2 Corinthians 12:1

Here we may observe,

I. The narrative the apostle gives of the favours God had shown him, and the honour he had done him; for doubtless he himself is the man in Christ of whom he speaks. Concerning this we may take notice, 1. Of the honour itself which was done to the apostle: he was caught up into the third heaven, Co2 12:2. When this was we cannot say, whether it was during those three days that he lay without sight at his conversion or at some other time afterwards, much less can we pretend to say how this was, whether by a separation of his soul from his body or by an extraordinary transport in the depth of contemplation. It would be presumption for us to determine, if not also to enquire into, this matter, seeing the apostle himself says, Whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell. It was certainly a very extraordinary honour done him: in some sense he was caught up into the third heaven, the heaven of the blessed, above the aerial heaven, in which the fowls fly, above the starry heaven, which is adorned with those glorious orbs: it was into the third heaven, where God most eminently manifests his glory. We are not capable of knowing all, nor is it fit we should know very much, of the particulars of that glorious place and state; it is our duty and interest to give diligence to make sure to ourselves a mansion there; and, if that be cleared up to us, then we should long to be removed thither, to abide there for ever. This third heaven is called paradise (Co2 12:4), in allusion to the earthly paradise out of which Adam was driven for his transgression; it is called the paradise of God (Rev 2:7), signifying to us that by Christ we are restored to all the joys and honours we lost by sin, yea, to much better. The apostle does not mention what he saw in the third heaven or paradise, but tells us that he heard unspeakable words, such as it is not possible for a man to utter - such are the sublimity of the matter and our unacquaintedness with the language of the upper world: nor was it lawful to utter those words, because, while we are here in this world, we have a more sure word of prophecy than such visions and revelations. Pe2 1:19. We read of the tongue of angels as well as men, and Paul knew as much of that as ever any man upon earth did, and yet preferred charity, that is, the sincere love of God and our neighbour. This account which the apostle gives us of his vision should check our curious desires after forbidden knowledge, and teach us to improve the revelation God has given us in his word. Paul himself, who had been in the third heaven, did not publish to the world what he had heard there, but adhered to the doctrine of Christ: on this foundation the church is built, and on this we must build our faith and hope. 2. The modest and humble manner in which the apostle mentions this matter is observable. One would be apt to think that one who had had such visions and revelations as these would have boasted greatly of them; but, says he, It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory, Co2 12:1. He therefore did not mention this immediately, nor till above fourteen years after, Co2 12:2. And then it is not without some reluctancy, as a thing which in a manner he was forced to by the necessity of the case. Again, he speaks of himself in the third person, and does not say, I am the man who was thus honoured above other men. Again, his humility appears by the check he seems to put upon himself (Co2 12:6), which plainly shows that he delighted not to dwell upon this theme. Thus was he, who was not behind the chief of the apostles in dignity, very eminent for his humility. Note, It is an excellent thing to have a lowly spirit in the midst of high advancements; and those who abase themselves shall be exalted.

II. The apostle gives an account of the methods God took to keep him humble, and to prevent his being lifted up above measure; and this he speaks of to balance the account that was given before of the visions and revelations he had had. Note, When God's people communicate their experiences, let them always remember to take notice of what God has done to keep them humble, as well as what he has done in favour to them and for their advancement. Here observe,

1. The apostle was pained with a thorn in the flesh, and buffeted with a messenger of Satan, Co2 12:7. We are much in the dark what this was, whether some great trouble or some great temptation. Some think it was an acute bodily pain or sickness; others think it was the indignities done him by the false apostles, and the opposition he met with from them, particularly on the account of his speech, which was contemptible. However this was, God often brings this good out of evil, that the reproaches of our enemies help to hide pride from us; and this is certain, that what the apostle calls a thorn in his flesh was for a time very grievous to him: but the thorns Christ wore for us, and with which he was crowned, sanctify and make easy all the thorns in the flesh we may at any time be afflicted with; for he suffered, being tempted, that he might be able to succour those that are tempted. Temptations to sin are most grievous thorns; they are messengers of Satan, to buffet us. Indeed it is a great grievance to a good man to be so much as tempted to sin.

2. The design of this was to keep the apostle humble: Lest he should be exalted above measure, Co2 12:7. Paul himself knew he had not yet attained, neither was already perfect; and yet he was in danger of being lifted up with pride. If God love us, he will hide pride from us, and keep us from being exalted above measure; and spiritual burdens are ordered, to cure spiritual pride. This thorn in the flesh is said to be a messenger of Satan, which he did not send with a good design, but on the contrary, with ill intentions, to discourage the apostle (who had been so highly favoured of God) and hinder him in his work. But God designed this for good, and he overruled it for good, and made this messenger of Satan to be so far from being a hindrance that it was a help to the apostle.

3. The apostle prayed earnestly to God for the removal of this sore grievance. Note, Prayer is a salve for every sore, a remedy for every malady; and when we are afflicted with thorns in the flesh we should give ourselves to prayer. Therefore we are sometimes tempted that we may learn to pray. The apostle besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from him, Co2 12:8. Note, Though afflictions are sent for our spiritual benefit, yet we may pray to God for the removal of them: we ought indeed to desire also that they may reach the end for which they are designed. The apostle prayed earnestly, and repeated his requests; he besought the Lord thrice, that is, often. So that if an answer be not given to the first prayer, nor to the second, we must hold on, and hold out, till we receive an answer. Christ himself prayed to his Father thrice. As troubles are sent to teach us to pray, so they are continued to teach us to continue instant in prayer.

4. We have an account of the answer given to the apostle's prayer, that, although the trouble was not removed, yet an equivalent should be granted: My grace is sufficient for thee. Note, (1.) Though God accepts the prayer of faith, yet he does not always answer it in the letter; as he sometimes grants in wrath, so he sometimes denies in love. (2.) When God does not remove our troubles and temptations, yet, if he gives us grace sufficient for us, we have no reason to complain, nor to say that he deals ill by us. It is a great comfort to us, whatever thorns in the flesh we are pained with, that God's grace is sufficient for us. Grace signifies two things: - [1.] The good-will of God towards us, and this is enough to enlighten and enliven us, sufficient to strengthen and comfort us, to support our souls and cheer up our spirits, in all afflictions and distresses. [2.] The good work of God in us, the grace we receive from the fulness that is in Christ our head; and from him there shall be communicated that which is suitable and seasonable, and sufficient for his members. Christ Jesus understands our case, and knows our need, and will proportion the remedy to our malady, and not only strengthen us, but glorify himself. His strength is made perfect in our weakness. Thus his grace is manifested and magnified; he ordains his praise out of the mouths of babes and sucklings.

III. Here is the use which the apostle makes of this dispensation: He gloried in his infirmities (Co2 12:9), and took pleasure in them, Co2 12:10. He does not mean his sinful infirmities (those we have reason to be ashamed of and grieved at), but he means his afflictions, his reproaches, necessities, persecutions, and distresses for Christ's sake, Co2 12:10. And the reason of his glory and joy on account of these things was this - they were fair opportunities for Christ to manifest the power and sufficiency of his grace resting upon him, by which he had so much experience of the strength of divine grace that he could say, When I am weak, then am I strong. This is a Christian paradox: when we are weak in ourselves, then we are strong in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ; when we see ourselves weak in ourselves, then we go out of ourselves to Christ, and are qualified to receive strength from him, and experience most of the supplies of divine strength and grace.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Ch. 2Co_12:1-6. The Visions and Revelations vouchsafed to St Paul

1. It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come] The Greek text here is in the most utter confusion. Out of the seven Greek words which commence this chapter, the genuineness of only three is guaranteed by the agreement of the MSS. and versions. Some MSS. read, instead of as the A. V., I must glory, it is not expedient for me, for—(or yet). Others again, I must glory, it is not, I grant, expedient, yet—. The Vulgate begins with if (if it bihoveth to have glorie, it spedith not, but I schal come, Wiclif), no doubt from ch. 2Co_11:30. The A. V. avoids the difficulty of choosing between for and but before I will come by leaving out both. The usual rule in the case of a doubtful reading is to prefer the more difficult one, on the ground that a transcriber was more likely to evade what seemed to him to be a difficulty by the substitution of an easier word, than of his own accord to add to the difficulty of the passage. This rule is inapplicable here, where the alterations have clearly proceeded from an inability to comprehend the passage as it stood. The reading is therefore to be preferred which falls in best with the general scope of St Paul’s argument. As regards the first portion of the sentence it makes very little difference to the sense whether we follow the A. V. and render I am quite aware (δή) that it is not well for me to boast, or with other authorities, I must boast, I know it is not good for me. With regard to for or but, the latter seems to fall in best with the context. If we read for, we must regard St Paul as intending to give an additional proof of the undesirableness of boasting, as shewn by the fact that (2Co_12:7) even when there be anything to boast of, it is invariably in the end a source of weakness. If we read but, we must suppose St Paul to feel himself compelled to boast, lest the incident to which he has just referred (ch. 2Co_11:31-33) should be turned into an accusation of cowardice. Therefore in spite of himself he gives a proof which few would venture to challenge, that he has a right to speak in the name of God, in order that his confessions of weakness might not be used against him. For expedient and glory see ch. 2Co_8:10 and 2Co_5:12.

visions and revelations of the Lord] Visions are the sight of things ordinarily beyond our mortal ken, whether waking or in dreams. Revelations (see 1Co_1:7 in the Greek, and Gal_1:12; Gal_1:16; Gal_2:2) are here the mental and spiritual discoveries resulting from such visions.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Co_12:1-10

It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory.

On Paul being caught up to the third heaven

In the words of the apostle, in his Epistle to the Colossians, I call upon you, If ye be risen with Christ, seek those things that are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above, and not on things on the earth. Yes, to such an exercise of the affections we have constant need to exhort one another. Perhaps we know too little of the glorious things above in order to love them heartily. First, let us consider the event itself; secondly, what the apostle saw in heaven.

1. Who is the man that speaks to us in our text? The more remarkable the things are which any one relates, the more important it is to know who our informant is, whether he deserves credit. Now, you are aware that the speaker on this occasion is no fanciful enthusiast, no mere sentimentalist. He is a man who in numerous passages of his Epistles zealously opposed religious delusions and a false spirituality, and strove to fix both himself and the Church on the written, firm, prophetic Word, and not on feelings, visions, and ecstasies. Indeed, we may say of him that a calm reflective understanding predominated in him more than in any other of the apostles. He was also a man of learning. It cannot be imagined for one moment that vainglory and self-exaltation prompted him to give the narrative contained in our text. Oh! in what a light do we, imperfect Christians, appear when placed by the side of this great apostle! We who are used to experience only some slight measure of answer to prayer and of spiritual elevation. Only think! for fourteen years he kept this matter to himself! How does this impress on it the stamp of truth! Let us now consider the statements of the apostle. He begins with saying, It is not expedient for me, doubtless, to glory. Do not imagine (he means to say) that I wish to utter this for my own glory. I knew a man in Christ, he goes on to say. Paul speaks of himself as of a third person. In looking back on a period of life long since passed, a person feels as if he was contemplating another and not himself. At such a distance a person judges of himself with more freedom, impartiality, and truth. Paul calls himself a man in Christ. He enjoyed the great privilege to lose sight of his own personality, and only to view himself in the attire of his Surety. He had a special reason for calling himself on this occasion a man in Christ. He wishes in doing so to meet the question how it came to pass that he was so highly honoured; it was because he was a man in Christ that before him the gates of paradise must fly open. He says, I was caught up; according to the word used in the original, I was forcibly carried away. He was caught up from the earth. But whither? To some blessed star, from whence, as Moses viewed the promised land, so he might view the land of glory glimmering in the distance? Oh no, his flight went further. He was in the very heart of this land. How often in the dark seasons of his life had he looked with sighs to this distant region! How often had he thought that he would willingly resign everything on earth that only a fleeting glance might be allowed him through the impenetrable veil which covers that land of immortal beauty! There he stood. The tumult of the world was hushed around him. Oh what a life in those serene fields of light and love! In those palmy groves of everlasting peace what forms, what visions, what tones of praise!

2. Was Paul then literally in heaven? Is there, in fact, a world of blessedness behind the clouds? Truly I think that Paul was not the first to inform us of that. He says, He was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. And his meaning appears to be simply this: what he had heard and seen during this visit to the other world was of such a peculiar kind that it was absolutely impossible to express it in human language. Oh yes, the apostle might have been cordially willing to have painted before our eyes an image of that blessed world, but whence could he take the colours for the painting? Would he have taken something from the light of the sun, from the blooming meadows of our earthly spring, from the groves and solemn stillness of our summer mornings? Alas! he would only have dipped his pencil in poor dull shades. All this the apostle felt, and he preferred being silent. He might have been willing to describe to us how the saints appeared. Oh, gladly would he have told us in what glory his Lord and Saviour there appeared to him. But what could he say? But there is still another circumstance which perhaps gives us a greater idea of the glory of what Paul heard and felt in the third heaven than even his silence--I mean the ardent longing of the apostle to return again to the blessedness that he had once enjoyed. But his wishes could not be taken into consideration. He was obliged to return to this dark earth and to the toilsome path of his apostleship. But after his return his renunciation of the world and its lusts was rendered complete. His conversation is henceforth in heaven. Paul knew that he could return to the blessedness he had beheld by no other path than death. Well, be it so, no hour was more longed for by him than that. What the apostle saw on this occasion we certainly cannot see in the same way, but we may still behold it in the mirror of an unimpeachable testimony. (F. W. Krummacher.)

I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.--

Pauls vision

How did St. Paul come to speak of himself under the personality of another?

1. Natural diffidence. For the more refined a man is the more he will avoid direct mention of himself. All along he has been forced to speak of self. Fact after fact was wrung out.

2. St. Paul speaks of a divided experience of two selves: one Paul in the third heaven, enjoying the beatific vision; another on earth, buffeted by Satan. The former he chose rather to regard as the Paul that was to be. He dwelt on the latter as the actual Paul, lest he should mistake himself in the midst of the heavenly revelations. Such a double nature is in us all. In all there is an Adam and a Christ--an ideal and a real. Witness the strange discrepancy often between the writings of the poet or the sermons of the preacher and their actual lives. And yet in this there is no necessary hypocrisy, for the one represents the mans aspiration, the other his attainment. But the apostle felt that it was dangerous to be satisfied with mere aspirations and fine sayings, and therefore he chose to take the lowest--the actual self--treating the highest as, for the time, another man (verse 5). Were the caterpillar to feel within himself the wings that are to be, and be haunted with instinctive forebodings of the time when he shall hover about flowers and meadows, yet the wisdom of that caterpillar would be to remember his present business on the leaf, lest, losing himself in dreams, he should never become a winged insect at all.

I. The time when this vision took place. The date is vague--about fourteen years ago. Some have identified it with that recorded (Act_9:1-43) at his conversion. But--

1. The words in that transaction were not unlawful to utter. They are three times recorded.

2. There was no doubt as to St. Pauls own locality in that vision. So far from being exalted, he was stricken to the ground.

3. The vision was of an humbling character: Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?

II. Paul had known many such visions (verse 7).

1. This marks out the man. Indeed, to comprehend the visions we must comprehend the man. For God does not reveal His mysteries to men of selfish or hard or phlegmatic temperaments, but to those of spiritual sensitiveness. There are physically certain sensitivenesses to sound and colour that qualify men to become gifted musicians and painters--so spiritually there are certain susceptibilities, and on these God bestows strange gifts, sights, and feelings not to be uttered in human language. The Jewish temperament--its fervour, moral sense, veneration, indomitable will, adapted it to be the organ of revelation.

2. Now all this was, in its fulness, in St. Paul. A heart, a brain, and a soul of fire; all his life a suppressed volcano; his acts living things with hands and feet, his words half battles. A man, consequently, of terrible inward conflicts (read Rom_7:1-25.). You will find there no dull metaphysics; all is intensely personal. So, too, in Act_16:1-40. He had no abstract perception of Macedonias need of the gospel. To his soul a man of Macedonia cries, Come over and help us. Again (Act_18:1-28), a message came in a vision. St. Pauls life was with God, his very dreams were of God. He saw a Form which others did not see, and heard a Voice which others could not hear (Act_27:23).

3. But such things are seen and heard under certain conditions. Many of St. Pauls visions were when he was--

(1) Fasting. Fulness of bread and abundance of idleness are not the conditions in which we can see the things of God.

(2) In the midst of trial. In the prison, during the shipwreck, while the thorn was in his flesh.

4. This was the experience of Christ Himself. God does not lavish His choicest gifts, but reserves them.

5. Yet though inspiration is granted in its fulness only to rare, choice spirits, in degree it belongs to all Christians. There have been moments, surely, in our experience, when the vision of God was clear. They were not moments of fulness or success. In some season of desertion you have in solitary longing seen the sky-ladder as Jacob saw it, or in childish purity--for Heaven lies around us in our infancy--heard a voice as Samuel did; or in feebleness of health, when the weight of the bodily frame was taken off, Faith brightened her eagle eye, and saw far into the tranquil things of death; or in prayer you have been conscious of a Hand in yours, and a Voice, and you could almost feel the Eternal Breath upon your brow.

