 Good morning everyone, the last week of class, so how are you feeling end of semester, lots of assignments left or is it all a lot left. Yes, a lot left. Okay, so yeah, we have to finish our content today, so we'll also try and go quickly through the last few we have from chapter 10 to chapter 13, so four chapters to cover today. Really go a little quickly through it. And then we've, I posted the final quiz on Google Classroom on the eLearning platform as well. So for all of you online, yeah, you can access it and complete it anytime. And yeah, your final paper, all of that as well. If you haven't yet submitted it. Please make sure you submit it before the deadline. Okay, before we begin with someone open as in prayer please. Dear Heavenly Father we come to you under the name of Jesus we thank you for this day. Thank you God that you kept us safe and healthy. Throughout the semester and as we are in the last session God we just pray that even today you will help us to remember everything that we've learned and everything that we are going to learn God. Help us to open our mind and heart and listen. Truth in our hearts so that we can be light the shines for your kingdom God. We give Smith and manager has been blessed in the name of Jesus and they give all my classmates into your heads that they'd be good wife I can listen throughout the session in Jesus name I pray. Thank you. Okay, so we'll continue where we stopped last week, which is chapter 10 versus four onwards. I'll just read those three verses and then we'll go from there for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, passing down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. So here Paul, just before this has been talking about how some people were talking about him being timid in person but bold in his letters. So there was, there were some people who were saying when he's away from us then he is very bold and he writes boldly but then when he's in person with us, then we see that he's very timid and so he is here. He's here talking about the fact that they are not waging war in fleshly ways right so they're not trying to scare the people by trying by using their authority or using human methods for bringing people to submission. Instead they depend on God and they fight with spiritual weapons to bring down any anything that's coming against Christ himself. So this is, so he's saying that this is how we're going to fight the battles that are coming up and mostly in these last few chapters he's addressing the opponents who are talking against him or speaking against him. And so it's in regard to this that he's saying we won't fight according to the flesh. So these people are boasting in our fleshly things and we are not going to reciprocate in the same way rather we are going to use spiritual weapons. So we look a little bit at what it means to what you can do with spiritual weapons and what are some of the spiritual weapons that are available to us. So this is all in your notes. Your spiritual weapons will pull down strongholds, cast down arguments, break down anything that exalts itself so against the knowledge of God. So anything that is not in line with what God says right. Anything that is coming against what God says and is trying to lift itself up over the thoughts of God, the ways of God. Those things will be torn down with the spiritual weapons that we use and then every thought being brought captive to obedience to Christ. So we look at it in this progression that from a thought it becomes a reason or an argument. From a reason or argument it becomes an imagination and from imagination it becomes a stronghold. Looking at James 1.14 it says each one is tempted when he's drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then when desire has conceived it gives birth to sin and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. So starting with when temptation comes to us it starts with a wrong thought or a desire that we have. So the temptation comes in that way. It brings that wrong thought or it brings something to us. And then how we respond will determine whether that becomes a stronghold in our lives. So if we entertain that thought and we allow ourselves to start reasoning it out and a cleaning away why it's okay to engage in that. Or we try to, we allow those thoughts to linger in our head even though we know that they're wrong thoughts. Whether it be thoughts of anger, thoughts of bitterness, thoughts of negativity towards something or someone or lust whatever those thoughts are. Whatever we are entertaining will start to become things that we allow to linger in our mind. So they become a way we reason away things or they become an argument that we can have and that leads to imagination. So we start to imagine things based on what we are thinking. So we imagine whatever we are, if it's a lustful thought then we imagine things in line with that. Or if it's a negative thought we start to imagine negative things happening to us, negative things happening to others. If it's bitterness or anger then we start to imagine harm towards other people. So that kind of imagination then becomes a stronghold that really takes us a place of kind of control in our minds and in our lives. And so it is only with spiritual weapons that these things can be torn down. And some of the spiritual weapons we have is the word of God, the name of Jesus. So each of these has a Bible verse connected to it. We won't read all of these verses but I'll just name the weapons. So God's word, the name of Jesus, the blood of Jesus, the anointing of the Holy Spirit and praise and worship. These are the weapons with which we can fight against strongholds. So if we recognize that there are strongholds in our lives, we use the word of God, we use the name of Jesus. We pray by the blood of Jesus, the victory that is ours because Jesus' blood was shed for us. We receive the anointing of the Holy Spirit to bring freedom into our lives and we worship and praise God, giving him the place of authority and acknowledging his glory, who he is in the midst of whatever we are wanting to deal with. And by using those spiritual weapons, we will start to see those strongholds break down and