The Right Jesus

Thanks for joining us for today's encouragement from the Our Daily Bread devotional. Our reading, titled The Right Jesus, was written by Jennifer Benson Shoult. The buzz in the room faded to a comfortable silence as the book club leader summarized the novel the group would discuss. My friend Joan listened closely but didn't recognize the plot. Finally, she realized she had read a nonfiction book with a similar title to the work of fiction the others had read.

Although she enjoyed reading the wrong book, she couldn't join her friends as they discussed the right book. The apostle Paul didn't want the Corinthian believers in Jesus to believe in a wrong Jesus. He pointed out that false teachers had infiltrated the church and presented a different Jesus to them, and they had swallowed the lies.

Paul denounced the heresy of these phony teachers. In his first letter to the church, however, he'd reviewed the truth about the Jesus of Scripture. This Jesus was the Messiah who died for our sins, was raised on the third day, and then appeared to the Twelve, and finally to Paul himself. This Jesus had come to earth through a virgin named Mary and was named Emmanuel, God with us, to affirm his divine nature. Does this sound like the Jesus you know?

Understanding and accepting the truth written in the Bible about him assures us that we're on the spiritual path that leads to heaven. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from 2 Corinthians chapter 11 verses 1 through 4 and 12 through 15. I hope you will put up with me in a little foolishness.

Yes, please put up with me. I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough. And now picking up at verse 12.

And I will keep on doing what I'm doing in order to cut the ground from under those who want an opportunity to be considered equal with us and the things they boast about. For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.

It is not surprising then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness, their end will be what their actions deserve. Let's pray. Dear God, with so many voices in the world declaring different messages about you, help us to walk in the light of your truth as we read the scriptures and listen to your spirit speak and teach us. Thank you, Lord. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening today. My name is Alisha Reisinger and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.