Satan was seeking to outfox them. The Corinthians thought they were reacting righteously to the sinner, but like the Nazi’s, they were being seduced by clever disinformation. Paul basically says: In reality, the enemy is staging an invasion.

On April 30th, 1943, the corpse of Major William Martin washed up on a beach in Spain. When the body was examined, the Nazi authorities discovered not only the typical wallet litter (license, receipts, bills, pictures, etc.) but a letter from a General to the now-deceased Major Martin alluding, with subtle undertones, to an Allied invasion of Greece. The Nazis, justifiably suspicious of being punked, launched an extensive investigation, employing pathologists and document specialists, seeking to authenticate the body and the letter.

While this research unfolded, the Allied forces did something truly remarkable; something that appeared to validate the intelligence in the letter. They began troop movements, seemingly staging for an invasion of Greece.

For the Nazi authorities, this confirmed the veracity of Major Martin’s letter.

Now convinced that the Allies planned an invasion, they redistributed their forces to fortify the Balkan peninsula, pulling troops away from Sicily…just as the Allies had hoped.

The whole thing was a ruse.

The Nazi army had been duped, the unwitting victims of an elaborate web of disinformation known as “Operation Mincemeat.” The military build-up near Greece had been a tactical ploy, complete with fake troops and inflatable plastic tanks. “Major Martin” was a real corpse, but the letter and identity were all fake, planted on the body as a diversion. And how did the Allies fool the Nazi experts? Well, they created a backstory for “Major Martin” that was so thorough and complete that it included running his obituary in a London newspaper.

The Allied invasion site was actually Sicily, five hundred miles away from Greece and the very place the Germans had withdrawn their troops to fortify Greece. This seduction of the Nazi’s away from Sicily to Greece has been called “the most spectacular single episode in the history of deception.”

By staging for Greece but landing in Sicily, the Allies pulled off an amazing head fake, completely outwitting the enemy.

Flagging the Deception in Corinth

When Paul wrote Second Corinthians, he was under attack by one of the leaders in the Corinthian church. To respond to this attacker, Paul already wrote what he calls a ‘sorrowful’ letter (2 Cor. 7:8) – most likely written between First and Second Corinthians – to rebuke the Corinthian church and call them to action.

The Corinthians read the ‘sorrowful’ letter, and they were smitten. It moved them to action. They disciplined the leader, and then they notified Paul. By God’s grace, the man experienced deep sorrow that led to repentance.

One would think this is the end of the story. The church responds to Paul’s letter by implementing church discipline and the sinner repented. But that’s not what happened. This wasn’t a textbook restoration, as if such a thing exists. In reality, the Corinthians church had a difficult time forgiving this man. They wanted to hold him hostage to his sin. They withheld their love and wanted him to pay.

Paul saw something else at work; a deeper spiritual reality. The Corinthians were at risk of succumbing to a spectacular scheme.

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