These small group study notes on the book of 2nd Corinthians contain outlines, cross-references, Bible study discussion questions, lessons to learn, and applications. Feel free to print them, copy them, or share them. I only ask that you remember these are are personal study notes and are only meant as a supplement to your own study, not a replacement. May God be glorified! Visit our inductive Bible study main page for more studies on this and other books of the Bible. See the bottom of the page for the other sections of the study on 2 Corinthians 11.
2 Corinthians 11:-7-15 Inductive Bible Study - Outline, Key Words, Cross References, and Discussion Questions
2 Co 11:7-15
7 Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted, because I preached the gospel of God to you without charge?
8 I robbed other churches by taking wages from them to serve you;
9 and when I was present with you and was in need, I was not a burden to anyone; for when the brethren came from Macedonia they fully supplied my need, and in everything I kept myself from being a burden to you, and will continue to do so.
10 As the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting of mine will not be stopped in the regions of Achaia.
11 Why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do!
12 But what I am doing I will continue to do, so 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.
13 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.
14 No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
15 Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds.
Key Words
· Disguise 3
· Burden 2
· Need 2
· Boast 2
· Apostle 2
· Opportunity 2
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Titles
The Gospel Free of Charge
Disarming the Imposters
The Disguise of the Enemy
Outline
I. Paul would not burden them 7-9
II. Paul’s loving care for them 10-12
III. The enemy disguised as servants of righteousness 13-15
Cross References, Questions, Observations
7. Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted, because I preached the gospel of God to you without charge?
1 Pe 2:24
24 and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed .
1 Co 9:6
6 Or do only Barnabas and I not have a right to refrain from working?
1 Co 9:12
12 If others share the right over you, do we not more? Nevertheless, we did not use this right, but we endure all things so that we will cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ.
Ac 20:35
35 "In everything I showed you that by working hard in this manner you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"
1 Co 9:18
18 What then is my reward? That, when I preach the gospel, I may offer the gospel without charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.
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8. I robbed other churches by taking wages from them to serve you;
Php 4:14-18
14 Nevertheless, you have done well to share with me in my affliction.
15 You yourselves also know, Philippians, that at the first preaching of the gospel, after I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving but you alone;
16 for even in Thessalonica you sent a gift more than once for my needs.
17 Not that I seek the gift itself , but I seek for the profit which increases to your account.
18 But I have received everything in full and have an abundance; I am amply supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what you have sent, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God.
2 Co 12:13-17
13 For in what respect were you treated as inferior to the rest of the churches, except that I myself did not become a burden to you? Forgive me this wrong!
14 Here for this third time I am ready to come to you, and I will not be a burden to you; for I do not seek what is yours, but you; for children are not responsible to save up for their parents, but parents for their children.
15 I will most gladly spend and be expended for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less?
16 But be that as it may, I did not burden you myself; nevertheless, crafty fellow that I am, I took you in by deceit.
17 Certainly I have not taken advantage of you through any of those whom I have sent to you, have I?
a) Why did Paul do this?
1)
9. and when I was present with you and was in need, I was not a burden to anyone; for when the brethren came from Macedonia they fully supplied my need, and in everything I kept myself from being a burden to you, and will continue to do so.
1 Th 2:6
6 nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others, even though as apostles of Christ we might have asserted our authority.
Ne 5:14-18
Moreover, from the day that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year to the thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes, for twelve years, neither I nor my kinsmen have eaten the governor's food allowance.
15 But the former governors who were before me laid burdens on the people and took from them bread and wine besides forty shekels of silver; even their servants domineered the people. But I did not do so because of the fear of God.
16 I also applied myself to the work on this wall; we did not buy any land, and all my servants were gathered there for the work.
17 Moreover, there were at my table one hundred and fifty Jews and officials, besides those who came to us from the nations that were around us.
18 Now that which was prepared for each day was one ox and six choice sheep, also birds were prepared for me; and once in ten days all sorts of wine were furnished in abundance. Yet for all this I did not demand the governor's food allowance, because the servitude was heavy on this people.
Gal 6:2
2 Bear one another's burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.
a) If believers are supposed to carry one another’s burdens, why did Paul take such care not to be a burden to the Corinthians?
1)
10. As the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting of mine will not be stopped in the regions of Achaia.
Ro 9:1
1 I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit,
2 Co 11:31
31 The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, He who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying.
1 Th 2:5
5 For we never came with flattering speech, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed — God is witness —
2 Co 11:16-17
16 Again I say, let no one think me foolish; but if you do, receive me even as foolish, so that I also may boast a little.
17 What I am saying, I am not saying as the Lord would, but as in foolishness, in this confidence of boasting.
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11. Why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do!
