Full Transcript

Welcome to Share the Word. We are in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, which we are splitting up into two parts. Today, we focus on the fact that throughout 2 Corinthians, Paul has continued to defend himself against false teachers and their slanderous rhetoric. We look now deeper into the damage that can be caused by words. Let’s listen in. 2 Corinthians chapter 12: The Destructive Power of Evil Reports.

As I write this podcast script, there’s a massive fire burning almost out of control in the Los Angeles, California suburbs. The footage from helicopters tracking these wildfires show horrific destruction. This is not out in the country somewhere either, but in the suburbs of the second largest city in the United States. More than 100,000 people have been evacuated, and they are estimating at least 10,000 homes and commercial buildings have already been destroyed. There’s been loss of human lives too, and they’re not even sure how many. Authorities don’t know how these fires started, and it might be years before we really ascertain for sure what happened.

But that reminds me of another massive fire out west several years back. In that case, a woman by the name of Janice Stevenson stopped her car by the side of a remote road. She said later to relieve herself. She lit a cigarette and flicked the match into the underbrush along the edge of the roadway. She claims that although she saw the match ignite a little bit of dry underbrush, she didn’t think anything dangerous would come of it because they were in the middle of nowhere. It took more than two weeks before a thousand firefighters got that blaze under control, and it burned more than 83,000 acres in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

That was the largest fire ever in that part of the country. When I read that story, it said Mr. Stevenson had been arrested and was facing five years in prison and some pretty large fines. But does that sound like an adequate consequence for that much damage done? We’re going to talk today about something practical and immensely important, something I’m afraid we grossly underestimate the danger of. This causes so many conflicts in families, destroys so many friendships, paralyzes organizations and businesses, even destroys many churches.

What am I going to talk about? Damaging words. My friend Jeff Arthurs reminded us when we were working our way through the epistle of James of the potential destructive power of words. As James puts it, the tongue, although a small part of the body, can do great damage. Consider what a great forest can be set on fire by such a small spark. You might be thinking, what’s happening in California is a real tragedy, Paul, but what does that have to do with Second Corinthians, where we’ve been studying?

Well, everything, really. A large part of this letter we call Second Corinthians is taken up with the apostle Paul defending himself against the slander of some false teachers who had infiltrated this young church in Corinth, Greece. Paul felt foolish in defending himself and would not have, except these false teachers were attempting to destroy his reputation and character so that they could take over the church and take advantage of the people in it. Paul realized if they succeeded, they’d be teaching false doctrines that he knew were heretical. In order to protect the Corinthians from their wrong influence and wrong doctrines, he had to defend himself, his apostleship, his actions when he was in Corinth, and his motives. That defense continues on in chapter 13.

Considering how much time is taken up with this in 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians, I felt this was as good a place as any in the New Testament to get down below the surface and think through how this big problem even came about. As I stressed last episode, Satan, the enemy of our souls, has been figuring out ways to undermine God’s truth since the Garden of Eden. And he was certainly working hard to destroy the Christian witness that Paul and his team had built in Corinth in the middle of the first century. But I want to stop with you and think through exactly how he was attempting to do it. Throughout this letter, we can pick out words the false teachers actually used to tear down Paul and drive a wedge between him and this congregation. It’s clear to me that when Titus returned from Corinth, he brought with him the very things Paul’s enemies were saying in the church.

Things like what? Well, in today’s section, chapter 12, Paul writes, I will gladly spend myself for all of you, even though it seems that the more I love you, the less you love me. Some of you admit I was not a burden to you, but others still think somehow I was underhanded and took advantage of you by trickery. But how? Did any of the men I have sent to you take advantage of you? When I urged Titus to visit you and sent our brother along with him, did Titus take advantage of you?

No, for we have the same spirit and do things the same way. Perhaps you think we’re saying all these things just to defend ourselves, but we tell you this as Christ’s servants and with God as our witness, everything we have done, dear friends, was to strengthen you. You know, money is always a touchy subject. The apostle Paul went out of his way to try to be sure no one accused him of being in the ministry in order to enrich himself. In fact, most of the time he was originally in Corinth, those 18 months he spent there, he worked, if you remember, in Aquila and Priscilla’s leather shop by day so that he could minister by night and on weekends. He supported himself.

