2 Corinthians 11:15

NET Bible® (New English Translation)

Therefore it is not surprising his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will correspond to their actions.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

Οὐ μέγα οὖν εἰ καὶ οἱ διάκονοι αὐτοῦ μετασχηματίζονται ὡς διάκονοι δικαιοσύνης· ὧν τὸ τέλος ἔσται κατὰ τὰ ἔργα αὐτῶν.

Transliteration

Not mega therefore if also the diakonoi of him metaschēmatizontai as diakonoi dikaiosynēs; of whom the telos estai kata the erga of them.

Grammar Details

• *mega*: nominative/accusative, neuter, singular - great/important thing
• *diakonoi*: nominative, masculine, plural - servants/ministers
• *metaschēmatizontai*: present middle/passive indicative, 3rd plural - transform/disguise themselves
• *dikaiosynēs*: genitive, feminine, singular - of righteousness
• *telos*: nominative, neuter, singular - end/outcome
• *estai*: future middle indicative, 3rd singular - will be
• *kata*: preposition + accusative - according to
• *erga*: accusative, neuter, plural - works/deeds

Word Meanings

• *mega*: great thing/important matter/surprising
• *diakonoi*: servants/ministers/attendants
• *metaschēmatizontai*: transform/disguise themselves/masquerade
• *dikaiosynēs*: righteousness/justice/uprightness
• *telos*: end/outcome/conclusion/destiny
• *erga*: works/deeds/actions

