False apostles and foolish Corinthians - 2 Corinthians 11:14-20

False Apostles and Deceptive Workers in Corinth

Let's start by reading chapter 11 and we'll read to keep the context. Let's go from about verse 10 and we'll read through 26. Second Corinthians chapter 11 verse 10. As the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting of mine will not be stopped in the regions of Achaia.

Why?

Because I do not love you.

God knows I do.

But what I am doing, I will continue to do that I may cut off opportunity from those who desire an opportunity to be regarded just as we are in the matter about which they are.

Boasting.

For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness whose end shall be according to their deeds.

Again I say, let no one think me foolish, but if you do, receive me even as foolish that I also may boast a little. That which I am speaking, I am not speaking as the Lord would, but as in foolishness.

In this confidence of boasting, since many boast according to the flesh, I will boast.

Also.

For you being so wise, bear with the foolish gladly. For you bear with anyone if he enslaves you, if he devours you, if he takes advantage of you, if he exalts himself, if he hits you in the face. To my shame, I must say that we have been weak by comparison, but in whatever respect anyone else is bold, I speak in foolishness, I am just as bold myself.

Are they Hebrews?

So am I.

Are they Israelites?

So am I.

Are they descendants of Abraham?

So am I.

Are they servants of Christ? I speak as of insane, I more so, in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes, three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep.

I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren.

I have been in labor and hardship through many sleepless nights, and in hunger and thirst, often without food, and in cold and exposure. Apart from such external things, there is a daily pressure upon me of concern for all the churches.".

I read a little farther than that, because it made more sense. So we finished up last week, and we didn't finish up, we began the three verses, we were working towards the verses where Paul is no longer using irony or sarcasm, he gets right to the point, and he names these men what they are.

He calls them in verse 13, so 13, 14, 15, and 16, he says, for such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And that has been with us down through history and continues today.

There are many who disguise themselves as apostles of Christ. They think they're not wearing a disguise in many cases, in most cases, but they are. If they deny the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, if they add to or subtract from the scripture, especially silly, silly doctrines that just make no sense, well, any doctrines for that matter, they are false apostles and they are denying Christ.

We talked about the four, and you can make all kinds of lists, but I tried to boil it down to four, four things that every false teacher will do, false apostles will do. They will deny the identity and the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ.

They'll deviate from proper biblical teaching, some new unbefore seen teaching that no one else saw in the last 2 ,000 years. I'm the only one that saw it, and it's amazing to me that no one has seen that, and it's coming to the fore now because God gave me you.

That's basically what happens. And so we have Mormonism in the early 1800s. God hid from everyone but a salamander the truth, and if any of you have studied Mormon theology, you'll know what I'm talking about.

So they'll deny the deity and the identity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Number two, they will generally be motivated by greed, lust, power, and fame, and not necessarily in that order, but they're all tied together.

The love of money is the root of evil, and so because of their love for money, they also lust after power and fame and the things that money and prestige and purchasing power can bring in the world. The fruit of their lives will be wickedness.

They will be exposed. If not here in the last times, they will be exposed. Number three, they will deny the Bible as the inspired and infallible Word of God. They will start at Genesis or somewhere else, and there'll be some section or sections.

Oh, and by the way, false doctrines don't come one little item by itself. They always come in a package. There'll be a package of false doctrines because you have to have this to support this, and well, you've got to throw out that if this is true, and so there'll be a picking and choosing throughout the scripture.

They will reject the idea that God's Word answers every question that is necessary to be answered. And unfortunately, much of this has crept into the Christian church where supposedly scientific inquiry has yielded to us the idea that Genesis is myth, that Genesis is a story, it's a stylization.

That is false. Genesis is fact. It says, in the beginning God created, and he said, and the evening and the morning were the first day. I mean, he couldn't have made it any clearer. Now I'm anthropomorphizing this, so forgive me because I'm not God, but turns to the other three and he says, what can we do to make this word so clear that nobody can foul it.

Up?

And then the other two laugh. They'll foul it up. Give them two seconds and they'll foul it up. In the beginning, starting there, men have rejected that, and once you reject that, once you reject the authority of Genesis, it's an easy stretch to begin rejecting many other places because Genesis is where everything begins, and so we've got to give credence to every part of the Bible.

