Chaste Virgins - 2 Corinthians 11:1-2

11:1-2 - After responding to personal attacks about his physical appearance, Paul acknowledges that he is not perfect and hopes the Corinthian saints “could bear with me a little in my folly.” None of us are perfect and having to defend yourself against attacks on your physical appearance is pretty brutal, especially considering Paul’s teachings were spiritual in nature, not physical. Verse 2 was pretty difficult for me to understand because after asking the people to “bear with me,” he says, “for I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.” There are a lot of words in here that threw me, the first being “jealous.” We know that when God uses the word “jealous” such as “I am a jealous God,” it means that he is heavily invested in the welfare of the people. So maybe Paul is saying here, “please don’t judge me too harshly because despite my imperfections, I am very invested in your success.” The second part of verse 2 that made me do a double take was that Paul had “espoused” the Corinthians “to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.” This brings a sexual aspect to our relationship with Jesus and I think that’s why it’s so difficult for me to be ok with this verse. Luckily for me, the article on this chapter from gospeldoctrine.com helps me understand just what Paul’s purpose was using these words. It says, “the doctrine of the Bridegroom is that Christ is to be married to the church. Hence, the members of the church should be worthy of such a perfect partner. Paul makes reference to his doctrine, placing himself in the position of the father of the bride. In a way, it is an arranged marriage, wherein Paul has arranged the engagement of the Corinthians to Christ. His goal is to purify them in preparation for their perfect union with the Bridegroom.” The concept of being a “chaste, virgin” people is interesting, especially when we consider that the Corinthians had to be rebuked in the last letter because they were straying from the gospel. Virginity is one of those things where once it’s gone, it’s gone, you can’t get it back. So I would imagine that when the people in Corinth were rebuked, they could be considered as non-virgins. But if Paul is saying that he wants to present them as “chaste virgins” to Christ, then I think he’s referencing a turning back to a prior condition, which in physicality, can’t happen. Most of the Corinthian saints were probably converts, so they had lived a life of sin before being converted. Plus we know that they were pushing back against the gospel teachings just a few months previously, so they were tarnished as far as being righteous goes. But I think that Paul’s saying that unlike physical virginity, through repentance the people could be made clean again, to the point that they could consider themselves “chaste, virgins,” even though that couldn’t happen in real life. It seems like the moral of these verses is through Christ’s atonement, we can be reverted to our former, innocent self spiritually, even if it would be impossible to do physically.