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We're beginning a look at 2 Corinthians chapter 11 today. Hi, this is Pastor Tom
and today we're going to look at verses 1 to 6. And as we look through this
chapter, all of 2 Corinthians 11, we're going to be looking together at the kind
of love that can turn a relationship right.

Paul loved the church in Corinth. He saw the church as more than an institution.
He saw it as the living body of Christ and he'd helped to start this church.

He loved the people in the church, but their relationship was not going right.
Paul's relationship with the church at Corinth had gone wrong. They were
disparaging Paul.

Paul was confronting them. So what did Paul do? Well, all through this book, 2
Corinthians, he's setting the relationship right.

But if you want it all distilled down into one chapter, you really see a lot of
what Paul did here in chapter 11. So we're going to talk this week about 6
things that he did to set his relationship right with the Corinthian church. And
there are 6 things that you can do to set a relationship right with someone in
your family, with a Christian friend, with someone that maybe you just recently
have had a difficult time with or maybe it was years ago.

Maybe it's someone that you think that relationship never could be set right and
part of it's going to be their responsibility, no doubt about it. But these are
the things that you can do. Paul knew that the Corinthians were responsible to
respond.

You can't make the other person respond, but you can do what God's given you to
do. So what has God given you to do to set a relationship right? Well, the first
thing is going to surprise you.

How do you set a relationship right? Number one, be jealous. Now I'm talking
about the right kind of jealousy, not the wrong kind, the kind that Paul talks
about in verses 1 and 2, chapter 11, verses 1 and 2.

I hope you will be patient with me as I keep on talking like a fool. Please bear
with me. I am jealous for you with the jealousy of God himself, for I promised
you as a pure bride to one husband, Christ.

Paul is talking here about a different kind of jealousy than most of us
experience in our lives. There is something called a godly jealousy and Paul
says, "I have that kind of jealousy for you. " What's a godly jealousy?

Well, it's a jealousy for what's best in a person's life, not against what you
don't want to see happen that might be in some way challenging for you. What's a
godly jealousy? It's a deep desire to see someone involved solely in the right
kind of relationships in their lives.

And all through the Old Testament, there are a number of times when God talks
about being jealous over his nation of Israel. He's talking about the fact that
he wants them not to follow after other gods. He wants them not to get involved
in wrong directions in their life.

He wants them to stay connected to him. He's jealous for that kind of love, the
right kind of love. You can be jealous over the wrong kind of thing or you can
be jealous for the right kind of thing.

And that's the kind of jealousy that Paul is expressing here. He's jealous for
this church to be all that it can be because he loved the church. And so he
compares the relationship between Christ and the church and other places in
scripture to the love of a man and a wife.

He preached to the Ephesians on the Mediterranean beach at Miletus that Christ
shed his blood because of this love that he has for the church. And Paul had
picked up that love and out of that he says, "I'm jealous for you to experience
that love that Christ has for you. " So that's why he says, "I promised you to
one husband.

" The Jewish custom was that the friend of a bridegroom would have many duties
as the wedding approached. And one of his duties was to guarantee the chastity
of the bride during this long engagement time. You might think that was a little
strange, but in their culture it worked very, very well.

Paul sees himself very much here as the friend of the bridegroom. He sees it as
his responsibility to protect, to maintain their singular commitment to Christ.
He is jealous for that to happen.

He is jealous for the good not to be lost. When a relationship goes bad, it's so
easy to focus on the bad and you forget about the good that should not be lost.
If you want to set a relationship right, the place to start is by being jealous
for the good to not be lost.

What relationships are you jealous for? What commitments does that mean for your
life? That's where it starts.

That's where you begin to set a relationship right with a husband or wife, a son
or a daughter, a friend, somebody at school, somebody at work. That's where it
starts, somebody in a ministry. First you're jealous for the good in their life
and in your life.

And then you do a second thing, and this one's going to surprise you too. At
first glance it doesn't seem like what you'd want to do. First you'd be jealous
and second be afraid.

Now I'm talking here about the right kind of fear, not the wrong kind. There's
plenty of the wrong kind in life and that messes up a lot of relationships. But
Paul talks about the right kind of relationships in fear, being afraid in verses
3 down through verse 6.

Here's what he has to say. "But I fear that somehow you will be led away from
your pure and simple devotion to Christ. Just as Eve was deceived by the
serpent, you seem to believe whatever anyone tells you, even if they preach
about a different Jesus than the one we preach, or a different spirit than the
one you received, or a different kind of gospel than the one you believed.

