3 But I fear lest by any means, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craft, [so] your thoughts should be corrupted from simplicity as to the Christ.
And the great dragon was cast out, the ancient serpent, he who is called Devil and Satan, he who deceives the whole habitable world, he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
and Adam was not deceived; but the woman, having been deceived, was in transgression.
And I say this to the end that no one may delude you by persuasive speech.
I wonder that ye thus quickly change, from him that called you in Christ's grace, to a different gospel,
Ye are of the devil, as [your] father, and ye desire to do the lusts of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has not stood in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks falsehood, he speaks of what is his own; for he is a liar and its father:
O senseless Galatians, who has bewitched you; to whom, as before your very eyes, Jesus Christ has been portrayed, crucified [among you]?
And Jehovah Elohim said to the woman, What is this thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent deceived me, and I ate.
Be not carried away with various and strange doctrines; for [it is] good that the heart be confirmed with grace, not meats; those who have walked in which have not been profited by [them].
For our boasting is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and sincerity before God, (not in fleshly wisdom but in God's grace,) we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly towards you.
And he laid hold of the dragon, the ancient serpent who is [the] devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
For certain men have got in unnoticed, they who of old were marked out beforehand to this sentence, ungodly [persons], turning the grace of our God into dissoluteness, and denying our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ.
Little children, it is [the] last hour, and, according as ye have heard that antichrist comes, even now there have come many antichrists, whence we know that it is [the] last hour.
*Ye* therefore, beloved, knowing [these] things before, take care lest, being led away along with the error of the wicked, ye should fall from your own stedfastness:
But there were false prophets also among the people, as there shall be also among you false teachers, who shall bring in by the bye destructive heresies, and deny the master that bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction; and many shall follow their dissolute ways, through whom the way of the truth shall be blasphemed. And through covetousness, with well-turned words, will they make merchandise of you: for whom judgment of old is not idle, and their destruction slumbers not. For if God spared not [the] angels who had sinned, but having cast them down to the deepest pit of gloom has delivered them to chains of darkness [to be] kept for judgment; and spared not [the] old world, but preserved Noe, [the] eighth, a preacher of righteousness, having brought in [the] flood upon [the] world of [the] ungodly; and having reduced [the] cities of Sodom and Gomorrha to ashes, condemned [them] with an overthrow, setting [them as] an example to those that should [afterwards] live an ungodly life; and saved righteous Lot, distressed with the abandoned conversation of the godless, (for the righteous man through seeing and hearing, dwelling among them, tormented [his] righteous soul day after day with [their] lawless works,) [the] Lord knows [how] to deliver the godly out of trial, and to keep [the] unjust to [the] day of judgment [to be] punished; and specially those who walk after the flesh in [the] lust of uncleanness, and despise lordship. Bold [are they], self-willed; they do not fear speaking injuriously of dignities: when angels, who are greater in might and power, do not bring against them, before the Lord, an injurious charge. But these, as natural animals without reason, made to be caught and destroyed, speaking injuriously in things they are ignorant of, shall also perish in their own corruption, receiving [the] reward of unrighteousness; accounting ephemeral indulgence pleasure; spots and blemishes, rioting in their own deceits, feasting with you; having eyes full of adultery, and that cease not from sin, alluring unestablished souls; having a heart practised in covetousness, children of curse;
For there are many and disorderly vain speakers and deceivers of people's minds, specially those of [the] circumcision,
I am afraid of you, lest indeed I have laboured in vain as to you.
For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall give great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.
or he that exhorts, in exhortation; he that gives, in simplicity; he that leads, with diligence; he that shews mercy, with cheerfulness.
For such serve not our Lord Christ, but their own belly, and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting. For your obedience has reached to all. I rejoice therefore as it regards you; but I wish you to be wise [as] to that which is good, and simple [as] to evil.
But we have rejected the hidden things of shame, not walking in deceit, nor falsifying the word of God, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every conscience of men before God.
For such [are] false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And [it is] not wonderful, for Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. It is no great thing therefore if his ministers also transform themselves as ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.