we will see freedom from the things that have so far controlled our lives. So this is for a personal application of this and Paul is saying, we use spiritual weapons even as we engage with our opponents. So when people are coming against us, they are boasting in themselves, they are boasting in their own authority or their skills, they are boasting in the flesh basically. So we are not going to respond in the same way, we are not going to fight in the flesh, rather we are going to use spiritual weapons to overpower them and to bring them down. So we will go on from there and someone read verses 7 to 11 first please. Chapter 10 verses 7 to 11. Second Corinthians chapter 10 verses 7 to 11. Do you look at things according to the output appearance if anyone is conceived in himself that he is Christ, let him again consider this in himself. The justice he is Christ even so we are Christ. For even if I should go some more about our authority which the Lord gave us for edification and not for destruction, I shall not be ashamed. Lest I seem to terrify you by letters, for his letters they say are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible. Let such a person consider this that what we are inward by letters when we are absent such we will also be indeed when we are present. So this is just a continuation of that what Paul has been saying that if you think so one thing is are you looking at outward appearance right so when they are making these judgments about Paul. What are they judging based on are they looking at spiritual things are they looking at whether he truly has proved to be a minister by the way he has served or are they looking at these outward things and from what he is saying it seems to be that everything they are judging by is only outward appearance. And so he says this whole part that follows as well. He says, look, if you think that you are in Christ, then we are just as much in Christ as you are. And even if we boast in the authority that God has given us this authority is to build you up. It's not to destroy is that is something even as leaders that we recognize that authority is given to us by God to be people who build up the body of Christ to build up his people. We don't use our authority to tear down to people to take control over people to establish our own authority. That's that's not the reason God gives us that responsibility rather it is to equip to edify to build up people to be fully what God has called them to be. And then he tells them if you are thinking that we are not going to do whatever we've said in our letters or we're going to be bold in our letters but in person we're going to be weak. Be prepared that when we come in person we are going to be just the same as we were in our letters. So to prepare them that he is going to still bring up and address the things that were talked about in the letter that he will not be weak in person but only talk or correct or rebuke them in his letters. We can go on versus 12 to 17. Someone can read that for us. This is 12 to 17. For we there not last ourselves or compare ourselves with those who command themselves but they measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves or not twice. We however will not post beyond measure but within the limits of the spear which God appointed as spear which especially includes you for we are not overextending ourselves as though our authority did not extend to you for it was to you that we came with the gospel of Christ. And it was not boasting of things beyond measure that is in other men's labour but having hope that as your faith is increased we shall be greatly enlarged by you in our spear to preach the gospel in the regions beyond you and not to boast in another man's spear of accomplishment. But she who glories let him glory in the Lord for not he who condenses some ends of himself is approved but whom the Lord commands. So continued discussion about his opponents and how they are boasting right. So they are boasting in their own accomplishments but they are also coming to the extent where they are. They are operating in Paul's field right so Paul had been the one who planted the Corinthian church but they've come into Paul's area of work and they've started to boast about themselves in this place. So one thing that Paul brings up is they are comparing themselves among themselves. This is not the way we should seek to boast or a place in which we should find pride because when we are comparing ourselves with other human beings we are using human standards, fleshly standards and worldly standards. Rather we will always look at the standards of God, the standards of Christ and if we are comparing ourselves with those standards we will walk in humility. There is no place for boasting right because we recognize our own weakness, our own lack, our own need for the grace of God for the Holy Spirit to meet God's standards. And so these people were boasting because they were comparing themselves with one another and that was how they were finding things to boast in. The other thing that Paul talks about is they are boasting in an area that is not theirs right. So Paul is saying if you're boasting you boast where you have been given authority by God. So I worked among you Corinthians and so if I boast I'll boast about the work that God has done through me in your midst. But I will not boast about anything that is beyond the work that I have done. So I won't boast in someone else's work in another church with somebody else planted like the opponents are doing. And Paul again affirms here that our goal is for you to grow in faith because as you grow in faith and maturity then we can move our work beyond you to new areas. We can reach out to new regions and we can increase our influence and the work that we've done to go beyond you and wherever we are boasting it will only be about where we have worked where God has used us. And our boasting will only be in the Lord. So he says he quotes from Jeremiah 9. I'll just read that verses 23 and 24. This is what the Lord says, let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches. But let the one who boasts about this that they have the understanding to know me that