But I don't think I'm inferior to these super apostles. I may not be a trained
speaker, but I know what I am talking about. I think you realize this by now,
for we have proved it again and again.

" Paul says, "For I fear that you'll be led away from pure and simple devotion
to Christ. " He's talking about a godly fear here. "I'm afraid," he says, "that
you'll be deceived.

" Here's the basis of this fear, that you will be deceived as Eve was deceived.
"I'm afraid of what Satan can do in your life. I'm afraid that Satan is going to
mess this relationship up, the relationship that you have with God, and so
therefore the relationship that you have with everybody else.

" Now, there's a great reminder here, a terrible reminder in many ways, of what
messes up relationships. Satan is the deceiver. Eve was deceived by the serpent,
and it messed up their relationship with God, Adam and Eve.

Eve and Adam, and Satan has been messing up relationships ever since. So Paul
says specifically, "Here's what I'm afraid of. If you listen to this deceiver,
your minds are going to be led astray from pure devotion.

If someone can twist the truth, they can damage your devotion. Devotion is not
based upon feelings, it's based upon truth, the truth that God loves you. And if
Satan can make you feel like God doesn't love you, it can damage your devotion
to him.

Paul says, "I'm also afraid that you'll put up with a different gospel, gospel
good news. " Some other person's good news. Now, other people's good news always
has this brand on it.

You do what I tell you to do, and the good news is God will love you. Well, the
good news is God loves you because of what he did for you in Jesus Christ. Paul
says, "I'm afraid you're going to put up with a different gospel, and people
aren't going to control you through this.

" He says, "I'm afraid you're going to follow the wrong leaders. " And he calls
them, you notice what he calls them here? "Super apostles.

" You can put that in quotes in your mind. And he compares them to himself. It's
interesting in the comparison in verse 6, he says, "I may not be a trained
speaker.

" It's very interesting that word in Greek, unskilled or untrained, is the word
idioteis. He says, "I'm idioteis in speaking. " It's obvious that there was not
a lot of respect for Paul in the Church of Corinth at this time.

They were saying, "He's an idiot. Look at these great super apostles we have.
They're better teachers than he is.

He can't teach at all. " Now, we're going to talk more about this next week, but
I just want to remind you today that when we come to this thing of evil, evil is
not a philosophical issue. It is a deeply personal issue, and it was affecting
their relationships deeply.

Why does evil exist in this world? Well, God allows evil. There's no doubt about
it.

He allows it. This is a long study, but partly to allow us a choice, to choose
to love Him or not to love Him. And they were choosing not to love God, but to
instead follow their own selfish desires.

Evil also exists in this world because of Satan's influence. Satan afflicts evil
upon our lives. He tempts us.

He draws us in the wrong direction. He wants to mess up your life. He wants to
mess up your relationships.

But we have to be honest. Evil also exists in our world, not just God's will,
not just Satan's influence, but because of mankind's choice, because we accept
evil. The truth is, evil comes by personal invitation.

And it doesn't look that evil when we do the evil, but what's the greatest evil?
Evil is when we decide to buy into the lie, when we decide that I'm more
important, when we decide that my pride has to be healed, and when we decide
that no matter what, I'm going to get what I want, because it makes me feel
better about myself, or more powerful, or less uncomfortable, or less afraid.
This old phrase, "The devil made me do it," no, he invited you to do it, but you
accepted the invitation, just like Eve accepted, Adam accepted that invitation
to eat of that fruit.

I know some people are uncomfortable with the idea of Satan at all. They'd
rather make evil some moral issue, or sociological issue, and disconnect it from
a personal issue. Satan is personal, and evil is a personal issue in your life.

It's not breaking a code of ethics. It's breaking God's heart. If I'm going to
confront what tears my relationships apart, I've got to confront the evil in my
own life.

I've got to confront the fact that I'm selfish. I've got to confront the fact
that I struggle. I've got to first, we talked about today, be jealous for what's
good, but I also have to be honest about what's bad, and the bad that's in me.

Confront that. That's where it starts. So let's confront it together this week.

Let's confront it together in relationship with the Lord. Would you pray with
me? Our Father, we pray that you'd help us to be jealous for the good, and you'd
help us to confront the evil.

You'd help us to see that you are working for the good, and you are working to
do away with the evil. One day you will do away with all evil. While we live in
this world, I pray for each of us today that instead of being overwhelmed by the
temptations of life, that you'd help us to be invited, and to accept that
invitation into the good things you want to do in our lives and relationships.

Pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Tomorrow we're going to talk about the power of
the humble choice.