7 Look at what is before your eyes. If anyone is confident that he is Christ’s, let him remind himself that just as he is Christ’s, so also are we.
2 Corinthians 10
In chapters 10 to 13 of 2 Corinthians, Paul addresses the false apostles and their followers. Earlier, he had been addressing the Corinthian church; now, he fires directly at the false teachers and those who have joined their mutiny. This is a rich text for the instruction of believers today because Christianity is awash in a flood of lying teachers/preachers. We desperately need to be discerning with regard to the resurrection and those who deny the resurrection; with regard to the New Testament and those who deny the authenticity of the New Testament as Scripture; with regard to the deity of Christ and those who deny the deity of Christ, calling themselves Christian theologians. Paul says in verse 7, “You’re looking at things as they are outwardly.” The Greek here is in the imperative, grammatically, meaning it is a command. And as a command, it is to be understood this way, “Look at what is obvious, look at what is right in front of your face, face the facts, look at the evidence, see the reality, see what is right before you, look what’s under your nose.” What makes it an imperative is the Greek verb blepete, meaning to see, or to look. Paul often used this word as an imperative (command). The Corinthians already had more than enough evidence to make a right decision. In 1 Corinthians 9:1-2, Paul wrote, “Am I not free, am I not an apostle, have I not seen Jesus our Lord? You know that.” They all knew the story of Paul’s Damascus Road conversion. They knew that he had seen the glorified Christ. Then, Paul adds, “Are you not my work in the Lord?” So, how can you tell a true messenger of Christ? By his relationship to Jesus Christ. The false apostles said they were the emissaries of Jesus Christ and denied that Paul was one. When the false teachers arrived, they did not deny Paul’s Apostleship. They worked up to it, saying that they were the true apostles with the true authority who preached the truth. They made arrogant claims to personal commissions from Jesus Christ that made them superior in intimacy to Christ. They were claiming that for themselves exclusively and denying it was true of Paul. They were supplanting Paul, claiming he was a deceiver with a wicked, hidden life of secret shame, full of lust and sin, a man who preached lies and did it for money. They were saying, “Paul’s not a Christian, Paul has no real personal earthly relationship with Jesus Christ, Paul has no commission or apostolic authority, and Paul certainly doesn’t have the elevated secret higher knowledge of the glorified Christ that we have.” The average person who looks at philosophy, religion or, moral/ethical standards might conclude there are all kinds of religions, ethical codes and, moral standards. That’s not true. There are only two, the right one and the wrong ones. There’s only one source of truth and that’s the Bible, and everything else is error. Satan and demons do not care what people believe as long as they don’t believe the truth. True Christians walk with Christ and their intimacy with Him is clearly seen in their lives. In Matthew 7, Jesus said, “False teachers are going to come in like true prophets in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves, they’re going to come in to destroy you, but they’re going to claim to be true prophets.” Then Jesus said, “By their fruit, you know them.” Fruit doesn’t grow on a thorn bush, weeds or, thistles. So, how do you know the true messenger of God? Look at his life, the people who follow them. False teachers give the appearance of orthodoxy, all pleasant and positive and seemingly sincere. They wear their ecclesiastical robes, they talk about their biblical knowledge, they spout their evangelical vocabulary, they make their endless claims. Christian, how are you doing in your knowledge of the Scriptures? Only through your personal study of Scripture can you discern the wolves in sheep’s clothing who are among us even today.
Source: S C Ball January 2, 2024
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