In addressing the challenges at Corinth, Paul faced the continuous conflict with false teachers. Paul’s final presentation to the Corinthian church was to try to persuade those who were being influenced and drawn away from a biblical understanding of Jesus and the gospel, and deals with the sensationalism of the false teachers regarding visions and revelations. Even today, people are wowed by people retelling sensational and spiritual experiences. This can be a means to dupe people away from truth. We know this was also true in the ancient world.
Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great, and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, ‘This man is rightly called the Great Power of God.’ They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his sorcery.[i]
In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul is answering criticisms leveled at him and his message from these false teachers. Their aim is to discredit him in the eyes of the Corinthians. Paul now speaks to the issue of visions and revelations. It is with reluctance that he relates his personal experience in this area of his life. This was so personal to Paul and was designed to possibly help him with the great challenges he would face in his ministry. One example is found in dealing with his fears regarding the price he had been paying in propagating the gospel. He had suffered many severe beatings and the temptation to be silent was very real.
One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: ‘Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.’ So Paul stayed in Corinth for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God.[ii]
Now years later, Paul who had not conveyed his visions and revelations when he came to Corinth and established a church there, feels the need to share one stunning example of a vision he had received earlier in his life. Kent Hughes explains Paul’s hesitancy to speak of these personal experiences.
Paul’s use of the third person signals his discomfort and embarrassment in indulging in ecstatic biography, which he deems of little profit. The very fact that Paul had told no one about his rapture to paradise shows that he considered private experiences like this as unimportant to his gospel ministry.[iii]
In the process of sharing this vision now in his second letter, Paul is about to explain the reason for the challenge he called his “thorn in his flesh” to keep him from becoming conceited. Paul discovered that there was value in an unchanging and painful element in his life, after he had asked God to deliver him from it. God responded that He would not because of the truth that Paul now conveyed to the church, that God’s grace is made perfect in human weakness. There are two powerful elements we learn from Paul’s experience that can bring us comfort in our own unchanging and painful life situations.
THE FIRST ELEMENT IS GOD’S SPECIAL WORK OF GRACE IN UNCHANGING AND PAINFUL LIFE SITUATIONS
God is not obligated to explain to us the why’s of life, but there are those moments when God reveals to us what He is doing in our lives when we have struggled. For those whom God choses to give a difficult and challenging assignment in life, He also provides special grace. In Paul’s case, that grace was a unique vision of heaven. So, if this happened on behalf of the apostle Paul, should we all anticipate such an experience?
What is the purpose of God giving certain people a vision or a revelation? Does it mean that if we have an experience like this, it makes us more spiritual? Or if we never have an experience like this, does it mean we are less spiritual? I believe Jesus answered that question for us, when the resurrected Jesus appeared to Thomas. Thomas was struggling with doubt. The others had all seen Jesus earlier, and he had not. He told them that he would not believe unless he could touch the wounded body that caused Jesus to die. John tells of this account in his gospel.
Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord!’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.’ A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you!’ Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.’ Thomas said to him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Then Jesus told him, ‘Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’[iv]
Jesus tells us that regardless of special spiritual experiences, we are blessed if we simply believe in Him. Here the apostle Paul reluctantly relates this amazing experience to the Corinthians to negate their response to the false teachers who are trying to lure them away from the real Jesus through their testimonies of esoteric experiences.
We need to remember that this is the first time the Corinthians are being told by Paul of his own powerful experience. The fact that Paul came to Corinth, preached the gospel, established the church and had never mentioned this before gives us an idea of the unimportance this had for the life of this congregation, though for Paul it was a great encouragement. We sense the reluctance on Paul’s part to even mention this experience, because he now speaks of it in the third person.
I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows.[v]
Biblical scholars try and determine when this happened in Paul’s life. If 2 Corinthians was written around 55/56 AD, then this would have occurred early in Paul’s life as a believer, somewhere between 41/42 AD. Scott Hafemann and others agree that this probably happened when “Paul was most likely in or around Tarsus or Antioch, prior to his first missionary journey with Barnabas (Acts 9:29–30; 11:25–26; Gal. 1:21),”[vi]
Paul now explains that he didn’t understand the actual nature of the experience.