III. The things seen are unutterable.

1. They are unspeakable because they are untranslatable into language. The fruits of the Spirit--love, joy, peace, etc.

how can these be explained in words? Our feelings, convictions, aspirations, devotions, what sentences of earth can express them? In Revelations 4 John in high symbolic language attempts, but inadequately, to shadow forth the glory which his spirit realised, but which his sense saw not. For heaven is not scenery, nor anything appreciable by ear or eye; heaven is God felt.

2. They are not lawful for a man to utter. Christian modesty forbids. There are transfiguration moments, bridal hours of the soul, and not easily forgiven are those who would utter the secrets of its high intercourse with its Lord. You cannot discuss such subjects without vulgarising them. God dwells in the thick darkness. Silence knows more of Him than speech. His name is secret, therefore beware how you profane His stillness. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him. To each of His servants He giveth a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth save he that receiveth it. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.)

St. Pauls rapture and thorn in the flesh

Paul probably refers to the trance, or vision, of Act_22:1-30.

I. Some explanation of this remarkable passage.

1. The nature of the vision. It was in a state in which the mental faculties, apart from the senses, are so engrossed by certain objects as to render the mind incapable of attending to any other. Such raptures were one of the ancient modes of inspiration. God spake to Moses, David, and the prophets in visions, and their return in the days of the apostles served to evince the identity of the two dispensations in their origin and authority.

2. The special communications made in this vision. If the third heaven is the place where God immediately resides, we are sure that paradise is the same, from the promise to the penitent malefactor. There Paul heard unspeakable words, etc. Doubtless the inhabitants of heaven conceive of objects in a manner as superior to our modes of conception as are the objects themselves to those of earth. How, then, could they communicate their conceptions to beings of our limited and dull faculties! In like manner the apostle on his return to his former state would find an insurmountable impediment to the communications of what he had seen and heard. But though not to be described in the language of sense, it would appear from the effect left on his mind that the revelation was of the most exhilarating nature; a tone had been given to his character, and a new and seraphic passion had been kindled in his soul. He felt for ever afterwards as a man to whom heaven was not altogether future.

3. The affliction with which he was immediately visited.

II. The general instruction which it furnishes. Note--

1. The wisdom and goodness of God in those severe afflictions with which even eminent saints may be visited.

2. The Divine nature of Christ, and His immediate presidency over the affairs of the whole Church. This Divine Saviour is particularly employed about the mission of His servants, their qualifications for office, their trials, supports, and deliverance. Hence the propriety of direct address to Him in critical circumstances, while, in the ordinary course of affairs, the ultimate object of address is the Almighty Father.

3. The existence of paradise and a third heaven as the receptacle of the souls of believers. What ground, then, for the notion of a sleepy condition of the soul after death? (J. Leifchild, D. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Co 12:1. After enumerating, in the former chapter, his almost incredible labours and sufferings for the gospel, the apostle, in this, proceeds to speak of some visions and revelations that had been made to him, as a further proof of his apostleship, and of the regard which ought to be paid to his doctrines, his advices, exhortations, or reproofs. It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory — Or boast of any thing I have done or suffered, as a minister of Christ, unless on so pressing an occasion. Yet, or nevertheless, as γαρ must be here understood to signify, I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord — That he might not offend any one’s delicacy, he forbears to say that these visions and revelations were given to himself; although, doubtless, some of the Corinthians would inter, from his manner of speaking, that he himself had been favoured with them. Visions were things presented to a person in a supernatural manner, so as to be the objects of his sight while awake. Thus Zacharias, (Luk 1:11.) and Mary, (Luk 1:26,) and Cornelius, (Act 10:3,) had visions of angels. Probably here the apostle means his seeing the Lord Jesus on different occasions, after his ascension; and especially those visions of Christ which he saw when he was caught up into the third heaven. And revelations of the Lord — These were discoveries of matters unknown, which Christ made to Paul by an internal impression on his mind; or by speech, such as the revelations mentioned Act 13:2; 1Ti 4:1. Perhaps also those which, he says, (2Co 12:4,) he heard in paradise. Of the former kind were all the inspirations of the Spirit bestowed on the apostles, and on those who in the first age, preached the gospel by revelation.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3. By revelations, divine infliction, and miracles, 2Co_12:1-12.

As it becomes not him to glory, he relates the revelations as being another man’s, avoiding any undue personal exaltation from them, 2Co_12:1-6. He emphasizes the thorn in the flesh as his self-humiliating glory, 2Co_12:7-10. He apologizes for even this glorying, and yet refers to their own memories for apostolic miracles wrought by him among them, 2Co_12:11-12.

1. Not expedient—Whether from its intrinsic propriety, its moral effect on me, or its exposing me to the retorts of my opponents. Nevertheless their imputations render a reference to my apostolic claims a necessity, modestly as it must be done.

For—And this self-reminder of the inexpediency of glorying is now specially needed, for I am now to come to revelations which are an apparent ground of boast.

Visions—Are revelations to the sight; revelations in general are made to any power of perceiving them.

Of the Lord—By or from the Lord.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL NOTES

(No break, except that of a new paragraph.)

2Co_12:1.—Note reading; probably, as in R.V. Remember how full is Paul’s sense of “expedient” (1Co_6:12; 1Co_10:23; 1Co_8:10, here); deep moral inexpediency is here involved. “Glory” here (almost) = “brag.” Visions, revelations.—“Various kinds of visions, and (to use a wider word) revelations in any mode, imparted by Christ” (Beet); who also compares as “interesting parallels,” Act_26:19; Gal_1:16, visions vouchsafed to Paul that he might make, or upon which he made, a quasi-revelation to men. But query? Whole section (2Co_12:1-10) moves in a world of supersensuous things, where knowledge is scanty [even Paul’s own (2Co_12:2), and how much more, then, ours]; and where much precision of interpretation is unattainable [as, in “doth not yet appear,” etc., 1Jn_3:2, it is not altogether, or in any great degree, an intentional concealment or withholding, that creates the mystery. Rather the impossibility of telling us more of what has nothing in our experience or in the analogies of earth to help us, even to knowledge “in part”]. Choose between

(1) revelations of which Christ is the subject, and

(2) revelations of which Christ is the Giver.

2Co_12:2.—Note “know” (accurately), more clearly connecting the (intentionally) oblique reference with himself. I.e. “I knew the man at the time, and how he was …; and I still know the man who was then,” etc. Third heaven.—Talmudic references to seven [not always consistently enumerated] heavens are common. Quite uncertain [since “Talmud” unwritten until after this] whether this opinion is as old as, or older than, Paul’s day. There is also found a simpler Rabbinic view based on Deu_10:14, making three spheres:

(1) “heaven,” i.e. that of birds and clouds;

(2) “heaven of heavens,” i.e. the clear sky beyond;

(3) the invisible world beyond. [Aërial, astral, angelic.] Also it may be a question whether Paul makes “Paradise” a fourth sphere, or only the same as the “third heaven.” Perhaps something behind the distinction of prepositions (equivalent to) “up to,” “into.” [“Questions of words, to no profit, but to the subverting of (at best the attention of) the hearers” (2Ti_2:14).] Only certain Scriptural facts are:

(1) that “heaven” is often “heavens” as if a complex conception (e.g. in Lord’s Prayer, Mat_6:9-10; Eph_4:10);

(2) Paradise; most definite indication being that to dying thief, Luk_23:43 (only use of word by Christ, and that rather as an adoption of the man’s standpoint); also found in Rev_2:7, which probably (remembering how the symbolism of the Revelation is saturated with Old Testament histories and imagery) links the future world of happiness with the lost (ideal) world of unfallen man in Eden. “The present abode of the faithful dead” (Beet).

2Co_12:4.—“Unutterable utterances” imitates Paul’s Greek phrase. “Words, and no words” (Stanley). “Expression taken from the secrecy of the Greek mysteries” (ib.); but this, taken with the former phrase of Stanley, combines

(1) impossible to utter, and

(2) not allowable to utter. Usually, a choice made between

(1) and

(2). He adds: “Man cannot speak them; God may.”

2Co_12:5.—Waite (in Speaker) makes “such a one” (2Co_12:2) and “such a one” (2Co_12:5) not reiterative, but cumulative. “I knew a man caught up to third heaven.… Further, I knew a man, so caught up, also caught up into Paradise; and further, hearing there.… Of a man so caught up, and indeed, so caught up into Paradise, and there, moreover, hearing.… I will glory.” “On behalf of one, who in all this was entirely passive and recipient, without exertion or merit of his own, he will boast, but not on behalf of his personal self, his own will, work, and service, except with regard to his infirmities.”

2Co_12:6.—Oblique reference to the Corinthian “boasters.” Q. d. “If I were disposed to enter into a boasting-match with your braggarts, I should win; at least (unlike them) I should only need to speak facts about such a man as that” (cf. 2Co_10:7; 2Co_11:21 sqq.; Php_3:4-6). Of me.—As R.V.; not “about me,” but “from me” (“his letters, say they,” etc., 2Co_10:10).

2Co_12:7. Exceeding greatness (R.V.).—Cf. cognate words (and thoughts) in 2Co_3:10; 2Co_4:17; 2Co_9:14; Eph_1:19; Eph_2:7; Eph_3:19; Eph_4:7; also 2Co_11:23; 2Co_1:8; Gal_1:13 (also 1Co_12:31; Rom_7:13). Note also, the broken grammar (as in R.V.), as if the rush of feelings and memories confused utterance. Thorn.—See Separate Note

(3). Lit. “ ‘Thorn’ for the flesh.”

2Co_12:8.—As “the Lord” had Himself done in Gethsemane. [I. e. taking this as a thrice repeated request, on some one occasion. Farrar (and others) would make three separate occasions of recurrence (perhaps of “special revelations” and) of the physical visitation, and three occasions of prayer. This depends, in part, on (precarious) deductions as to the chronology of Paul’s life.] Besought.—Lit. “entreated”; vivid sense of personal communication with Christ. Clear case of prayer to Christ. Good illustration of meaning of Paraclete (same root); he called to his aid Christ and His help.

2Co_12:9. Said.—“Hath said” (R.V.). As if the assuring word were ever freshly being spoken; true when first given, and abidingly true; a standing law of Paul’s continuous life. Sufficient.—Cf. cognate word, 2Co_9:8 [also (for thought) cf. Php_4:10-19]. “Don’t press thy request; sufficient for thee that thou hast My grace.” Made perfect.—“Has its full development” (Conybeare and Howson); q.d. comes to its full-grown, adult strength. Keep “weakness” and “weaknesses” (for “infirmities”). Observe “My” (in “My strength”) is doubtful; the omission makes the passage a perfectly general truth (so Stanley. But is this so generally true? Is it not true simply when spoken of Divine strength relatively to human weakness?). Rather.—Rather boast than complain (Stanley); rather boast than seek to have removed (Beet, Waite). That.—“A purpose which in his boasting Paul cherishes, and which is to some extent attained by his boasting” (Beet). [Rather too forced, too close, a connection? Query, more loosely, “I will not (I say) ask for their removal; that would rob me of a great honour, and blessing, and joy; I will keep them, if thus the power,” etc. Rest.—Lit. “tabernacle.” “To come to a place for the purpose of fixing one’s tent there” (Conybeare and Howson). Cf. Exo_40:34; Exo_40:36 (where both “upon” and “in” are found conjoined (as in Act_2:3-4, “upon,” “filled with”); Joh_1:14; Rev_7:15; Rev_12:12; Rev_13:6; Rev_21:3 [Joh_2:21 (see also 11); 2Pe_1:13-14 (also Mat_17:4, and parallels]). [Cf. 2Co_4:7.]

2Co_12:10.—“Four outward circumstances in which Paul often felt his weakness … Acts of purposeless cruelty, repeated lack of the most needful things, the repeated pursuit of enemies, positions in which there seemed no way of escape.” (Beet.) “For Christ’s sake” belongs to each of the four.

2Co_12:11.—Verdict, self-pronounced: “How foolish I am to boast.” Yet “with extenuating circumstances.” “It was your doing, not mine (you ought to have saved me the task of commending myself)” (Stanley). “For their good he condescends to say things which, but for their motive, would be unworthy of an intelligent man. Than this, no kind of self-denial is to sensible persons more difficult or more noble.” (Beet.) Return to point quitted at 2Co_10:7. “This concluding section … filled with traces of the torrent which has passed through his mind in the interval” (Stanley). Very chiefest.—“Ever so much of apostles” (Stanley); “superlative apostles” (Speaker); “super-apostolic apostles,” “super-eminent apostles” (Conybeare and Howson). Nothing.—In his own reckoning? or theirs? Both; “as you say … and I in a deeper sense agree with you.”

2Co_12:12. Signs, wonders, mighty deeds.—Three Scripture words for miracles, in complete enumeration. Complete definition of a “miracle” given by them. Signs of an apostle.—I.e. characteristic credentials of an apostle. Cf. “John heard in the prison the” characteristic “Messiah-works” reported as done by Jesus (Mat_11:2). In all patience.—Meaning, probably, refraining again and again, when under great provocation to use His miraculous power to silence or punish opponents? (Waite, in Speaker). How easily and certainly would this challenge have been met and this claim refuted if miracle is an impossibility, or if Paul had wrought none. His opponents could do none; fell short here, at least.

2Co_12:13.—Ironical, “this wrong.” Forgive me.—Prospective, as well as retrospective, “for I am going to do it again. Don’t think of giving me anything, now that we are to be friends again.”

2Co_12:14.—Understand, “to come a third time”; not merely “am ready a third time.” Two visits to Corinth? Or three? Most, “three.” Some: two, viz.

(1) Act_18:1;

(2) The visit now impending, and, between, the intended visit of 2Co_1:15-16. “I ought to do this, as a parent. What do children, then, give their parents in return? Children, give me your hearts.”

2Co_12:15.—Notice the R.V., and its margin. How Christ may borrow these words!

2Co_12:16.—“You say,—I will not dispute,—I did not ask you to maintain me. But that was only ‘the depth of the fellow’! It amounted to ‘pretty much the same thing,’ if I asked you to support my friends, Titus and the rest! Indeed, what if they ‘all helped themselves out of this collection money,’ pretending to be so extremely disinterested!”

2Co_12:18. Spirit.—As usual, the Holy Ghost. Cf. Gal_5:25. This secures the walking in the same “spirit,” in the feeble, modern sense.

2Co_12:19.—Observe new and better reading, and consequent vivid rendering. “Whilst you have been reading this (apologetic-seeming) letter.” “To you? O dear no! Not at all! Before a seeing, listening God I speak!” Beloved.—A relapse into love; cannot bear to keep up the tone of rebuke or irony: “Beloved.”

2Co_12:21.—A residual section, not even now penitent or submissive, as most who had been rebuked in the First Epistle now were.

FULLER NOTES ON SPECIAL POINTS

1. [Good note in Stanley upon 2Co_12:1-10. “The description of his vision … throws light upon similar ecstasies … as Act_10:10; Act_8:39; and especially of John in the Apocalypse (2Co_1:10; 2Co_4:1, etc.); the ‘dreams and visions’ … in Act_2:16; and the speaking with tongues in 1Co_14:2. The details may be different, but this description contains their common characteristics; the loss of self-consciousness [?], the sense of being hurried into a higher sphere, and the partial and mysterious glimpses of the invisible world. And it illustrates especially the ecstatic state in which he himself largely partook, as appears from the attacks of his enemies, still preserved in the Clementines.… Compare also the facts in Act_9:12; Act_22:17, and his expression in 1Co_14:8.… And further, the strong line of demarcation which he has drawn between bis ecstasy and his ordinary state, is a warrant to us that he does not needlessly confound things human and Divine, things earthly and things spiritual. What he does say gives us a picture, at least conceivable, of the mode in which he may have received his ‘revelations from the Lord’ (1Co_11:23; 1Co_15:3; Gal_1:12; Gal_1:16). What he does not say—the silence respecting the things which cannot be uttered—furnishes a remarkable contrast to the elaborate description given by Mahomet, of his nocturnal journey to Jerusalem and to paradise” (p. 563).]

2. [So also this sobriety of language and thought marks off Paul’s experiences from those “parallels” often adduced to discredit him, as a half-epileptic whose brain was affected by his sickness. E.g. as enumerated by Farrar, p. 713: “The trances of Socrates, the fits of Mohammed, accompanied by foaming at the mouth, and followed by the sleep of exhaustion, the faintings and ecstasies of St. Bernard, St. Francis, and St. Catherine of Siena, have been adduced as parallels.… We may add the cases of George Fox, Jacob Behmen, of Swedenborg, etc.”]

3. [2Co_12:7. Thorn in flesh. In the pulpit, the general result of the inquiry is alone of much service. In the Bible-class, the detailed process may be useful.

I. “Thorn,” or “stake.” Some Eastern thorns are much larger than ours; long, stout spines, capable of penetrating a thick leather boot. (Force given to Hos_2:6.) Word does mean stake, e.g., for military palisade, or for impaling criminals. Also, literally, Paul says, “A stake for the flesh.” Hence the suggestion that this stake is practically (as the word was lexically) equivalent to a cross (which had not necessarily a cross beam); and the thought here is then linked with “I am crucified with Christ.” But in Num_33:55 Paul’s word is used for “pricks in the eyes.” In both cases, therefore, the idea may be a thorn buried in the flesh, but large enough, or giving pain enough, to be rather a stake than a thorn.

