are very strong words; seduce means almost like a sexual term. Just like Eve was seduced by the devil, so also you will be led astray.

The preacher explains how it happens:

First of all be careful of false gospel. It is easy to say that the gospel of Judas is published and is now out. Then we have the Da Vinci Code and others. It is not new. We had the gospel of Thomas, the gospel of Peter. All these gospels were floating around in the early church, now if someone comes to you and leads the gospel of Judas you will say it is a false gospel because it is open, everyone is talking about it. But what you should be very careful about is not these open false statements but you have to be careful of the subtle arguments that people will be able to speak to you about the gospel. They will not give you a message outright if they lead you, they are talking words of Christ. We get different messages through different mediums.

Some of the most common ones are:

There are a lot of spiritual books but the most common spiritual books are written by non-Catholic writers because they write a lot about Jesus. It gives you a lot of knowledge. Many of them lift you up spiritually but you need to be very discerning because the message might seem to be very spiritual but if you are not careful if you are not reading and asking the help of the Holy Spirit to guide you, you could very easily be led astray.

Secondly, the TV – there are so many God-related channels available; by whatever names they are called. You have to be very careful of the speakers because the speakers are the most convincing of the speakers and listening and watching the programme, after programme and programme, just because you like the speaker, you have to be very careful because the message is coming through, whether you like it or not, it is going to effect your brain, you start thinking about it. It stays in your brain. You by yourself may consciously pray to be able to discern whether it is true or false but rather than put yourself in a situation or position where you are exposed to this message it is best not to watch.

You will be safer if you watch a totally Catholic channel (EWTN). You know it is 100 % true as per the church, as per the teachings of the church and the speakers are following the guidelines of the church. But if you walk away from these, any one can talk or spread it, some of the preachers can speak for half an hour on one scripture quote. They can squeeze the message to extend one sentence for more than half hour, which is difficult, so they start adding what they think. He says God inspired me, suddenly you get man-inspired messages which may be inspired by the Holy Spirit but you have no guarantee; whereas the teachings which come from the Catholic Church, Jesus has guaranteed these. There will be no error which follows the teaching which is set.

St. Paul experienced this. The preacher is bringing out this point because St. Paul said he preached the true gospel to them. He did not hold anything back, he did not speak on the side and he spoke the entire word to them. There is no one who can add on another message. What were they doing? Just like Eve was deceived they were getting taken up by the messages of the other preachers.

All the while he was talking about Christ till verse 3. He said by the sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

2 COR 11:4

For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you received a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you submit to it readily enough.

In this verse he suddenly changes. Suddenly ‘Christ’ is replaced by ‘Jesus’. For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached or if you have received a different spirit from the one you have received, you will put up with it easily enough.

What these people from outside were preaching, were preaching a Jesus. St. Paul is drawing us back to the humanity of Jesus. The people had experienced the working of the power of the Holy Spirit. Suddenly the entire messages were starting to being focused on Spirit-filled gifts, Spirit-led people and the focus moved from death and resurrection of Jesus and more focus was being paid on the Spirit and manifestations. Suddenly the people started focusing on the signs and wonders and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. These were spirit led people; they were diminishing the value of the passion and death of Jesus. St. Paul is bringing us back to the Jesus who came and suffered. If they were preaching a Jesus they were trying to say that Jesus came and died and was raised they were lessening the value of the passion and death and most especially the resurrection of Jesus. St. Paul says if they are speaking of any Jesus there is only one Lord and only one Spirit. There is only one Holy Spirit; if they are preaching and working under the power of another spirit, they are also preaching another gospel.

History repeats itself. Today we are now hearing about another gospel, what we are living now of another gospel has already happened 2000 years ago. Even at that time people were preaching false gospels. Today as our preacher is telling us beware, be careful, of false gospels, St. Paul already knew this 2000 years ago. We must see that the church will repeatedly face attacks. Some of these attacks will come in different forms and history will repeat itself. Men repeat history, they forget the past, the do not learn from the past. It is good that the gospel of Judas has come out at this time. It took 2000 years for someone to start publishing this. Where was this lying and why has it suddenly come up? We must say ROM 8:28 And we know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

Even Satan when he is doing something bad, it is things like this that generate interest. People become more interested in the faith, they ask questions, they probe, they want to learn more and start reading it. People of other faith get another opportunity to look at it from outside and watch the fun. People of other faith watch what is happening. Are the Christians reacting but we turn every such incident into an opportunity. This is what we should do, what our church should do. We should be able to convey our faith to someone as giving us an opportunity to start a topic. When they say what do you think of this, you say let us first discuss all the four gospels of Mathew, Mark, Luke and John and then you will talk about the next gospel, ultimately we will discuss the gospel of Judas.

2 COR 11:5

I think I am not in the least inferior to these super-apostles.

St. Paul is once again saying I am not inferior or superior to the super-apostles. Who were the super-apostles? James, John and Peter were the pillar apostles. They were based in Jerusalem. Surprisingly and strangely enough the biggest opposition St. Paul faced did not come from Peter and John but it came from James. We must understand that even though Peter was head of the apostles they already had elders in the church from the Jewish church. That is what James was, he was not an apostle. This is the James who wrote the Book of James. He is not the other James who was killed by Herod.

We will see the opposition coming out in the Epistle to the Galatians. What was the opposition? They were not against Paul as a person, but they were concerned about their Jewish tradition, they still held on to the Jewish-ness in them. That is why they were putting an opposition against St. Paul and St. Paul was just trying to preach the basic message of love and said the law and following all rules and regulations did not really matter. What is important is your faith. He was against these Jewish laws as a means to attain salvation.

All these people who came from Jerusalem were not apostles but people sent by the apostles, they were associated with the gospel and they had started spreading around and started talking to the church. If you see where they were choosing to go, they were going wherever Paul was preaching the gospel. If you read in ACTS, wherever St. Paul went, soon a band of Jewish followers, one of the Jewish band would come and stir up trouble. Acts 17:13 But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was preached by Paul at Berea, they came there also and stirred up the crowds. Every place he went some band of followers would be there. So you see the opposition the prophets gets, the biggest opposition is from their own people not from the Gentiles. Most of the trouble St. Paul faced came from the Jews who caused a problem; they came and carried messages back to Jerusalem.

What is the message for us? We can expect people who are closest to us, who are nearest to us, to be the one through whom we can expect trouble. It may not always happen but when it does happen do not think it is strange. Do not think how can it happen? It can happen. Don’t think it is anything different from what was earlier. Even Jesus faced this, even in His own hometown. St. Paul also faced the same problem.

St. Paul is not saying I am a super-apostle, he humbles himself but he says I am not even less than them. This is for all of us who occupy some position. What does it mean? This leadership, each one of us has a certain task and just as all the stars shine brightly, but each star differs from the other so also we must understand that even among ourselves, among our leaders, each one will have a different style and shine differently but that does not make any one more superior than someone else. That is what St. Paul is saying – I am not less than or more than the other.