Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary 2 Corinthians 11:3

"But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve in his craftiness, your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity and the purity that is toward Christ." — 2 Corinthians 11:3 (ASV)

Prompting Paul’s jealousy for Corinthian fidelity was his fear, based on disturbing evidence (v.4), that their minds and affections might be corrupted so that they would lose their single-minded faithfulness to Christ. He recognized the false apostles as Satan’s agents (v.15), capable of repeating at Corinth what Satan had successfully achieved in the garden of Eden (Genesis 3:13; 1 Timothy 2:14). The danger was intellectual deception leading to apostasy.