Simplicity That Is In Christ

MAY 16, 2023

“But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” (II Corinthians 11:3)

The danger that has the Apostle exercised here is that some at Corinth might be departing from the simplicity that is in Christ. He was fearful that their minds were being corrupted and seduced from wholehearted and simple faith in Christ.

The corrupters and seducers were, of course, false apostles who were going about preaching another Jesus than the One Paul had preached. Some were ready to hear these men, and to receive a different spirit than the Spirit Whom they had once received. They were giving ear to a different gospel than the Gospel of Christ that Paul had declared to them.

Paul knew that the true source of the corruption was the devil, that old serpent, who beguiled our mother, Eve. Paul recognized immediately what was happening, and who sent these false apostles who were corrupting the gospel. “I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted…”

It is a horrible tragedy when professed believers are lured away from truth by novel doctrine packages for marketing, and presented by slick, well-spoken salesmen who call themselves apostles. This, as it appears from the context, is exactly what was happening. These people, who had received the Gospel from none other than Paul himself, were being drawn away by another Gospel. Paul feared that they were in danger of being persuaded away from the simplicity of Christ by false teachers.

What a pity that, having been taught by this divinely inspired master-teacher, these novelty seekers were enamored with teachers whose speech was not so rude. Satan is subtle and clever. He beguiles folks, causing them to choose beautifully spoken error over plainly declared truth. The error that carnal men love to hear is that which flatters their pride by assuring them that there is something they can do. This is the very method which Satan still pursues in order to lull them on to ruin. “Ye shall be as gods,” said the devil to our first mother, Eve.

This indeed is the grand device of Satan; it is the masterpiece of his craftiness. This is what he continues to use. Men love to imagine that there is something left for them to do to qualify to become partakers of grace. And as this is all very flattering to the pride of our nature, and exactly corresponds to the state the devil left our first parents in when he ruined them, so it becomes the very method that he still pursues with all their children.

Now Paul was alarmed and distressed on this account. The serpent beguiled Eve through subtlety, and Paul feared that these whom he had brought to Christ would also be seduced by him. How blessed is the teaching of the Holy Spirit that strips the sinner of all self-trust and leaves him nothing – leaves him bankrupt and empty so that Jesus can fill him and be his only trust. Paul may have been “rude in speech” when he preached this, “but not in knowledge.” (Vs. 6) When the sinner is made sensible of his nothingness, then Jesus can become his “all in all.” (Col. 3:11)

Nothing can be more simple than this. “Christ is all, and in all.” If Christ is all, then it would be folly to seek for happiness in anything but Christ. So, if our minds are led away to seek a supply from anything other than Christ, this is the same temptation that the serpent used on our first parents.

Christ alone is our fullness and our sufficiency. In bringing nothing to Christ, any trusting wholly upon Him, in this simplicity that is in Christ, the poor sinner finds how to live wholly upon the fullness that is in Christ Jesus. Let not Satan beguile you by his subtlety “from the simplicity that is in Christ.”

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