2 Corinthians 11:3-5 English Standard Version

³ But 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. ⁴ For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough. ⁵ Indeed, I consider that I am not in the least inferior to these super-apostles.

Following up on yesterday’s devotional about understanding and believing, let us continue to seek truth.

How can any of us know when another Jesus is being preached? The best way to understand this important issue is by having a personal and intimate relationship with Christ ourselves. When another Jesus is being put forth, He who is in you will say, “Those are not my words.”

Paul’s encouragement to us is a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. Love Christ, know Christ and when another is being put forth, Christ we proclaim the fake to be exactly that.

The second sign here is the spirit of truth verses any other spirit which cannot speak truth. Just because it sounds plausible does not mean it is true. The Holy Spirit who is truth will correct error if we will listen for the truth. Listening for the truth is a matter of practice. The more we do it the easier it is for the Holy Spirit to combat lies with truth.

The simplest thing to understand is the gospel that we have received that saved us in the first place. We know what it is capable of doing in the saving of our souls. Any variation that strays away from what we ourselves have already experienced should be obvious to us.

The term super-apostles might be a new term for some of us. Shall we address them?

Matthew 22:37 English Standard Version (ESV) And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

Mark 12:30 English Standard Version (ESV) And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’

Luke 10:27 English Standard Version (ESV) And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”

These are three different accounts of the same incident. The issue here is not truth. All are true. Variations in text vary for different reasons. John Mark wrote the Gospel of Mark. It was unlikely that he was in attendance at the time it was said. The same goes for Luke because at the time Luke was a physician. Matthew was likely to have been an eyewitness to those words as they were spoken.

So what does this matter in the scheme of things if we consider that all were inspired by God through the power of the Holy Spirit? It is because we all have the power of the Holy Spirit within us and we all hear differently. That is not a matter of truth nor is it a matter of memory. It has more to do with what we need to hear to believe.

When it comes to the Holy Spirit speaking truth to us in any circumstance it is more important to hear, to understand and to believe than it is in the mincing of words. Slight variations of text or the memory of text or the version of scriptures are not worth correcting when observed. We are human and with that comes a variety of personal preferences, style, and habits. Each one has some influence on communication. Some are so unimportant that everyone should ignore them.