Number four, they will claim their own authority, and they will often refuse to be subject to spiritual authority, so they won't be subject to their own body. You do realize that the elders, in many respects, are subject to you.

If you, as Bereans, discover that one of us has been teaching false doctrine, it's incumbent upon you to do something about that because nobody else will. You're the nobody that will, or you're the somebody that will, and everybody who is in a position of responsibility is subject to the teaching of the Word of God.

If they will not be subject to that, then they need to be disciplined. Church discipline needs to take place. They will often, as well, take on special titles, bishop, apostle, father, or others, and we see lots of that today.

The New Apostolic Reformation, these men are calling themselves apostles with a big A. Now, as we all know, the word apostle can, in Scripture, designate just an emissary, but when we're talking about the original apostles who actually saw the risen Christ, there were only the ones that are depicted in Scripture, and at the end of the apostolic era, no more of those kind of apostles have ever appeared because it's been unnecessary because we have the finished Word, as Peter said.

We have a more sure prophecy right with us right here. This is the Word of God. So, with that said, let's move on to our next section. Actually, that's not the next section, it's just a continuation where he says that, in verse 13, for such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.

And then he says, and no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Where's the first time he did that? In the garden, in Genesis. And isn't it remarkable that if we dismiss that book, how much we dismiss.

We dismiss the fall. We dismiss the fact that we are depraved individuals who will, every single time, without the grace of God, choose darkness. All of us. Everyone that's ever populated the planet. No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

Continuing with his stern denunciation of these wicked men, Paul compares them to Satan himself. Now, isn't that kind of uncomfortable? That he would call them out that badly? These men are emissaries of Satan, he said.

They're not just mistaken. They're leading believers away from the truth. They're emissaries of Satan. They are the type of people that will adopt any disguise necessary to confuse or subvert those whom they purport to serve.

One of Satan's best tools is deception. Deception flows out of his character as a liar. And thus, those who would deceive the church, whether knowingly or unknowingly in some cases, for many have so thoroughly believed their own lies that they've come to believe they are truly a messenger of God, when in fact their message is perverse.

Those men are dangerous. They are not to be trifled with. They are to be exposed as liars and charlatans. In Matthew chapter 4, Satan himself comes to attempt to subvert the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And he, guess what? He even quotes scripture correctly. Do you think he knows the word of God? Absolutely, he knows the word of God. There's no surprises in there. He just hates it. He hates it with a passion we cannot imagine.

I'm going to read Matthew chapter, we're going to go through Matthew chapter 4, verses 1 through 10. Just look at it real quick. Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

And after he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, then he became hungry. And the tempter, at this point of weakness, came to him and said to him, if you are the Son of God, command these stones become bread.

But he answered and said, Jesus answered and said, it is written, man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. So just as an aside here, what did Jesus use to counter the false statement, or the statement that Satan made?

He used scripture. And that's some of the things we need to remember as well. Yes, science is wonderful and important and math and all those things, but at the end of the day, it's the gospel that will change man's heart.

Yes, Nathel.

Yes, he's an excellent counterfeiter.

People, Nathel has mentioned that people will bring in something from scripture and then twist it. Context and proper hermeneutical application is so important because we can, I remember when Walter Martin one time was demonstrating how easily it was, easy it was to just kind of go through the Bible and come up with your own.

And he went like this, he flipped and he said, and Jesus said, what thou doest do quickly. And he turned the page and he says, and he went out and hung himself. Yeah, it's an old story. And you can do that.

You can flip through scripture and just pick and choose and make all kinds of interesting doctrines that have absolutely no truth in them, but you can confuse many. And it's unfortunate. The relationships that people develop, often they're afraid that this person wouldn't do.

That.

Every single one of us is subject to the flesh. Every single one of us.

Brian.

If you distort the scripture, it'll confess to anything and it will defend itself too.

Yes.

So then Satan says, then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, if you are the son of God, throw yourself down for it is written. He will command his angels concerning you and on their hands, they will bear you up so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.

