2 Corinthians 11:2, commentary and pictures

The union of believers with Christ through the gospel is pictured as an espousal to one husband in order to present them as a chaste virgin to Christ. God joins His people to Himself by solemn covenant, He promising to be their God and they pledging to be His and His alone, a sacred, enduring and eternal bond established through Christ's redeeming love. That espoused union formed at Corinth is the same union of believers with their Lord that has existed since Adam. This espousal does not prove that the marriage of the Lamb took place in Corinth, which is a different thing. The marriage of the Lamb is one event in heaven just before the resurrection of the just, in which the bride is the New Jerusalem, not the church.

To be presented pure and chaste means undivided affection and the simplicity that is in Christ, with no divided life but wholly on the Lord's side. It means a pure church faithful to Christ alone. Jealousy over God's people can be godly, joined to holding the truth and the Word of God before them. Such godly jealousy does not mean that God frowns upon them. Godly jealousy is jealousy for the truth, a right desire to protect the truth from error and confusion.

It is different from personal jealousy toward another worker, which can creep in and displace the right kind until a person becomes jealous of almost every move the other makes. Paul spoke these words with godly jealousy because he could see evils coming into the church. He said this when speaking decidedly in vindication of his course of humbling himself to do mechanical work at tentmaking and teaching his fellow laborers to work with their hands, against those who looked on outward appearance and commended themselves. True ministers do this work of espousing believers to Christ alone.

That work requires representing Christ, denying self and taking up the cross to follow Him, and keeping self in subordination. It requires refusing to attach the church to self or to human judgment and opinion, since all stand and fall by the unchangeable law of God. Turning trust, confidence, love and affection away from Christ toward vanity and worldly things, and letting love of worldly things occupy the soul, breaks faith with Him and forfeits the privileges of the relationship. It violates the marriage vow as adultery. Turning from God through love of amusement and stubborn self-will is becoming joined to another instead of remaining Christ's bride.

The verse warns, especially for the last days, that as the serpent beguiled Eve through subtlety, minds can be corrupted and led away from the simplicity of the gospel in Christ. This happens when errors and backsliding weaken the church and chill its spiritual life, and lest false sanctification draw members away from Christ and the church. It comes through men working against apostolic influence who preach another Jesus and bring another spirit and another gospel, and through false apostles and deceitful workers transformed as apostles of Christ and ministers of righteousness as Satan is transformed into an angel of light, whose end will be according to their works. It calls for putting on the armor of righteousness and looking steadfastly to Jesus Christ and not being turned away from the gospel.