FOOLS FOR CHRIST

FOOLS FOR CHRIST!

2 Cor 11:19

19 For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise.

           Paul had challenged the Corinthians sharply in his first letter to them. It stung! Now they were thinking him to be a fool. Most commentators think this verse to be the most sarcastic remark ever made by Paul. He actually begins the eleventh chapter this way:

2 Cor 11:1-6

11:1 Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly: and indeed bear with me.

2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

3 But 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.

4 For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.

5 For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles.

6 But though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge; but we have been throughly made manifest among you in all things.

           In the Wycliffe Bible Commentary we read this about verse twenty: “Five verbs, increasing in intensity, express the indignities which the sycophant [a flatterer] Corinthians willingly endured at the hands of a false prophet. These men (1) degraded them - makes slaves of you (RSV); (2) devoured them - devour you; (3) defrauded them - takes advantage of you (RSV); (4) derided them - puts on airs (RSV); (5) defamed them - smite you on the face. The dupes of duplicity are the wildest defenders of the very men who debauch them!”

           In verse 23 Paul says “bear in mind that the things I am about to say comes from one who is accused of being a fool.” He then begins by explaining the things he had suffered to bring them the gospel. Paul thought it to be foolish to have to do so. In the middle of the list one thing strikes me to the heart. It is this verse:

2 Cor 11:28

28 Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.

           The word “care” is the Greek word merimna which means “solicitude or anxiety.” The minister is always presented with cases to be heard and problems to be solved. His mind and spirit absorbs a bit of every man’s pain. He returns home at the end of the day weary and sore for no apparent reason. It is the care of all the churches! He explains further in verse 29 when he alludes to his attachment to the weakness and suffering of others. “Who is weak – and I do not feel it?”

2 Cor 12:15 & 19

15 And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved. 19 Again, think ye that we excuse ourselves unto you? we speak before God in Christ: but we do all things, dearly beloved, for your edifying.

It is sufficient for most ministers simply to have his warnings heeded!

Dear Lord, let me be one of your fools that I may make a difference. AMEN