So Satan quoted scripture correctly there, but he misused it to try to get Jesus to do something just absolutely unnecessary and stupid. Why would Jesus need to do that to prove who he was? Jesus said to him, on the other hand, it is written, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test.

And again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And here's where a lot of the, a lot of people fall. Most people fall. And he said to him, all these things I will give you.

If you will fall down and worship me. Then Jesus said to him, go Satan, for it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and serve him only. Marvelous response, marvelous response. And so Satan was dispatched summarily by the word of God.

Not yes, by Jesus himself, but by the word of God. He could not, he could not bring anything to bear on Christ out of scripture. And so he had to leave. For instructional purposes, notice a few things from this passage.

Satan waited until Jesus was tired and hungry to come to, and then he suggested something that was not out of the ordinary. Go ahead and get something to eat. You're okay with that. He suggested that Jesus would eat.

Now of course he insisted that Jesus use his divine power to facilitate the eating and that was certainly not in keeping with what Jesus had come to do. Notice also that the devil seems to be able to transport Jesus around at will.

So he does have great power and we should not be forgetful of this. Next he correctly identifies Christ as the Son of God even though in an oblique way. And then he correctly quotes scripture, although misusing it just to prove his own incorrect point.

Christ counters with scripture correctly, quoted correctly, and correctly applied. Finally Satan, finally Satan seeks the worship of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because that is, let's put our cards all on the table.

Basically when people elevate themselves above scripture, they're elevating themselves above Christ. And that is blasphemy. That is blasphemy. Satan is seeking the worship of the Lord Jesus Christ. These are the things that false apostles will do.

They are able to correctly read people and in many cases they tailor their deception. They think that they have great power although that is a delusion that they live under. They will often correctly quote scripture but it will be misapplied and misused.

This is the deception of a false angel of light. They bring light but it is not the true light. A candle might light your way but the sun is a far better illuminator. The light these false apostles brought to Corinth was a false light and it led many away from the truth both in and out of the, both believers and unbelievers.

So it's not, what I'm saying is, is we as believers who have studied the scripture for years and in many cases decades must always be careful to pay attention to what scripture says, to prayerfully approach it, to treat it with respect and to interpret it contextually and hermeneutically correct because we can be led astray.

It's happened to all of us even in small ways but small deceptions lead to big deviations eventually. They really do. A small wedge can widen a doorway that will allow you to, that will cause you to walk down a path that you never would have anticipated you'd walk down.

And so that's why we need accountability too, accountability with one another. So it's not surprising it's, and that's why Paul says, and no wonder for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

Any other comments about verse 14 before we move on? Verse 15, therefore, following after these things, it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness whose end shall be, will be according to their deeds.

Now Connie I've already alluded to this, that the followers of Satan, the false apostles disguise themselves as well as servants of righteousness, as angels of light. The word surprising comes from the Greek word from which we get the word mega.

You could actually translate this, well it's no big thing then if his servants also disguise themselves. If Satan does, it's no big thing that his servants will also do the same thing. In the same way that the great deceiver disguised himself throughout time to pervert the way.

They pretend to serve righteousness when in fact they are actually truly serving unrighteousness and serving themselves. And ominously Paul reminds the Corinthians and because those false apostles were still among the Corinthians, he reminds them that their end will be in keeping with their wicked deeds.

Their names are not written in the book of life and thus they will suffer the same fate as the great deceiver. And what is that fate? Then I saw, Revelation 20 verses 1 through 3, then I saw an angel coming down from heaven holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand and he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old who was the devil and Satan and bound him for a thousand years and he threw him into the abyss and shut it and sealed it over him so that he would not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years were completed and after these things he must be released for a short time.

Then in chapter 20 again in verses 11 through 15, then I saw a great white throne and him who sat upon it from whose presence heaven and earth fled away and no place was found.

For them.

And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne and the books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books according to their deeds and the sea gave up the dead which were in it and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them and they were judged every one of them according to their deeds.

Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire, this is the second death, the lake of fire. If any man's, anyone's name was not found written in the book of life he was thrown into the lake of fire.

