The One and Only

Wesley Wright

Lighthouse Bible Church

Sunday, July 26, 2026

 

2 Corinthians 10:7-11

Title: The One and Only

 

What we’ll hear today:

Who is an apostle?

What does edification have to do with the apostleship?

How should we judge rightly?

 

Remember how we discussed the knowledge of God and the obedience of Christ last week? Remember how we discussed how unbelievers sought to undermine the work of Paul?

 

Paul makes a simple appeal in

2Co 10:7 — for anyone who belongs to Christ, they should also determine that Paul belongs to Christ.

 

Why does Paul make this point? He’s up against readers’ knowledge of false apostles and sought to distinguish himself from them. You should make the same distinction.

 

Consider the qualifications of an apostle as the Bible puts them. They were contemporaries of Christ: Mat 10:1-6, Luk 9:1-5

 

Paul was an apostle, but there were others who claimed to be apostles and were not:

2Co 11:12-15

 

The word apostolos means one who is sent. There are no apostles today, except one, our true Apostle: Heb 3:1-6

 

All of the false apostles point to themselves. Paul and the others pointed to Christ, and Christ belongs to God. Don’t boast in men: 1Co 3:18-23

 

Now that we’ve established the parameters of the apostleship, Paul also refers to certain authority that he and the other apostles had in

2Co 10:8-9.

 

The authority that the apostles have, Paul says, is for edification or building up. False apostles, by comparison, seek to destroy and cause schisms and other conflicts.

 

Remember that the true apostles existed more generally to equip saints for service and the building up (!) or edification of the body of Christ: Eph 4:10-12

 

Jesus Christ made it clear what the fate of apostles would be, and it ways in some ways a frightful one: Luk 11:42-53

 

2Co 10:9-11 refers to the idea that Paul wrote powerfully, but was comparatively docile in person. That took his meekness, again, as weakness.

 

Remember this same concept came up at the beginning of this chapter and elsewhere:

2Co 10:1-2

 

Remember that Jesus Christ was a gentle, humble man: Mat 11:25-30

 

In short, Paul restrained himself for their sake, but they mistook his actions for timidness and weakness. Don’t judge simply according to outward appearance.

 

Judge instead according to righteous judgement:

Joh 7:16-29, Joh 8:12-18

 

 

Paul, a apostle of Jesus Christ, pointed people to Christ, the Apostle of our faith. There no other ones today — beware of false apostles. Know their motives, then mark and avoid them.

 

Paul and the others had a great deal of authority, but they restrained themselves. The detractors judged wrongly — when you judge, judge rightly but not simply according to outward appearance.

 

Next week, we’ll address why judging rightly is important in this context. There’s a substantial between these men and those who commend themselves. They boasted, and you can boast too, but there’s a caveat.