2 Corinthians 11:1-12:13
What’s Your Spiritual Style?


I. Bad and Good Spirituality
A. Bad
1. The racist who stops a black person at the door to church and then sings “I’ll Fly Away”.
2. The person who doesn’t care about injustice but uses his religion to try to get rich.
3. The person who tries to escape this world to prepare to die.
B. Good
1. The one who denies himself because he really believes in something more important.
2. We see that we have to serve the Lord in this world, deal with its problems, weep at funerals.
II. False Apostles (11:1-15)
A. Their Spirituality is Wrong
1. They preached for the money or “glory”. They were business men or show men.
2. Like the man who says he’s a master carpenter, but he’s just guy with a hammer.
B. Satan Disguises Himself (11:14f)
1. Satan’s servants look like us.
2. The false messenger makes much of himself. The true makes much of Jesus.
C. The True Church is Engaged to Christ (11:2f.)
1. All the commitment but not all the rewards yet.
2. Satan’s servants try to lure us away from Christ but we must have a sincere, pure devotion.
3. True spirituality is simple. It is what it is, like pure water, no mixtures.
III. Foolish Boasting (11:16-33)
A. Paul Can Out-Boast the Boastful
1. That’s the burden of leadership, the burning you feel when the sheep are preyed on by some predator (vv. 28f).
2. He has to do it to show them that what they’ve been making much out of isn’t really much.
B. He Boasts in His Weaknesses
1. The sellers of false spiritualities boasted in their glory. Paul boasts of his humiliation, such as having to sneak out of a city, over the wall, instead of conquering a city.
2. Our boasting should not be in big numbers, of people attending or dollars. Our glory is in the cross, the things we suffer for the sake of Christ.
3. What things have you been willing to endure or give up for the sake of Christ?
IV. Fulfilling Grace (12:1-13)
A. A Great Revelation (12:1-5).
1. Bad spirituality boasts of dreams and visions. So too can Paul but it pains him to do it.
2. He’s been with the Corinthians for years, written them other letters, but unlike the boastful, he’s never mentioned this before.
B. The Thorn in the Flesh
1. He received so great revelations that he was given a “thorn in the flesh” to keep him from being conceited.
2. He prayed to be relieved of it but was told, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (12:9).
3. Grace is sufficient now, so we can embrace discipline, sacrifice sinful pleasures, give generously, stand up for what is right, even if it means great suffering.
V. Invitation: it is through the cross that finally we see we are powerless; how deeply sinful we are; that we are weak and can be content in that weakness, with insults and hardships, and persecutions, and calamities, only because we’re following a crucified Lord who invites us to share some in His crucifixion. Because it’s when we’re weak – here and now – that we are strong.