It wasn’t until the other members of his team rejoined him from Macedonia that they brought some financial support, and he was able to quit his day job and spend full time in ministry work in that city. Sometime after the team left Corinth, feeling their work was on solid footing, I guess, he sent Titus back to encourage the Corinthians to participate in a collection they were gathering for Christians back in Israel who were going through hard times. Paul wanted these early Christians in Greece to participate in that offering, to learn something about giving to others, and I think also to create a bond between the new Gentile churches and those Jewish Christians still in Jerusalem. But when Titus got to Corinth, he found that the false teachers, the wolves we talked about last time, had already arrived and had gained a foothold in that church.

They apparently were able to persuade some of the members of the Corinthian church that Paul was doing stuff underhandedly, probably suggesting he was lying about the purpose of the collection. That’s what he means by, Some of you think I am being underhanded and taking advantage of you by trickery. In chapter 10, Paul quotes another insult Titus must have relayed to him when he writes, I appeal to you with the gentleness and kindness of Christ, though I realize you think I am timid in person and bold only when I write from far away. And later in that same chapter he adds, I don’t want to seem like I’m trying to frighten you with my letters, for some say, Paul’s letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he’s unimpressive and his speech contemptible. And what else did you hear, Titus?

Well, some are saying you write forceful letters, but in person you don’t make much of an impression, and also your sermons are pretty dull. In that culture, which glamorized oratory and debate, to say someone’s speaking was contemptible was about as insulting as it could get. Honestly, I’m pretty sure in any time or place you suggest a preacher is boring and doesn’t make much of a personal impression, he’s going to take that as a very low blow. The false teachers also hinted that Paul was a hypocrite whose personal lifestyle didn’t match his expectation of others, and they undercut his claim to be an apostle of Christ. You know, don’t you, that Paul was never with Jesus and the twelve back in Galilee originally?

This is what Paul is answering in our chapter at verse 12, where he says, I demonstrated when I was among you the marks of a true apostle, including signs, wonders, and miracles. The apostolic office was unique, as we discussed in the book of Acts. Those hand-selected men were commissioned by Christ and given a measure of his authority and divine power specifically to lay the foundation of his church, as Paul has spent his life doing. To question Paul’s authenticity as a true apostle, that was a very serious and unfounded charge. The false teachers also contradicted the gospel of grace that Paul had preached in Corinth and insisted there’s a lot more to becoming a Christian than just simple faith in Jesus. And they even suggested he was probably off his rocker, you know, emotionally unstable, which would explain why he went to such extremes in pursuing what he thought was his ministry.

All these insults, slanders, lies were being spread by the false teachers among the young believers in Corinth. Very, very destructive words. A teacher I benefited from long ago helped me understand just how destructive words can be among a church fellowship. And I’ve always tried to pass this lesson on because I’ve learned from experience it’s only too true. He called the kind of thing that was going on in Corinth evil reporting. Evil reports, he said, can be true or false.

They can be a distortion of facts or incomplete information, but not necessarily outright lies. What makes them evil is the wrong motivation behind them and the damaging impact they have on those who hear them. Evil reports infect the hearer’s spirit like contagious germs and can lead to very wrong attitudes and then actions. God shows us throughout His Word the destructive power of evil reports. Let me give you one example. You might know how when the people of Israel escaped Egypt under Moses’ leadership, this is clear back in the book of Exodus, and they passed through the Sinai wilderness and they reached the borderlands of Canaan, that Moses sent spies into the Promised Land to survey what they would encounter there.

One man from each of the twelve tribes of Israel. The twelve spies all saw the same things, but upon returning, ten of those men, the Bible says, spread an evil report throughout the camp of Israel. What made it evil? If you read the chapter, you have to admit that what they reported was largely true. Maybe they slightly exaggerated the obstacles, but what they said was mostly true. They said, The land is good and it’s full of natural resources.