2 Co 12:15
15 I will most gladly spend and be expended for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less?
Php 1:7
7 For it is only right for me to feel this way about you all, because I have you in my heart , since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers of grace with me.
1 Th 2:7-8
7 But we proved to be gentle among you, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children.
8 Having so fond an affection for you, we were well-pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become very dear to us.
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12. But what I am doing I will continue to do, so 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.
1 Ti 5:14
14 Therefore, I want younger widows to get married, bear children, keep house, and give the enemy no occasion for reproach;
Gal 1:7
7 which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.
Php 1:15
15 Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife, but some also from good will;
Php 1:17
17 the former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment.
1 Th 2:7-8
7 But we proved to be gentle among you, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children.
8 Having so fond an affection for you, we were well-pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become very dear to us.
Pr 7:6-9
6 For at the window of my house I looked out through my lattice,
7 And I saw among the naive, And discerned among the youths A young man lacking sense,
8 Passing through the street near her corner; And he takes the way to her house,
9 In the twilight, in the evening, In the middle of the night and in the darkness.
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13. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.
Ac 15:1
15:1 Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, "Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved."
Ac 20:30
30 and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.
Ro 16:18
18 For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting.
2 Co 2:17
17 For we are not like many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God.
Gal 1:6-8
I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel;
7 which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.
8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!
Col 2:4
4 I say this so that no one will delude you with persuasive argument.
1 Ti 1:6-7
6 For some men, straying from these things, have turned aside to fruitless discussion,
7 wanting to be teachers of the Law, even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions.
1 Ti 4:1
But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons,
1 Ti 6:3-5
3 If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness,
4 he is conceited and understands nothing; but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words, out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions,
5 and constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain.
2 Ti 2:17-18
17 and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus,
18 men who have gone astray from the truth saying that the resurrection has already taken place, and they upset the faith of some.
2 Ti 3:5
5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.
2 Ti 4:3-4
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires,
4 and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.
2 Pe 2:1-3
But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.
2 Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned;
3 and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.
1 Jn 2:18
18 Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour.
1 Jn 4:1
4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
2 Jn 7-10
7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.
8 Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward.
9 Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son.
10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting;
Jude 4
4 For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
Rv 2:2
2' I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false;
Rv 2:20
20'But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.
Rv 19:20
20 Doom of the Beast and False Prophet And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image; these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone.
a) How do false teachers disguise themselves as angels of light?
b) How should we prepare ourselves to see through their disguises?
1)
14. No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
Ge 3:1-4
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?"
2 The woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat;
3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.'"
4 The serpent said to the woman, "You surely will not die!
Gal 1:8
8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!
Rv 12:9
9 And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
a) How can we avoid being taken in by these angels of light?
1)
15. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds.
Eph 6:12
12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Rv 9:7-11
7 The appearance of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle; and on their heads appeared to be crowns like gold, and their faces were like the faces of men.
8 They had hair like the hair of women, and their teeth were like the teeth of lions.
9 They had breastplates like breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots, of many horses rushing to battle.
10 They have tails like scorpions, and stings; and in their tails is their power to hurt men for five months.
11 They have as king over them, the angel of the abyss; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek he has the name Apollyon.
Rv 13:14-17
14 And he deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which it was given him to perform in the presence of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who had the wound of the sword and has come to life.
15 And it was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast would even speak and cause as many as do not worship the image of the beast to be killed.
16 And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead,
17 and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name.
Rv 20:2-3
2 And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years;
3 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; after these things he must be released for a short time.
Rv 20:7-8
When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison,
8 and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war; the number of them is like the sand of the seashore.
Mt 7:15-16
"Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
16 "You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they?
Gal 1:8-9
8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!
9 As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!
Php 3:18-19
18 For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ,
19 whose end is destruction, whose god is theirappetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things.
Jude 10
10 But these men revile the things which they do not understand; and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed.
Pr 28:10
10 He who leads the upright astray in an evil way Will himself fall into his own pit, But the blameless will inherit good.
Rv 20:15
15 And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
Ps 73:11-12
11 They say, "How does God know? And is there knowledge with the Most High?"
12 Behold, these are the wicked; And always at ease, they have increased in wealth.
Ps 73:16-17
16 When I pondered to understand this, It was troublesome in my sight
17 Until I came into the sanctuary of God; Then I perceived their end .
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Key Verse
9 and when I was present with you and was in need, I was not a burden to anyone; for when the brethren came from Macedonia they fully supplied my need, and in everything I kept myself from being a burden to you, and will continue to do so.
Central Teaching
No sacrifice is too great in order to train and protect those who are young in the faith.
Application
Incorporate scripture memory into Bible reading time with the girls.
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