II. Nature of the affliction. Physical (almost universal consensus of opinion amongst non-Romanist expositors). But not

(1) Sensual temptation; later Patristic, monastic, Romanist view. He would not “glory” in these, for any reason, direct or indirect. Remember also how he (perhaps) claims to be little affected by these (1Co_7:8-9). 1Co_9:27; Rom_7:23 quite general in reference; latter scarcely personal. Also not

(2) Spiritual temptation, e.g stings of conscience about past life, temptations to pride [N.B. the thorn itself was a check to pride in spiritual gifts], or discouragement, or doubt, in connection with his work (Calvin, Luther, Imitation of Christ). No trace of these in his writings. Lias (in loco) thinks Paul suffered from irritability of temper, and a consequent asperity of manner. But this would not be in “the flesh,” in the physical sense required here. Also, again, would anything, even the glory of Christ (indirectly secured), have made him “glory” in these? Further, not

(3) Opponents, particularly the opponent (possibly) mentioned in 2Co_10:7; Greek fathers’ view. Not personal enough nor definite enough for “thorn,” “in the flesh.” Nor

(4) Afflictions and persecutions. Would he have prayed—could he have hoped—for the removal of

(3) or

(4)?

(5) Facts are: (a) Probably (not certainly) this to be identified with Gal_4:14. (b) Something which made his appearance less impressive than, for his work’s sake, he could have desired. [Lystrans “called Barnabas,” not Paul, “Jupiter,” perhaps as the nobler-looking, as well as because Paul was a better representative of the eloquent “Mercury.” Some foundation for what Corinthian depreciators said, “bodily presence weak” (2Co_10:10). Observe, “despised not” (Gal_4:14); he might have expected that they would.] (c) This “buffeted” him. [Not the boxer’s blow as in 1Co_9:27; but the “slap” as given to Christ (Mat_26:67); and 1Co_4:11; 1Pe_2:20.] Not only, or chiefly, Satan’s hindrance to his work; also, and first, it was expressly something from God, overruled as a rebuff and check to (possible) spiritual pride. (d) Too precarious to decide precisely for (say) acute ophthalmia. [Very common in East; aggravated by the excessive light and glare; very sharply painful, recalling Num_33:55 again.] Not certain that his three days’ blindness at Damascus left any effects. Gal_4:15 does not (in Greek) say “your own eyes,” but “your eyes.” Gal_4:11 may mean “in how large letters”; but, even so, this may have been for emphasis, to exhibit vividly, and call special attention to, his unusual concern about them. Still, he did for some reason generally employ an amanuensis; a defective sight well explains Acts 23 (a saying for which he never expresses any degree of regret, as he does for another on the same occasion, Act_12:6, cf. Act_26:5, as if it were not quite consistent with Christian sincerity and simplicity). Nothing must be inferred from, e.g., 2Co_13:9, which is used of others also, (e) Earliest Patristic identifications were headache, earache, etc.—all physical. Much modern favour toward epilepsy. [Sometimes with a plain animus.] A parallel with the case of Alfred the Great (whose mysterious sickness may have been epilepsy) very tempting. [See in Lightfoot, Galatians. Also Napoleon said of Archduke Albert, who, with great tactical genius, was often at critical moments in a campaign or battle rendered helpless by it, “If it had not been for that, the Archduke would have been the greatest general of us all.”] An acutely painful, visible, humiliating, (hindering), chronic, physical visitation.]

HOMILETIC ANALYSIS.—2Co_12:1-10

Human Life circumscribed by Limitations.

I. (2Co_12:1.) Paul repeatedly points out how Expediency is a limitation upon Liberty (1Co_6:12 and ‖ s). Here Necessity is a limitation to, and overrules, Expediency.

1. As a general, safe rule for conduct and speech, “glorying” is “inexpedient.” Between man and man it is “bad form.” The gentleman “vaunteth not himself” (1Co_13:4). This Modesty—self-suppression, self-effacement—is a social virtue, sometimes severed from its true Christian root, Humility. The Christian is modest before men because he knows that before God he is, and has, nothing of himself.

2. Between God and man “glorying” is out of place altogether; a sin against the very relation between them; of whom the One is all Giver, the other entirely a receiver, and has, indeed, in himself nothing to give status before, or acceptance with, God at all.

3. Boasting manifests self; ministers to self; gives Devil an opening for further temptation; to self-exaltation in the man himself; to man-worship in his friends and partisans (2Co_12:6). Yet,

4. May need to do violence to the instincts of modesty and humility, and speak out plainly and fully one’s character and position. Principle may be involved. Paul is compelled to speak and “glory” by charges and insinuations which not only, or principally, impinged upon him, but really struck at Christ, Who had made him an apostle, and had charged him with work which could only be done if he were really such. “Of such a one, … but not of myself.” I speak of him, because I must, as if he were some other man, to whom God was wonderfully gracious (2Co_12:5). If I begin about myself, I must play on another theme, “weaknesses.” A man may represent principles. A minister may need, for his Church’s sake and his brethren’s, to defend his status and ordination. For his converts’ sake, he may need to assert the validity of his and their position, and the truth of his preaching. His personal character may have to be asserted. “We were not ‘Yes and No’ men among you; else, perhaps, you had a ‘Yes and No’ Gospel, a ‘Yes and No’ Christ” (2Co_1:18 sqq.).

5. Above all, when what one is, and has become, and accomplished, is needed as a testimony for Christ. If it will preach Him to put oneself forward; if others will be encouraged to hope in Him for larger blessings, and through Him to accomplish larger service,—then one must crucify modesty, reticence, reserve, and must say out, and give Him credit for, all He has done in one’s own case. But always reluctantly, always with prayerful guard upon one’s spirit, and always “dropping” it, as soon as may be (2Co_12:1; 2Co_12:5-6).

II. Limitations of knowledge. “I know … I know not” (2Co_12:2-3).—

1. Our known area is very narrow, a little rock standing up out of midst of waves of a sea of mystery, not absolutely bottomless, (ours is finite ignorance); but soon too deep for our stature. We wade out from our little bit of dry ground; we soon are out of our depth; the only difference between “wise” and “ignorant” is that some are taller than the rest, and can go little farther out before losing their footing or sinking overhead. If we quit the little, clear, light area, we soon find ourselves lost in pathless fog, and must turn back. We soon beat our wings against the bars of our imprisonment. [Origin of being, of creaturely being; ultimate meaning of “matter,” etc. In theology, or philosophy, no matter what track of inquiry is pursued, or in what direction, we very soon find ourselves face to face with dead walls, impassable, e.g. the Problem of Evil.]

2. Here an inspired man, supernaturally assisted, has been led to depths ordinarily beyond man; has been taken, indeed “caught up,” to heights, as yet, usually inaccessible. Indeed, he has been led through the Veil—lifted over one of the highest of the Barrier-walls that environ us—and now comes back, knowing where he has been, and what he has seen and heard; but not knowing how he got there; nor whether indeed all of him went there, or whether the body was left behind. And as to telling his experiences—no!

3. He cannot; or if he could, he may not. Human language, human thought, have no vessels to hold and carry and convey such contents. We ask him many questions, but in vain; and he breaks off, and leaves us to wonder, and query, and perhaps to chafe against the limitations of our knowledge. [“Foolish and unlearned questions avoid.” See how Christ dealt with useless inquiries, impossible or unprofitable to answer.

(1) “Few that be saved?” “There are many that be lost! See that thou enter in at strait gate.”

(2) “What shall this man do?” “Rather, this would I have thee do: follow thou Me!”

(3) “Who did sin, this man or his parents?” “We must work the works … whilst it is day!” Sir Henry Wootton was asked, “Can a Papist be saved?” “You may be saved without knowing that; look to yourself.”]

3. Our inquiries may only mean curiosity, that (Pilate-like) plays with big questions, and has hardly enough of serious interest in them to make us wait for answer. God has nothing to say, or show, or give, to such. To equip a Paul He will give, with all their limitations, wondrously large “visions and revelations of the Lord.”

III. Limitations to the blessedness of large and gracious communications from God.—Paul was soon brought back to the body. He was soon made to know “whether in the body,” ordinarily, or not. His body will not let him forget it. The “thorn” is a perpetual reminder.

1. Not even Paul is to be trusted to hold third-heaven converse with God and Divine things, without some compensating abatement. [So after Abraham’s victorious waiting in faith for the promised Isaac during a whole quarter of a century, we might have thought that he would have been left peacefully alone, to enjoy his home-life with his boy. No, not even God’s tested “friend” must be left many years without some disciplinary circumstances. So, “Offer Isaac up, a burnt offering.” If the physical “thorn” were in any way the result of the manifestation on the road to Damascus, or of the breaking down of human nature beneath the strain of ecstatic feeling; and thus consequent upon, and not simply subsequent to, the “revelations”; it would be fully analogous to many ordinary experiences of believers. Such pre-eminent gifts bring their penalties, or must be had at their price. A great access of holy exaltation in the sanctuary, e.g., or at the Lord’s Table, will exhaust the frame, and leave the system dead to all spiritual impression for some time after. The temperament capable of much blessing is also capable of and liable to great depression.

2. But the limitations are safeguards. They indicate no grudging of God to see us perfectly happy; no mere “stone put by Him into the other pocket,” as if from any “evil eye” towards our pleasure. He means our safety. Such limitations remind us of the “perishing” life; the uncertain tenure of all our earthly good; the vanity of self and human strength. If known to others, they are a salutary, objective check upon self-complacency; they keep the worker from any self-reliance which would dishonour God’s sole might working through him; they train habits of dependence upon God. This calls out prayer and faith; these secure Divine strength. And,

3. Best of all, if on His whole view of the conditions of the case, God sees that thus, and only thus, can we be best utilised for the exhibition and glory of His grace; if, to others, and to ourselves, the results and success of our life are so manifestly not to be accounted for on “natural” grounds, or by any “natural” equipment and advantages, (say) of personal appearance, voice, intellectual power; then the limitation which in one direction seems an evil becomes a good, and a new occasion of glorying. And the man who, for such a reason, rejoices in his very limitations, or even gives thanks for them, always finds new power resting upon him.

IV. One thing in our life is without limitation.—The “sufficiency” of the “grace” of Christ.

1. Generally, “Sufficient for thee, that thou hast behind thee My strength.” The presence of Christ and His strength is a background on which all the detailed working out of life is superposed; a general truth, to be assumed and reckoned with in all the working out of the problem of our life; whatever may or may not be, that is; other persons may enter into or pass out of my life; their help may vary in its adequacy, or may fail altogether, and that at a critical moment,—this is a permanent condition of my life, and as unvarying as permanent. This is a spring never failing, and constant in quantity. I shall find His supply accompanying my Needs, in absolute continuity, two parallel lines running in continuous adaptation. “Because He ever liveth,” “saving (continuously) by His (continuous) life”; sending me continuous, sufficient, saving help, to the uttermost moment and extent of my need.

2. In detail. Not merely a general correspondence, Need and Supply lying side by side as two series of incidents. They also correspond in minute detail, new help arising, as new needs are arrived at in one’s life-course. Every page in our story shall have its counterpart page in the story of Christ’s “sufficient grace.” Needs will be many, troublesome, recurrent, petty, urgent, unexpected, unprecedented,—“He shall supply all your need.” No draft upon this Friend’s supply is ever returned bearing the words, “No effects.”

2Co_12:7-10. The Thorn in the Flesh.

I. Threefold combination of personalities.—Christ; Paul; Satan.

1. Personality of last matter of pure revelation. Belief in it stands or falls with degree of final authority accorded to statements of Scripture. Acknowledged that Scripture [and Christ] assume a personal Devil. The “proof texts” from Scripture are (not quite as abundant but) precisely parallel in kind to those by which a personal Holy Ghost is established from Scripture. [

1. Personal name given to him;

2. Personal will and intelligence ascribed to him;

3. Personal acts done by him.] In the Order of Evil he is the counterpart of God,—“the god of this world.”

2. Paul is here midway; the object of the Lord’s care; the object of Satan’s attack. (Cf. Luk_22:31.) Every man is the centre of attention to the unseen world of good and the world of evil; the prize of conflict for which they strive together. [Cf. perhaps, as to the very body of Moses (Jud_1:9).] Every Christian man takes into account another world and another set of agencies, for both danger and deliverance, besides those which enter into the reckoning of the “man of this world.”

3. This Evil One is his enemy; he can (under permission; he is a “chained lion,” who may not go beyond the radius of activity his Maker and Master and King, for His own larger purposes, permits; no such co-ordinate power of evil, an Ahriman parallel to an Ormuzd, as in many heathen religions and philosophies was assumed or taught) inflict physical suffering [assumed also in the case of discipline (1Co_5:5)]. Or, at least, makes the “natural” incidence of physical disorder the occasion and opportunity and basis of his attack.

4. Christ is a mightier Friend. Observe how, as by instinct, Paul cries out for help to Christ; as, a very short while before the first access of Paul’s “thorn,” he had seen and heard dying Stephen do. No neglect of, or dishonour to, the Father: “all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father” (Joh_5:23). To Paul “to live is Christ.” A Christian has One most real, unseen Friend, Whom some day he shall actually see, with Whom even now he has most intimate, constant communication. His life, thought, heart, prayers, turn (sunflower-like) towards Christ. Christian children have no “God” but “Jesus,” and the “perfect man” may be a little child in this. Expand this:

II. A twofold contrast of purposes.—

1. Same set of physical circumstances, Janus-like, has two faces, wears two aspects. From the Christward side they are a safeguard, a piece of moral training, “lest I should be exalted,” etc. From the Satanward side, they are an “angel” of his “to buffet.”

2. All our life is complex; no single, simplest incident, but has many-sided relations to every other—equally many-sided—incident. All is ethical. Everything is “a providence,” i.e. an item, a factor, in God’s great “providence,” i.e. His wise, loving scheme for our life, designed, ordered, executed for our “good” (Rom_8:28). Even physical, natural disadvantages, which “handicap” in the race, or disable one hand for the conflict, or make us (Jacob-like) halt upon our thigh for the pilgrimage, have wise, loving, high place amongst the elements of the education of God’s children. “Thorns” are “given” by God; but it is the business of the Evil One to take each of these and endeavour to make it serve his evil turn. Thus each is of God, or of Satan, according as it may be regarded. We may say with equal truth, and with equal devoutness, “God is in this”; or “Devil has a hand in this.” (Cf. 2Sa_24:1; 1Ch_21:1.) (How far any of them is permitted to originate with him, we cannot say. Part of the insoluble Problem of Evil which sooner or later blocks the way of moral inquiry, in every religion, in every philosophy.)

3. Particularly, such a sharply painful reminder of his physical limitations may appeal in one of two ways to an earnest, holy worker for Christ. [E.g. excessive nervousness which will not allow the full heart and competent brain to deliver with any sort of effect its urgently needed message; or want of stamina, which prevents any continuous or trying work being undertaken, for which in all other respects the man is admirably qualified, or which gives way even under great spiritual exaltation and blessing such as would effectively equip him for service, or which perpetually lays him aside in the midst of successful work, or relegates him altogether to invalid-couch or sick-room; or some actual disease or defect, blindness, deafness, lameness, skin affection, crippling or rendering free intercourse with others almost impossible; and the like.]

(1) It may come like a smart “slap in the face” to a busy talker, or worker; like a sharp blow upon the ankle to the eager runner; like the sharp prick of a big thorn in the hand, which makes the worker drop his work, or the carrier his vessel. It may “pull up,” by the want of natural “capital,” the man of eager, large heart, and broad views, who sees how to do a large business for Christ. The work must go undone, the scheme be only in part carried out. “If only I had So-and-so’s five talents of natural endowment!” Less work seems done than might otherwise be: Satan’s aim seems thus well served! Then if the man chafes, or begins to “wonder” about the wisdom and love of his limitations—why he has not five talents like So-and-so, why he must have this thorn in the flesh, he sets the door open for Satan to find an almost invited entrance. Or

(2) he may rise higher, and so get a broader view. “See the perils of five talent men! If I had the treasure in So-and-so’s vessel, instead of my poor earthen one (2Co_4:7), I might be tempted to …! Perhaps I ‘cannot carry corn.’ Perhaps my Master knows that the build of my ship will not let me carry a large cargo of blessing and revelation without a big ballast of compensating limitations. If I had that man’s personal presence, and address, and social gifts, and clearness of thought, and readiness of utterance, and faculty of persuasion, and skill in organisation, and abundant, unbroken health, perhaps my Lord could not also trust me with the spiritual equipment, the disclosures of His heaven, and of Himself, and the unspeakable words of our close fellowship, which are so often a holy secret between Him and my soul; and I should from that side be disabled for the work He honours me to do.” So rather he is led to—

III. One blessed issue.—Paul is saved from personal, spiritual peril; he is brought down to the perfect fitness for a display in Him of Christ’s strength; Christ is glorified.

1. Think of Paul in danger of pride, “boasting of what he received, as though he had not received it” (1Co_4:7), in regard to his full experiences. See how near great blessing is to great danger; “thin partitions do the bounds divide.” A man of great “revelations” is “in slippery places.” No great wonder if the men of great reputation, or profession, sometimes make a great fall. Sin is never far away, nor Satan. Paul’s physical disqualifications kept others from unduly exalting him, and kept him from unduly exalting self. He learns to thank Christ for what keeps him from going too near the giddy edge.