Referenced Verses

• Phil 3:19 : 19 Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, they exult in their shame, and they think about earthly things.
• 2 Cor 3:9 : 9 For if there was glory in the ministry that produced condemnation, how much more does the ministry that produces righteousness excel in glory!
• Jer 23:14-15 : 14 But I see the prophets of Jerusalem doing something just as shocking. They are unfaithful to me and continually prophesy lies. So they give encouragement to people who are doing evil, with the result that they do not stop their evildoing. I consider all of them as bad as the people of Sodom, and the citizens of Jerusalem as bad as the people of Gomorrah. 15 So then I, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, have something to say concerning the prophets of Jerusalem:‘I will make these prophets eat the bitter food of suffering and drink the poison water of judgment. For the prophets of Jerusalem are the reason that ungodliness has spread throughout the land.’”
• Jude 1:4 : 4 For certain men have secretly slipped in among you– men who long ago were marked out for the condemnation I am about to describe– ungodly men who have turned the grace of our God into a license for evil and who deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
• Jude 1:10-13 : 10 But these men do not understand the things they slander, and they are being destroyed by the very things that, like irrational animals, they instinctively comprehend. 11 Woe to them! For they have traveled down Cain’s path, and because of greed have abandoned themselves to Balaam’s error; hence, they will certainly perish in Korah’s rebellion. 12 These men are dangerous reefs at your love feasts, feasting without reverence, feeding only themselves. They are waterless clouds, carried along by the winds; autumn trees without fruit– twice dead, uprooted; 13 wild sea waves, spewing out the foam of their shame; wayward stars for whom the utter depths of eternal darkness have been reserved.
• Rev 9:11 : 11 They have as king over them the angel of the abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon.
• Rev 13:2 : 2 Now the beast that I saw was like a leopard, but its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. The dragon gave the beast his power, his throne, and great authority to rule.
• Rev 13:14 : 14 and, by the signs he was permitted to perform on behalf of the beast, he deceived those who live on the earth. He told those who live on the earth to make an image to the beast who had been wounded by the sword, but still lived.
• Rev 19:19-21 : 19 Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies assembled to do battle with the one who rode the horse and with his army. 20 Now the beast was seized, and along with him the false prophet who had performed the signs on his behalf– signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. Both of them were thrown alive into the lake of fire burning with sulfur. 21 The others were killed by the sword that extended from the mouth of the one who rode the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves with their flesh.
• Rev 20:2-3 : 2 He seized the dragon– the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan– and tied him up for a thousand years. 3 The angel then threw him into the abyss and locked and sealed it so that he could not deceive the nations until the one thousand years were finished.(After these things he must be released for a brief period of time.)
• Rev 20:7-9 : 7 Satan’s Final Defeat Now when the thousand years are finished, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will go out to deceive the nations at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to bring them together for the battle. They are as numerous as the grains of sand in the sea. 9 They went up on the broad plain of the earth and encircled the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and devoured them completely. 10 And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet are too, and they will be tormented there day and night forever and ever.
• 2 Kgs 5:13 : 13 His servants approached and said to him,“O master, if the prophet had told you to do some difficult task, you would have been willing to do it. It seems you should be happy that he simply said,“Wash and you will be healed.”
• Isa 9:14-15 : 14 So the LORD cut off Israel’s head and tail, both the shoots and stalk in one day. 15 The leaders and the highly respected people are the head, the prophets who teach lies are the tail.
• Jer 5:31 : 31 The prophets prophesy lies. The priests exercise power by their own authority. And my people love to have it this way. But they will not be able to help you when the time of judgment comes!
• Jer 28:15-17 : 15 Then the prophet Jeremiah told the prophet Hananiah,“Listen, Hananiah! The LORD did not send you! You are making these people trust in a lie! 16 So the LORD says,‘I will most assuredly remove you from the face of the earth. You will die this very year because you have counseled rebellion against the LORD.’” 17 In the seventh month of that very same year the prophet Hananiah died.
• Jer 29:32 : 32 Because he has done this,” the LORD says,“I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his whole family. There will not be any of them left to experience the good things that I will do for my people. I, the LORD, affirm it! For he counseled rebellion against the LORD.”’”
• Ezek 13:10-15 : 10 “‘This is because they have led my people astray saying,“All is well,” when things are not well. When anyone builds a wall without mortar, they coat it with whitewash. 11 Tell the ones who coat it with whitewash that it will fall. When there is a deluge of rain, hailstones will fall and a violent wind will break out. 12 When the wall has collapsed, people will ask you,“Where is the whitewash you coated it with?” 13 “‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: In my rage I will make a violent wind break out. In my anger there will be a deluge of rain and hailstones in destructive fury. 14 I will break down the wall you coated with whitewash and knock it to the ground so that its foundation is exposed. When it falls you will be destroyed beneath it, and you will know that I am the LORD. 15 I will vent my rage against the wall, and against those who coated it with whitewash. Then I will say to you,“The wall is no more and those who whitewashed it are no more–
• Ezek 13:22 : 22 This is because you have disheartened the righteous person with lies(although I have not grieved him), and because you have encouraged the wicked person not to turn from his evil conduct and preserve his life.
• Matt 7:15-16 : 15 A Tree and Its Fruit“Watch out for false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are voracious wolves. 16 You will recognize them by their fruit. Grapes are not gathered from thorns or figs from thistles, are they?
• Acts 13:10 : 10 and said,“You who are full of all deceit and all wrongdoing, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness– will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord?
• 1 Cor 9:11 : 11 If we sowed spiritual blessings among you, is it too much to reap material things from you?
• 2 Cor 11:13 : 13 For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.
• 2 Cor 11:23 : 23 Are they servants of Christ?(I am talking like I am out of my mind!) I am even more so: with much greater labors, with far more imprisonments, with more severe beatings, facing death many times.
• Gal 1:8-9 : 8 But even if we(or an angel from heaven) should preach a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be condemned to hell! 9 As we have said before, and now I say again, if any one is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let him be condemned to hell!
• Eph 6:12 : 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens.
• 2 Thess 2:8-9 : 8 and then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will destroy by the breath of his mouth and wipe out by the manifestation of his arrival. 9 The arrival of the lawless one will be by Satan’s working with all kinds of miracles and signs and false wonders, 10 and with every kind of evil deception directed against those who are perishing, because they found no place in their hearts for the truth so as to be saved. 11 Consequently God sends on them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false. 12 And so all of them who have not believed the truth but have delighted in evil will be condemned.
• 2 Pet 2:3 : 3 And in their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words. Their condemnation pronounced long ago is not sitting idly by; their destruction is not asleep.
• 2 Pet 2:13-22 : 13 suffering harm as the wages for their harmful ways. By considering it a pleasure to carouse in broad daylight, they are stains and blemishes, indulging in their deceitful pleasures when they feast together with you. 14 Their eyes, full of adultery, never stop sinning; they entice unstable people. They have trained their hearts for greed, these cursed children! 15 By forsaking the right path they have gone astray, because they followed the way of Balaam son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness, 16 yet was rebuked for his own transgression(a dumb donkey, speaking with a human voice, restrained the prophet’s madness). 17 These men are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm, for whom the utter depths of darkness have been reserved. 18 For by speaking high-sounding but empty words they are able to entice, with fleshly desires and with debauchery, people who have just escaped from those who reside in error. 19 Although these false teachers promise such people freedom, they themselves are enslaved to immorality. For whatever a person succumbs to, to that he is enslaved. 20 For if after they have escaped the filthy things of the world through the rich knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they again get entangled in them and succumb to them, their last state has become worse for them than their first. 21 For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than, having known it, to turn back from the holy commandment that had been delivered to them. 22 They are illustrations of this true proverb:“A dog returns to its own vomit,” and“A sow, after washing herself, wallows in the mire.”