I am the Lord who exercises kindness justice and righteousness on earth. For in these I delight to declare as the Lord. So from Jeremiah 9 it's saying don't boast in your own wisdom strength or riches but boast in the fact that God has enabled you to know him. Right. And Paul uses that here and he says if we boast we will only boast in the Lord. So we only boast in what the Lord has entrusted to us and what he has enabled us to do. We will not boast in our own strength or in anything that is human or fleshly. So these are the ways in which Paul is responding. And when he talks about using spiritual weapons, these are the spiritual weapons he's using. Right. So he's saying I will boast in the Lord. I will not boast in work that I have not done. I will not boast in the flesh. Right. I will not I will not compare myself by human standards. I will only I won't compare myself to other humans. So all of those things he's not following the ways of the world. He's not fighting these battles in the flesh as his opponents are. So let's go on from there to chapter 11. If someone can read verses one to four. Second Corinthians chapter 11 verses one to four. On that, oh that you will bear with me in a little folly and indeed you do bear with me. For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have with truth due to one husband that I may present to as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear less somehow as the serpent is seen by his captainess. So your mind may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he who comes features another Jesus who may have not reached. Or if you receive a different split which you have not received or a different gospel which you have not accepted. You may well put up with it. So Paul is continuing here to address issues that he's concerned with. So he's not concerned with the fact that other people are coming in and ministering to the Corinthians. Because we know that after he left he himself sent people. He sent Timothy, he sent Titus. But also Apollo's went to the Corinthian church and ministered to them. So it's not that he is jealous about other ministers being invited or being welcomed by the church. That is not his concern. His concern is that these, his opponents are people who are leading the congregation away from Christ. So that is the main issue. It's not about Paul's authority. It's not about him losing his position in the church. It is about them remaining faithful to Christ, the church remaining faithful to Christ. And so he starts here asking if they will bear with him. And he'll go into a lot of different things, different ways in which he will defend the ministry that they've done and talk about what they have accomplished. But verse two, he talks about his jealousy. So he differentiates between a jealousy that is human and fleshly versus a godly jealousy, right? God himself calls and he says, I am a jealous God. And so this is the kind of jealousy Paul has for them where he wants them to be faithful to Christ. And he says, I have been told to you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste version. So we see in the Old Testament when the covenant was given to the Hebrews that was viewed as like a marriage covenant. So we see a lot of the prophets in the Old Testament talking about the Israelites as people who had prostituted themselves, people who had abandoned God. So that was the view that when we enter into covenant with God, it is like a marriage covenant that we are betrothing ourselves to God as His bride, right? And so Paul is using that same imagery from the Old Testament and saying now we are part of this new covenant with God. And just like in the Old Covenant, the people of Israel were betrothed to God, as part of the new covenant are betrothed to God. And Paul is talking about himself almost as a father to the church. So we see this in 1 Corinthians 4.15 as well where he says, you have many spiritual, you have many leaders, but you don't have many spiritual fathers. And he talks about the fact that he himself was a spiritual father to the church. And so the position of a father would be to give their child in marriage to someone and to guard their child's sexual purity until the time of marriage. And so this is the role that Paul sees as his responsibility over the church, that he will present the church as a pure bride for Christ. And then he says in verse 3, I fear that you may be deceived as Eve was deceived. So also you may be deceived by the opponents who are coming in, these other leaders who are coming in. And so he's here from here on, he's almost saying that these people are sent by Satan because the serpent we know in the Garden of Eden was Satan tempting Eve, right? And so even these opponents who are coming in are operating under Satan's authority, are coming in to break up the church, to lead them astray, to lead them away from Christ. So it's not a small issue that Paul is dealing with. It's not just another leader, another person who people are following. It's someone who is bringing deception, who's leading them astray, who's taking them away from the true gospel, taking them away from Christ. It is a big issue which is why Paul is really like, he's not shying away from dealing with it. He's not simply trying to defend his authority. He's trying to protect the work that has been done. He's trying to protect the people in the church from falling away from their faith. And he's trying to protect the church itself, for Christ. So we recognize the gravity of the situation when we're reading this. So the last verse we see 4, verse 4. So some of the things he says, if someone preaches another Jesus, if they are giving you a different spirit, a different gospel, you may receive it. So the fact is that these people are not watching, they're not staying on guard. And they are being carried away by people who are charismatic, people who are impressive in their speaking, people who are boasting and convincing them that whatever they are saying is true. It's very easy to get carried away by people who are charismatic, who seem very confident. And that seems to be the culture we are in as well. The people who go into leadership positions are