That's their end and it's right to remind people of that. There are those who say we don't want to hear hellfire and brimstone sermons, I would rather hear about the hell and the brimstone than spend eternity in it.

And so thus it is that we don't want our ears tickled here I hope. Although Paul was not trying to shock, to use shock treatment on the Corinthians, this certainly should have shocked at least some of them.

Those who were believers, it must have woken them up because as we've mentioned earlier, after this period of time in the 50s, the Corinthians are not heard about again until the AD 95, it seems like the church really, really came to its senses and cleaned up its act if you will, the Lord cleaned up their act.

They had in the midst of them, in the midst, men who were teaching perverse things and would end up in the lake of fire. They had men in their congregation teaching things that would send those men and any that believed it to the lake of fire in a Christian church.

That happens today, it happens today, especially amongst the prosperity gospel preachers. If all you're after is money, just go get it and leave God alone. Leave him out of it for crying out in the sink.

So they would end up in the lake of fire. Paul was not given to improper hyperbole. This should have brought to mind, this teaching that Paul gave to the Corinthians in the Corinthian church through this writing, through this epistle, should have brought to mind the teaching of the Savior himself in Matthew chapter 7 where Christ describes how, where he describes how the Father will deal with false apostles.

Matthew chapter 7, 21 through 23, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons and in your name perform many miracles?

Then I will declare to them, I never knew you depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. The things that they did that they thought were great because they were done by disguised apostles, false apostles, were actually lawless.

They were practicing deeds of lawlessness. Not just mistakes, they were unrighteous deeds. They were deeds that earned them, if you will, the lake of fire. And that's kind of the thrust that Paul is giving here.

He's trying to wake these people up in the Corinthian church that are succumbing to these false teachings. And it's just, it's kind of cool to be on the forefront of some kind of new idea, new for the, what do you call them, the trailblazers.

Nobody's ever thought of this before. Well, you know, it may sound boring, but it's not, but pretty much every doctrine that's ever been properly brought from the scripture is with us over the last 2 ,000 years.

There's nothing new under the sun. What there is, is us learning how to correctly apply it and obey it in our lives and bring glory to the Lord. That glory that you bring to him in your life is new glory that no one else ever brought.

To him.

That's something, and that itself is not of you, that is of him as well. And that's what we should look for. Not to boast in ourselves, but to boast in the Lord, as Paul said earlier. So then, as we finish up this little section here, which ends pretty much in verse 16, he talks about foolishness again.

He says in verse 16, again I say, let no one think me foolish, but if you do, receive me as foolish so that I also may boast a little. Paul, it grinds on him that he has to do this comparison, this placement of comparisons between himself and the false apostles.

He shouldn't have to do that. The Corinthians should know better. But they have been perverting the gospel so badly, perverting the truth so badly, that he feels it's incumbent upon him to remind them about who it was that God sent to them and what kinds of things had to be endured to bring the gospel to the Corinthians, the real gospel.

So from verse 22 of this chapter to verse 13 of chapter 12, so 11, 20, 22, to 12, to 12, 13, 11, 22 to 12, 13, Paul will be presenting his apostolic credentials. He will be, I'm open, little quotes, boasting, if you will.

This is something that he was loath to do. He preferred to simply teach the word of God. Boasting was propellant to him, and as such, this next section caused him great discomfort. And he talked about it quite a bit earlier, about the foolishness that the Corinthians would endure and how they would endure even people that enslaved them.

He's going to talk about that as well. Prior to that, though, one more time before he goes into this litany of his accomplishments, if you will, he reminds the Corinthians of his reluctance to brag. The Corinthian acceptance of the false apostles and their perverse teachings made it necessary for Paul to remind them about his credentials, who he was, and what he did for them.

In this verse, he allows the boasting as foolish. He did not want the Corinthians to ascribe to him the same kind of foolishness that the false apostles were displaying. In everything, he tried to distance himself from them as much as possible.

Remember, they were claiming equality or even superiority to Paul himself and to Paul's message. It must not be much of a message if he doesn't charge for it, remember that? Must not be very important if you don't have to pay for it.