2. Better still, his own manifest limitations leave the field clear for the display of Christ’s strength. He learns to make a new occasion of “boasting” out of the very “infirmities” [afflictions, not sins], which are a foil the better to set off the “grace of Christ” in perfect display. Our “strength” is sadly in the way of our being “successful”; we cannot be trusted with success; there must not even be the danger that the glory of “success” should even seem to be shared with man. It must be evidently Christ, not Paul. Christ reduces His best workers to “nothing” (2Co_12:11), that they may plainly be nothing except His instruments. “Dost thou desire the work done perfectly, in My perfected strength?” “Yes, Lord.” “Then I must say ‘no’ to thy prayer. Thou must keep thy ‘thorn’; must do thy—My—work, conditioned by it; I will perfectly strengthen thee; thou shalt not be useless; and I shall be glorified.”

3. All leads up to this. Paul’s prayer turns to Christ; Satan’s buffeting is ruled, conditioned, utilised by Christ; above all, Paul’s weakness sets him aside, so that the figure in full view, and the strength in palpable evidence, are Christ and His strength. [“How heroic,” we say of an ordinary worker in some secular field, who persists and triumphs and leaves the world better, in the face of some great natural, physical, painful limitation. Paul was really “heroic,” to do what he did, with a perpetual, hampering “thorn.” Yet he says, not “heroism” but, “grace.”]

SEPARATE HOMILIES

2Co_12:7. “Lest … lest.” The Perils of Great Grace.

I. The privilege of it.—“Caught up into Paradise, hearing unspeakable words.” Whatever they meant to Paul, these words suggest the many moments of wonderful exaltation of spirit to believers; of close communion, when “the secret of the Lord” is told to “them that fear Him”; of mountain-top fellowship, when the unseen is revealed, and Moses and Elijah speak of the atoning “decease,” and hearts cry, “Good to be here!” The Word speaks things to our inner ear, which call up suggestions, and waken hope and desire, “groanings which cannot be uttered.” The Spirit leads out in desire vaguely large, too large to be apprehended or clothed in language. Preacher’s heart gets filled with his theme, with yearning over his hearers beyond what is common. Regions where very few walk; into which very few Christians penetrate at all. On our knees, in the Sanctuary, at the Lord’s Table.

II. The peril of it.—Must be remembered that perfect holiness would include perfect humility.

1. Lest: begin to carry head high, as one of the privileged ones who have the entrée into the Presence, looking down upon the common run of fellow-Christians, the Mordecais at the gate, who never hear, see, get, care for, “nor are capable of,” such things; begin to despise these less richly favoured ones, or uncharitably esteem them as “less devoted, less earnest, a poor half-hearted set of people”; begin to forget that all such special blessing is only a means to greater usefulness, that all is given that we may give, not that we may simply felicitate ourselves, or enjoy our portion alone; such gifts are—as after Pentecost—to be brought into the common stock, for the help of the Church. [Peril of losing oneself and of losing the blessing in over-subtle analysis of “the blessing”; of dilettante-like expositions of it, till nothing is left but the œsthetics of “experience,” and a sensuous self-indulgence in the mere joy of the “revelations.”] Then comes peril lest Satan get advantage, and the Spirit be with-drawn. The fall of the highest is the lowest. Don’t envy the five-talent man; pray for him!

2. Yet even at the price of such a peril, we shall welcome and glory in the revelations. “He revealed His Son in me.”

III. The safeguard.—Perhaps

1. Some “buffet in the face,” some “thorn in the flesh. Note

(1) Paul was in fact kept safe from the peril. Much grace can always be kept by getting more grace. No necessity that after exaltation should come pride, or self-complacency, or contempt and harsh judgment of others. Christ can keep the highly honoured man, though both his own heart and Satan put him into peril. Note

(2) No need in times of specially “abundant revelations” to begin to look out for the sending of some “thorn in the flesh.” Or after some unusual blessing to say, “Ah! now I shall have some big trial.” As if some unusually bright weather in our pilgrimage were bound to bring a storm.

2. Always the grace of Christ. “This sufficeth, sufficeth, sufficeth, for thy soul: viz. thou hast My grace! Say no more; fear no more; rest there.”

2Co_12:8. “Unanswered Prayer.”

I. An apparent contradiction.—How many Scripture passages run in the strain of: “Him that cometh … I will in no wise cast out.” “Whatsoever things ye desire, … believe that ye receive them” [not “will receive”; indeed, R.V. “received”], etc. Yet did not Christ in effect “cast out” the rich young ruler? Did not Paul thrice ask—like his Lord in Gethsemane—what, in the terms of the request, was not granted? Do not we ask much, and strongly “believe” [often this only means strongly persuade ourselves] that we shall have, yet we do not receive it? Sometimes we “ask amiss” (Jas_4:3). Sometimes, like the ruler, we will not accept our blessing upon Christ’s terms and fulfil His conditions. Such must be cast out. Further:

II. The real harmony.—

1. There are no unanswered prayers. “No” is an answer, real, true, kind. Prayers, petitioners, are never simply disregarded, nor apply to a God who looks, hears, knows, yet makes no response. Always “attends to our voice.” God’s refusal does not mean indifference or rebuff.

2. God’s promise to hear prayer, by no means binds Him to be mechanically at the mere service of His client’s wish. [As Faust’s “familiar” must obey his every command, however capricious or foolish.]

3. Prayer does include petition; definite requests may be, should be, made; to make them honours God; but they are the requests of children addressed to a greater, wiser Father. He had rather say, ‘Yes’ than ‘No’; always says ‘Yes,’ if that may fall in with His purpose and training for His child. If He say ‘No,’ it is that He may take up the desire we imperfectly clothe or conceive, and give it a better embodiment, and one consistent with His larger view of the present conditions, and the future developments of the particular life and its “education.”

4. Immediately, and for Paul’s mere comfort, the better thing seemed to be to take away the “thorn.” Remotely, more widely, with larger consequences of blessing to Paul and to others, and with more glory to the Master Christ, it was better to leave the “thorn” and to add the “sufficient grace.” Take in all the conditions, then the balance of advantage, blessing, glory to Christ, is very preponderantly in favour of saying “No” to the mere letter of the request, and giving a larger “Yes” of eternal blessing.

III. No wrong in tedly urging our request.—Christ did it. Only be careful not to suffer our urgency to lose submissiveness, and become dictation. Keep an ear, a heart, ready to catch the first, plain, tender denial: “Don’t ask that any longer.” Then “be silent unto the Lord” (Psa_62:5, Heb.). Acquiesce in, until this grows to embracing (2Co_12:10), His will; until this grows to “glorying” in the very “infirmities.” Especially, if they may be the occasion, the vehicle, the theatre, of a glorious display of the power of Christ. And if the acquiescence be more than mortal strength can compass, grace will bear in upon the soul a strong peace. “An angel from heaven strengthening,” over against the “angel from Satan buffeting.” [No need to “take pleasure,” or to pretend to take pleasure, in such things (as in 2Co_12:10), unless they be “for Christ’s sake” (1Pe_2:9-10)].

2Co_12:9. “Tabernacling.”—One of the many lines of reiterated, recurrent, continuous teaching by symbolism which bind Revelation and its Record together into an organic whole. One Mind is in such lines of symbolism seen pursuing Its theme, fulfilling Its purpose, through the ages.

I. Bible begins and ends with a garden, a “Paradise of God.” God vouchsafing, desiring, free intercourse with man; “walking in the garden in the cool of the day,”—at the one end of one Book. At the other, the garden (like the Paradises of Persian Kings) is in a city, New Jerusalem; a great voice proclaims that God and man are in perfect fellowship again (Rev_21:3). “The tabernacle of God is with men,” etc. (Zec_8:8 is fulfilled.) (And earlier: Rev_7:15, “tabernacle upon them.”) In the earlier Paradise the idea of “tabernacling” does not yet, of course, appear. The actual, illustrative Tabernacle is in date midway between the two Paradises.

II. God has been all through testifying to desire for the renewal of communion.—

1. In Israel’s camp, Moses had his tent, but there was also another, larger, more costly Tent; understood to be Jehovah’s tent; the tent of the True Chief in the camp. Jehovah “spread His tabernacle” among them. Over it, and within it, hung a cloud of glory, the King’s symbol, occupying His tent amidst the tents of His nation.

2. “When the earthly house of “His “tabernacle was dissolved,” there arose “a building of” Solomon’s. The people are in houses; Solomon lives in a palace; the King must therefore no longer have a tent, but a Palace. Again the cloud comes upon and abides within; the King is resident, and holds His court in His capital, Jerusalem.

3. Just as the earthly house of His dwelling was passing wholly away, to have no structural successor, there came amongst men “a Building of God,” an Incarnate Word, “setting up His tabernacle” (Joh_1:14) “amongst us.” John and his fellow-believers are permitted to enter and “behold His glory,” the Shekinah-cloud of Godhead discernible in Him. (The two veils were rent together.) No such emphatic sign of His desire and heart had God hitherto given. This Word is Immanuel, and, by what He is, says “Immanuel.”

4. All this is blessedly reproduced in His people. We have “seen the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” The man in Christ has “the earthly house of his tabernacle” (2Co_5:1), and he looks for a day when he shall have a body, a nature, which shall be no (temporary) tent, but a (permanent) “building,” a temple, fitted to be the eternal sphere of a communion with God which shall be eternal and perfect in Christ.

III. Meanwhile he walks in and out amongst his fellows, bearing in himself a shrine; being himself a shrine, in which God dwells by His Spirit [or in the person of Christ (Eph_3:17; 1Pe_3:15)]. He turns within, and finds a light and a glory: “God’s Son revealed in him.” Also the power of Christ spreads a tent over him; invests him, covers him, as did the glory which took possession of Solomon’s Temple, with a power and an awful beauty of holiness, evidently not his own. He has been “endued with power from on high” (Luk_24:49). Such a life,—as, for example, Paul’s,—no wonder that it is a centre of power and prevalent influence. It only rests upon him; it is not inherent; he can be divested of it, if unfaithful to it; but while he wears it, how mighty he is for Christ. [Shall we call it the official garment of the ambassador for Christ?]

2Co_12:9; 2Co_12:11. Strength and Weakness.

I. “A distinct principle is announced of universal significance. ‘Strength is made perfect in weakness,’ ‘When I am weak, then am I strong,’ are expressions which have now passed almost into the proverbial language of man-kind. It was true, in the highest sense, of Him that uttered it, that ‘His strength was made perfect in the weakness of His sufferings.’ The Cross of Christ is, indeed, the strength of Christianity. [His sceptre was a reed; not yet the rod of iron (Psalms 2).] It was true, also, though not in the highest sense, yet still in a sense so great as to be a lesson and an example to all the world, that His strength was perfected in the weakness of the Apostles, above all, of St. Paul. ‘I thank Thee, O Father, that Thou hast concealed these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.’ Who can say how much of the purity and simplicity, and therefore universal strength of the first teaching of the Gospel, we owe (humanly speaking) to the humble station and uneducated character of the first Apostles, which thus received, at once, and without perversion or intrusion of alien thoughts, the original impression of the Word made flesh? Who can say how great would have been the loss to the world had the Gospel originated, not in the weakness of Palestine and Galilee, but in the learning of Alexandria or the strength of Rome? And again, in St. Paul himself, it might have seemed at the time to all, as it did on this occasion seem to him, that the cause of the Gospel would have been better served, had he been relieved from his infirmity and gone forth to preach and teach with unbroken vigour of body and mind, his bodily presence strong, his speech mighty and powerful. But history has answered the question otherwise, and has ratified the Divine answer, in which the Apostle acquiesced. What the Apostle lost for himself, and Christianity lost for the moment, has been more than compensated by the acknowledgment that he was beyond doubt proved to be, not the inventor of Christianity, but its devoted and humble propagator. In his own weakness lies the strength of the cause. When he was weakest as a teacher of the present, he was strongest as an apostle of the future. And what his trial was to him and to the world on a large scale, that the trial of each individual Christian may have been ever since, the means in ways inconceivable to him now, of making himself and others strong in the service of God and man.” (Stanley, Corinthians, 569.)

II.

1. Compare also: “The meek”—not the self-assertive, masterful men, insistent on “rights,” combative in their assertion and maintenance, tolerating no smallest slight—“shall inherit the earth.” Like their Lord, “Who shall not strive nor cry … until (in the midst of, and by means of, the work of ‘weakness’) He bring forth judgment unto victory.” The triumph of Christianity in the Roman Empire was the “victory of the vanquished.”

2. How often the preacher, the teacher, the worker, do most when they have gone to their work trembling, discouraged, but the more flung upon God’s strength. History of some men, some ministries, some Churches, is summarised in Hos_13:1. (“Baal” has been some idol of self-sufficiency, or human reliance; before which they have bowed down, turning aside from Jehovah to do so.)

3. How the women, the very children, have found all fear vanish, and the flesh strengthened, to walk to the stake for Christ! Sometimes even shaming the men! How the simple women, in Marian days, silenced the cavil and the argument, strong in their only learning,—the Word of God! How they will bear the daily persecution, strong in their very humility, till the very malice of the world gives way, beaten! “Galilæan, thou hast conquered!”

4. Secret of all is, that conscious weakness turns to Infallible Might. (Storm breaks or uproots the oak that will not bend; the pliant sapling escapes, and is the more deeply rooted because of the storm.) Everything that grieves (as does self-sufficiency or reliance on human wisdom or strength) the Spirit, Whose indwelling is our only strength, weakens us. Everything that leaves room for Him to be exalted, brings His strength increasingly. [Illustrate by bar of soft iron, forming the core of an electro-magnet; cold, and in itself powerless to attract or support. Set the current circulating around it, it is full of power,—which disappears, and is gone, in an instant, if the current stop. “Out of weakness” it “is made strong.”]

2Co_12:14-15. God’s Appeal to the Soul.—May fairly borrow these Pauline words and make them the words of God in Christ appealing to the sinner. For “he that hath seen a Christian hath seen Christ” (cf. Joh_14:9; more than a mere rhetorical parallel). He is a replica of Christ, and so of God. If Paul feels and does this, he has learned it from Christ. He is “in Christ,” in it all.

I. God makes the advances; not man first.—

1. Always the “law” of His dealings. “I said, Thy face … will I seek, because thou saidst (first), Seek ye My face” (Psa_27:8). After sin’s alienation, He makes the first approaches: “I seek you.” “The Father seeketh” spiritual, sincere worshippers (Joh_4:23). We do not solicit the mercy of a reluctant God. No need to “beg Him into the mind” to bless. He is forward, beforehand, with us, proffering, pressing upon our acceptance, His love.

2. Persistently does this.—“This third, tenth, thirtieth time I am coming to you, soul!” Through long years of merciful waiting, rebuffed affection, long-tired patience. [“Came seeking fruit these three years.”] If His patience had not been His, it would have given way long ago. “Come to me.… I am meek, (and therefore have borne your slight of my love)” (Spurgeon). No runaway knock: “I stand at the door, and knock.”

3. “Spent” is “spent out.”—“ ‘It is finished’; He gave up the ghost.” The last was spent, and paid down then.

“What could your Redeemer do,

More than He hath done for you?”

The Father “spared not His own Son,” His unique One, the only “Son” of that kind, the only-begotten. Our sin and need required even That Gift; and He would not stop at even That, when it was a question of our “souls.” How He lavishes love; as if by His gifts to awaken and win for Himself our reluctant, indifferent heart!

4. “More abundantly.”—Another Divine word. Joh_10:10; Heb_6:17; Rom_15:13; Rom_5:15 (our word or its cognates). “My cup” is not simply full but, “runneth over.” Man’s measure for man is God’s measure to man (Luk_6:38).

5. Think of the ages of preparation for Christ, during which God was “laying up for the children.”

II. How man meets the advances.—[This is the bitter wail of some aged fathers, who have slaved, saved, given life, for sons who think the “old man” a burden: “Why does he not take himself off to heaven or some-where!”]

1. Think God a “burden.” [Word (so Jerome in Stanley) a local, Cicilian word, root of which was the name of the torpedo-fish.] His clinging love, hanging around our neck, caressing, wooing, pleading, is unwelcome; it is counted a dead weight, the cling of a torpedo that shocks, and paralyses, and spoils all our possibility of enjoyment! We grudge what His house and service cost us! Grudge what He asks us to give up, if we are to be His. Yet He does not want it, or want to take it, for His own sake. He seeks “not yours, but you.”

2. The more He loves, the less He is loved. Heart gets harder under the very impact of His streaming sunshine! How Nazareth thrust back into the heart of Jesus the love that came unsolicited to do “many mighty works”!

3. Happy for us, that “more abundantly.” We build the dykes, and shut the floodgates [as the Dutchmen, for their good, shut out the ocean]; but the flood of love flows right over the barrier, and brings life into our barren death.

HOMILETIC SUGGESTIONS

2Co_12:10. “Pleasure!”

1. Submission may be much, and more than merely sitting to bear whatever is laid upon us, but with an attitude of heart that means, “I would not if I had any choice. Must bear it; all right, I suppose, but—”

2. Wonderful power of accepting, adjusting self to surroundings. Can accommodate, accustom ourselves to anything; until we move amidst and under the burden of discomfort or deprivation, with a mere indifference that stolidly holds on its way, “blow, hail, shine”!

