I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. For I promised you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. Sermons
I. THE PASTOR'S EARNEST DESIRE. 1. That his testimony may not be ineffective. Sorely burdened is that pastor's heart whose words seem to fall to the ground. He has a great object in his earnest appeals; if these fail, his strength has been spent for nought, his life fails. To preach on and on, and yet to see no spiritual result, strains his heartstrings till they threaten to snap. Hope deferred makes the heart sick, and, if the people of his charge are merely interested or amused by his preaching, he cries, "Woe is me!" 2. That those to whom he preaches may be truly converted. He desires that they may be united to Christ as a bride to her husband (ver. 2). He is not satisfied with their thinking or speaking well of Christianity, or with their outward observance of religious duties; his longing is for their real redemption and for their thorough consecration to Christ. If he be faithful, he aims to attach them, not to himself, but to his Master. His joy is full only when they are married to Christ, and live as those who are no longer their own. For this he longs, prays, labours, agonizes. 3. That at last they may appear in holiness before Christ. "That I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ" (ver. 2). The true pastor desires, not only that his people should start in the Christian race, but that they should continue, and at last attain to the "crown of righteousness." Flash-in-the-pan conversions please none but fools. Pastoral anxiety is largely the anxiety of watching development. The man of God has the toil and care of building up spiritual life. He counts that labour lost, so far as the objects of it are concerned, which has no abiding effects. The merest flash of thought will reveal the multitude of disappointments certain to crowd upon his soul. II. THE PASTOR'S CONSTANT DREAD. This dread is lest his converts should fall away. Lest it should be made evident that the good seed has, after all, fallen upon the wayside, or into stony places, or amongst destructive thorns. He remembers: 1. The power of the tempter. Perhaps, like Paul, he calls to mind the fall of Eve, and remembers how much the children are like their mother. He feels the power of temptation in himself; he sees others fall; he wonders whether his own converts will yield. They are his crown of rejoicing when they stand fast; his crown of thorns when they fall. 2. The weakness of the human heart. He remembers the old nature still within them - their infirmities, their tendencies to trust to their own strength. They seem to be easy prey for the devil. 3. The subtlety of false human teachers. So many other gospels besides the true will be preached to them - adroitly contrived, it may be, to pander to the carnality still remaining within them. Called by seductive names - bearing the name of Christ possibly, and yet inimical to his kingdom and person. Philosophies falsely so called, and philosophers as full of confidence and conceit as of emptiness, and yet presenting to shallow judgments the appearance of the fulness of wisdom. III. THE PASTOR'S JEALOUSY. 1. A watchful jealousy. He will have to give account of the souls entrusted to his care, so dares not be careless. He loves his flock, and therefore watches over it. He watches for the approach of peril, if peradventure he may avert it. He jealously scrutinizes all influences affecting his charge. His Master is the shepherd; he is the watch-dog. 2. A warning jealousy. His keen feelings lead to solemn admonitions when needed. He barks, and, when occasion arises, even bites; faithful are the wounds of such a friend. A short shrift is the desert of a pastor who is but a dumb dog. Pity it is if our feelings are so fine that we cannot rebuke men to save them from perdition. Silver bells are all very well for seasons of festivity, but when the fire blazes forth we must swing lustily the rough alarm bell in the turret. He is a poor surgeon who is too tender hearted to use the knife, if we love people very much we shall be willing to hurt them that we may heal them. An unwarning jealousy is not worth a farthing a bushel, it is a poor sham. 3. A godly jealousy. (Ver. 2.) (1) Jealousy which centres in the welfare of others rather than in gratification at their attachment to the minister of Christ. (2) Jealousy which is concerned pre-eminently with the honour of God. The falls of professed Christians bring dishonour upon the cause of Christ. (3) Jealousy wrought in the heart by God himself. A right feeling, since God has given it place in the pastor's heart. (4) Jealousy which allies with God. Leading to prayer, communion with God, dependence upon him in every strait. - H.
