HOW TO IDENTIFY AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP

Text - 2 Corinthians 11:7-15

Introduction


This morning I would like us to continue our study from the book of Second Corinthians and see how Paul had to defend himself against the false teachers who were trying to deceive the church in Corinth in 2 Corinthians 11:7-15.

One of the important rules for understanding and interpreting the Bible is to take yourself back to the time it was written and put yourself in the place of those who are involved.

In order to fully appreciate our text today we need to understand the kind of person the Apostle Paul was and the cultural background of the Corinthians.

The city of Corinth was a very wealthy international seaport that was heavily influenced by the Greek or Hellenistic culture.

Because of its wealth the citizens did very little work and despised anyone who would lower themselves to do physical labor.

Corinth was also a city that was greatly influenced by the many different people that came to it from other nations and thus was an ideal seed bed for sin.

It was also an ideal place for unscrupulous money-hungry religious fakes to take advantage of the church in Corinth.

Once during a presidential debate between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas, who was called the “little giant” because he was only five feet tall but seemed much bigger because of his speaking skills, Lincoln was accused of deceiving the people and being two faced.  Without any hesitation Abraham Lincoln looked Into the audience and calmly replied, “I’ll leave it up to you... If I had two faces, would I be wearing this one?”

As we examine our text there are three questions we need to ask when trying to determine if leadership is authentic or artificial.