You gets what you pays for. That's what they were saying. And he don't charge, so you're getting nothing. Complete false. Completely false. Here, he asked the Corinthians to grant him the same privileges they were granting to those perverse men.

At least listen to him with the same attention. In this, he said, I will only boast a little. So any comments before we plunge into the boasting?

Yes.

Every one of them.

Yes.

Yeah, there are plenty of warnings in the New Testament about false teachers. And in the book of Acts as well, there's plenty of warnings about it. In Luke's history, if you will, of the early founding of the church, it's a danger that will always be with us right to the end.

There will be those people who when the Lord comes back and they see it happening, they'll stick their fists in the air, Revelation says, and call down the mountains upon them rather than bend the knee.

That's who we're dealing with. People who hate God, they hate him. They don't believe him and they hate him. Referring back to verse 1, he says in verse 17, he says, what I am saying, I am not saying as the Lord would, but as in foolishness in this confidence of boasting.

So referring back to verse 1 where he asked the Corinthians to bear with him in a little foolishness, Paul continues his defense. He apologizes here for having to resort to what he considers foolish, the foolishness of boasting.

He is in effect answering fools according to their folly. This does not mean, this does not mean when he says this, I'm not saying as the Lord would, this does not mean that what he is saying here is not inspired.

Paul had the Lord's permission to write what he does, but he owns that this is not the usual way his servants are expected to speak of themselves. How would you like it if I stood up here and told you all about me and how wonderful I.

Am?

I hope you would get rid of me so fast my boots would still be here. That's what the Lord doesn't want his servants to spend their time retailing themselves in their adventures. All of us struggle against that.

He wants us to exposit and to study his word and himself and to love him. So Paul is reminding, he keeps reminding them, I'm going to have to engage in some foolishness. So he is in effect, as I said, answering fools according to their folly.

So this as well is scripture. One commentator put it this way, we must not conclude from this verse that here we have a part of scripture which is not inspired. Paul had the Lord's permission to write as he does, but he owns that this is not the usual way his servants are expected to speak of themselves.

Had any other course been hopeful of success, this one would have never been taken. The wise acres at Corinth had fed too long at the table of fools to relish the normal diet of saints. So he is compelled to set before them what they can digest, even though he himself regards it as unpalatable.

Further, interestingly enough, there's a number of Greek terms. One of the interesting things about the richness of the Greek language that the Holy Spirit chose to write the New Testament in is we can have a very accurate assessment of what went on in the sentences they wrote.

If we do a little study, the word foolishness that can be translated also as an idiot. It is a word that is not a moron or a dimwit, but rather someone who no longer has the correct sense of himself, nor the world around him.

He's not correctly assessing himself, he thinks he's more than he is, that's what these false apostles were, or in some cases people think they're less than they are, which is often the very same thing in a weird, perverse way, but I'm not going to get into psychology here.

This person is not a dimwit, he's not a moron, he no longer has the correct sense of himself or the world around him. The irony in this would not have been lost on his readers. Paul is dealing with men who had no sense of what was right or wrong, but were just forging ahead for their own gain, and making what they said right.

What I say is right, you need to believe me. I have this from the Lord himself.

Those kinds of things.

Hello, this is from the Lord himself, everything else is just words. This statement is just as inspired that Paul just made as anything else Paul wrote. Paul is disgusted with the fact that he has to deal with the false apostles in this way, but it seems to be the most effective way to get the Corinthian church to understand what they are allowing right in their midst.

Foolishness, foolishness, foolishness, and if that is what they are looking for, they will get some rung from Paul in order to set them straight. Charles Hodge in his commentary said it this way, all the expression implies is that self-praise in itself, considered, is not the work of a Christian.

Self-praise in itself is not the work of a Christian. It is not a work to which the spirit of Christ impels a believer, but when it is necessary to the vindication of the truth, or the honor of the religion, it becomes a duty.

So Paul has to give a comparison of himself to these false apostles so the Corinthians will be able to see the difference, and remarkably it was effective. Now he says, here is where it comes, here is where the beginning of the boasting comes, verse 18, since many boast according to the flesh, I will boast also.

