DOUBTING GOD'S GOODNESS USUALLY LEADS TO A DOWNFALL.

April 7, 2014

DOUBTING GOD'S GOODNESS USUALLY LEADS TO A DOWNFALL.

2 Corinthians 11:1–15

Heather Douglass

Central Truth

We are most vulnerable to being led astray from the simplicity of the gospel when we question God's intentions for us.

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. (2 Corinthians 11:3)

Paul and the False Apostles

1 I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me! 2 For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. 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. 6 Even if I am unskilled in speaking, I am not so in knowledge; indeed, in every way we have made this plain to you in all things.

7 Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted, because I preached God's gospel to you free of charge? 8 I robbed other churches by accepting support from them in order to serve you. 9 And when I was with you and was in need, I did not burden anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my need. So I refrained and will refrain from burdening you in any way. 10 As the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting of mine will not be silenced in the regions of Achaia. 11 And why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do!

12 And what I am doing I will continue to do, in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission they work on the same terms as we do. 13 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 15 So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.

I have known Christ for a long time. I love His Word and the fact that He is full of both justice and mercy. And yet I have struggled through the years to trust His goodness toward me. I have doubted His character and instead believed the lies that His blessings come with a catch or that somehow God is withholding something from me. Yuck.

When I look back at those times of doubt, I can see that those are the moments I have been most vulnerable to straying from the purity and simplicity of devotion to Christ and to being deceived by Satan's agents who disguise themselves as servants of righteousness (verse 15). There were plenty of seemingly well-intentioned deceivers willing to step in and urge me to pursue whatever I desired. Of course, they had no regard for God's greater intent for me.

That was Eve's downfall. She doubted God's nature, believing instead that He must be withholding something good from her because one tree was off limits. And Satan was ready to pounce, isolating one commandment to abstain from something and taking it out of context of the whole picture of God's perfect provision.

I think this is always our downfall. We doubt God's goodness for us because we don't see the whole picture of His plan. But how can we!? For His thoughts are not our thoughts, and our ways are not His ways. (Isaiah 55:8-9). And that is something for which we should be eternally thankful. We would never choose to save people who rebel against us and hate us, and we certainly wouldn't sacrifice the one person we love the most to accomplish that redemption. Yet, that is exactly what God did for us in Christ. So I choose, in my moments of doubt, to cling to the simplicity the Spirit revealed in Romans 8:32 (NASB): "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?" Oh, for grace to trust Him more!

1. In what areas of your life are you tempted to doubt God's goodness and stray from the simplicity of the gospel?

2. Do you have people in your life that Satan could be using as agents of righteousness -- selling you "good things,"' but in reality leading you away from Christ? How do you think you should handle those relationships?

3. Discuss a time of God's faithfulness revealed in Scripture (e.g., the Israelites escaping Egypt through the Red Sea in Exodus 14, or Jesus feeding the 5,000 in John 6, etc.). How might God's people have doubted His goodness during those situations? What can we learn from those accounts of God's faithfulness?