people who are able to speak well. It's not that they have great character that they've proved themselves. A lot of the time it's just that they are able to speak well and people are carried away by their speech, which is similar to what the Corinthians were, we're seeing in the Corinthian church as well. So we go from here to verses 5 to 15. Someone can read that for us. Second Corinthians 11, 5 to 15. For I consider that I'm not at all inferior to the most eminent apostles, even though I'm untrained in speech, yet I'm not in knowledge. But we have been thoroughly manifested among you in all things. Did I commit sin in humbling myself that you might be exalted because I preach the gospel of God to you free of charge? I robbed other churches taking wages from them to minister to you. And when I was present with you and in need, I was a burden to no one for what I lacked the brethren who came from Macedonia supplied. And in everything I kept myself from being burdensome to you and so I will keep myself. As the truth of Christ is in me, no one shall stop me from this boasting in the regions of Achaia. Why? Because I do not love you. God knows. But what I do, I will also continue to do that I may cut off the opportunity from those who desire an opportunity to be regarded just as we are in the things of which they boast. For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder for Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore, it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness whose end will be according to their works. Thank you. So, so here again, Paul is continuing talking about about another issue. So, before this, he was talking about what is the kind of message the apostles were preaching or these people who were claiming to be apostles, right, his opponents. And so in this part, he is talking about one of the issues that the church and his opponents were bringing up, which is the issue of being financially supported by the church. Like we looked at in first Corinthians, that that was something that was viewed as honorable where they as a church would support him financially instead of him working. So instead of him doing manual labor to support himself and lowering himself to the working class, if he was a true wise philosopher, he would not choose to do manual labor. Instead, he would either receive support from the church or he would beg those are the two things that philosophers did they would beg for money or they would have someone like a rich person supporting their work. So Paul didn't choose those he chose to choose to work with his hands chose to support himself and he also was receiving support from outside churches. This was a big reason why a lot of the more influential people in the church were upset about his choice of work and his decision to not receive their financial support. And so again, he's going back to this this is being used against him by his opponents as well. So he the first part he talks about I'm not inferior to them even if I don't have the same training and speech as they do. I do have knowledge and that knowledge has been clearly seen by you. So it's not about being impressive by the way we communicate. It's how have we revealed that we know Christ, how have we revealed that we truly are growing in knowledge of Christ. Is that being evidenced in the way we work. So in in the science and the wonders and the miracles in the in the teaching in the revelation that was coming through the teaching. All of those things were evidence that Paul knew Christ himself and that was more important than his speech. Right. And so that's what he talks about in verse six and then on verse seven onwards he's talking about this issue of financial support. So I'll just read a few verses from one Corinthians nine as well where he talks about financial support one Corinthians nine 15. And I have not used any of these rights and I'm not writing this in the hope that you will do such things for me. But I would rather die than allow anyone to deprive me of this post. When I preach the gospel I cannot post since I'm compelled to preach what to me if I do not preach the gospel. If I preach voluntarily I have a reward. If not voluntarily and simply discharging the trust committed to me. What then is my reward just this that in preaching the gospel I may offer it free of charge and not make full use of my rights as a preacher of the gospel. So in first Corinthians nine nine 15 to 18 he's talking about giving up the right to receive support from the church. He chose not to do that just so that the church would not in any way see him as someone who was trying to cheat them trying to receive them or just trying to get their money. Right. So if money is out of the picture then what could be his reasons for bringing the gospel. It's his motivation was truly to give the gospel to them was truly for Christ to be known. There was no other side agenda. No other hidden agenda that he was coming with. And so because money was not in the picture. They didn't have to have those kinds of questions or doubts when he took the gospel to them. The other thing is if he was being supported by them. He would again be dependent on them and would this was called like a patron client relationship where he would be their client. That would also sometimes skew a willingness to say correct them to challenge them because he's dependent on them financially. So those were decisions that Paul made and we see throughout these two first and second Corinthians how Paul dealt with money with such great wisdom. Right. So here because he was not dependent on them. He never had to make decisions based on my support is coming from them. So can I say this to them or can I do this. He could do whatever he had to do freely without money becoming an issue in in the midst of whether he corrected them, whether he was bringing any kind of teaching whatever he could do. He could do it in freedom without any fear without any worry of losing support from them. And so from the perspective of motivation from the perspective of his own heart in this because money was out of the picture it was a very. He could be seen as someone who could be trusted basically we