3. Embracing the will of God is much more.

4. But “take pleasure in”! Unnatural, incredible, impossible,—True!

5. “For His sake” makes the difference. What a reality, and a power, is Christ in Paul’s life! No teacher, no compeller, no enabler, for unwelcome burdens or impossible tasks, like Grateful Love!

2Co_12:10. May we make a counter-part saying, “When Paul is strong, then is he weak”? Two suggestions then:

I. Weakness in strength.

II. Strength in weakness.

Or:—

I. “Strong” have “no need” of help, and do not seek it.

II. “Weak” know their need and lay hold of Almighty strength.

2Co_12:11-13. “In all patience.”—May be made central word of paragraph. As usual, “patience” is not merely “endurance,” but “pressing on and bearing up.”

I. His own converts, who owe him everything, will not say a word for him,—say many against him. “Be patient, Paul.” Down, proud heart! Stoop, for the cause’ sake, to commend yourself. Crucify personal feeling. Be “a fool.”

II. His enemies resist him, and decry, and depreciate. Yet he has a credential none of them possess. It might become a weapon against them. But no! “Be patient, Paul!” Never use miracle-working power for a weapon of revenge or self-vindication! [Cf. “Withdrew Himself from them,” when He could have slain such murderous-hearted wretches, with the same power that had healed the withered hand (Mat_12:14-15). Simply went out of their way!]

III. His Churches are ready to think the worst, if he ask an apostle’s rightful maintenance. “Be patient, Paul!” Let Philippi help thee, indeed, “once and again” (Php_4:16). But for Corinthians (and Ephesians),—well, thou hast a trade in thy hand; turn to thy tentmaking!

2Co_12:14. (See another line of suggestion homiletically dealt with more fully below.)

I. “Not yours”: your gifts; applause; influence. “I am your minister for Christ’s sake,”—your servant; not “lording it” over the Lord’s “heritage” (1Pe_5:13).

II. “You.” “Watching for your souls as one who must give an account” (Heb_13:17). “Your love, for my own sake. And that, because I cannot help you unless I have it. Your welfare, here and hereafter; by your conversion and your perfecting in holiness.”

2Co_12:16-19 (first clause).

I. Self-vindication sometimes necessary for the credit of religion.—[Cf. Samuel’s self vindication (1Sa_12:2-4). Yet higher Example: “Which of you convicteth Me of sin?” (Joh_8:46). David’s assertions of innocence are no personal boasting; they are the appeal of a smarting sense of injustice, involving the cause of God and its credit, to a Higher Court.]

II. Man who does it should be very sure that he can offer

(1) a clear conscience to the examination of God and

(2) clear accounts, and a clean record, to the examination of man.

1. “In sight of God speak we.” [Then use may be made of “boasting,” and of irony,—both edged tools to deal with, and dangerous to a man’s own spiritual life. Did Christ ever use irony? F. W. Robertson thought so; “Full well” (Mar_7:9).]

2. Christian men should be more particular than others in money matters. Mercenary motives will be charged; because of the misconduct of some; because the world understands no higher motive; or from pure maliciousness. Poor excuse for muddle, hard to distinguish from dishonesty: “He meant no wrong!” Particularly in dealing with money of others, or of the Church. In even such secularities, “temporals,” Paul and Titus “walk in the Spirit.” As the early “deacons” (Acts 7) were to be “full … of the Holy Ghost.” Oh for spiritual treasurers, secretaries, stewards!

3. There are sins in a man’s past record which, though pardoned, and not affecting his present standing or holiness before God, render it inexpedient that he should be in the ministry. Paul and Titus should have clean hands, and a clean record. [Rev. Thomas Collins, on platform of a meeting full of opponents: “Mr. Chairman, Christian friends, I am a man who neither fears the frown, nor courts the smile, of any living. I am a man through whose soul the light of the Sun of Righteousness beams all day and all night.” (Coley, Life of Collins, 308.) In similar circumstances at Truro he said: “[You say] ‘you are designing men.’ That is true. I am a designing man.… I have a design to draw my family closer to God, and to get my hearers into the same mind. These are my chief designs at present. All others that I have bow down to them and serve them. Could you this moment scan the naked hearts of my brethren, you would, I doubt not, find some such designs in them.” (Ib. 309.) Very close parallels, even in form, to Paul’s case here.]

2Co_12:19 (second clause)—21. A New Testament Nehemiah.

I.

1. I am coming to Corinth; “to build you up” (2Co_12:19).

2. I hear, and fear, that I shall find sad havoc and ruin in the Church of God; “walls broken down”; “gates burnt with fire.”

3. I shall be such as ye would not: a stern, authoritative, authorised reformer, sparing no wrong, or wrongdoer; as every true minister of Christ must on occasion be.

4. I fear I shall have a bitter hour of speechless humiliation among you (Neh_1:4; good parallel in Ezr_9:3-4).

II. Man who loves, and understands, the true methods and meaning of the Work of God, finds no keener distress, no greater humiliation before God, than in the sins which are the weakness and the shame of the Church.

III. How easily old sins, or the customary sins of our world and our time, regain ascendency over Church members, and creep into the Church. [See again how Nehemiah kept the gates, nor would even suffer the expelled traders to tempt his citizens by remaining even in the neighbourhood of the walls (Neh_13:21).]

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

Xv.—his Revelations As A Ground For Boasting (2Co_12:1 ff.). How He Had Been Kept From Self-exaltation, And Been Led To Glory In His Infirmities (2Co_12:7 ff.). How He Ought To Have Been Saved The Necessity Of Such Self-commendation By The Corinthians Themselves (2Co_12:11 ff.)

2Co_12:1-18

1It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory, [I must needs1 boast: it is not expedient 2for me, for2] I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I knew [know, οἶδα] a man in Christ above [om. above] fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell [know not, οἷδα], or whether out of the body, I cannot tell [know not]; God knoweth): such an one caught up to [even unto, ἔως] the third heaven. 3And I knew [know] such a man, (whether in the body, or out of [apart from, χωρὶς]3 4the body, I cannot tell [know not4]; God knoweth: How [om. how] that he was caught up into Paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a5[om. a, ἀνθρώπῳ)] man to utter. Of such a one will I glory: yet of myself I will notglory, but in mine5 infirmities. 6For though I would [should] desire to glory, I shall not be a fool; for I will say the truth: but now [om. now] I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or6 that he heareth of [from,7ἐξ] me. And lest7 I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger [an angel,8ἄγγελος] of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.8 For [concerning, ὑπὲρ] this thing [angel] I besought the Lord thrice, that it [he] might depart9 from me. And He [hath, εἴρηκἐν] said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my [om. my9] strength is made perfect10 in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest [abide] upon me.10Therefore I take pleasure [am well contented, εὐδοκῶ] in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in11 distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong. 11I am become a fool in glorying [om. in glorying12]; ye have compelled me: for I ought to have been commended of you: for in nothing am [was, ὑστέρησα I behind the very chiefest [these overmuch, ὑπερλίαν] apostles, though I be nothing.12Truly the signs of an Apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in [by13] signs and wonders and mighty deeds. 13For what is it wherein ye were inferior14 to other churches, except it be that I myself was not burdensome to you? forgive me this14 wrong. Behold, the15 third time I am ready to come to you; and I will not be burdensome to you [om. to you16]: for I seek not yours, but you: for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children. 15And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you [your souls, τῶν ψυχῶν]; though [if, ἐι17] the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved. 16But be it so, I did not burden you: nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile. 17Did I make a gain of you by any18 of them whom I sent unto you? I desired [besought, παρεκάλεσα]Titus [to go to you] and with him I sent a [the] brother. Did Titus make a gain of you? walked we not in the same spirit? walked we not in the same steps?

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

2Co_12:1-6.—It is necessary to boast; it is not for my advantage, for I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.—Although we should not regard the Apostle as precisely breaking off from a special history commenced in the last two verses (Meyer), he certainly passes now to a new subject of boasting (καύχησις). In a preface composed of short sentences grammatically unconnected (asyndeton) but logically arranged, he declares that under the circumstances he could not avoid self-commendation, but that in a moral respect it was not expedient, inasmuch, as it exposed him to the temptation to exalt himself (comp. 2Co_12:7 ff.). Αεῖ must be taken in an absolute sense, equivalent to, it must be so. It is not necessary to connect μοι with it. The γάρ introduces the reason why he once more speaks in self-commendation. It is that he was about to relate something which might incline him to an unprofitable self-exaltation (comp. 2Co_12:7). With less simplicity, Meyer thinks that because boasting was unprofitable, Paul was anxious to pass on to something in which there was no self-commendation (2Co_12:5), and he thinks that οὐ συμφέρει μοι is thus accounted for and justified, although he himself notices what the Apostle says in 2Co_12:7 of self-exaltation on account of the abundance of the revelations. If we adopt the reading of the Receptus, the idea of the Apostle would be: Truly it is not expedient for me to glory (comp. 2Co_11:1; 2Co_11:17; 2Co_11:30). The reason for this he would assign by pointing to the elevating character of his subsequent glorying, for it is implied that the danger would be more imminent, the more exalted the boast and its object was. Thus Osiander, who adheres to the Receptus, explains it, but essentially concedes that the original clause with δεῖ would have seemed so very abrupt, and the asyndeton so unusually harsh, that a plausible reason was presented for a change. It will not do to lay the emphasis upon μοὶ, as if Paul had meant that it was not for his own, but for their good that he boasted himself (i.e., to correct their judgment respecting himself, Reiche), for this would have required οὐκ ἐμοὶ, or ἐμαυτῷ at least ἐμοί, instead of μοι.18 The things of which he now begins to speak are visions and revelations of the Lord (ὀπτασίαι καὶ ἀποκαλύψεις κυρίου). Κυρίου is the genitive, not of the object, but of the subject [i.e., not respecting, but from, the Lord]. Nothing is said in the context which implies that the transaction here spoken of was a vision of Christ, in which the Lord was revealed to him (the way of speaking is different in 1Co_11:1; Gal_1:16). Christ had given him disclosures and revelations of himself (1Co_14:6). The visions (ὀπτασίαι), however, describe the form in which he had received them. No further nor profounder disclosures are intended by the revelations (ἀποκάλυψεις) than by the visions (ὀπτασίαι). Osiander thinks that the words describe two ways in which supersensual objects are presented: one by a figurative apparition for the eye, and the other by means of sound for the ear. The Berlenb. Bible makes visions refer to those representations of heavenly forms which the Holy Ghost makes to the inward spirit of man, in a Divine light and in a spiritual manner; and revelations (the higher manifestation) to that thorough enlightenment of the mind and heart by the Holy Ghost in which we learn the true mind of the Spirit. W. F. Besser: From the very commencement of his Christian experience, the Lord had allowed Paul to see in visions and to hear in revelations those mysteries which belonged to a world invisible and imperceptible to the external sense. By Christ’s own appearance to him at first (Act_22:15; Act_26:16), his want of outward evidence through the eye and ear had been made up to him in an extraordinary manner, and his authority had been made equal to that of the twelve Apostles. The visions (ὀπτασίαι) may designate the general form in which the revelation was made, but in addition to them an explanation of the visible objects was given by words addressed to the ear (as in the prophetical visions). We feel obliged, with Meyer, to maintain that we have no evidence that Paul had in view here some pretensions of his opponents with respect to which he wishes to show that he had the advantage of them, for nothing in the context seems to imply that his object was to show that an external acquaintance with Christ was unnecessary to the Apostolical character (Baur), nor to show that he was quite equal to the Christ-party who boasted largely of visions. I know a man in Christ, fourteen years ago (whether in the body I know not, or whether out of the body I know not, God knows), such a one was rapt as far as the third heaven (2Co_12:2). The Apostle here affords a specimen of what he had just given only an intimation. It is certainly inconsistent with the context and with the general aim of the writer to maintain that he was here giving an account of some other person than himself.19 It was perfectly accordant with the nature of the occurrence for him to speak of such an occurrence in the third person, inasmuch as the individual spoken of was in a passive state, and might seem in his normal state of activity as another person (Meyer). Osiander suggests that his own proper person had become estranged to him in his ecstatic state, and was here conceived of as still remaining with the Lord. [Οἶδα should be translated, not: I knew, but: I know]. It may be doubted whether the word has any special emphasis, as if the Apostle intended to give prominence to his complete, certainty about a fact which might be questioned by many on account of its extraordinary character (Osiander). A man in Christ signifies a Christian, and not a minister of Christ. He is not, indeed, expressly speaking of himself. Neander: “It is an expression in which Paul distinguishes between that which he had become by the grace of God and that which was merely human in himself.” There is, however, no very obvious contrast between the humble ‘man’ and the exalted character of the revelation. In Christ indicates that the man was in the great general fellowship of the common faith. The words imply nothing connected with the ecstasy, and still less do they have a special bearing against the suspicion of a demoniac ecstasy. The precise statement of the time belongs to ἁρπαγέντα (from which it is separated only by a parenthesis: ἔιτε—οἶδεν), and not to ἄνθρ. ἐν χριστῷ as if he had intended to say, a man who has been serving Christ fourteen years. The reason he so accurately specifies it was, that the occurrence was particularly important to him, and peculiarly appropriate to his representation of what pertained to a third person. There can be no reference here to events attending his conversion, which must have taken place from seventeen to eighteen or oven twenty years before the composition of this Epistle. Even if chronology were not against supposing that he here referred to the appearance in the Temple mentioned in Act_22:17-21, the facts related in the two visions are essentially so different that we cannot suppose them the same. The only way to meet this is (with Osiander) to suppose that there were different elements in this ecstasy, and that what is here mentioned was only the culminating point. With this view it would be chronologically connected with 2Co_11:32-33. [Alford: “The date probably refers back to the time when he was at Tarsus waiting for God to point out his work, between Act_9:30; Act_11:25.” Wordsworth says: “Fourteen years, reckoned inclusively, carry us back to the time of St. Paul’s ordination to the Apostleship of the Gentiles, which must not be confounded with the time of his conversion to Christianity.” “Probably this vision and revelation were vouchsafed to him then, because he was going forth for the first time to incur shame and suffering,” and they were not communicated to the world until fourteen years afterwards, and even then only as facts and not in detail, because they were designed only for him, and for such a purpose. On this use of πρὸ, Webster says: “The primary idea of πρό is, in sight, and it is applied to what is before one, in some place opposite, in view. From this meaning it passes on to denote priority in time, and so with a trajection in its use it signifies here, before, in time.” Syntax and Synn. p. 150]. We have no other account of what is here related. With respect to the manner in which it took place, the Apostle was entirely uncertain, he was not sure that the soul retained any connection with the body. The latter may have been raised by the Spirit’s power along with Paul’s spirit into heavenly regions, or this connection may have been for the time dissolved, and his spirit rapt away from its earthly tenement. In a word, the whole person, composed of his soul and his body together, or his soul alone, separate from his body (or at least without any of its external functions) was lifted up into a celestial world, Ἁρπαγέντα signifies much more than the different varieties of subjective mental vision, whether accompanied by bodily mental perceptions or not. The uncertainty here expressed does not refer to the question, whether this was a mere vision (ἐν), or an actual trance of the spirit (ἐκτός). Any doubt on such a point would have seriously impaired the importance of the occurrence itself (comp. Meyer, Osiander). We have no means of determining to which of these suppositions, the ἐν or the ἐκτός) the Apostle was most inclined. But the whole representation which he gives makes it probable that the ascent was real and in actual space, and not merely ideal.20 Εἴτε, εἴτε have here the sense of: whether, or whether. ̔Αρπαγῆναι, is spoken of sudden, involuntary removals from one place to another (comp. Act_8:39; Rev_12:5; 1Th_4:17), [and it hero implies great celerity and the power of some external force].—And I know such a man (whether in the body or out of the body I know not, God knows); that he was caught up into Paradise (2Co_12:3-4 a.).—In the words, such a man (τὸν τοιοῦτον) the Apostle recurs to the subject of the ecstasy, the one he had before described as the man in Christ. Osiander, thinks that the phrase, such a man, contains an allusion to the fact, that he is now endowed with qualities which fitted him for such an exaltation. The point reached in the course of his ecstasy under the influence of the higher power (the Spirit of God) which had taken possession of him, he calls the third heaven (τρίτος οὐρανός). This is not to be interpreted spiritually of the utmost degree of Divine knowledge, etc. (the number three being taken simply as a symbol of perfection), for the Apostle had unquestionably in his mind a higher sphere of the heavenly world. A plurality of heavens is not inconsistent with Scriptural doctrine, for something

