False Teachers and the Spirit of Competition (2 Corinthians 10-13)
Slawomir Gromadzki
DEALING WITH FALSE TEACHERS
When we talk about false teachers, we think about others, but can we be false teachers?
Yes.
How can we protect ourselves from becoming false teachers or from accepting deceptions?
The key to not being a false teacher is found in two Bible verses:
2 Chronicles 7:14: “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face…”.
Proverbs 3:5: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding…”.
To protect ourselves against deceptions and from becoming false teachers, we must humble ourselves before God, be teachable, and we must not rely on our own understanding, but on the understanding we can receive from the Holy Spirit who was promised to us to lead us into all truth.
We all remember the story about the twelve spies. Ten of them were spreading truth combined with lies. Only two were telling the full truth.
What was the difference? What did Caleb and Joshua have that the others did not have?
“But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully.” (Numbers 14:24).
“And the Lord said to Moses: ‘Take Joshua …, a man in whom is the Spirit.’” (Numbers 27:18).
It was the presence of God’s Spirit in them that made the difference.
How can the Holy Spirit dwell in us?
The answer is found in Galatians 3:2.
Galatians received the true gospel from Paul himself and enjoyed the peace with God which surpasses all understanding, but after Paul departed, they were deceived by Judaizers who told them that they can’t be saved by faith in Christ alone, but by faith in Christ plus the works of the law. And since the Galatians fell for it, the apostle Paul wrote to them the following words:
“O foolish Galatians …, did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” (Galatians 3:2).
How can the Holy Spirit dwell in us?
When we hear the good news of the gospel, or when we study the book of Romans, with fervent prayers, with understanding, and believe wholeheartedly and accept the gospel of freedom and Lord Jesus as our complete Saviour, then we should be born from the Spirit, and since then the Holy Spirit should dwell in us.
Do we have any excuse if the Holy Spirit does not dwell in us?
No, because, like salvation in Christ, the Holy Spirit in us is also a gift. If He doesn’t dwell in us, it is our fault because it means we haven’t accepted the gospel and there is something wrong with our faith, or maybe we try to save ourselves by faith plus works, like Galatians.
SPIRIT OF COMPETITION
In 2 Corinthians 10:12–18, the apostle Paul deals with the spirit of competitiveness.
How can competitiveness harm the preaching of the gospel? How can church leaders, or members, avoid competition?
Are we competitive by nature?
Some time ago, my Adventist friend told me that when he was young, he and his friends were competing to see who could hold his breath the longest. And he wanted to be better than others so much that he held his breath until he lost consciousness!
So, this spirit of competition can be so powerful that we are even willing to suffer and risk our lives just to be better than others.
Why are we so competitive?
Because we are born with Lucifer’s syndrome. It was Lucifer who introduced the spirit of competition into the perfect universe. He deceived our first parents and contaminated their nature, and ours, with the same spirit.
Does this competitive spirit cause problems in our churches?
Yes, it may exist between elders, pastors, church leaders, and members.
How can we get rid of this evil spirit of competition?
By focusing on the gospel and the message of the cross of Christ.
Why? Because there is God’s transforming power in the gospel and in the message of the cross:
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.” (Romans 1:16).
“For the message of the cross … to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:18).
PAUL AND JUDAIZERS
The apostle Paul faced the same problem in the form of the spirit of competition that controlled his opponents, the Judaizers.
Those Judaizers were Jewish Christians who believed in Jesus, but they were legalists. They were not born of the Spirit and were jealous of Paul’s influence on all the churches. So, they decided to undermine Paul’s influence and attract his followers to themselves.
First of all, they accused Paul of being a self-appointed apostle.
Then, they also accused him of teaching against the law, because Paul wrote that we have been “delivered from the law” (Romans 7:6), and that “Christ is the end of the law to those who believe” (Romans 10:4).
They also opposed the gospel proclaimed by Paul by teaching a subtle form of legalism — salvation by faith plus works.
How did Paul defend himself against the first accusation and prove that he was a true apostle?
