2 Corinthians 11-6 Study Guide: Divine Jealousy
Community Group Study Guide — Divine Jealousy
2 Corinthians 11:1-6
Study Information:
There are certain people in your life that you feel protective for. Likely that list includes a spouse, kids or a younger sibling. If someone threatens them or tries to lead them astray, you step in, get in the way and try to protect the one you love. That is how Paul felt about the Corinthians because he planted their church and brought the gospel to them and there were false teachers leading them astray from the true gospel. In this passage of scripture Paul wanted the Corinthians and us to consider his attitude of divine jealousy and love and to be on guard against the false gospels that are offered in this world, even if those sources claim to follow Christ.
Divine Jealousy
2 Corinthians 10:1-2, 5-6
The first thing that made Paul distinct from the “super apostles” was his divine jealousy and commitment to the Corinthians. Paul represented this as a “zeal” for Corinthians and used the same language that God used when he disclosed his character to Moses on Mount Sinai when he described himself as a “jealous God.” We read jealousy in our culture as a completely negative attribute, often mixing the idea with the concept of covetousness or insecurity. Jealousy, in the biblical sense, is a protective love that desires to preserve the one cared for. God was described as a jealous God in Exodus 20:5 because he is the one we were designed to worship and to worship a lesser god or idol would be detrimental to our lives. What was the root of Paul’s divine jealousy? Paul was the founding pastor of the church and had committed to the Lord to work for their sanctification and perseverance (2 Cor 10:1-2). To describe this Paul used cultural language that his audience would have picked up on when he said he betrothed them to one husband, to present them as a pure virgin in Christ. This was an image of a father betrothing his daughter in marriage and presenting her to the groom on a future day. We do not have arranged marriages in our culture today but we have the image of a Father walking his daughter down the aisle. The Bible describes the church as the bride of Christ and one day Christ will come back and claim his bride. Paul had that day in mind in his ministry to the Corinthians. The “super apostles” did not think of the long term or the good of the Corinthians, they thought of their own selfish gain.
The “super apostles” also made it their mission to erode the Corinthian’s trust in Paul and to cause them to question Paul’s motives. Paul used the term “super apostle” in verse 5 ironically because that was their self stated claim, even though they were not called by God in the same way Paul was in Acts 9. Likewise Paul made a concession to one of their complaints, he was not “trained” in rhetoric like the Corinthians prized but he was not unskilled in knowledge. Paul not only knew the truth of God’s word, he personally knew the “Truth” who is Christ.
One Gospel
2 Corinthians 10:3-4
Paul was distinct from the “super apostles” in that he preached the real gospel, the real Spirit, the real Jesus. Paul warned the Corinthians to examine if the false teachers were preaching the real Jesus or not. Did they come proclaiming a gospel that was different than the one that Paul proclaimed? Paul used three past tense verbs to remind them that he was the one who first taught them about Jesus; Paul proclaimed, they received and they accepted. So why are they chasing after lies now?
The challenge that faced the Corinthians was similar to the challenge that faced Eve in the Garden of Eden. Paul wrote that Eve was deceived with cunning by the Serpent and that the Corinthians were similarly being deceived by these “super apostles” and led away form sincere and pure devotion to Christ. Not every person who claims to be from God or a leader in the church has your best interest in mind and deceit can be very difficult to pick up. Paul specifically worried about their thoughts being led away from the Lord, which is consistent with what he wrote in 2 Corinthians 10:5. There was a real danger that they’d start to believe false things about God and be led astray just like Eve was led astray. Eve specifically was tempted to believe that God was holding back on her and that the boundary in the garden to not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil was God’s way of preventing her from being “like” him, when she was already created in the image and likeness of God. Paul’s motives were pure and he desired for the church to remain faithful to Jesus.
We’re tempted today with alternative gospels and alternative Jesus’s to worship. Many of these false gospels and false Jesus' make a lesser thing the main thing when it comes to worship of Christ or they just outright twist the truth. Some that come to mind include the “Social gospel” Jesus that makes Jesus a means to social action or societal change but not the king of other areas of your life. There’s the prosperity gospel that makes Jesus a means to more wealth and material possessions. Likewise, there is a Jesus that never challenges you; it should be a surprise if you and God are always in agreement on everything in your life right now. That is a warning sign that you have probably made God into your image. The false gospel preached to the Corinthian church emphasized worldly power and success. Other churches in the New Testament were warned of false gospels like the Galatians and a gospel that made it about following the Old Testament Law and human works, or John’s first letter and his warning about those who left the church believing a gospel of mysticism that devalued the material world and even denied Jesus coming in the flesh. We are usually tempted to believe these false gospels when we do not feel like Jesus is giving us what we want. Church we should be careful not to drift from the truth and be aware of cunning and crafty influencers and teachers who desire to lead us astray from sincere and pure devotion to God.
When we think about how this applies to followers of Jesus today, we cannot make Jesus into our image or think that somehow Jesus isn’t knowable in a real way. There is subjective truth around some things in life like it is true that burritos are better than sandwiches, but when it comes to who Jesus is and how we are saved that is not up for debate. Likewise, we would be blessed to have deep Christian community that cares if we drift away from the truth, people who would lovingly have a divine jealousy for us to remain faithful to Jesus. If you do not have that kind of Christian community, pray and ask the Lord to lead you and we’d be happy to help.
At your community group:
Take 15-20 minutes to share about how God has been at work in your life, prayer concerns and pray for one another.
How did God speak to you through the scripture and the sermon this week?
Discussion Questions:
2 Corinthians 11:1-6
What does having a “divine jealousy” for the Corinthians mean? Why would Paul feel this way about them?
How did Paul describe the temptation of Eve in the garden and how does this relate to what the “super apostles” were doing?
Paul talked about how he proclaimed and they received and accepted the truth and gave a warning about not swaying from the gospel. What false gospels or false Jesus’s are we tempted to follow today?
How can the church grow in a godly divine jealously for one another? Are there ways you can deepen your Christian community this week?