f the kind is implied even in the plural (heavens, οὐρανοί) here used, and in the description (Heb_4:14) of Christ’s ascension, in which He is said to have passed into the heavens διεληλυθέναι τοὺς ούρανούς), the termination of which is described (Heb_9:24) as an entrance into heaven itself (εἰσελθεῖν εἰς αὐτὸν τὸν οὐρἀνόν), i.e., into the dwelling place of the Divine Majesty, to which the heavens he had passed through were related, just as the sanctuary in the tabernacle was related to the holy of holies. Jewish tradition generally speaks of seven heavens (Rabbi Judah alone speaks of two). To such common views and forms of speech the Apostle doubtless had some reference, but the original idea must be distinguished from the arbitrary and monstrous details of the Rabbinical writers. As neither here nor elsewhere (except in some later ecclesiastical writers, who probably derived their views from the passage before us) is it necessarily implied that there were no more than three heavens, this third need not, of course, be regarded as the highest heaven. Neither here nor in Heb_4:14 must we suppose the allusion to be to some region of the visible heavens (the clouds, etc.), but to some supersensous space between the stellar and the highest heaven, the true holy of holies (comp. Riem, d. Lehrbegr. des Hebr. Br. p. 512). And yet we must unquestionably make a distinction between this higher region called the third heaven, and the place called Paradise although it does not follow that the former must of course be a lower region than the latter). It does not seem probable that what is said in 2Co_12:3-4, should be a mere repetition of what had been said in 2Co_12:2.21 On the other hand the Apostle probably speaks in 2Co_12:3-4 of a higher degree of ecstasy than that which he had mentioned in the other. And yet the Paradise was not exactly some interior department of the third heaven, but some higher region, that which is called in Rev_2:7 the Paradise of God (the lower department in Sheol, Luk_23:43, comp. Luk_16:23). Osiander: “The abode in which the highest peace and joy are enjoyed, where fellowship with God and the God-man is most intimate, and where the world of spirits has its most delightful and most perfect development.” Neander: “Paul here describes a higher degree of life in God, a foretaste of that which the soul will reach at a later period, no illusion of the imagination or product of Jewish superstition, but a certain and actual exaltation of the soul. And yet we may here distinguish between the supernatural and the divine on the one hand and the human on the other, and we may concede that the representation here given to the Apostle was in that form which was most familiar to him in his actual state of mind at the time.”—And heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful for man to utter (2Co_12:4 b).—It is evident from the use of the word ἤκουσεν that ῥῆμα cannot here be equivalent to things, but that it must mean a word. But ἄῤῥητον signifies, not what cannot be expressed, for then the words could not have been perceived, but as the relative sentence immediately following shows, words of such mysterious import as ought not to be uttered or to be generally known. In this sense the word is used in Herod, and other writers. Ἐξόν is equivalent not to δυνατόν but to fas est.—The substance of the communication was so exalted that it would have been a profanation to give it in human language. W. F. Besser: “It is likely that the substance of the heavenly words was taken up by the Apostle as he heard them, but he felt that no man after receiving such a communication in successive details, could find language adequately and worthily to express what he had heard in that sacred presence. And even if God had given him power to express on earth what he had heard in heaven, there were no earthly ears which could intelligently receive the communication.” We cannot accept of Ewald’s explanation, that the reason Paul determined to keep these revelations to himself (revelations, as he thinks likely, of the final victory of Christ over Rome and heathenism, and also over Jerusalem and the Jews), was because he saw that other men might easily be led to pervert them in many ways and then to obtain credit on his authority. [These words were “unspeakable,” (not only to him but to man) perhaps on account of their nature, but as Paul tells us that it was not “lawful to utter” them, we must suppose that he was restrained from uttering them principally by a moral reason. The whole vision appears to have been intended for the Apostle alone, to prepare him personally for his work, and for this reason alone he had no occasion to speak of it for fourteen years, and never to speak of its contents. The apocryphal literature of subsequent times, shows what follies the minds of men are inclined to, on such mysteries. (See the ἀναβάτικον Παύλου used by the sect of Caïani, mentioned by Epiphanius, Haeres: 18, 38). But nothing in this passage implies that the Apostle possessed any arcana or mysteries on the general subject of salvation, which are to be withheld as dangerous matters, from common inspection, and yet capable of investigation to more philosophical and learned persons.] Ἀνθρώπῳ is not the object of λαλεῖν but is governed by ἐξόν. There are no means of determining whether Paul was brought to this conclusion by an express command with regard to it, or whether he saw its propriety without such a command. The speaker, however, must have been the Lord, comp. 2Co_12:1, ἀποκ. κυρίου. What was said must have been very significant and eminently strengthening to the Apostle’s mind (comp. Osiander).—Instead of proceeding to say now: ἐντούτω (of such a thing) καυχήσομαι, as must have been in his mind, he says, in accordance with the mode of representation commenced in 2Co_12:2. Of such a one will I glory (2Co_12:5).—Τοῦ τοιούτου is not neuter but masculine. This is proved not only by ὑπέρ which has relation to a person in whose behalf the boasting must take place (2Co_7:14; 2Co_5:12; 2Co_8:24), but by the contrasted ἐμαυτοῦ, and the unmistakable reference to τὸν τοιοῦτον in 2Co_12:2-3.—The principle which lies at the basis of the whole passage is, that he was not to boast of such revelations, as though they argued anything in his own favor, but only as an incident connected with a man in Christ, who had been at this period completely lifted out of his own individuality and had been thought worthy of such grace merely on account of his being in Christ. His only object in condescending to this boasting of such a one, was that he might bear witness that such glorious things had been granted to such a one.—But of myself I will not boast, save in my infirmities (2Co_12:5 b).—In behalf of himself, (regarded simply as himself), ho would boast only with reference to his infirmities (comp. 2Co_11:30). He alluded here to those many manifestations of human weakness, which had occasioned so much humiliation to him, which had completely extirpated all vanity from his bosom, and which had finally compelled him to boast only of that divine power which evinced its greatness through his infirmities, (comp. vv.9, 10.).—For if I shall desire to boast, I shall not be foolish, for I will speak the truth (2Co_12:6 a).—There is some difficulty here in determining the connection which the γαρ implies with 2Co_12:5. To make it refer back to the first half of that verse, and thus to make the Apostle begin to reveal his identity with the man in Christ (Osiander) does not seem after all very probable. And yet to supply something to οὐκαυχησομαι (2Co_12:5) by which it shall mean: I will not boast of these great revelations, and to make εἱ μή signify but only, and then in this 2Co_12:6 to make if I should desire to boast refer to the same things with the additional thought: although I could thus boast (De Wette), seems very harsh. We would prefer, without any such completion of the sense, to understand before the words οὐ καυχ. εἰ μή, etc., in 2Co_12:5, simply: I could thus boast concerning myself if I wished to do so (i.e., of my worth and merits), and to suppose that when he continues, if I should desire, etc., he is giving the reason for this thought which had sprung from what is obviously implied in the sentence itself (Meyer). But, perhaps after all it would be simpler to make the γάρ refer to the whole of 2Co_12:6, so that the writer would have already in view the subsequent φείδομαι and the sentence connected with it: I will not boast of myself except of my infirmities; for although I should not be a fool even if I were to boast myself, inasmuch as I should tell the truth, yet I forbear, lest, etc. Or: not because I should be a fool, if I were inclined to boast myself, etc., but because I would guard against, etc. In this case there would be no need of adding anything to the thought expressed.—The boasting (καυχήσασθαι) has reference to something the reverse of weakness, and hence to deeds (comp. 1Co_15:10) in which power was exhibited. In ἄφρων (senseless, without reason) he alludes probably to the empty boasting of his opponents, in which there was no basis of truth like that in his self-commendations—but I forbear, lest any one should reckon of me above what he sees me to be or hears from me (2Co_12:6 b).—There is no need here of supplying ὐμῶν to φείδομαι; along with μή (or in the infinitive) this verb has the sense of: to shrink back or to act with reserve, i.e. to deal sparingly with his self-commendation. In μή we have certainly the idea of mental care (Meyer: of guarding against something). This anxiety, however, was well founded, so far as it referred to the inclination to boast in men then so strong among the Corinthians, and the Apostle did not wish to encourage in any way a disposition against which he had so earnestly contended. Τις has reference to no particular individual, for we have no reason to suppose that he is hero aiming at some Pauline party at Corinth. The over-valuation of his person which ho here deprecates, he expresses in the words beyond what he sees me, or hears something from me (ὑπὲρ ο͂ βλέπει με ἤ ἀκούει τι ἐξ ἐμοῦ) i.e., beyond the immediate impression which my personal presence would make. There is no necessity of supplying either εἶναι or ποιεῖν, after δ βλέπει με, which has reference to his whole appearance, his bearing and behavior. ̓Ακούει refers to his performances in oral discourse. Ἐξ ἐμοῦ (ex me) from myself, in contrast with that which might be heard of him through others. Τι is a brachyological or concise form of expression equivalent to ἐί τι ἀκούει. Notwithstanding the unfriendly opinions which had been expressed of him (2Co_10:1; 2Co_10:10), he desired to have no other standard laid down for judging of him than a strict conformity to what all might perceive in him.

2Co_12:7-10. And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations (2Co_12:7 a).—[Stanley, adopting Lachmann’s reading of διὸ before ἴνα, is obliged also with him, to connect καὶ τῇ ὐπερβ. τῶν άποκ. with ἀσθενείαις in 2Co_12:5, and to make the whole of 2Co_12:6 a parenthesis. Even Alford concedes that, if διὸ forms a part of the text, it must be the commencement of a sentence, and that we must adopt Lachmann’s punctuation. But he thinks that “a very strange sense would thus be given,” for then the Apostle would refuse to glory in himself, except in his infirmities and in the exceeding abundance of his revelations; thus making his glorying in his revelations a part of his glorying in himself. But rejecting διὸ, for which we have hardly sufficient authority, the sentence reads smoothly. Osiander remarks that everything in K. τῇ ὑπερβ. τῶν ἀποκ is remarkable: the expression itself, the way in which the words are joined together, and the position of the words in the sentence. For emphasis the words are placed first (comp. 2Co_2:4), the revelations are represented as multifarious, and for additional force a substantive is used with an adjectival signification.] Having said (2Co_12:5-6) that he now abstained from further boasting, not because he lacked in good grounds for it, but from a regard to them, that they might not overvalue his person, he now returns to the revelations he had spoken of in 2Co_12:1, etc., and shows how he had been kept from a possible self-exaltation on account of these revelations, by means of a peculiarly severe affliction. Kαί here signifies not: even, but: and, merely connecting with the former sentence.—Υπερβολή occurs also in 2Co_4:7. It is difficult to decide whether the dative is that of the instrument (: by means of), or of the cause (on account of) like ἑπαίρεσθαι τινι. The meaning is much the same in either case. We have ὑπεραίρεσθαι in 2Th_2:4, in the sense of to exalt himself.—There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, an angel of Satan to buffet me—There can be no doubt that a Divine intention or design is implied [by ί́να], whether God or Satan is looked upon as the giver in ἐδόθη. It is possible to interpret it of either, but it seems rather more appropriate to refer it to God, inasmuch as the object to be accomplished by it was under the Divine direction. We must not, however, conclude from thence that ἐδόθη implies merely a Divine permission, for it includes the idea of disposing, and ordaining. God gives even what is afflictive for the attainment of some higher and benevolent end; i.e, as the means of trial and humiliation. Σκόλοψ is a sharpened piece of wood, a stake, or a thorn (as in Num_33:55). The first of these meanings is not altogether inappropriate. [Stanley adheres to this, and contends that σκόλοψ is not a thorn (from which he finds it sometimes distinguished, esp. Hos_2:6; Sept. Artemid. 3:33) but generally a pointed stake or palisade (Numb. 30:55; Eze_28:24). It must be conceded that this is the usual meaning. Hence Luther and many understand by it a stake, for the execution of criminals. Stanley finds ἀνασκολοπίζω in the Sept. of Est_7:10 explained by Phavorinus and Hesychius as equivalent to ἀνασταυρίζω, and he thence infers that σκόλοψ was equivalent to σταυρός, the cross, or the stake. In Lucian, too (De morte Per. 11), ἀνασκολοπίζω is used for the crucifixion of Christ. As in describing his state of constant torture the Apostle draws his image from crucifixion. so here he draws it from impalement. The angel of Satan like Death in 1Co_15:55, is armed with the impaling stake; or the Apostle was himself already impaled or crucified. The phrase τῇ σαρκὶ is certainly unsuitable to this interpretation]. In the flesh (τῇ σαρκὶ) is not in apposition with to me (μοι) and dependent upon was given (ἐδόθη), but it is to be connected with σκόλοψ (a thorn) as a dative of appropriation. But σάρξ is not human nature in general, unregenerate and sinful, but man’s corporeal nature with the sinful disposition connected with it. In this place it has reference especially to the sensitive horror which that nature feels at pain, or its recoil from the suffering which God had decreed for it. Σκόλοψ is undoubtedly the subject of έδόθη, and ἄγγελος σατᾶν is in apposition to σκόλοψ, though the converse of this may not be true (as if σκόλοψ were an ἄγγελος). These words in apposition, however, are the subject of ἵνα—κολαφίζη, which involves a metaphor no longer quite suitable to σκόλοψ. But such an apparent irregularity of construction may be found in other places. And yet there is no inversion of the words, as if he would say: that the angel of Satan might buffet me. Κολαφίζῃ expresses continued action and it is therefore in the subj. præs, not in the aorist. Ἄγγελος σατᾶν does not signify merely a hostile angel, for σατᾶν never is to be found precisely as an adjective, and in the New Testament it never has the sense of adversarius (an angel, an adversary). Nor can it mean Satan himself [the angel Satan] who is never designated an ἄγγελος; but an angel of Satan like ἄγγελοι τοῦν διαβόλου in Mat_25:41, Σατᾶν therefore is in the genitive (the var. σατανᾶ. has less authority for it, is a correction of the indeclinable noun, which is a ἄπαξ λεγόμενον). An exceedingly painful suffering is indicated by σκόλοψ, and is described by the phrase an angel of Satan. It is not merely a Suffering sent upon the Apostle by Satan, (for Satan’s angel in the estimation of the Apostle was a real malignant power) by means of which God had ordained for him a humiliating torment (comp. 1Co_5:5, Job_2:6), with the exalted purpose which he afterwards brings forward in an emphatic manner when he says:—lest I should be exalted above measure (2Co_12:7).—The idea conveyed therefore is, that in accordance with the divine decree the Apostle was abased in a humiliating manner by an angel of Satan, and that in consequence of this tormenting influence sent on him from the kingdom of darkness, he was kept from unduly exalting himself on account of the glorious revelations vouchsafed him from the kingdom of light. But of what nature were these sufferings? Of course we are not to think of literal and real blows or buffetings. The idea of an internal assault of Satan by means of blasphemous thoughts, or by remorse of conscience on account of his earlier persecution of the followers of Christ, or by means of temptation’s to lust, must be regarded (irrespective of the last mentioned suggestion, which was an improbable product of the ascetic exegesis of the monks, comp. Osiander p. 473 and 2Co_4:7), as directly in opposition to τῇ σαρκί (according to Meyer also in opposition to σκόλοψ and κολαφίζη in which are described an acute and continuous pain). Still more improbable is the idea of external assaults on the part of hostile opponents, called here ministers of Satan (2Co_11:15), and designated collectively an angel of Satan, inasmuch as one of them (sing.) may have distinguished himself above the rest; or the idea of a great pressure of apostolic duties in general. The context leads us to think of a definite and special form of suffering (Meyer) in contrast with the abundance of the revelations, and of something for whose cessation he could properly and earnestly pray (2Co_12:8), as he could hardly do with respect to his official duties.—The most probable supposition is that he had in view some very severe and painful bodily suffering, which however did not prevent his undergoing exhausting labors and his persisting in numerous hardships. But it is utterly out of our power to determine precisely what this suffering consisted in (hemorrhoids, hypocondria and melancholy, epilepsy, stone, violent head-ache, etc.). Ewald: “When this disease came upon him, it was like a terrific blow upon the head (κολαφίζῇ) without a previous warning.” It was something personal, not affecting him simply as a minister of Christ, and an ἀσθένεια (2Co_12:9), although of a peculiar kind, reminding him of his human frailty and hence having a tendency to keep him from undue self-exaltation on account of his remarkable experiences of divine favor. We are very naturally reminded of Luther’s disease of the stone which in like manner was ascribed to the devil.—Osiander unites together the ideas of bodily and spiritual assaults, and his explanation is favored by the fact that there is usually a reciprocal action between the two, but the general impression of our passage is rather in favor of a long-continued evil rather than of a temporary darkening and .disturbance of mind.—In 2Co_12:8-9, he tells us how he prayed that this evil and its consequences might be removed from him.—Concerning this, I besought the Lord thrice, that he might depart from me (2Co_12:8).—Ὑπέρ, since Demosthenes, has frequently had the sense of περί: in consideration of, in respect to. Τούτου is not neuter but masculine, as is shown by ἀποστῇ (might depart). Ho had in his mind the angel of Satan. Τρίς is not equivalent to πολλάκις, nor is it a number for perfection. There may have been long intervals of time between each prayer, and perhaps he only prayed when under extreme paroxysms of suffering. That he was under this affliction when he wrote however, is not necessarily implied. He received no answer from the Lord until the third petition, when, of course, he ceased. The Lord (κύριος) is Christ who has obtained the victory over every kind of Satanic power. Παρακαλεῖν is a word which in the New Testament is never used with reference to God and only with reference to Christ. It has the sense of, to call for help, and in the classic writers is used to designate a call on the gods. ̓Αποστῆναι ( to depart) as in Luk_4:13 is used with regard to Satan, but in Act_5:38; Act_22:29, it is applied to human assailants.—And he has said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for power is made perfect in weakness (2Co_12:9).—In this place εἵρηκε express a continued action [the perfect of a continued past action], but we have no means of determining how it was said, whether in a vision, or merely by some internal encouragement. (Osiander: “probably a testimony of the Holy Spirit in the exercise of the highest spiritual functions, by means of which the Apostle’s heart was thoroughly tranquilized, assured of his gracious state and enlightened with respect to this special case. It was thus a distinct revelation of the mind of Christ, by special inspiration, and confirmed, perhaps, by the application of some passage of Scripture.” The answer was an apparent refusal, with such a promise as was a virtual granting of his request. The ἀρκεῖ, which stands for emphasis at the head of the sentence, is not equivalent to: will protect (a poetical usage), or will assist (Xenophon and others), but it means simply, will be sufficient for, will satisfy; it will be enough that I am gracious to thee, and that I love thee, and will take pleasure in thee. There is no reference to miraculous gifts. To show that he would need nothing else, the Lord adds: for my strength, etc. The μου has only a few authorities in its favor, but they are of the highest importance; and even if it is not supplied in the text, it must be understood. The fact that ἐν ἀσθενείᾳ has no σου after it may have had some influence in inducing transcribers to leave it out. The meaning is: with one who is in this weak state, my power comes into more perfect activity (comp. 2Co_4:7; 1Co_2:3-4). But this power of the Lord dwells only in those who share also in His grace; .i.e., it is put forth in its full strength and activity only where there is nothing but helplessness and painful weakness; for where a consciousness of power is, it is rather impeded in its action. (Τελεῖται has not the sense of: proves itself to be perfect).—Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, that Christ’s power may abide upon me—(2Co_12:9).—The Apostle here describes the effect of this promise. He gave up all expectation of being freed from his trouble, and he was satisfied with the prospect (of enjoying the grace whose work was to be completed in his weakness. Grammatical usage will not permit us to refer μᾶλλον to ἤδιστα. Nor should we supply after it: than before, when I prayed thus (2Co_12:8), or: than any thing, or: than in my own power, or: than in the revelations which I had. It belongs rather, as its position necessarily shows, to καυχήσομαι. Instead of complaining and praying that the suffering might cease, I will rather glory in my infirmities. This, however, would lead to the accomplishment and experience of the promise given him when the Lord visited him, i.e., that Christ’s power might dwell (permanently abide) upon him. The word ἐπισκηνοῦν signifies to enter, to turn into, a tent or dwelling. Ἐπ ̓ ἐμέ, in other places, has reference to the direction generally; and here, where the Apostle is speaking of the power of Christ, who was then in heaven, it means, to come down upon me and to abide with me (the figure is that of a permanent connection). Whether any thing of unusual solemnity attaches to the expression, as if it had reference to the Shekinah, as if the power of Christ were as a pavilion extended over him for his protection, or as if he himself were the space in which it was to be manifested, is uncertain.—Wherefore I am well contented in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake (2Co_12:10). From what he had just described as the object of all this proceeding, and of course from the promise of Christ which had been accomplished by his glorying in his infirmities (2Co_12:9), the Apostle now makes a practical inference, viz.: inasmuch as this glorying in my infirmities has brought Christ’s power to take possession of me, I take pleasure in infirmities, etc. Ἐυδοκεῖν ἐν signifies here a voluntary endurance, a patient satisfaction with these sufferings [Our English A. V.: take pleasure in, is too strong; the Greek is: I am well contented in (Fausset)]. The ἀσθένειαι, the suffering condition in which these infirmities become perceptible, are particularized in ὔβρεσιν, insulting abuses, ἀνάγκαις, etc., comp. 2Co_6:4 (external afflictions proceeding from those around him). ̓Υπὲρ χριστοῦ, which belongs to and qualifies all these preceding nouns, signifies here: for the sake (or, in behalf) of Christ.—For when I am weak, then am I strong (2Co_12:10 b.). The reason for his good courage while enduring these sufferings for Christ’s sake, was that he had felt strengthened under all his infirmities by the power of Christ dwelling continually in him (comp. Php_4:13). In these words we have the fulfilment of the promise in 2Co_12:9. Τότε is emphatic, and shows how triumphant were the Apostle’s feelings, comp. 1Co_15:54; Col_3:4.

