INTRODUCTION

The previous section of this letter ended with Paul being lowered from a city wall in a basket, a humiliating departure. In this next section Paul describes being carried up into the highest heaven, providing a stark contrast indeed. This boast was necessary because apparently the false apostles were trumpeting some of their ecstatic experiences, and this required a response.

THE TEXT

“It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. Of such an one will I glory: yet of myself I will not glory, but in mine infirmities. For though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool; for I will say the truth: but now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me. And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong” (2 Corinthians 12:1–10).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

All this boasting is no good, so here’s a little more of it (v. 1). Let us talk about visions and revelations. This is embarrassing, so Paul shifts to the third person (although he comes back to the first person in v. 7). He knew a man who fourteen years before was caught up into the third heaven (v. 2), but he was not sure if it was in the body or not. Fourteen years prior would have been around A.D. 42, prior to the first missionary journey. Only God knows if it was in the body or not (v. 3). This man in paradise heard things there that would not be lawful for him to repeat (v. 4). I will boast of third-person me, but if it comes to first-person me, the only thing I can brag about are my infirmities (v. 5). Even if Paul wanted to boast, which he doesn’t, he will not go too far into that folly. He is going to lay off, in case anyone thinks more highly of Paul than what they can see or hear (v. 6). The vision of paradise was so exalted that God gave him a thorn in the flesh to keep him centered and steady (v. 7). Paul sought the Lord three times for that thorn’s removal (v. 8)—as the Lord Himself had done in Gethsemane. God, in His severe mercy, said no. The reason was that God’s grace is perfected in weakness (v. 9). Our infirmities are the kiln in which God solidifies the final gloss. In submission to this decision, Paul says that he will gladly glory in his infirmities, so that the power of Christ might rest upon him (v. 9). He says it another way. He takes pleasure in . . . in what? Infirmities, reproaches, necessities, persecutions, and distresses—these are all leaves in his laurel crown. All this is for Christ’s sake—because when he is weak, in that moment he is strong (v. 10).

DIFFERENT HEAVENS

This reference to paradise here is one of three references in the New Testament. In Revelation 2:7, it is the location of the tree of life. In Luke 23:43, Christ tells the thief on the cross that they will be together that day in paradise. And in this place, Paul equates paradise with the third heaven (vv. 2, 4).

But Jesus also said that He was going to spend three days and three nights in the heart of the earth (Matt. 12:40), which would make paradise subterranean, like Abraham’s bosom (Luke 16:22). So I take the Lord’s resurrection and ascension as the time when He transferred paradise up to the heavenly realms (Matt. 27:52; Eph. 4:8-10).

THAT MYSTERY THORN

Calvin once said that the apostle Paul had “troubles hard enough to break a thousand hearts.” This exalted experience had happened before a lot of those troubles had occurred, and it was such an ecstatic event that God gave Paul a thorn in the flesh to keep him from getting exalted “above measure.” Always keep one eye on the false apostles. If Paul needed a great trial to keep him from getting conceited, what could be done for those false brothers who were already conceited?

We cannot say for sure what that thorn was. My supposition is that it was failing eyesight, which would have been a great grief to a scholar like Paul—to whom certain manuscripts were precious (2 Tim. 4:13). Paul says that the Galatians had loved him so much they would have donated their eyes to him (Gal. 4:15). He signed that letter in large letters (Gal. 6:11). When he was on trial in the Sanhedrin, he could not see or identify the high priest (Acts 23:5).

WATER TO WINE, WEAKNESS TO STRENGTH

Power in weakness is one of Paul’s great themes in his instruction of the Corinthian church. They had despaired of life itself one time (2 Cor. 1:8-9). We have our treasure in jars of clay, Paul had said earlier, in reference to a hornet’s nest of troubles. Death was at work in him, but life in the Corinthians (2 Cor. 4:7-12). Then there was that long litany of abuse earlier (2 Cor. 6:4-10), and we have not forgotten what we just learned in the previous chapter (2 Cor. 11:23-33).

And what is Paul’s response to his request to have the thorn removed? If it was his eyesight, he was asking to be able to see his troubles better. When God said no, after the third request, Paul says several remarkable things. He says that he boasts in his infirmities, and that he does so gladly (v. 9). Doing this is so that the power of Christ might rest upon him. This is not just admirable stoicism. He is pursuing glory. Whatever else this infirmity can do, it bears the weight of the power of Christ. And this is why Paul takes pleasure in his troubles—not out of masochism, but rather as someone who knew how to read the story he was in.

