A Fool for God’s Glory
You may have heard this quote: “It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt.” No one is quite sure of the origin of this statement, but it makes a sharp point, and it agrees with many of Solomon’s observations in the Book of Proverbs.
No one likes to be considered a fool, much less have someone call you that to your face! Jesus Himself warned us to be careful about calling someone a fool. We want people to at least think we’re intelligent, understanding, and wise. But if we make the choice to follow Christ and to live according to the teaching of the Bible, those who don’t follow Jesus consider us fools. They see the life of a Christ-follower as dull, boring, and joyless. And God have mercy on us if we give that impression by the way we live!
In our continuing study from Second Corinthians, we come to the closing verses of chapter eleven. Here, Paul continues responding to the accusations of the false teachers in Corinth. We see his extreme discomfort as he feels forced to defend his calling and ministry. In fact, he uses the terms fool and foolishly several times in this text. Sometimes he applies it to himself and sometimes to his critics. But his conclusion seems to be that he is willing to be “A Fool for God’s Glory.” That’s the title for our study today from Second Corinthians 11:16 to 33. Here now are the God-breathed words of the apostle.
As we reflect on Paul’s words to the Corinthians, we observe the several STAGES that describe being a fool for God’s glory. These stages are applicable in our lives too.
The First STAGE (of being a fool for God’s glory) is,
Speaking as a Fool
As I said earlier, Paul acknowledges that boasting about one’s accomplishments isn’t from the Lord; it comes from the flesh. But because of the situation in Corinth and the accusations of his critics he feels compelled to “boast” of what he’s done in service for the Lord. He said, in effect, “since the false teachers are boasting according to the flesh I will do the same.” He wanted the church to understand that he was in no way inferior to these false apostles.
As we’ve seen before in this letter, Paul uses sarcasm to make some of his points. Verse 19 is clearly one of these instances. He writes, “Since you are so wise, you gladly entertain fools. You tolerate tyranny, extortion, craftiness, arrogance, violence, and insult.”
In verse 20 he specifically mentions them allowing the false teachers to “strike them in the face.” In that culture, being struck in the face was a grievous insult. Perhaps this is why the qualifications for overseers in his first letter to Timothy included “not a striker” or a violent person. Recall too how Jesus was struck in the face during his sham trial before the Sanhedrin.
Paul reminds them that they were tolerating this kind of treatment at the hands of the false teachers. He was appalled that they were allowing their leaders to abuse them physically and spiritually. Paul had never asked the church members to tolerate such behavior from him. While he had been firm in dealing with their sins, he had been gentle and meek among them. His whole ministry was about building people up, not tearing them down.
Not so the Judaizers. They were trying to enslave the Believers to the practi...