[Stanley: “The long burst of passionate self-vindication, has now, at last expended itself, and the Apostle returns to the point from whence he diverged at 2Co_10:7, where he was asserting his intention to repress the disobedience of those who still resisted his authority at Corinth. Before, however, he enters again upon this, he looks back over the long digression, and resumes here and there a thought which needed explanation or expansion. Hence, although this concluding section stands apart from the interruption of 2Co_10:10 to 2Co_12:10, and is truly the winding up of the main argument begun in 2Co_10:1-7, it is filled with traces of the torrent which has passed through his mind in the interval. His ‘folly,’ 2Co_11:1-10; the ‘commendatory epistles’ (2Co_3:1; 2Co_5:12); the ‘apostolical’ pretensions of his opponents (2Co_11:12-13) are resumed in 2Co_12:11; his miracles and sufferings (2Co_11:23-28), in 2Co_12:12; the question of self-support (2Co_11:12) in vv.13–18; the strength and weakness united in Christ (2Co_12:19), in 2Co_13:3-4; 2Co_13:9”].

2Co_12:11-15.—I am become a fool; ye have compelled me: for I ought to have been commended by you; for in nothing was I behind these overmuch apostles, although I am nothing (2Co_12:11).—He here makes an ironical concession (for the words should not be regarded as a question) with reference to the many things he had said in commendation of himself in the course of the last two chapters: I am become a fool. [The verb γέγονα indicates that he had become what he was not originally]. And yet he follows this immediately with a justification of himself; for he throws upon them the responsibility of all: ye have forced me thus foolishly to boast myself, for I ought to have been commended by you, instead of being obliged to commend myself. [The ironical nature of the passage explains the concession without taking this verse interrogatively, as Wordsworth, after some Greek scholiasts, suggests]. In emphatic correspondence with one another are arranged the words: ὑμεῖς, ἐγώ, ὑφ ̓ ὑμῶν. By ἑγω he does not put himself in special contrast with those opponents who were so highly commended by the Corinthians. He merely censures here the want of attention which these Corinthians had shown to his claims. Their positive injustice toward him he exposes when he comes to say, that he had been in no respect behind those much-lauded apostles (comp. 2Co_11:5). Ὑατέρησα limits the time of the comparison to the period of his residence at Corinth. With humility, however, he adds (comp. 1Co_15:8, etc.), that he was after all nothing, i.e., I am absolutely powerless in myself (1Co_1:28). This is a sincere assertion, though it contains a severe allusion to the pride of his opponents (Osiander). He shows that he was in no respect behind these supereminent apostles, by referring to those proofs of his Apostleship which he had given among them.—Truly the signs of an Apostle were wrought among you in all patience by signs and wonders and miracles (2Co_12:12). The signs of an Apostle here signify those things by means of which the Apostles showed that they were Apostles, and were recognized as such among their fellow men. The article makes the idea of an Apostle especially prominent (Bengel: ejus, qui sit apostolus); the reality and not merely the ideal of one. The first σημεία is here to be taken in the more comprehensive sense [of general evidences], whereas the second should be explained in the narrower signification [of special tokens of a Divine power]. Neander: “Our faith in the reality of the Apostle’s performance of miracles need not therefore be founded solely upon tradition, for Paul here asserts that he wrought them, and he thus comes in direct opposition to all mythical views of the narratives of New Testament miracles.” The passive κατηργάσθη (were wrought) or κατειργάσθη is a modest form of expression for: I wrought. Even if we are not influenced by the inappropriateness of such an idea ἐν πάσῃ ὑπομονῇ cannot be taken as the first in the series of σημείοις, etc., for the ἐν is not really a part of the original text. The phrase designates the ethical element in which these signs were wrought in Corinth (ἐν ὑμῖν), and which had a tendency to confirm believers there. It shows his perseverance, with all steadfastness in the midst of the opposition and sufferings he had to meet as an Apostle (comp. 2Co_6:4). Ὑπομονή has reference here not to an outward objective tolerance of all kinds of evils (for it has no genitive of the object in connection with it, as in 2Co_1:6), but it refers to the feelings with which he persevered under his trials. Πάσῃ implies the degree, the completeness of his patience, for if we refer it to the extent to which it was carried in respect to the variety of its exercises, it would more properly apply to the objective interpretation. These proofs of his Apostleship (κατεργ. is said of that which is a res ardua) he calls σηὴεία, τεράτα, δυναμε͂ις. The words designate the same thing under various aspects; we have: 1, their significance, with reference to the Divine legation; 2, their impression, on account of their extraordinary and wonderful appearance; 3, their causality, as expressions of Divine power. [Σημεῖα are “signs,” and have an ethical purpose beyond themselves as credentials of a Divine mission; τέρατα are “wonders,” regarded simply as supernatural prodigies to excite surprise, and are never spoken of except in connection with some of the other names; and δυναμεῖς are “mighty works,” looked upon simply as putting forth of Divine power. See Trench, part 2, p. 198 ff.; Webster, 233f. It is much to be regretted that each of these words in the original is not rendered in our English version uniformly by the same word]. The same words are used in 2Th_2:9 (of Satanic miracles), but in Heb_2:4 and in Rom_15:19, they are referred to for the same purpose as in our passage, i.e., to legitimate Apostolical authority. The accumulation of such words brings into more distinct prominence the magnitude and variety of the miracles. Some have attempted, rather arbitrarily, to refer the first to the cure of diseases which were curable by ordinary means; the second, to the cure of diseases beyond the reach of human art; and the third, to exercises of Apostolical power in punishing crimes, or to spiritual powers. The force of the passage is entirely lost by those who explain it of the extraordinary effects produced by his preaching and character. The μέν gives a hint of a contrast, on which the Apostle is other-wise silent, i.e., the want of acknowledgment which these signs had suffered. Meyer: the proofs were indeed (truly) wrought, but they have failed to produce the corresponding conviction among you. There is no γάρ in the sentence, and the omission is in accordance with the abrupt and lively style of the general passage. It is, however, supplied in 2Co_12:13, where he corroborates by a touching question what he had said in 2Co_12:12.—For what is there in which ye were inferior to the rest of the churches? (2Co_12:13 a).—The proofs of an Apostleship had been wrought among them, for in nothing were they inferior to the other churches where he had labored. Ὑπέρ signifies generally over, beyond; but here on account of ἡττᾶσθαι, downwards, below. In other places we have ἠττᾶσθαι τινόςτινι (but with the accus. of the “wherein”). Rückert, very incorrectly and contrary to the connection with 2Co_12:12, gives the meaning: ye have suffered no more injury than, etc. It seems also an arbitrary limitation of the thought, to make it refer exclusively to the gifts of the Spirit.—The Apostle, however, allows that there was one respect in which they might be considered inferior:—except that I myself was not burdensome to you (2Co_12:13 b); i.e. had labored among them without compensation. This was a delicate though painful irony, which amounted to bitterness when he added the prayer which follows. Εὶ μὴ ὅτι: i.e. except perhaps; or: except this, that, etc. The great distance of 2Co_12:16, etc., renders it improper to explain αὐτὸς ἐγώ by a reference to it. [Αὐτὸς is very emphatic especially before ἐγὼ]. He places his own person in contrast with those Apostolic works to which his question had just alluded. οὐ κατενάρκησα is explained on 2Co_11:7-8.—This fact that he had received no personal maintenance from them as he had done from other churches, made them inferior to those churches and was an injustice to them, for which he craved their pardon:—forgive me this wrong (2Co_12:13 c).—Such a request was a severe censure, as if they had been so ungrateful and had so completely failed to appreciate his conduct, that they had become grossly prejudiced against him through the influence of his contemptuous and suspicious opponents.—Chrysostom and some others contend that the Apostle was not here speaking ironically, but that he was endeavoring to mitigate the wounded feeling he had produced by his allusion to his self-denying course among them (as if it were a sign of a defect in his regard for them). But the irony of the preceding question compels us to regard the prayer as a continuation of the same strain.—Not until he comes to 2Co_12:14, does he come back, to his ordinary tone:—Behold, I am ready to come unto you the third time, and I will not be burdensome to you.—In this verse τρίτον does not belong to ἑτοίμως ἔχω but to ἐλθε͂ιν πρὸς ὑμᾶς, for it is not with reference to his readiness, but to his actual coming among them that he could say he was resolved not to be burdensome to them. He intended to say that on two occasions when he had been among them [see on 2Co_13:1], he had not been a burden to them and he was equally resolved not to be a burden to them on this third visit for which he was now prepared. On ἰδού comp. 2Co_6:2; 2Co_6:9; 2Co_7:11.—His reason for this purpose he says was to be found in his dis-interested love for them (comp. Php_4:17); they were of importance to him, not because of what they possessed, and hence not for any advantage they would be to him, but for their own sakes; since if they were won to Christ and advanced in the work of salvation, he would gain by them as much as he desired (Rückert reverses this: the Apostle would gain them for himself, and in this way for Christ; but such a view is not as much according to the spirit of the passage, comp. Osiander).—This idea he traces back to the natural relation between parents and children; by virtue of which children were not bound to make provision for the parents, but the parents for the children:—For the children are not bound to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children (2Co_12:14 b).—This applied to him as their spiritual father (1Co_4:15), and it was therefore his part not to seek for their possessions, but to care for them and to collect spiritual treasures for them (as the duty of providing for children by the investment of property is not abolished but brought within the proper limits of a confidence in God and a heavenly mind by what is said in Mat_6:19, so here the duty of children to support their parents is not excluded, Osiander). After οἱ γονεῖς understand ὀφείλουσι θησαυρίζειν.—He applies this rule to himself in 2Co_12:15, but he implies that his love was strong enough to go far beyond the limits usually reached by parental duty:—And I will most gladly spend and be spent for you.—The gradual rise in the discourse or the climax indicated by δέ is clearly brought out even in ἤδιστα, which goes far beyond ὀψείλει, but it is carried far beyond both in in ἔκδαπανηθήσομαι. Instead of collecting something for himself at their expense, he was determined not merely to expend with hearty good will, all that he had acquired or possessed, for their benefit, but so to use all his powers as to wear them out in the interest of their souls, i.e., to sacrifice his life and his whole self, if he could thereby promote their supreme good. The compound verb ἐκδαπανᾶςθαι is much stronger than the original simple verb, and signifies to be utterly consumed (comp. Osiander’s admirable remarks). The Apostle adds:—although the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved, (2Co_12:15 b)—If we accept εἰ καί according to the Receptus, the sense would be: although I shall be loved the less, the more I love you. Rückert and Osiander preserve this idea, even if καί is rejected (making εἰ concessive), but such an interpretation is very doubtful. Meyer takes εἰ in the sense of: if, equivalent to ἐπεί, as if the Apostle hesitated to make the direct and confident assertion, but declared that he was willing to go to the utmost in overcoming their hostile spirit toward him. This willingness he would still express if the condition were set forth as an actual and known fact: though I, as is now evident, shall be loved the less, etc. If this is presented by the Apostle as the motive of his conduct the language certainly is very severe, but on any other view the idea comes out in a very awkward and feeble manner. It is better probably to take it in a concessive sense, but then it becomes necessary with Tischendorf to retain the καί, which has many and good authorities in its favor.—Περισσοτερως—ἦττον is an abbreviated expression for ὅσῳ—τοιούτῳ.—Nothing needs to be understood in addition to the comparative (as: more them other churches, or: less than my opponents).