And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows—was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell.[vii]
Notice that this was something that happened to Paul, not that he had been seeking God for this kind of experience. He was seized or taken by God. He didn’t know if he was in his human body or not. It was a surreal experience, but he realized that he was in heaven hearing things that he could not relate to others.
Scott Hafemann explains that Paul’s reluctance in speaking of this experience reveals its lack of value in bringing the gospel to others.
In line with Paul’s commitment not to talk about such things, no known experience or event can be associated with this vision. The closest visions—that is, the call to Jerusalem (Gal. 2:2) and the call to his missionary journeys (Acts 13:1–3)—took place around A.D. 47. Moreover, these words from the Lord were public declarations of his apostolic call and itinerary, not private experiences of God’s presence. Indeed, the very fact that he had been quiet about his rapture into heaven for fourteen years demonstrates that he considered such private experiences unimportant for his ministry. In the almost two years that he had spent with the Corinthians, he apparently never mentioned it. In contrast, Paul repeatedly referred to his conversion experience as an essential part of his preaching (cf. 1 Cor. 9:1; 15:1–11; 2 Cor. 2:14–16; 3:4–6; 4:5–6).[viii]
Paul will not boast about these kinds of experiences as if they have special merit or give greater authority or credibility to a person’s leadership.
Although Paul would be completely justified in boasting in his amazing experience, he forgoes doing so and boasts in his weaknesses instead. By doing this Paul ensured that authority in the church would not be based on ecstatic experience but on the actions and words of its leaders. Paul forbids any assessment of himself and his ministry by standards other than his actions and words.[ix]
What Paul is about to reveal to the Corinthians is that these experiences, though personal do not create a special class of believers. What he is about to do is show that because of these experiences, God needed to keep him in check and so we are introduced to what Paul describes as a “thorn in his flesh.”
THE SECOND ELEMENT IS GOD’S PERSONAL WORD OF GRACE IN OUR UNCHANGING AND PAINFUL LIFE SITUATIONS
What does God want to say to us in the situations we feel trapped in? For many, there may not be any escape for a painful circumstance. We may have even begged God to deliver us. For as we shall see, that is exactly what the godly before us have done, and God’s answer is not always the one we may want to hear but need to hear. One of the things that God does in our lives so that others don’t focus on His gifts in us as if it were from us, is to allow something that humbles and keeps us trusting in Him. In one sense, this difficult and painful thing that we consider a curse is the thing that causes God’s grace and power to be manifest in us. If we carefully read through Scripture, we will find that all of God’s servants had troubles and challenges that caused them to press into God for strength, wisdom, and help.
If we were to study David’s life, he would go from one challenging situation to another. He had to deal with his brother’s jealousy, Saul’s insecurity, Joab’s brutality, and Absolom’s ambition, which caused David untold heartaches and hardships; but David reminds us that God delivered him from all of the challenges. His strength grew through the trials.
So, Paul reminds us through his own example that we ought to boast in the Lord, and only about the things we call our weaknesses or challenges that we need to overcome.
- God’s action in delivering Paul from the temptation to become conceited.
It was because of God’s amazing revelations to Paul that God also mitigated the temptation to boast or to become conceited which would have destroyed his life and ministry.
I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses. Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.[x]
Paul now reveals the purpose of God’s allowing the messenger of Satan to afflict him. He was tormented by this issue in his life. Whatever it was, it was humbling and caused Paul to depend on God. Don Carson takes this idea of how both God and Satan are involved in this situation simultaneously.
There is a general lesson of considerable importance here. Many people go through life trying to isolate this incident or that event as the exclusive work of Satan or the exclusive work of God. This almost always leads to doubtful interpretations of events, and may end up in the cultic view of guidance. Certainly this approach does not listen very carefully to what the Scriptures say on these matters.