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INTRODUCTION

Paul asks us to excuse him while he speaks as a fool, but he does not consistently get into that character. He keeps breaking voice to remind us that he is being sarcastic—because he really doesn’t want us to think that he is actually taking any glory for himself. There are parallel lines of boasting here. In the first instance, he indicates that he fully able to meet the false apostles on their own ground. But secondly, he itemizes all the ways in which he trounces them with accomplishments that they never aspired to at all—to their shame. “As many as desire to make a fair shew in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ” (Galatians 6:12).

THE TEXT

“I say again, Let no man think me a fool; if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little. That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting. Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also. For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise. For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face . . . If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not. In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king kept the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me: And through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall, and escaped his hands” (2 Corinthians 11:16–33).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

No one should take Paul for a fool, but he begs leave to act like one for a minute (v. 16). He is not following the explicit example of Christ, but rather as an artificial boast (v. 17). Since everybody around here is plumping their resume, Paul has decided to do the same (v. 18). Since the Corinthians tolerate fools so readily, perhaps this will get them to tolerate Paul (v. 19). If a teacher abuses them, the Corinthians eat it up. Maybe Paul should slap them in the face to win their affections (v. 20). Paul is embarrassed that he was too weak an apostle to treat them like that (v. 21). But where they are bold enough to brag, Paul can keep pace with them (v. 21). In all their checklist shine, Paul is their equal (v. 22). But then Paul gets onto his alternative resume, listing the things they would never think to put on theirs (v. 23). Paul gotten beaten, jailed, and threatened many more times than they have (v. 23). He then decides to itemize. He was flogged by the Jews, 195 strokes (v. 24), three times beaten with rods (v. 25), stoned once, three shipwrecks, and adrift at sea once (v. 25). He was always on the road, and endangered by water, robbers, Jews, Gentiles, in the city, in the country, at sea, and among false brothers (v. 26). Then came the afflictions that were the result of his own vigilance—his watch-care, fasting, and going without normal comforts (v. 27). On top of everything else, Paul had the constant pastoral anxiety of how his children in Christ were doing (vv. 28-29). Being a pastor means watching people make bad choices for a living. So if Paul is forced into a boasting glory, he is going to do it with regard to all his scars and frailties (v. 30). Paul may have experienced them as infirmities, but for us, we should regard him as one of the toughest men who ever lived. Paul then takes a solemn oath as he signs the bottom of his resume (v. 31)—God is witness.  And then he says, P.S. I almost forgot the time that the ethnarch at Damascus had a garrison hunting for Paul (v. 32). But Paul successfully evaded arrest as he was lowered from the city wall in a basket (v. 33). For the sake of convenience, we will call this his Romans 13 basket.

SURFACE VIRTUES AND ACTUAL VIRTUES

When Paul says that he can stay with the false apostles on their own ground, step-for-step, he is talking about things that nobody should ever be proud of. “For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?” (1 Corinthians 4:7). Paul was a Hebrew too. He was an Israelite also. He was a son of Abraham. This was like being proud of having two kidneys and ten toes.

When it came to Paul’s endurance for the gospel, boasting in that kind of thing at least makes some kind of sense on the surface because it involved choices he continuously would make. But even here, there is no room for boasting. “For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!” (1 Corinthians 9:16). Paul is in the same bind that Jeremiah was. Whenever he spoke in the name of the Lord, abuse was heaped on him. So he would resolve to shut up. But when he did that, God’s Word was a burning fire in his bones (Jer. 20:9). Not possibleto shut up.

And this is why Paul would regularly ask his people to pray for his deliverance and/or boldness, that he would maintain his courage when it came to preaching the gospel (Rom. 15:30-32; 2 Cor. 1:10-11; Eph. 6:18-20; Phil. 1:19; Col. 4:2-4; 1 Thess. 5:25; 2 Thess. 3:1-2). Paul was not overcoming stage fright, or wrestling with his butterflies. He was wrestling with principalities and powers.

A BASIC REMINDER

A few times in this litany of affliction, Paul mentions dangers from the side, as it were—shipwreck, or from robbers. Robbers are actual bad guys. But the overwhelming number of strokes applied to the back of the man who wrote Romans 13 were applied to him by the established and respected authorities. Paul was not, shall we say, on their good side. When it came to dealing with him, the authorities found him angular. What was it to be lowered in a basket from the city walls, when the governor there had search parties out looking for you, and had check points at the gates to keep you from leaving? It is called evading arrest. It is called running a road block. It is called not turning yourself in at the police station. And it is also called fully consistent with Romans 13.

We are Christians, and this means that we confess that Christ is Lord. This confession entails the corollary that Caesar is not Lord. Caesar is to be respected and honored as Caesar, but never as Lord. Sooner die than confess him as Lord. Christ is the one who rose from the dead, and so all eyes turn to Him. Christ is the risen Lord.

