“As surely as the truth of Christ is in me, nobody in the regions of Achaia will stop this boasting of mine. Why? Because I do not love you? GOD KNOWS I DO (Love you)! 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. For such people are FALSE APOSTLES, DECEITFUL WORKERS, MASQUERADING AS APOSTLES OF CHRIST. And no wonder, for SATAN HIMSELF MASQUERADES AS AN ANGEL OF LIGHT.” (2 Corinthians 11:10-14)
Paul has brutally called out his opponents in Corinth for what they were: DECEIVERS PRETENDING to be what Paul TRULY WAS: an apostle of Christ. They were attempting to seduce the Corinthians away from true devotion to Jesus, preaching to them a DIFFERENT gospel about a DIFFERENT Jesus and a DIFFERENT spirit. In other words, they were DISTORTING all the true things Paul had taught to the Corinthians in order to gain some advantage for themselves. The Bible teaches that this tactic should not be surprising. Satan also disguises himself as AN ANGEL OF LIGHT. The Devil’s greatest weapon has always been DECEPTION. The most effective deception is to convince people that WHAT IS EVIL IS ACTUALLY GOOD, that what is DARK IS ACTUALLY LIGHT. By coating lies in a mask of the truth, it’s much easier to fool people into accepting what is false. Paul had already compared the work of these false apostles to Satan’s deception of Eve in the garden, “But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the SERPENT’S CUNNING (panourgia: cleverness, craftiness) your minds may somehow be LED ASTRAY from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.” (2 Corinthians 11:3)
WE MUST KNOW THE TRUTH…
Your Personal Pastor -Bill Stockham