I say again, Let no man think me a fool; if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me. This is a very curious and somewhat perplexing passage. It is not quite what we should expect to find in Scripture; yet it is a most suggestive passage.I. LET US TRY TO UNDERSTAND BOTH ITS, LANGUAGE AND ITS TONE. St. Paul is evidently very much hurt by the treatment which he had received. The Church there was his own creation; and, accordingly, he was deeply attached to it. Now he finds himself the object of unsparing criticism. The taunts of his opponents, however, go a very little way towards producing the tone of wounded feeling which pervades this chapter. What grieved St. Paul was that the Corinthians were being seduced from their allegiance to himself, and the simplicity that is in Christ. It also made him indignant. Who are these men that his Corinthians should transfer their loyalty so readily from him to them? What are their claims, compared with his? Are they "Hebrews," "Israelites," "the seed of Abraham," "ministers of Christ"? He is more. There was something too of scorn and wrong in Paul's feeling. "Ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise." Of course you will cheerfully put up with me and my folly, being so very wise yourselves. It is little or nothing that I ask you to put up with, compared with what you put up with from these new teachers. You let them tyrannise over you to any extent. They may rob you, domineer over you; you put up with it all: so wise are you (ver. 20). This, of course, is irony — half playful, half serious. But the playfulness of the passage bears a very small proportion to the intense seriousness of it. The prevailing tone of the whole is an almost passionate self-assertion, wrung from him almost in spite of himself, and with a kind of scorn of himself in the doing of it ("I speak foolishly") — wrung from him, I say, by grief, and indignation, and anxiety. II. Is this, or is this not, the tone of the passage? If it is, WHAT ARE WE TO THINK OF IT AND THE WRITER? Is he to be less to us than he has been? I think not. Should we not all feel that its removal would be a real loss? 1. There is the strong human interest of the passage. It is a revelation of character. The writer lays himself bare to us. You hear, as you read, the very pulsations of his heart — pulsations wild and feverish, perhaps, but genuine, honest, manly, true. There are no conventionalities and etiquettes. We have the man himself, and find him one of like feelings with ourselves. He can be wounded, and hurt, and sensitive, as we can be. Without it he would be much less of a real character and person to us. Now this is an immense gain. For one thing, it makes all his letters much more real and forceful to us. They are not mere pages in a book, however sacred. They are the words of a man, a friend. It is through such a passage as this that the Epistles of St. Paul become not merely theological treatises, but an autobiography of the writer. They present us with a photograph of himself. He opens more than his mind; he opens his heart to us. 2. Cold critics, analysing St. Paul's character as it unveils itself to us here, will find plenty of fault with it. They will say that he is too sensitive; that his assertion of himself is undignified and unworthy. It would not be difficult to dispute the ground with such critics, inch by inch, were it worth our while to do so. Instead of doing so, let us freely concede that there is a touch of human infirmity here. Now I say that this very weakness, being of the kind it is, not only increases the attractiveness of Paul's character, but also makes it more powerful for good. The noble metals, gold and silver, require, as we all know, some alloy of baser metal, in order to fit them for the service of men. And it seems as if the noblest characters required some alloy if they are to take hold of other minds, and exercise upon them their full force for good. But then all depends upon the nature of this alloy. In Cranmer's case, what gave such weight to his martyrdom was the natural sinking from such a horrible death. There could hardly be two men more unlike than Cranmer and St. Paul. But in St. Paul, too, there is what I call this dash of human weakness. What is it? We feel it as we read our text, without being able to define it. But whatever it be, there is nothing base in it, — nothing mean, coarse, or vulgar. It just makes us feel that there is a point of contact between us and him. It is a deep descent from the sinless weakness of Christ to the dash of human infirmity which we find in St. Paul. And what a descent again is it from St. Paul to ourselves! With him it is but a dash of alloy, making the noble metal all the more serviceable. With us it seems as if we were all alloy. (D. J. Vaughan, M. A.) For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage. — These words suggest that they are —I. TYRANNIC. "If a man bring you into bondage." The reference is doubtless to the false teachers of ver. 13. False teaching always makes men spiritual serfs. II. RAPACIOUS. "If a man devour you." Greed is their inspiration. III. CRAFTY. "If a man take of you." The expression "of you" is not in the original. The idea is, if a man takes you in and entraps you. This is just what religious impostors do, they cajole men, and make them their dupes. IV. ARROGANT. "If a man exalt himself." It is characteristic of false teachers that they assume great superiority. They arrogate a lordship over human souls. V. INSOLENT. "If a man smite you on the face." The religious impostor has no respect for the rights and dignities of man as man. With his absurd dogmas and arrogancies he is everlastingly smiting men on "their face," on their reason, their consciences, and their self-respect. (D. Thomas, D. D.) People Aretas, Corinthians, Ephesians, Eve, Israelites, PaulPlaces Achaia, Corinth, Damascus, MacedoniaTopics Betroth, Betrothed, Bride, Care, Chaste, Christ, Completely, Desire, Divine, Espoused, Faithful, Feel, Godly, God's, Holy, Husband, Jealous, Jealousy, Married, Present, Promised, Pure, Virgin, Zeal, ZealousOutline 1. Out of his jealousy over the Corinthians, he enters into a forced commendation of himself,5. of his equality with the chief apostles, 7. of his preaching the gospel to them freely, and without any charge to them; 13. showing that he was not inferior to those deceitful workers in any legal prerogative; 23. and in the service of Christ, and in all kinds of sufferings for his ministry, far superior. Dictionary of Bible Themes 2 Corinthians 11:2 1065 God, holiness of 8203 character Library Simplicity Towards ChristBut I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.'--2 COR. xi. 3. The Revised Version, amongst other alterations, reads, 'the simplicity that is towards Christ.' The inaccurate rendering of the Authorised Version is responsible for a mistake in the meaning of these words, which has done much harm. They have been supposed to describe a quality or characteristic belonging to Christ or the Gospel; … Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture This we have Undertaken in Our Present Discourse... Letter ii (A. D. 1126) to the Monk Adam What 'the Gospel' Is The Protevangelium. Of this Weakness of His, He Saith in Another Place... Wherefore they who Say that the Marriages of Such are not Marriages... The Godly are in Some Sense Already Blessed Paul at Corinth For not Even Herein Ought Such as are Married to Compare Themselves with The... But when He Might Use to Work, that Is... Moreover, if Discourse must be Bestowed Upon Any... Which Thing Whoso Thinks Cannot have Been done by the Apostles... And that which Follows Concerning Birds of the Air and Lilies of the Field... That the Ruler Should be a Near Neighbour to Every one in Compassion, and Exalted Above all in Contemplation. "The Carnal Mind is Enmity against God for it is not Subject to the Law of God, Neither Indeed Can Be. So Then they that Are The Blessed Hope and Its Power What the Ruler's Discrimination Should be Between Correction and Connivance, Between Fervour and Gentleness. An Essay on the Mosaic Account of the Creation and Fall of Man St. Malachy Becomes Bishop of Connor; He Builds the Monastery of iveragh. How to Make Use of Christ as the Truth, when Error Prevaileth, and the Spirit of Error Carrieth Many Away. 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