Consider the death of Jesus Christ. Luke recognizes that the sequence of betrayal, arrest, torture, rigged courts, and crucifixion is the hour ‘when darkness reigns’ (Luke 22:53); he explicitly states that all this came about ‘with the help of wicked men’ (Acts 2:23) and as the result of an ugly conspiracy (4:27). Yet at the same time, all these events came about as a result of what God’s ‘power and will had decided beforehand should happen’ (v. 28). Thus there is a sense in which the death of Jesus was a work of great evil, and all responsible for it are culpable; but there is also a sense in which it was a work of God acting in love, the result of his redemptive purpose to establish a new humanity under a new covenant sealed with the blood of his Son. It is not that God came into the plan after the fact and turned it around for good. Far from it: the Bible insists it was God’s plan from the beginning, the very reason why he sent his Son in the first place. Yet God’s sovereignty in the matter does not in any way diminish the responsibility of all those connected with Jesus’ death.[xi]
What Carson is explaining is that God is in control and in His foreknowledge accomplishes His purposes even though He has given us a will to choose good or evil, and despite evil choices by people, God works out His will. In other words, what people influenced by demonic forces mean for evil, God can use for good and accomplish His saving acts. This is certainly the lesson we learn from Joseph in the book of Genesis, when betrayed by his brothers and later falsely accused by Potipher’s wife, he rose from prison to prime minister of the nation to fulfill God’s purpose of saving a nation.
- Paul’s response to his “thorn in his flesh.”
Paul’s response to this initially was to cry out to God for deliverance.
Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. (2 Corinthians 12:8)
Like Jesus, in Gethsemane, pleading for the Father to remove this cup, Paul pleads for God to remove the thorn in his side. There has been so much speculation as to what Paul’s thorn in the flesh may have been. However, no one really knows for sure. Some would argue that the thorn in the flesh has to do with some physical struggle from malaria, eye issues, seizures, or depression. Others argue that it was the troublesome Jewish opposition that saw his message as heretical, like he had earlier in his life. Other considerations of what this “thorn in the flesh” could be is expressed by Linda Belleville.
An attractive option is to identify the skolops [NIV, KJV-thorn] with troublesome Jews. A troublesome person today is commonly referred to as a ‘pain in the neck.’ In antiquity such a person was called a ‘barb in the eye’ or a ‘thorn in the side’ (Num 33:55; Josh 23:13; Judg 2:3; Ezek 28:24). So Paul could be speaking metaphorically of the Jews who constantly dogged his steps and hindered his ministry (compare the mention of insults, hardships, persecutions and difficulties in v. 10). But how likely would it be for him to pray that his ministry be free of opposition? Then too, he was beset by opponents even before his ecstatic experience (Acts 9:23–30). A recurring physical ailment is a promising possibility. A ‘stake in the flesh’ was a common figure of speech in Paul’s day for excruciating physical pain.[xii]
The exact nature of this ‘thorn in the flesh’ has prompted much speculation. Paul does not go into any detail in describing it because the Corinthians apparently were well familiar with what he meant. Some of their number or his competitors may have made it the object of their derision.[xiii]
The fact that it remains unclear has caused many who have struggled with troubles both physically, mentally, emotionally, and relationally to find comfort from this text because of God’s response to Paul.
Don Carson reminds us that this thorn only came to him after his vision and revelation and it must have been significant.
What seems clear, however, is that Paul’s thorn in the flesh, whatever it was, came to him after his ‘surpassingly great revelations,’ and in consequence of them. In other words, it was not a birth defect or an impediment of character that had afflicted him long before the time he enjoyed being caught up to the third heaven. It is equally clear that this thorn was something substantial, not some minor irritation. An apostle who could willingly put up with the sufferings and deprivations listed in 1 Corinthians 11 would not beseech the Lord so strenuously and repeatedly for the removal of some minor problem that could easily be borne. Paul’s thorn was something very painful or extraordinarily embarrassing, and perhaps both.[xiv]
- God’s response to Paul’s prayer.
But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.[xv]
We come to the strength of Paul’s argument against the faulty thinking of the false teachers. They were speaking against Paul’s weakness, but in the process were negating the grace of God. Paul’s argument is that God’s grace is most revealed through human weakness. Don Carson states this principle so beautifully.