The false apostles spent their time bragging about the things that were not true, that they had spent time, they had spent no time, they spent their time bragging about things that weren't true, they had spent no time delivering the gospel to the Corinthians.

Indeed, they had no litany of abuses they endured to bring the gospel to the known world. They didn't struggle to bring this to Corinth, they just drove up there and made a mess, is what they did, or rode up there and made a mess.

But they might have been in a carriage, might have been in a carriage. They were con men, peddling the word of God for gain only. Paul continues his disclaimers before he actually begins to explain to the Corinthians the qualifications he had and the difficulties he endured by God's grace to bring the gospel to the world.

Their boasting was according to the flesh, that is, he says, according to human nature. Since many boast according to the flesh, I will boast also. He's going to boast, but not according to the flesh.

Their boasting was human nature driven and according to the flesh, it was fleshly. For you, Corinthians, being so wise, you tolerate the foolish gladly. That had to be a marked rebuke to hear, I mean, I don't know how this was, imagine, you guys tolerate stupidness gladly.

How would you feel if I said that to you?

I'd be dead.

This is a packing church, I'd be dead. They had to have been startled, I hope, well, obviously, it's past tense, but they were. So, throughout this entire section, as Paul builds up to his defense of his apostolic authority, he continually uses irony and sarcasm other than the section from 13 to 15.

Here again, he speaks as though acknowledging what others are saying about him, that by comparison to the self-proclaimed false apostles, he has been weak. I jumped ahead. So, back up, ignore what I just said.

Can you all rewind? Rewind. Verse 18, since many have boasted according to the flesh, I will boast also. The false apostles spent their time bragging. So, his boasting was not according to the flesh, theirs was.

He called them, earlier on, he said, you tolerate this foolishness gladly. The Corinthians had to understand, and he says it here as well, for you, being so wise, tolerate the foolish gladly. So, now he has a bit more sarcasm, or maybe it's not.

I'm not so sure it's sarcasm, but a lot of commentators think it is. Did you have something, Brian? And they do put up with it. He's repeating it. And in many cases, you've heard good preaching is tell them what you're going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you told them.

And that's what Paul's doing here. He's telling them what he's going to tell them, he's telling them, and now he's going to tell them what he told them. I called you out, I told you, you were foolish.

It's foolish to bring these men into your midst. It's even more foolish to listen to them. But you tolerate them very well. You tolerate stupidity very well. This is, in fact, no expression of wisdom.

In fact, tolerating foolishness is foolishness itself. And that is what he is attaching to those Corinthians who would believe false apostles. He is saying, if you gladly tolerate foolishness, you're foolish.

You are foolish. And so therefore, Paul's not afraid to say what needs to be said. Even to people that are beloved to him. Even to people that he loves very much, that he cares a great deal for. He calls them out for their foolishness.

Then he says in verse 20, For you tolerate it if anyone enslaves you, if anyone devours you, anyone takes advantage of you, anyone exalts himself, and then, one of the great evils, anyone hits you in the face, enslaves, devours, takes advantage, exalts over, hits you.

These are not descriptive words that envision a servant leadership that loves and cares for those it serves.

Yes.

I think he meant just what he said. I think there was some physical things going on. I think in many cases, when people get into a position like that, and there begins, maybe, to be a little bit of subversion under them that they don't like, they'll resort to physical violence.

They will resort to physical violence. When we get to that, there will be a number of different commentators that thought different things. Some people thought it was metaphorical. It could have been.

I personally think that they were whacking people who were not agreeing with them. These are descriptive of the foolish and wicked ones that the Corinthians were gladly tolerating. These are the false apostles and their lifestyle exposed.

To enslave in the Greek is to put someone under bondage, under stern bondage. This is reminiscent of the whips in the early 1800s south of the United States. Disregarding the fact that there might have been some good slave owners.

This calls to mind physical abuse. Here, it's pretty much metaphorical. The false apostles were enslaving the Corinthians. They were lording it over them. The Corinthians were gladly.

Tolerating that.

To devour, interesting Greek word, which has a financial overtone and it means to plunder someone and to steal from them, taking what is not yours. To take advantage is to lay hold of something or someone in order to use it for one's own purposes.