“But I fear that somehow your pure and undivided devotion to Christ will be corrupted, just as Eve was deceived by the cunning ways of the serpent” (2 Corinthians 11:3 NLT).
It is one thing to question a leader’s ability to make good decisions but it is something else to use such questions as means of undermining that person’s position of authority. But as bad as that might be, the false apostles in Corinth were engaged in something worse- they were seeking to undermine Paul the Apostle with the intent of leading others into error. In fact, their actions were so injurious that Paul compared them to the act of deception that took place in the Garden of Eden.
Their tactic was reminiscent of the enemy’s strategy as recorded in Genesis chapter three: “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden… You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:1, 4-5), Unfortunately, the so-called “super-apostles” in Corinth were taking a deceptively similar approach with the members of the Corinthian fellowship.
Paul’s reference to the deception that occurred in the Garden of Eden is instructive in another way. Consider the effect of the serpent’s attempt to call God’s character, authority, and direction into question: “…the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom…” (Genesis 3:6).
While Eve was certainly aware of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil before her interaction with the serpent, his suggestion prompted her to consider the tree and it’s fruit from the wrong perspective. The problem is that once someone begins to think about doing wrong, it’s only a short step towards doing wrong as illustrated by Eve’s example.
So just as the deceiver led Eve away from the One who had her best interests in mind, the false teachers in Corinth were attempting to deceive the Corinthians by leading them away from Paul, the one who was directing them towards a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. If Paul’s authority could be called into question, then his teachings, his counsel, and the way he conducted himself could also be questioned as well.
These methods were traceable back to the act of deception that occurred in the Garden of Eden and Paul will go on to identify their source in no uncertain terms later within this chapter.