{"id":17598,"date":"2021-09-24T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-25T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/2corinthians-10_7-18-copy\/"},"modified":"2021-09-17T16:08:10","modified_gmt":"2021-09-17T23:08:10","slug":"2corinthians-11_1-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/2corinthians-11_1-15\/","title":{"rendered":"Dealing with Criticism"},"content":{"rendered":"

2 Corinthians 11:1-15\u00a0 Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is 2 Corinthians 11:1-15.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

2 Corinthians 11:1-15 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0I hope you will put up with a little of my foolishness; but you are already doing that.
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him.
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But I do not think I am in the least inferior to those “super-apostles.”
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0I may not be a trained speaker, but I do have knowledge. We have made this perfectly clear to you in every way.
\n7\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Was it a sin for me to lower myself in order to elevate you by preaching the gospel of God to you free of charge?
\n8\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0I robbed other churches by receiving support from them so as to serve you.
\n9\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0And when I was with you and needed something, I was not a burden to anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied what I needed. I have kept myself from being a burden to you in any way, and will continue to do so.
\n10\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0As surely as the truth of Christ is in me, nobody in the regions of Achaia will stop this boasting of mine.
\n11\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do!
\n12\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0And I will keep on doing what I am doing in order to cut the ground from under those who want an opportunity to be considered equal with us in the things they boast about.
\n13\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ.
\n14\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.
\n15\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 1-15:\u00a0\u00a0Here in\u00a02\u00a0Corinthians\u00a011:1-15 we see Paul using some strong language to respond to several different attacks and criticisms people were making of him, such as:
\n– “you’re not a trained speaker, Paul” (v6)
\n– “you talk a lot of foolishness, Paul” (v1)
\n– “you can’t be a legit minister because you serve us for free as a volunteer, Paul” (v7-8)
\n– “your gospel is not as cool sounding as the gospel that the “super apostles” talk about, Paul” (v4)<\/p>\n

In\u00a02\u00a0Corinthians\u00a011:1-15\u00a0Paul passionately and emphatically addresses each of these criticisms:
\n– to those who attack him for not having gone through formal training as a speaker, Paul says, “What’s more important is that I have good things to share with you, I know what I am talking about and I communicate it clearly” (v6)
\n– to those who question his legitimacy as a minister because he offered his ministry free of charge to the\u00a0Corinthians, Paul says, “How is offering my services to you free of charge a strike against me? I received support from other churches but intentionally didn’t receive support from you so as not to be a burden to you!\u00a0 How is that a sin?\u00a0 Isn’t that rather a practical demonstration of my love for you?” (v8-9)
\n– to those who say that Paul’s gospel was not as compelling as the message preached by others, Paul warns his church against allowing false teaching and heresy to poison their faith (v3-4). He says that he is not in any way inferior to the “super apostles” they were comparing him to (v5).\u00a0 In fact, he calls those super apostles who were putting him down “false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ” (v13).<\/p>\n

What can we learn from all this?\u00a0\u00a0If Jesus and Paul got criticized even when they were doing good, don’t be surprised if you are criticized while trying to do good.\u00a0 How well do you deal with criticism?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Getting criticized is inevitable, especially when you lead people.\u00a0 The criticism you receive may be fair or unfair.\u00a0 It may be wise or foolish.\u00a0 It may come from people who know you well or people who don’t know you at all.\u00a0 It may come from people with pure motives or people with a hidden agenda.\u00a0 It may come from healthy, mature, loving people, or from unhealthy, immature, unloving people.<\/p>\n

Whatever the case may be,\u00a0whenever you receive criticism, ask yourself: Is there any truth or merit to what that person is saying?\u00a0 What can I learn from this criticism to make myself a better servant of God?<\/strong><\/p>\n

If there something you can learn from the criticism, use it to make you a stronger, wiser, more effective servant of God.\u00a0 If there’s nothing to learn from the criticism and it is just an unhealthy person speaking careless words and thinking immature thoughts, let it go and give it to God.\u00a0 However, if the criticism is unfounded, destructive and ongoing, like Paul there may come a time when you need to take a stand, defend yourself, and not allow such criticisms to discredit your ministry or to negatively affect those you lead.<\/p>\n

While we can’t control what people will say to us, we can control how we respond to what they say.\u00a0\u00a0May God give you great wisdom and courage to deal with criticism in healthy, Christ-honoring ways.\u00a0 May you not shrink in the face of criticism, but allow criticism — even the most unfounded, unreasonable, or unhealthy kind — to make you stronger.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is 2 Corinthians 11:1-15.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

2 Corinthians 11:1-15 (NIV)
\n1\u00a0\u00a0I hope you will put up with a little of my foolishness; but you are already doing that.
\n2\u00a0\u00a0I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him.
\n3\u00a0\u00a0But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
\n4\u00a0\u00a0For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.
\n5\u00a0\u00a0But I do not think I am in the least inferior to those “super-apostles.”
\n6\u00a0\u00a0I may not be a trained speaker, but I do have knowledge. We have made this perfectly clear to you in every way.
\n7\u00a0\u00a0Was it a sin for me to lower myself in order to elevate you by preaching the gospel of God to you free of charge?
\n8\u00a0\u00a0I robbed other churches by receiving support from them so as to serve you. ……<\/p>\n

On verses 1-15:\u00a0\u00a0Here in\u00a02\u00a0Corinthians\u00a011:1-15 we see Paul using some strong language to respond to several different attacks and criticisms people were making of him, such as:
\n– “you’re not a trained speaker, Paul” (v6)
\n– “you talk a lot of foolishness, Paul” (v1)
\n– “you can’t be a legit minister because you serve us for free as a volunteer, Paul” (v7-8)
\n– “your gospel is not as cool sounding as the gospel that the “super apostles” talk about, Paul” (v4)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17600,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17598"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17599,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17598\/revisions\/17599"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}