The answer is found in 2 Corinthians 11:23:
“In labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often…” (2 Corinthians 11:23).
He defended himself by providing powerful evidence of his apostleship in the form of the constant, unbelievable sufferings he was experiencing out of love for Christ.
Paul was also accused of teaching against the law.
What did he mean by saying in Romans 7:6 that we have been delivered from the law?
He meant not freedom from keeping the law as a standard of Christian living, but he meant freedom from the condemnation of the law (Romans 8:1). The law can’t condemn Christians any more because Christ, at the incarnation, identified himself with our sinful condition and was thus qualified to become us, the second Ada, second humankind, our brother in the flesh, and we all were represented by Him. Therefore, Sis perfect obedience in our representative flesh is ours, and His death on the cross is our death (Rom 6:6; 2 Cor. 5:15; Gal. 2:20). Since we all were perfect in Christ and we were punished in Him with death for all our sins, the holy law is satisfied and can’t condemn us anymore (Rom. 8.1).
Among Christians today there are false teachers who distort Paul’s gospel by saying that the law was nailed to the cross!
But according to Romans 7:4, who was nailed to the cross with Jesus?
“Therefore, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.” (Romans 7:4).
It wasn’t the holy immortal law of God that was nailed to the cross through the body of Christ but you, me and all sinners!
And since, through the gospel, God saved us not by ignoring or setting aside the righteous demands of His law concerning us as sinners, but by fully satisfying those demands—by making us perfect and holy in Christ (1 Cor. 1:30) and by executing the law’s penalty of death upon us in Him (Rom. 6:6; Rom. 7:4; 2 Cor. 5:14)—the gospel does not weaken or abolish the law. On the contrary, it establishes, vindicates, and exalts the law’s authority and righteousness (Romans 3:31).
ANOTHER JESUS AND ANOTHER GOSPEL
What two most vital truths were distorted and attacked by the false teachers?
“For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted—you may well put up with it!” (2 Corinthians 11:4).
The false teachers preached a different Jesus and a different gospel.
In Galatians 1:9, Paul says that “if anyone preaches a different gospel” than the one he preached, “let him be accursed.”
Do preachers and theologians today preach another Jesus and a different gospel?
Yes. Many of them present a catholic Christ who took sinless human nature who, in that holy nature, deprived of the indwelling law of sin from Romans 7:15-25, lived a holy and perfect life and could die not as our representative, but who died only instead of us.
How can we make sure we are not deceived by them?
Study the book of Romans with fervent prayers and humility, not relying on your own understanding!
Here is the true Jesus and true gospel presented by Paul in a nutshell: At the incarnation, Jesus identified Himself with our sinful condition by taking our sinful human nature, including the indwelling law of sin. In this way, He was qualified to become our representative and second Adam (second humankind). Then, He perfectly overcame the law of sin of humanity on our behalf and took it to the cross, where, according to Rom. 8:3, it was condemned and destroyed by God in Christ’s flesh.
That was the only way God could save us legally, according to the righteous demands of His holy law concerning us, sinners. As some leading theologians argue, Christ could save us only from what He actually took.
WEAPONS OF OUR WARFARE
In 2 Corinthians 10:3–6, Paul is warning the false teachers and their followers that the weapon he used against them was not persuasive words of human wisdom but the power of the Holy Spirit!
“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ…” (2 Corinthians 10:3–6).
The same weapon of the Holy Spirit Paul used against the false teachers.
However, although he condemned them and told the truth about them, he did it with what?
With humility and love!
“Now I, Paul, myself am pleading with you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ…” (2 Corinthians 10:1).
How can we be simultaneously gentle and bold when dealing with false teachers? Why must we be both?
We must deal with them with love and humility because God still loves them, and he desires to save them. Dealing with other lost sinners, we must be humble and always remember that when we were yet enemies, sinners, and ungodly, God already reconciled us to Himself through the blood (death) of His Son (Rom. 5:10)!