The expression was flowing with milk and honey. But they also said, The people there look too powerful compared to us, and the cities are too heavily fortified. We can’t possibly conquer them. What made that an evil report? Well, it cast doubt on God’s promise to give them the land, and it undercut Moses’ leadership as God’s representative. Whether their motivation was really fear, or it was pride, or possibly just rebellion against Moses, I’m not sure.

But the outcome of their words was devastating. The whole camp of Israel was discouraged after listening to them. The people, it says, stayed up all night arguing and crying and moaning, and by morning, the consensus was, We must turn back away from Canaan. The evil report caused them to distrust God’s promises and Moses’ legitimate leadership, so they turned back away from Canaan. They retreated back into the wilderness, where that generation wandered aimlessly for the next forty years. The evil report of the ten spies that they spread throughout the camp of Israel, it was just like Janus Stevenson’s match, and the blaze they spread.

From tent to tent to tent until the Israelites were defeated before they even tried to go up and take the land. Behold, what a forest can be set aflame by such a small spark. There are several words in the Old Testament wisdom book of Proverbs especially for different kinds of evil reporters. One of them is the whisperer. The Greek word is psthrustes. It’s an onomatopoeia.

Proverbs 18:8 says, The words of a whisperer are like dainty morsels, and they go down into the innermost parts of our body. The whisperer is the person who likes to begin a conversation with you in hushed tones, something like, Now, I don’t want this to go any further than the two of us, but… or, I wouldn’t tell anyone else this. I don’t know what you think about such and such, but… The whisperer is someone who secretly passes along damaging evil reports. And remember, an evil report could be true, could be false. It could involve a distortion of facts or incomplete information.

What makes it evil is the wrong motivation behind it and the damaging impact it can have on those who hear it. Then there is the talebearer, or more commonly known as the gossip, a troublemaker, it says in Proverbs, plants seeds of strife. A gossip can separate even the best of friends. Proverbs also talk about the slanderer, the busybody, the backbiter. Very descriptive terms. You can picture them, can’t you?

Slightly different modes of operation, but they’re all trafficking in damaging evil reports. Let me explain to you exactly how this works, the way it was explained to me. Think of an evil report, a spoken evil report, as a communicable disease. There are identifiable stages that lead listeners into danger. The first stage is simply ignorance. I’m not sure where it stands today, but not that long ago in Central Africa, 25% of the population was infected with the AIDS virus.

It spread very rapidly because the people were ignorant of how it was transmitted and initially of how deadly it could be. The same is true of evil reports. They are so destructive because too many of us are ignorant of how dangerous they are and how they are transmitted. We shouldn’t be, though, because the Bible warns about this danger and shows us at work over and over. The evil reports were used effectively by Paul’s opponents here in Corinth, and they remain one of the enemy’s most effective methods because too many of us are ignorant of their power to destroy. The next stage after ignorance will almost certainly be exposure.

Exposure occurs when we come into contact with that carrier of an evil report, when we enter into a conversation with them. Proverbs 27:12 says, A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions, but a simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences. If you open up your fridge and screw the cap off of a milk jug and suddenly smell something really nasty, you probably won’t drink it, will you? We have natural built-in detection devices physically. We see things, smell things, taste things, and inside an alarm goes off that says, Stay away from this. Danger, danger.

So we know to protect ourselves. In the same way, we need to develop the ability to sense spiritual danger and protect ourselves and others. We can avoid exposing ourselves to evil reports if we learn how to detect the carriers. How would I do that? Well, the carrier of an evil report will almost always test your spirit to see if you are compatible, if you’re open, if you’re receptive. For example, saying something like, You know, personally, I don’t like the way Paul teaches.

That’s just my opinion. I don’t know how you feel about it, and then wait to see how you respond to that. The gossip might take a more direct approach. Ring, ring, the telephone rings. Hello? Hey, you’ll never believe what I just heard about Pastor Paul.

You want to know, don’t you? It might be packaged very discreetly as a concern or even a prayer request. These are very hard for us to resist. But we need to learn to detect evil reporters, the carriers. Why? Because they are spreading spiritual germs.

When you just listen to them, the germs can get into your system, and they are dangerous. So what should we do? Remember the verse I quoted that says, A wise person senses danger ahead and takes precautions. Once you’re aware of how this all works, your spiritual detection alarm will start going off when you’re approached by the gossip or the whisperer or the backbiter. And then you need to learn to say, Wait a second, hold up a minute. Have you talked with Paul about this directly?

