Reposted from 2011:
Read 2 Corinthians 11 at Bible Gateway.
“For you put up with fools gladly, since you yourselves are wise! For you put up with it if one brings you into bondage, if one devours you, if one takes from you, if one exalts himself, if one strikes you on the face. To our shame I say that we were too weak for that! But in whatever anyone is bold—I speak foolishly—I am bold also.” 2 Cor 11:19-21
What is the difference between what Jesus taught about not resisting one who was evil (Mat 5:38-42), and what Paul is chiding the Corinthian church for, for putting up with those who strike them on the face?
Now I may be wrong about this, and if so, then please show me, LORD – but the difference that jumped out to me was that the ones the Corinthians were putting up with came in the name of the LORD, as ministers of Christ and in His name. In His name, they put into bondage, devoured, stole, exalted themselves, and struck on the face. The name of the LORD is holy, and we are to treat it as holy (3rd commandment). When someone says, “I am a minister of the LORD,” and then they magnify themselves, or they hurt and steal, then they have profaned the name of the LORD.
The church is not to submit to and tolerate the profaning of the holy name of the LORD; therefore, the church is not to submit to false apostles and deceitful workers who appear as angels of light or as ministers of righteousness, but whose works, whose fruit, reveals their true nature (2 Cor 11:13-15).
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