For I am jealous as to you with a jealousy [which is] of God; for I have espoused you unto one man, to present [you] a chaste virgin to Christ.
Paul had joined the Corinthian believers to Christ, like the friend who arranges a marriage. That one bond explains his jealousy for them, and everything he says next.
The word "jealousy" usually names a fault. Here it names love that refuses to share.
Almost everyone speaks of jealousy as something evil; Scripture hardly ever does. It even speaks of a jealousy that comes from God. Paul can say to believers, "I feel a divine jealousy for you"… His love for Christ, and his love for the saints, made him jealous in case anyone or anything should come between them and Christ. He had no pity for anyone who used false teaching to lure the saints away from Christ.
In Paul's day betrothal was legally binding. Scripture uses the picture twice: for Israel's future, and for the church now.
The Jews treated betrothal as binding as marriage, and only a divorce could end it… Scripture also uses it as a picture of God's favour to Israel, His ancient people, in a future day, when He will "betroth" them to Himself for ever (Hosea 2:19-20). It pictures too where the church stands with Christ. Paul wrote to the believers at Corinth, "I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ" (2 Cor. 11:2). The conduct of the saints should be true to this betrothal.
Paul says he did the betrothing. How can a servant claim that, and what does it make the aim of all preaching?
As an ambassador of Christ he represented Christ. As God's effective messenger of grace he had betrothed the church at Corinth to the Lord, gathering from her lips a virgin confession of His saving name. He wanted to present her to the true Bridegroom on the coming day, still in the first, unchilled love of her betrothal. True gospel service presents to Christ what Christ will Himself present in glory to Himself… Notice that the apostle is not speaking here of individual believers, but of the whole company of the saved at Corinth.
Older translations render "pure" here as "chaste." The word covers more than the absence of sin.
"Chaste" means purity of body and blamelessness of life. It also carries the thought of something marked by awe, something very rare in the way this godless world runs. And it carries the thought of something costly, given up in sacrifice. If we want to bring joy to the heart of Christ, we must refuse the flesh.
The wedding day is still ahead. The believer lives in the gap between promise and wedding, and that is where the danger lies.
The Song of Solomon does not go beyond the day of betrothal, but Paul points to the wedding day, when the betrothed one is presented to Christ as a pure virgin. What does he mean by a pure virgin? He means one who is true, one against whom not a breath of reproach could be raised. So he warns them: "I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ."
This relationship is not only a future hope. It sets the level of what a believer allows today — down to thoughts and feelings.
This is the destiny of the saints. They are loved, washed, sanctified, justified, with this close relationship to Christ in view. To the apostle that relationship was completely real and sure. It was not so to those who lowered the standard — the standard of future hope, of present separateness, and of conscious nearness to Christ in love and holiness. They lowered it by allowing themselves ease in this life, and links with the world in its aims and ways, its philosophy or even its religion… We are betrothed now to one husband, Christ Himself, and we are called to judge not only our conduct but our unsuitable thoughts and feelings.
- One husband. The believer is betrothed to Christ. Betrothal was as binding as marriage, so our conduct should match the bond we are already in.
- One jealousy. Paul's jealousy is love that lets nothing come between the saints and Christ. Scripture calls that kind of jealousy good.
- One aim in ministry. Real gospel work hands to Christ the very people He will one day present to Himself in glory. Paul has a whole company in view here, not just single believers.
- One standard. The word behind "pure" means purity, awe, and cost. We must refuse the flesh if Christ is to have joy in us.
- One day coming. These are the days of betrothal; the wedding is still ahead. So guard the mind from being drawn away. Nearness to Christ, not ease with the world, is the measure now.
But I fear lest by any means, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craft, [so] your thoughts should be corrupted from simplicity as to the Christ.
Paul's fear for the Corinthians reaches back to the garden: what happened to Eve can happen to a whole church. The danger is not force but persuasion. The target is not their conduct but their thinking. (Older translations read "the simplicity that is in Christ"; the ESV has "a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.")
One writer settles what the serpent really was from three passages at once:
Surely Revelation 12:9 and Revelation 20:1, together with 2 Corinthians 11:3, are enough to decide this question. Satan made use of that subtle animal, before it was reduced to its humiliating condition.
The enemy has more than one method, and this verse shows the quieter one:
Verse 3 is very important, because it exposes the way the great adversary sets the trap for our feet. In 2 Corinthians 4 we were told how he blinds the minds of those who do not believe. Here we find that some have believed, so his blinding tactics have failed with them. Even so, he is still stubbornly active. He aims to deceive them, as he once deceived Eve. When he acts with cunning as the serpent, he is more dangerous than when he attacks as a roaring lion.
The cunning was not an open denial. It was a question aimed at her confidence in God:
The enemy's approach was indeed subtle. It was to awaken distrust of God in Eve's heart. Could it be good to refuse man the fruit of any tree in the garden? Distrust of God opens the door to every sin.
One writer traces the parallel to the dissatisfaction behind it:
Their minds at Corinth were beginning to be corrupted by someone who came with impressive claims in the flesh. Eve was not satisfied with what God had made her. She listened to the lie of the serpent when he offered her to become like God. In the same way, the Corinthians were not satisfied simply with what Christ had made them. They were seeking wisdom of the flesh.
The damage in Eden came in stages, and it ended in independence:
The devil, in the form of a serpent, deceived Eve in a very subtle and crafty way. Step by step he corrupted her mind as to God, and led her to act apart from her husband and independently of him. He works in the same way today. He aims at diverting us from simplicity and from true subjection to Christ.
The word names something positive that can be lost:
This expression means two things. First, a view of gospel truth so clear and unhindered that it convinces both heart and mind of its absolute excellence and perfection. Second, a faith strong and simple enough to set the believer knowingly in Christ, and so to separate him in heart and spirit from the world. Only those who look at Him with a single heart and eye have the assured and delighted sense of completeness in Christ. This is the believer's true excellence, and to cast him down from it is the constant effort of the enemy.
Satan's cunning in Corinth wore respectable clothes. It arrived as ministry:
There were "false brothers" who not only made a Christian profession but claimed to be apostles... they came to the saints with such an impressive outward show that they appeared as angels of light and ministers of righteousness. These men used satanic subtlety. They perverted the truth by preaching "another Jesus," "another Spirit," and "another gospel."
Kelly ties this blindness to how real Christ is to the soul:
The more Christ is a living person to the soul, the more that soul recognises the reality of Satan's work against it. The enemy is a real and active adversary who must be resisted. To feel nothing of his schemes is the awful sign of an unbelief, common and growing in the Christian world.
Studying the enemy is not the defence. Nearness to God is:
After all, it is not knowing Satan that keeps us aware of his schemes and able to spot them. It is keeping in God's presence... The moment we know a thing is of Satan, the temptation is over if we are walking with God... The devil has this character of subtlety, like the serpent, and not always open opposition. But the place of obedience to God will always upset him.
- Same serpent. The tempter of Eden is still at work. Paul treats Genesis 3 as real history and as a live warning to a church.
- Same method. Not an open denial but a hint that stirs distrust of God — and distrust opens the door to every sin.
- Same target. He goes for the thoughts, not the behaviour, and pulls them step by step away from single-hearted subjection to Christ.
- Same bait. Eve was not content with what God had made her. Corinth was not content with what Christ had made them, and reached for wisdom of the flesh brought in by false apostles.
- Same defence. Keep in God's presence, where Christ is a living person to the soul. There you spot the enemy's cunning, and obedience upsets it.