Or, Hey, can I quote you if I talk to Paul about this? Or, Where exactly did you get this information, and why are you telling me? Those responses will usually stop an evil reporter in their tracks. And that is exactly what we need to learn to do, because if we do not learn to do that, we will be contaminated. Contamination. That’s the third stage.

Contamination occurs once we listen to an evil report. This is very important, whether or not you realize it. When you just listen to evil reports, they negatively affect you. They go down into your system, as Proverbs 18:8 said. They lodge there. Words implant ideas and feelings into your mind and heart.

They’re powerful things. If you listen to something negative about someone, it will color how you see them and how you respond to that person from then on. This is why we need to learn to detect the carriers of evil reports before we’re contaminated, before we even listen to their words. But if we naively listen and let them go on, we will be contaminated, and the next stage is going to be infection. The infection stage is when you start developing wrong attitudes and opinions, and maybe even taking wrong actions toward the person who was the subject of that evil report. You can tell you’ve been infected when you start pulling away in your spirit from them, or doing things like interpreting their actions and judging their motives on the basis of the evil report you heard.

You may begin scrutinizing their life for confirming evidence that it was true. Does sound familiar to anyone? The writer of the New Testament book of Hebrews says, Make every effort to live in peace with everyone, and watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you and corrupt many others. That’s exactly what happens when you listen to an evil report. A root of bitterness, a seed of bitterness gets planted inside you. If you don’t realize what’s happened and react wisely immediately, that bitterness will begin to grow, causing trouble in your spirit and eventually affecting others.

If you realize you’ve made the mistake of listening to evil reports, like taking a big swig of rancid milk, when you realize it, spew it back out. Go back to the person and say, Wait a minute. You know that conversation we had about Paul? That should have never, ever happened, and I’m sorry I even listened to it. You need to reject the evil report and try to pull it out by the roots by asking God to cleanse your heart and mind of any of its effects. If you don’t, the infection will lead to the final stage, which is disease.

At the final stage of disease, you become mentally and emotionally controlled by the evil report. Your attitudes toward the person or issues involved are completely affected by the evil report. Even though you haven’t been personally offended, you have taken up that carrier’s offense. Even though it’s not your personal issue, it has now become your issue. In this stage, you’re probably spreading the evil report to others too. You see how it works?

Evil reports can ruin relationships among your family, between close friends, at your workplace, certainly, certainly in a church, especially in a church, where unity and respect for godly leaders is so crucial. As I read 2 Corinthians, the apostle Paul sounds genuinely surprised, shocked even, that people he loved, people he had won to faith in Christ, people whose loyalty he assumed because of how much he’d invested in them, could so easily fall prey to the evil reports of those false teachers. And I’ve got to believe one big reason God has included this letter we call 2 Corinthians in the canon of New Testament scripture is so that we can see how this common scheme of the devil works, and so we are not ignorant of his devices, as Paul puts it.

Next time, I’ll focus in more specifically on chapter 12, but I wanted to look below the surface for a lesson to see just how the church at Corinth became in danger of breaking with their founder, the apostle Paul, and turning away from the truth of the gospel. Once we become aware and alert to the danger of listening to evil reports, we can become a part of protecting the social organizations God has called us to be a part of. And of putting out the little fires before they become destructive blazes. I hope this was helpful. This is Paul for Share the Word. Thanks, Paul.

So much wisdom and truth to all you’ve said. Whether we decide to be part of those evil reports, as Paul says, because it makes us feel like we’re in the know, or it inflates our egos, or sometimes it gives us the opportunity to participate with that group as they gossip. But there are those who do it maliciously in an attempt to destroy and devastate and cause division within the body of Christ. But you know, in either example, we’re the ones who are participating and lighting the match that starts the fire. And when it comes to the fire, there is no difference who started it. Paul gives us great examples of how to avoid all of this.

I encourage you to listen to this podcast again and incorporate it into your life. From all of us at Share the Word, our blessings and prayers go out to all of you.