2 Corinthians 11:2 Commentary and Bible Study

‘For I am jealous over you’ – I have strong, strong feelings. The Greek comes from the word for heat. I am hot; my feelings are very warm for you; I yearn jealousy for you. ‘With godly jealousy,’ which really means with the jealousy of God, with that jealousy that God has for you. God loves the church at Corinth. His love for them is very intense and he will not share them with anything else. He does not want their affections to be drawn away to other things, to error of any kind. He wants their affections to be for him, as his deep and powerful, infinite affection is toward them. ‘For I have espoused you.’ They were being stolen away like a bride from a husband. In the context of the customs of those days, we should read espoused as engaged, not married. Our marriage procedures are different from theirs. In those days the father would espouse the daughter to a groom, a husband-to-be and then there would be a period of waiting before the wedding ceremony. What we would call the wedding proper was actually at the betrothal. When the father betrothed the daughter to the groom, then all the promises were made, everything was arranged and even though they were not together until the ceremony the daughter had to be absolutely faithful to that betrothal and to her pledges, until the time of the wedding.The apostle Paul uses this illustration. It was God who did it but I put it like this, he says, when I preached the Gospel to you and you were saved. Like a father, I loved you and I betrothed you to Jesus Christ, so that you would be his at that great wedding day, that day when Christ would come and take his people home. My task is to keep you faithful to him and the ceremony hasn’t come. You have been betrothed, you are committed, you should be loyal, but I see you wavering. I fear lest you should be enticed by these false teachers and your love will not be entirely for Christ. That is the illustration that he uses: ‘…for I have espoused you [betrothed you] to one husband, that I may in due time present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.’ He has that jealousy of God.Paul wants more than soundness in the church at Corinth. Can you have more than soundness? Yes you can. He wants exclusive love for Christ. He does not want their love, their affection to be divided, for them to have divided loyalties.