God’s strength is made perfect in weakness: it reaches its fullest measure and most powerful forms when issued in response to weakness. The greater the Christian’s weakness, the greater the grace poured out. If this is true, then the self-proclaimed strengths of the false apostles mean they are devoid of grace! All the impressive credentials of these ecclesiastics turn out to signify bankruptcy in grace. Grace responds to need, acknowledged weakness, spiritual destitution. The kingdom of heaven goes to the poor in spirit (Matt. 5:3).[xvi]
What is Paul teaching us here? It is the very thing he learned in weakness, suffering, and difficulty. In the hour of rejection, Paul now states that he can glory in weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, and difficulties. Why does Paul glory in his weakness? Because he realizes that in those conditions, we are more than conquerors as he writes in Romans 8. He sees the picture of Christ’s sufferings all too clearly.
This was also the pattern supremely manifest by Christ Jesus our Lord. The cross itself, that fearful, Roman sign of ignominy, defeat, judgment, and death was precisely the means by which Jesus triumphed over all his foes. God’s strength was supremely manifest in Jesus’ weakness. Why then should Jesus’ disciples choose to disparage his example by siding with triumphalist?[xvii]
What unchanging and painful situation are you struggling with? Let us remind ourselves that God’s grace is sufficient because God’s power is made perfect [complete] in our weakness. Our strength is not in ourselves but rather it is found in Christ. May we continuously seek Christ in order to deal with the trials and challenges that face our path. They are often the vehicles that develop our faith. C. S. Lewis, in a letter to someone who was going through distress responds:
For it is a dreadful truth that the state of (as you say) ‘having to depend solely on God’ is what we all dread most. And of course that just shows how very much, how almost exclusively, we have been depending on things. But trouble goes so far back in our lives and is now so deeply ingrained, we will not turn to Him as long as He leaves us anything else to turn to. I suppose all one can say is that it was bound to come. In the hour of death and the day of judgment, what else shall we have? Perhaps when those moments come, they will feel happiest who have been forced (however unwittingly) to begin practicing it here on earth. It is good of Him to force us; but dear me, how hard to feel that it is good at the time.[xviii]
Lewis is explaining that the things we struggle with the most and cause us to call out to God now are the very things one day we will be grateful for as it caused us to trust Him rather than ourselves or any other person or thing. What we consider a curse may be a disguised blessing. As Paul reminds us, God’s grace is made perfect in our weakness.
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[i] Acts 8:9-11, The New International Version of the Bible, Zondervan, 2011.
[ii] Acts 18:9-11.
[iii] Kent Hughes, 2 Corinthians: Power in Weakness, (Crossway Books, 2006), 210.
[iv] John 20:24-29.
[v] 2 Corinthians 12:1-2.
[vi] Scott Hafemann, 2 Corinthians, (Zondervan Publishing House, 2000), 458.
[vii] 2 Corinthians 12:3-4.
[viii] Scott Hafemann, 2 Corinthians, 458.
[ix] Kent Hughes, 2 Corinthians: Power in Weakness, 211.
[x] 2 Corinthians 12:5-7.
[xi] D. A. Carson, “A Model of Christian Maturity: An Exposition of 2 Corinthians 10-13. (Baker Books, 2007), 151.
[xii] Linda Belleville, 2 Corinthians, TheIVP New Testament Commentary Series, Vol. 8, (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996), 2 Cor. 12:7-10.
[xiii] David Garland, 2 Corinthians, The New American Commentary, Vol. 29, (Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999), 519.
[xiv] D. A. Carson, “A Model of Christian Maturity: An Exposition of 2 Corinthians 10-13. 150.
[xv] 2 Corinthians 12:9-10.
[xvi] D. A. Carson, “A Model of Christian Maturity: An Exposition of 2 Corinthians 10-13, 154.
[xvii] Ibid, 155.
[xviii] C. S. Lewis, Letters to an American Lady, Dec. 16, 1955, 45 as quoted by Wayne Martindale & Jerry Root, ed. The Quotable Lewis, (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1990), 156.