For I fear lest perhaps coming I find you not such as I wish, and that *I* be found by you such as ye do not wish: lest [there might be] strifes, jealousies, angers, contentions, evil speakings, whisperings, puffings up, disturbances; lest my God should humble me as to you when I come again, and that I shall grieve over many of those who have sinned before, and have not repented as to the uncleanness and fornication and licentiousness which they have practised.
and [it was] on account of the false brethren brought in surreptitiously, who came in surreptitiously to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage;
in order that we may be no longer babes, tossed and carried about by every wind of *that* teaching [which is] in the sleight of men, in unprincipled cunning with a view to systematized error;
Grace with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption.
Let no one fraudulently deprive you of your prize, doing his own will in humility and worship of angels, entering into things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by the mind of his flesh,
For this reason *I* also, no longer able to refrain myself, sent to know your faith, lest perhaps the tempter had tempted you and our labour should be come to nothing.
Let not any one deceive you in any manner, because [it will not be] unless the apostasy have first come, and the man of sin have been revealed, the son of perdition; who opposes and exalts himself on high against all called God, or object of veneration; so that he himself sits down in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. Do ye not remember that, being yet with you, I said these things to you? And now ye know that which restrains, that he should be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness already works; only [there is] he who restrains now until he be gone, and then the lawless one shall be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus shall consume with the breath of his mouth, and shall annul by the appearing of his coming; whose coming is according to the working of Satan in all power and signs and wonders of falsehood, and in all deceit of unrighteousness to them that perish, because they have not received the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for this reason God sends to them a working of error, that they should believe what is false,
Even as I begged thee to remain in Ephesus, [when I was] going to Macedonia, that thou mightest enjoin some not to teach other doctrines,
But the Spirit speaks expressly, that in latter times some shall apostatise from the faith, giving their mind to deceiving spirits and teachings of demons speaking lies in hypocrisy, cauterised as to their own conscience, forbidding to marry, [bidding] to abstain from meats, which God has created for receiving with thanksgiving for them who are faithful and know the truth. For every creature of God [is] good, and nothing [is] to be rejected, being received with thanksgiving;
But this know, that in [the] last days difficult times shall be there; for men shall be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, evil speakers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, profane, without natural affection, implacable, slanderers, of unsubdued passions, savage, having no love for what is good, traitors, headlong, of vain pretensions, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; having a form of piety but denying the power of it: and from these turn away. For of these are they who are getting into houses, and leading captive silly women, laden with sins, led by various lusts, always learning, and never able to come to [the] knowledge of [the] truth. Now in the same manner in which Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, thus these also withstand the truth; men corrupted in mind, found worthless as regards the faith. But they shall not advance farther; for their folly shall be completely manifest to all, as that of those also became.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on 2 Corinthians 11
Commentary on 2 Corinthians 11 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 11
In this chapter the apostle goes on with his discourse, in opposition to the false apostles, who were very industrious to lessen his interest and reputation among the Corinthians, and had prevailed too much by their insinuations.
2Cr 11:1-4
Here we may observe,
2Cr 11:5-15
After the foregoing preface to what he was about to say, the apostle in these verses mentions,
2Cr 11:16-21
Here we have a further excuse that the apostle makes for what he was about to say in his own vindication.
2Cr 11:22-33
Here the apostle gives a large account of his own qualifications, labours, and sufferings (not out of pride or vain-glory, but to the honour of God, who had enabled him to do and suffer so much for the cause of Christ), and wherein he excelled the false apostles, who would lessen his character and usefulness among the Corinthians. Observe,
In the last two verses, he mentions one particular part of his sufferings out of its place, as if he had forgotten it before, or because the deliverance God wrought for him was most remarkable; namely, the danger he was in at Damascus, soon after he was converted, and not settled in Christianity, at least in the ministry and apostleship. This is recorded, Acts 9:24, 25. This was his first great danger and difficulty, and the rest of his life was a piece with this. And it is observable that, lest it should be thought he spoke more than was true, the apostle confirms this narrative with a solemn oath, or appeal to the omniscience of God, v. 31. It is a great comfort to a good man that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is an omniscient God, knows the truth of all he says, and knows all he does and all he suffers for his sake.