Single lesson
2 Corinthians 11: Paul and the False Apostles
2 Corinthians 11:1–15; 2 Corinthians 11:16–33
In 2 Corinthians 11, Paul warns believers about teachers who only appear trustworthy. He then explains, in a reluctant boasting style, that his own ministry has been marked by hardship, care for the assemblies and weakness rather than showy self-promotion.
Before you teach
This chapter has two linked movements. In verses 1 to 15, Paul fears the believers may be drawn away from the simplicity that is in Christ by a different message and by false apostles who masquerade as servants of righteousness. In verses 16 to 33, he answers boasting with “foolishness” and traces his hardships, daily anxiety for the assemblies and his resolve to boast in weakness.
Students will identify Paul’s warning about false apostles and explain how 2 Corinthians 11 contrasts impressive appearance with preaching free of charge, enduring hardship, caring for the assemblies and boasting in weakness.
Welcome: Appearance and reality in ministry
5 minOpen by asking students to name ways a speaker can seem convincing without being trustworthy. Introduce Paul’s concern: some people looked like Christ’s apostles, yet Paul calls them false apostles and says even Satan can masquerade as an angel of light. Explain that this lesson will compare outward claims with what Paul actually says marks faithful ministry.
2 Corinthians 11:13, 2 Corinthians 11:14, 2 Corinthians 11:15
Read and explain: Paul’s warning about a different message
10 minRead verses 1 to 15 aloud in sections. Explain Paul’s “godly jealousy” as his desire that believers belong faithfully to Christ. Trace the danger in the text: minds corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ, another Jesus, a different spirit and a different good news. Notice too that Paul says he preached God’s Good News free of charge and avoided being a burden to them.
2 Corinthians 11:2, 2 Corinthians 11:3, 2 Corinthians 11:4, 2 Corinthians 11:7, 2 Corinthians 11:9
Discuss: Paul’s ‘foolish’ boasting and the Corinthians’ tolerance
8 minMove into verses 16 to 21 and explain that Paul keeps calling this boasting foolish. He is not presenting boasting as a model for Christians. In the passage, he adopts that style to answer people who boast after the flesh. Ask students to trace the sequence: Paul says they tolerate foolishness, and even put up with harsh treatment from self-exalting leaders.
2 Corinthians 11:16, 2 Corinthians 11:17, 2 Corinthians 11:18, 2 Corinthians 11:19, 2 Corinthians 11:20
Make and respond: Hardship and weakness reminder card
10 minRead verses 22 to 33. Have students list the kinds of hardship Paul names: labour, prisons, beatings, danger, hunger, cold, daily anxiety for the assemblies, and finally escape from Damascus in a basket. Then each student makes a small reminder card with one chosen phrase and one application sentence clearly introduced as their response to the passage, such as listening carefully to messages about Jesus.
2 Corinthians 11:23, 2 Corinthians 11:24, 2 Corinthians 11:25, 2 Corinthians 11:26, 2 Corinthians 11:27, 2 Corinthians 11:28, 2 Corinthians 11:30, 2 Corinthians 11:32, 2 Corinthians 11:33
Closing: What Paul wants remembered
7 minReview the chapter in two parts. First, Paul warns against false apostles and a different message. Second, when pressed into boasting, he points to preaching without burdening them, many hardships, concern for the assemblies and boasting in weakness. Finish by stating that a wise application from this passage is to weigh teaching about Jesus carefully instead of being impressed by appearance alone.
2 Corinthians 11:4, 2 Corinthians 11:9, 2 Corinthians 11:13, 2 Corinthians 11:28, 2 Corinthians 11:30
Questions to explore
What was Paul afraid might happen to the believers’ minds, and what were they in danger of leaving?
Guide students to connect corruption of the mind with being drawn away from the simplicity that is in Christ.
2 Corinthians 11:3
According to Paul, what kinds of things were the Corinthians tolerating from harsh leaders?
Have students list the actions in the verse itself: bringing into bondage, devouring, taking captive, exalting himself and striking on the face.
2 Corinthians 11:20
After listing many hardships and his daily anxiety for the assemblies, what does Paul say he will boast about?
Lead students to compare the hardship list and concern for the assemblies with Paul’s conclusion that he will boast of the things that concern his weakness.