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INTRODUCTION

The situation needed to be pretty dire in order to get Paul to talk about himself in a boastful way (even if the boasting was sarcastic), and we see in this passage just how dire it was. The Corinthians had been infiltrated by emissaries of Satan, the Lord of Lies himself, and some of the believers there were still under the influence of those lies.

THE TEXT

“Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly: and indeed bear with me. 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. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ . . . As the truth of Christ is in me, no man shall stop me of this boasting in the regions of Achaia. Wherefore? because I love you not? God knoweth. But what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from them which desire occasion; that wherein they glory, they may be found even as we. For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works” (2 Cor. 11:1–15).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

So Paul is going to boast, knowing it to be folly, and he wants them to bear with him in it (v. 1). The reason it is justified is because of Paul’s godly jealousy over their spiritual chastity (v. 2)—he wants them to be kept pure for Christ. His concern is that as the serpent beguiled Eve through nuance, they too may have been corrupted and turned away from the simplicity found in Christ (v. 3). He then moves into sarcasm. If someone shows up with a different Jesus, or a different Spirit, or a different gospel, they put up with it readily enough (v. 4). Paul does not believe himself to be inferior to any of these (false) but important apostles (v. 5). Though he was unpolished in speech, his knowledge was fine—as the Corinthians well knew (v. 6). Did Paul wreck his testimony by charging them no money (v. 7)? Other churches supported him to minister at Corinth (v. 8). Was that the problem? And when he was present there in Achaia, the Macedonians supported him (v. 9). He swears by the truth of Christ, nobody is going to be able to stop this boast of his in Achaia (v. 10). Is this because he doesn’t love the Corinthians? God knows the answer to that (v. 11). Paul will continue to do this in order to undercut the boast of the false apostles that they work on the same terms as Paul. They don’t (v. 12). These men are false apostles, deceitful laborers, dressing up as apostles of Christ (v. 13). This is no wonder because Satan himself appears as an angel of light (v. v. 14). Consequently, it is no big deal when Satan’s ministers wear the livery of ministers of righteousness (v. 15). But their end will be according to their actual works, not their pretended works (v. 15).

THE MISLEADING CARICATURES

The devil should not be thought of by us as having horns and a pitchfork. We wrestle against the prince of the powers of the air, and not against a cartoon villain. When the Lord Jesus was tempted by the devil himself, one of the temptations occurred when the devil showed Him all the kingdoms of men and their glory (Matt. 4:8). Put another way, Jesus was tempted to become a Satan-worshiper—but not the kind that plays around with severed goat heads, pentagrams, candles and spells. The temptation had to do with cathedrals, and moon landings, and empires.

Paul says in this passage that Satan looks like the opposite of what he actually is. It therefore follows that his ministers look the same—shiny and bright on the outside, and inside filled with bones and rotting flesh. Nobody will knock on your front door with grotesque literature and say, “Hello. I am representing the prince of darkness and have come to lead you stray.” So we must beware the allure of self-righteous respectability. And beware of anything that removes the offense of the cross.

THE SUPPORT OF MINISTRIES

We are taught in multiple places of Scripture that a laborer is worthy of his hire, and men who make their vocation from the proclamation of the gospel have every right to expect to be supported from that work. But, as we learn here, they also have the right, for tactical and strategic reasons, for reasons of the testimony, to refuse to take any money from people they are currently ministering to. You can see the pattern here. Paul says that he was supported by the Macedonians in order to minister at Corinth (2 Cor. 11:9), and he would be more than happy to receive the support of the Corinthians when he began ministering in the regions beyond them (2 Cor. 10:15-16). This was not morally necessarily, but it was tactically necessary. And why? Because there were liars on the loose.

SIMPLICITY IN CHRIST

When it comes to faithfulness and loyalty, life is pretty straightforward. If we maintain the kind of godly jealousy that Paul exhibits here, we are enabled by the grace of God to keep it that way.

Paul compares Christians being lured away from the simplicity of Christ to the temptation that our first mother was enticed by. That temptation began with little shadings, a little blurring. The serpent asked, “Did God really say you couldn’t eat from any tree in the garden?” (Gen. 3:1) In her reply, Eve said that they weren’t even to touch it, which was her addition (Gen. 3:3). Then the serpent came up to his direct challenge. You will surely not die (Gen. 3:4). What begins with a small lie can end with a great fall.

What is the simplicity of Christ that we preach? The message is straightforward. We preach the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We declare who He was—the very Son of God—and we declare what He did—He took our sins upon himself, endured the wrath of God for them, and sank down into death. Three days later, He came back from the grave, having left all of our sins behind Him, remaining in death forever.

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