see. Here that he was receiving support from other churches. So he was willing to receive support from other churches to do the work in Corinth, but he didn't want to take support from them and work among them work and support support from them and while he was working among them. So he is taking support from them for the Jerusalem church as well, but not support for himself to work with them. Okay, so let's see if there's anything else we need to cover. I think we've covered everything here. We'll continue from verses 12 to 15. Okay, so 12 to 15 I think we already read where he's talking about these apostles as as people sent from Satan right so he says Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. So these people can pretend to be ministers of righteousness. So he is not willing to start receiving financial support just because all these people are bringing it up as an issue. He says we'll continue to work the way we've been working that is we'll receive support from outside we'll work for our own financial needs, but we will not take money from you as a church. That will not change. And because we're doing that it will take away the opportunity from anyone else who's boasting because this is something that we can boast in that we are serving you free of charge. So while you are looking at it as something negative, we are looking at it as a positive thing that we know that we are serving you sacrificing our rights to receive support and with the pure desire just to take just to see you grow in faith. And then, yeah, so versus 13 to 15. He's calling them false apostles deceitful workers who are pretending to be apostles of Christ. Just as Satan comes as an angel of light. These ministers come as ministers of righteousness. But they will receive judgment. When their duty time comes, right, they will be judged according to their works. We'll go on from here versus 16 to 21. Someone can read that for us. I say again, let no one think me a fool. If otherwise, at least receive me as a fool that I also may boast a little. What I speak, I speak, I speak not according to the Lord, but as it were foolishly in this confidence of boasting, seeing that many boast according to the flesh. I also will boast for you put up with fools gladly since you yourself are wise for you put up it with it. If one brings you into bondage, if one devours you, if one takes from you, if one exalts himself, if one strikes you on the face to our shame. I say that we were too weak for that. But in whatever anyone is bold, I speak foolishly. I am bold also. Okay, so here Paul goes. He starts this section on boasting about things that he has done. But he says it's a foolish thing that I'm doing. And I don't want to do it, but I am doing it because this is this is my way of supporting myself almost. So these people are boasting in certain things. And so I will also boast so that you will see who you can trust more. So his boasting is to encourage their trust in him. And then he says a few things. So he says verse 17, I do not speak according to the Lord, but I'm speaking foolishly. So even while I'm boasting, this is not really the way of the Lord, but I'm choosing this foolish way. So please allow me to do this because this is the way the opponents are choosing to boast. But we'll see that he chooses a very different way of boasting as we continue in the next chapter. So he says seeing that many boast according to the flesh, I also will boast. And then he says he's quite sarcastic in these last few verses, 90 to 21. So you are wise, so you're putting up with fools. So he's not actually calling them wise, but they think that they are wise in the fact that they are entertaining these apostles who are coming against Paul. And then he says you put up with bondage. So these people are basically abusing their authority and abusing the church in verse 20, all of the things that he talks about. So you are accepting all these things willingly, but we didn't choose to do all those things with you. So those people are boasting in their strength, they're boasting in their power and they're coming and taking advantage of you. But if we go by their standard, it seems that we were too weak to do those things with you. And so he says, so now they are so bold to talk about all the things that is so great about them. I will also be bold among you and I will also talk about it. So he's doing this purely with the motivation of protecting the church. It's not to boast about himself. He's using this method that the other apostles are using, but his motivation is to keep the church safe from the false apostles. So some things in your notes here that talk about false apostles says they are deceitful workers. They conceal the truth or misrepresent the truth for personal gain. They pretend to be apostles of Christ, though they are unrighteous, just like Satan parades as an angel of light. They pretend to be ministers of righteousness. Their end reward will be according to their works. They bring people into bondage by their false teaching. They devour or they ruin. They bring to waste the believers that they are ministering to. They take away what belongs to others by manipulation or deceit. So they exploit people. They exalt themselves. So in the name of ministering, so they are saying that they are ministering the gospel, but they're actually exalting themselves. They're boasting in themselves. And the last one is they literally bring harm to the believers. They strike them. They hurt them by their words, by their conduct. So these are some things to look out for in leaders who are coming in. Do we see these kinds of behaviors? If this is the way they are leading, then it is not the way of Christ. The way of Christ is meekness, gentleness, purity of heart. So all the ways in which Paul has been talking about his ministry, that is the way a true minister of God should carry themselves. So we can see a stark difference between how Paul has talked about his ministry versus how these so-called apostles have been serving in the church. Okay, so we just have two minutes left. Maybe we'll just take an early break instead of going into the next part and we'll come back in 10 minutes. Thank you.