2 Corinthians 11:23, 2 Corinthians 11:28, 2 Corinthians 11:30
Make, think or respond
Hardship and Weakness Reminder Card
What you’ll need
- plain paper or card
- pens or pencils
- coloured pencils
- scissors
Try it together
- Ask students to choose one phrase or verse from 2 Corinthians 11 that stands out, such as a warning in verse 4 or Paul’s statement in verse 30.
- Fold or cut paper into a small card.
- On the front, write the verse reference and a key phrase from the passage.
- On the back, write one sentence beginning, "A wise response to this passage is..." so students clearly distinguish application from the text itself.
- Invite volunteers to share why they chose that verse.
The card helps students remember that Paul contrasts false appearance with faithful ministry marked by truth, endurance, care for the assemblies and boasting in weakness.
Adapt for your group
- For younger teens, provide two or three possible verses to choose from and build the hardship list together before they write their response sentence.
- For older teens, ask them to trace Paul’s sequence across verses 16 to 33 in their own words: foolish boasting, tolerance of harsh leaders, hardships, anxiety for the assemblies and boasting in weakness.
An optional closing prayer
Suggested prayer: Lord Jesus, help us stay close to the truth about you. Give us wisdom when we hear teaching, and help us value faithfulness, care and humility. Amen.
Read the Bible passage World English Bible Classic
2 Corinthians 11
1 I wish that you would bear with me in a little foolishness, but indeed you do bear with me.
2 For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy. For I promised you in marriage to one husband, that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ.
3 But I am afraid that somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve in his craftiness, so your minds might be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
4 For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we didn’t preach, or if you receive a different spirit which you didn’t receive, or a different “good news” which you didn’t accept, you put up with that well enough.
5 For I reckon that I am not at all behind the very best apostles.
6 But though I am unskilled in speech, yet I am not unskilled in knowledge. No, in every way we have been revealed to you in all things.
7 Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself that you might be exalted, because I preached to you God’s Good News free of charge?
8 I robbed other assemblies, taking wages from them that I might serve you.
9 When I was present with you and was in need, I wasn’t a burden on anyone, for the brothers, when they came from Macedonia, supplied the measure of my need. In everything I kept myself from being burdensome to you, and I will continue to do so.
10 As the truth of Christ is in me, no one will stop me from this boasting in the regions of Achaia.
11 Why? Because I don’t love you? God knows.
12 But what I do, that I will continue to do, that I may cut off opportunity from those who desire an opportunity, that in which they boast, they may be recognized just like us.
13 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as Christ’s apostles.
14 And no wonder, for even Satan masquerades as an angel of light.
15 It is no great thing therefore if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.
16 I say again, let no one think me foolish. But if so, yet receive me as foolish, that I also may boast a little.
17 That which I speak, I don’t speak according to the Lord, but as in foolishness, in this confidence of boasting.
18 Seeing that many boast after the flesh, I will also boast.
19 For you bear with the foolish gladly, being wise.
20 For you bear with a man if he brings you into bondage, if he devours you, if he takes you captive, if he exalts himself, or if he strikes you on the face.
21 To my shame, I speak as though we had been weak. Yet in whatever way anyone is bold (I speak in foolishness), I am bold also.
22 Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the offspring of Abraham? So am I.
23 Are they servants of Christ? (I speak as one beside himself.) I am more so: in labors more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly, in stripes above measure, and in deaths often.
24 Five times I received forty stripes minus one from the Jews.
25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I suffered shipwreck. I have been a night and a day in the deep.
26 I have been in travels often, perils of rivers, perils of robbers, perils from my countrymen, perils from the Gentiles, perils in the city, perils in the wilderness, perils in the sea, perils among false brothers;
27 in labor and travail, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, and in cold and nakedness.
28 Besides those things that are outside, there is that which presses on me daily: anxiety for all the assemblies.
29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is caused to stumble, and I don’t burn with indignation?
30 If I must boast, I will boast of the things that concern my weakness.
31 The God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, he who is blessed forever more, knows that I don’t lie.
32 In Damascus the governor under King Aretas guarded the Damascenes’ city, desiring to arrest me.
33 I was let down in a basket through a window by the wall, and escaped his hands.
World English Bible Classic. Public domain.