We should always tell the truth with love, like Christ when He told the Pharisees that they were hypocrites, because according to the Desire of Ages, He did it with tears in His eyes. And they knew He loved them, although they tried to kill Him.
The truth must always be proclaimed with love and, conversely, true love should always be combined with truth because truth without love can kill while love without truth can be deceptive.
TRUTH AND LOVE LIKE SODIUM AND CHLORINE
Very helpful in understanding this principle is the comparison of two elements, sodium and chlorine.
Sodium is an extremely active element, occurring in nature only as a compound and is always bound to other elements. Chlorine, on the other hand, is a poisonous gas with a characteristic sharp, irritating, and unpleasant smell. But when they combine, chlorine is transformed into chloride, and together they become sodium chloride (common salt), a stable compound that preserves food and enhances its flavour.
It is similar to love and truth. Love and truth are like sodium and chlorine. Love without truth, just like sodium without chlorine, tends to bind itself to everything it encounters on its path. Without truth, love is careless, blind, and naive, and always tends to cling to the first available theory or doctrine, even if it is false.
Truth without love, on the other hand, resembles chlorine without sodium, for truth alone proclaimed without love can irritate, destroy, and even kill. Truth alone proclaimed without love can cause people to turn away from God and the gospel, thus condemning themselves to death.
If, however, in our personal or church life, truth and love always constitute two inseparable components of our Christian life, then we will be the “light of the world”, a blessing, and what Christ called the “salt of the earth”.
Ellen White wrote that before the 1888 era we were focused so much on the law, neglecting the gospel and love revealed in it that we became as dry as the hills of Gilboa.
APPEAL TO THE UNREPENTANT
In 2 Corinthians 13:5, Paul delivers the final warning to the false teachers, Corinthians, and all believers, including you and me:
“Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith” (if you have truly accepted Christ as your Saviour with genuine faith).
What is the evidence that we are in the faith?
The answer is found in the same verse:
“Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.” (2 Corinthians 13:5).
It means that if Christ is not in us, we are disqualified (we can’t be saved)!
GREY MASS COMING OUT OF THE BODY
A certain brother told me that the presence of Christ in us is not literal, but it is only a metaphor.
Was he right?
Can demons dwell in us? Yes, even many of them! We don’t know how it is possible because, although evil angels are called spirits, they also have physical bodies, but somehow they can dwell in us through the human spirits God created in us.
One of the Adventist seminary students told me some time ago about a non-Adventist girl who, after being healed by a famous charismatic healer in Poland by the name of Piotr Nowak, came to our seminary school in Podkowa Lesna to stay there overnight. But at a certain point, she started behaving like she was demon-possessed. So the seminary students prayed for her, and when they did, something supernatural happened which they all saw with their own eyes. They saw something like a grey mass in the form of a ball coming out of her. It hit the door and disappeared! And after that, she was healed.
Pastor Pavel Goia, in one of his sermons, told a similar story about certain Adventist sister who was possessed, and as a result of prayer, a similar grey ball came out of her.
IF ANYONE DOES NOT HAVE THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST, HE IS NOT HIS
Can Christ dwell in us through our spirit? Yes, He can, and He must dwell in us if we are true Christians. If He doesn’t, it means we haven’t yet accepted Him as our only and complete Saviour, and therefore we are disqualified!
The same warning by the apostle Paul is found in Romans 8:9:
“But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit” (if you are true believers, you are not controlled by sinful nature but by the Spirit), “if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.”
How can we know Christ is in us?
“He who abides (remains) in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).
SUMMARY
Summarising this subject, we can say that:
To be free from the spirit of competition, to protect us against false teachers and their deceptions, and to warn them with humility and love, we all need the Holy Spirit and must allow Him to guard our hearts and minds with His love, wisdom, and power.
How can the Holy Spirit dwell in us?
By hearing the gospel with faith. And then we also need to allow the Holy Spirit to grow in us with God’s love when we look at Jesus and have communion with Him daily through heartfelt prayers and studying God’s Word.
Amen.