2Co_12:16-18. He here meets the attempt to throw on him the suspicion that under the pretence of personal disinterestedness he had sent deputies, and through them had imposed burdens upon the Corinthians. He comes upon his readers boldly and confidently with the question whether these deputies had not exhibited a disinterestedness similar to his own.—But be it so, I was not burdensome to you; nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile (2Co_12:16). In ἔστω, etc., he puts himself in the position of an objector. Such a one must concede that the Corinthians had not been burdened with any selfish claims on his part, but it might be insinuated that this had been only to play a deeper game of craft to get them into his power, and to overreach them by means of his emissaries. Ἔστω is found with a similar use in Plato, as in the Latin: esto! sit ita sane ! ̓Εγώ is here emphatic in contrast with those intermediate agents mentioned in 2Co_12:17-18. With ἀλλά he introduces the precise objection (in contrast with ἔστω—ὑμᾶς): he had caught them by a crafty method gaining them over by an appearance of disinterestedness (ἔλαβον is found in 2Co_11:20). Πανοῦργος signifies adroit, sly, subtle (2Co_4:2; 2Co_11:3). Paul’s real prudence and skill was here represented in an unfavorable light (comp. Osiander). Ὑπάρχων is used in a similar manner in 1Co_11:7.—Did I make a gain of you by any of them whom I sent unto you (2Co_12:17). This verse is an anacoluthon; where τινὰ is in an emphatic position at the commencement of the sentence, and as an accusative absolute. He was probably about to write: ἀπέσταλκα εἰς τὸ πλεονεκτῆσαι ὑμᾶς, but with an impressive abbreviation, he leaves this second ἀπέσταλκα out, and, losing sight of the accus.: τινὰ, writes: δἰ ἀντοῦ ἐπλεονεκτησα. The ὦν is here an instance of attraction for τούτων οὕς.—I besought Titus to go on this mission, and with Him I sent the brother (2Co_12:18 a). He here names these deputies, and especially Titus, whom he had sent last, and the brother [not a brother, as in our English A. V.] accompanying Titus, unnamed, but well known to his readers. It is impossible for us to determine who this brother was. We conclude from the word συναπέστειλα, and from the fact that only Titus is afterwards named, that he was subordinate to Titus. The sending is the one mentioned in chap. 7. [soon after the writing of the first Epistle of our canon] and not that spoken of in chap. 8. On παρεκάλεσα comp. 2Co_8:6; 2Co_8:17. [Osiander draws attention to the fact that in each of the three passages (2Co_7:13; 2Co_8:6) in which Paul’s agency in inducing Titus to enter upon this mission, the same word (παρακαλέω) is used. The word appears to convey an idea intermediate between that of a command and that of a prayer, i.e., a friendly requirement, a reminding of what ought to be done].—Did Titus make a gain of you? Walked we not in the same spirit and in the same steps? (2Co_12:18). Τῳ αὐτῷ πνεύματι is the dative of the mode and manner (Rom_13:13), or of the rule or law. The meaning is: did not the same Holy Spirit control us all in our conduct, and keep us from all selfish conduct, from every thing like making a gain of any one? The dative οὐ τοῖς αὐτοῖς ἴχνεσιν is probably the local dative, as in Act_14:16, and the words here signify an agreement in external conduct, as the preceding clause refers to an agreement in internal purpose and feeling. The Apostle is not here speaking directly of Christ’s footsteps (1Pe_2:21), but we must conclude that they walked in the same steps, because Titus followed those of Paul (Meyer).

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. When a Christian is distinguished for remarkable degrees of Divine grace, he is very apt to become elevated in his own estimation. A faithful God not unfrequently prevents this by bringing him into circumstances of deep humiliation, that by such painful methods he may become conscious of his own inability, and that he may not claim those glorious distinctions which are given him for Christ’s sake, as if they were his own and were intended for his personal honor. In all such afflictions, whether bodily or spiritual, or both combined, there is an influence of Satan designed to torment and worry him, but God will use them to drive him to the throne of grace. And though his ardent request to be freed from the distress may not be granted, he will surely receive that Divine grace which will enable him to bear the heaviest burden. Divine power will find its best sphere of activity in his weakness, and the result will be that he will be strong in his weakness. Instead, therefore, of complaining and fretting about his various infirmities and those sufferings which make him conscious of them, he will experience and exhibit to the world no small degree of satisfaction in them.

2. A faithful member of Christ will be inclined to keep his own person in the background, wherever he is. He seeks, no honor for himself, and least of all will he boast himself when he gains esteem and influence in consequence of some special impartations of grace from on high. Every attempt to give him an undue importance on account of such things will be offensive to him, because it will seem like giving him an honor which belongs only to God. He desires to be esteemed only for what he has actually done and spoken. The important thing with him is not the fleece, but the sheep, that those souls which Christ has purchased may be brought to Him and be saved. For such an object he is willing to make any sacrifice, to bring to the altar all that he is and has, even his life. What if men do not appreciate his love and fidelity, make him no suitable return, and even show themselves ungrateful? His love will only become more ardent, and his devotion to their welfare more intense.

3. W. F. Besser:—Ever since God stationed before Eden the cherub with his naked, flaming sword, man must look for no Paradise on earth. There is, however, one beyond this sinful world in the third heaven. Its treasures and its jewels were enjoyed by the Apostle when in holy ecstasy he was allowed to have direct communion with God in Christ, that true tree of life which was lost in Adam but regained in Christ. Our Lord promised it to the thief on the cross (Luk_23:43), and now offers it to all sinners. When the tabernacle of God shall be pitched upon the new earth, then shall the New Jerusalem be revealed in Paradisaic glory (Rev_21:2-3).

[3. “Paul evidently supposed that his soul might be taken to heaven without the body, and that it might have a separate consciousness and a separate existence. He was not therefore a materialist, and he did not believe that the existence and consciousness of the soul was dependent on the body” (Barnes). Doddridge says that he has “yet to learn what the presence of an immaterial soul in a body can be (for this also seems supposed by the Apostle to be a possibility), distinct from the capacity of perceiving by it, and acting upon it.” And yet the Apostle makes both suppositions and evidently regarded them as credible.

4. All prayer is answered in heaven—though sometimes not until it becomes importunate, and the petitioner has come by continued prayerful fellowship with God to a consciousness of his real want. Paul (like his Master) prayed and held communion with his Lord, until he came to know what was possible and best for him. The subject matter of his prayer, as it existed in the heart, was for relief, rather than for that specific mode of relief which the outward words asked for. That prayer in the heart was answered when his thorn ceased to be a thorn to him.

5. It is lawful to address Christ in prayer. Though the verb παρακαλέω is never used in classic Greek, nor in any other passage of the N. T., as equivalent to δέομαι, and in an address to God, the reason for its preference here was probably simply because of the familiar and personal relation in which Paul supposes himself to his Lord. The distinction between invocatio and advocatio seems here inappropriate, since Christ is evidently not addressed as an advocate with the Father, as if He were subordinate, but as a supreme and ultimate Disposer of affairs.

6. We have here (2Co_12:12) one of the few allusions which the Apostles make in their Epistles to the evidence of miracles. Only in seven out of all their Epistles is any thing said of this kind of evidence, and the reason is that most of those Epistles are hortatory and not apologetical. Here, however, the importance, if not the indispensable necessity of miracles, as σημεῖα τ. ἀποστόλου is clearly asserted. And yet here, as every where else, they are spoken of in an unobtrusive manner as of universally acknowledged facts. They had been performed, as Christ wrought them, not merely as credentials of a Divine mission, but from benevolence also, and from a fulness of power to relieve human woe. And yet in another aspect they were, and might properly be, appealed to as the seals of the Apostleship. Comp. Fausset, Port. Com.].

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Chrysostom:

2Co_12:10. Where there is suffering there is consolation, and where there is consolation there is grace. And yet before the reward which God bestows, we derive much benefit from the very exercises of affliction itself; for our arrogance is repressed, our littleness is taken away, the use we can make of many human instruments is discovered, and we are, as it were, anointed for the conflicts before us.—Basil:

2Co_12:18. The left hand is not more indispensable to the right, than unanimity and concord to the ministers of the church.

Starke:

2Co_12:1. Never boast of yourself; it is always useless and vain. But if you so conduct yourself that others praise you, it is honorable and useful to you (Pro_27:2)

2Co_12:2 ff. Spener:—While under such Divine influences, ecstasies and revelations, the external man cannot pay attention to itself, and frequently it has no conception of what is passing within itself; all power and intelligence is taken up with what is taking place within the soul itself. While the eternal God is at work within him, the man knows nothing of time, and while God’s power occupies his thoughts, he has no remembrance of such a thing as himself or the world. Hedinger:—During the present life, heavenly things are much too high and difficult, and it is enough if we can be gradually prepared for them by a few fortastes of them.

2Co_12:5. Our highest boast now is, to know what weak, poor and miserable creatures we are. Whatever good we are and have, is entirely the result of God’s grace and mercy.

2Co_12:6. Hedinger:—A faithful pastor will be careful that his people think of him no more highly than they ought to think. 2Co_12:7. Where much is given, much also shall we be tempted; but great also shall be our consolation and sure our final victory.—Let no one pride himself on anything he has received from God, for as sure as he does so, all enjoyment of it will be taken away from his flesh by some keen thorn, which Satan knows how to sharpen so ingeniously that he will be compelled to feel it whether he is willing or unwilling.

2Co_12:8. Affliction drives us to God, and teaches us to call on him day and night, Isa_26:16. But very probably God will make us wait, Psa_130:6. Christians gain their victories by patience and prayer. Prayer makes the heart light and merry. If you cannot pray, then groan, and if you cannot groan and even this distresses you, that very distress is a prayer, Rom_8:26.

2Co_12:9. Luther:—Christ cannot make known His full strength in us, until we are weak and suffering. God knows best what is for our good; and no one is more ignorant on this point than those who are enduring the anguish of the cross. Our prayers, therefore, should always be conditional. Think not that it is a sign of God’s displeasure, when you are not heard according to your desire, even though you have prayed aright, for it is rather a token of grace. Happy the man who is so satisfied with Divine grace, that it is easy for him to depend wholly upon God; for he who is thus satisfied with grace actually enjoys it. Our weakness need never trouble us. The weaker we are in ourselves, the stronger in Christ, Psa_18:36. It is the weak tendril which unites the branch with the vine. Christ is our vine. We who are truly in Christ shall never fall, whatever storms may beat upon us. If we have much grace, we must have much suffering; if great suffering, great power; and if great power, great victory. All these hang together in one undivided chain.

2Co_12:10. Hedinger:—The more humbled by afflictions, the more exalted by grace. Faith increases under conflicts.

2Co_12:11. Pious Christians should never remain silent when men venture by falsehoods to cast suspicion upon their spiritual teachers. Such is the duty of every Christian in behalf of his fellow men, how much more of spiritual children in behalf of their parents. Humility forbids us not to allow others to commend us, but only to love the praise of men. The more thou humblest thyself, the more exalted thou art, and the more God will be gracious to thee, Ecc_3:20.

2Co_12:12. The signs of a true servant of Christ are seen not merely in his passive suffering, but in his active doings.

2Co_12:13. Spener:—Without keeping back what they owe to God and their fellow men, parents should economize what God has kindly bestowed upon them, that their children may have something after their death; but let them be careful to lay up no treasures from mere covetousness, from a distrust of Providence, to the prejudice of the claims of justice, and to the withholding of what is due to the honor of God, their neighbor’s necessity, or the proper education of their children. By not attending to these latter considerations, many live to experience much anguish of heart, and drown themselves and their children in everlasting destruction (comp. Mat_6:19; 1Ti_6:9). Happy the church in which many are serving the Lord, and all are faithful!

2Co_12:18. It is a great blessing, where God’s servants are ruled and animated by the Spirit of Christ alone, and where they all walk in the same steps.

Berlenb Bible:

2Co_12:1. What is there higher for a poor creature, than for him to come into direct communion with God and heavenly beings? And yet even this would be an injury if it became a ground of self-glorification.

2Co_12:2. Who could keep to himself a matter like this for fourteen years? Those who have great gifts must be most watchful over themselves.

2Co_12:3. In circumstances like these it is God’s way to have men say: “I cannot tell;” for they are thus kept from being puffed with pride. Many lessons God reserves to the higher school of heaven.

2Co_12:4. Not unfrequently God gives His people some foretaste of their future blessedness; but such things are not indispensable to our happiness. Our highest excellencies are best shown in the modesty with which they are enjoyed. Those who have seen most of God’s majesty, know not how to humble themselves enough, Isa_6:5.

2Co_12:5. Ineffable grace it is when the Lord graciously vouchsafes to turn the heart of his servant to his native home, and to let him know what no mortal eye, ear or sense could perceive. Even if we have done all things, what have we to boast of? Luk_17:10. Only of our infirmities, and yet these should afford us no excuse for indolence and wickedness.

2Co_12:6. Anti-Christianity has sometimes had its origin in an excessive veneration for the eminent gifts which God has sometimes bestowed upon His people.

2Co_12:7. Those who have carefully observed the mysterious ways of Divine wisdom, have remarked that without giving any explanation of his dealings God has deeply humbled His own people as well as other men. To say nothing of external afflictions, this is particularly the case with inward trials. God will gradually consume and exhaust even the most secret influences which might injure or destroy the highest gifts of His grace. It is His secret counsel that many a Christian who seems a favorite of heaven, should be encumbered with some sore trouble, and taste, perhaps, even the powers of hell, until the ends of grace are accomplished, and he is in no danger of self-exaltation.

2Co_12:8. Why thrice? was not once enough? How long has the Lord been obliged to wait upon thee! Besides, if He lets thee struggle awhile in thy distress, it may wake thee up to more faith, hope and patience at last. A Christian may have wonderful revelations of God, and yet not know much of the secret ways of God with Himself. God often seems severe, when He is really aiming at our highest good. His help consists not so much in ridding us of the evil, as in preserving us under it. Here is the error which makes many prayers seem unanswered. But is it not help when God keeps us from being consumed in the flames?

2Co_12:9. Let us not be afraid of temptations, but see to it that we lose not our hold upon grace by turning aside to evil. We need never fear to meet trials if we only maintain a vigorous resolution in harmony with the inward action of grace, and thus proceed from one degree of attainment to another. To keep us humble we must never lose sight of our miserable condition; and yet we may go so far in this direction, that we may make shipwreck of hope and despair of God’s love and mercy. The best state we can attain in this world is, a happy assurance by God’s Spirit, that we always have in heaven a gracious God and Father. Our whole safety depends upon this, for then our hearts rest upon God Himself. “Lord, give me Thy self, and it is enough!” Psa_73:25-26. God’s power seems mightiest when we are conscious of our own wretchedness, and in the midst of such travail of soul it comes to its perfection. The Saviour is obliged frequently to let His people know that they can do nothing of themselves, that thus they may be driven to a reliance upon grace alone. If they truly boast of their infirmities, they will take pleasure not in their sins, but in being humble. Not so with those who make an excuse of their infirmities. They have no desire, and hence they have no ability to do anything. Let them resolve in a proper manner, and they will soon accomplish something by Divine grace; for they will soon cast away all confidence in their own powers, and make such a use of God’s, that they will triumph over all evil, and begin and complete every good work.

2Co_12:10. The Spirit’s power increases as that of the flesh decreases. As I lose my own power I am clothed with Christ’s. God makes the creature see its own nothingness, that it may become something in Christ to the praise of His glory. God was robbed of His glory when man fell, and it can be restored to Him only when man is shown in his weakness and nothingness, that God may become all in all. Whoever strives in his self-sufficiency to live according to his own pleasure, acknowledges no subjection to God, and will derive no power from him.

2Co_12:11. It is quite possible to be at the same time something and nothing. All are striving hard to be something, but none like to learn that they are nothing. If thou art something, esteem thyself as nothing, and then thou wilt remain something, and become something more.

Rieger:

2Co_12:1, etc. Men think at the present day they can gain much attention by some wonderful accounts of the invisible world. But whoever has not given himself up thoroughly to obey the word of the Cross, will find that the word from the third heaven and from Paradise will be only a manacle of unbelief, and a temptation to forsake the faith.

2Co_12:4. In Divine things it is better to have more in store than is given out.

2Co_12:6. How much honor a man may gain before God, by not seeking and not accepting of the honor which comes from his fellow men. Indeed, God’s love goes beyond this, and provides against the self-exaltation of His children when they have received what is of real value and pleasure to them.

2Co_12:7. Mighty grace! which can provide that neither height nor depth can do us an injury!

2Co_12:9-10. Let nothing overwhelm thee; even in utter weakness be strong, and assured that Christ’s power will accomplish some gracious purpose thereby. In sorrow’s night, when troubles distress thee, His power will defend thee until the sure morning comes.

2Co_12:14, etc. In preaching the Gospel of the kingdom, we cannot be too careful to avoid not only the reality, but even the slightest appearance of a worldly spirit To aid a soul in escaping from death and in the work of salvation, will be a greater joy to your own soul in the day of the Lord Jesus than to have won a world. Love generally goes downward (i.e., from parents to children), in greater strength than it returns; and what must be said of the great love of that God who is nothing but love and from whom all good comes, as compared with our feeble love!

Heubner:

2Co_12:1. Boasting, to please ourselves, always lowers us in the esteem of others, and is usually punished by some great humiliation.

2Co_12:2, etc. Extraordinary revelations have been sometimes given to those who are distinguished for piety to strengthen them for their duties, by a foretaste of future blessedness. No one, however, should long for such revelations, and much less make a parade of them when they are vouchsafed; for they are not needful to a believing and godly life, and in seeking them we run great peril of self-deception, of gross errors, and above all, of spiritual pride. For every spark of pride which accompanies them, our fall will have to be so much the deeper.

2Co_12:5. When we glory in our infirmities and confess that we can do nothing of ourselves, we give glory to God.

2Co_12:6. The pious man makes it his aim not to appear better than he is, but to be better than he appears

2Co_12:7. The example of Paul is most instructive to all who are called to endure severe but unavoidable evils. God does not always appear for their help; for though He is able, He knows it unwise to do so. He knows what is best for us, and He intends to try our faith, to purify our hearts, and to suppress that pride which is the greatest foe to eminence.

2Co_12:9. The only consolation which can satisfy us in affliction is that which springs from an assurance of the Divine favor, and an unreproving conscience. If we long for nothing else, we can triumph over all things.

2Co_12:10. The more we let go all confidence in ourselves and leave ourselves entirely and unreservedly in the Lord’s hands, the more strength we shall receive from Him. Such is the true weakness of a Christian. That which is only spurious makes excuses for sin, shrinks from conflicts, and has no desires for growth in grace.

2Co_12:14. Genuine love says: “I seek not yours, but you;” that which is false seeks for external and adventitious advantages, such as power, honor, rank, etc. A rare thing it is to find those who love us solely for what we are !

2Co_12:15. The highest degrees of love are seldom fully reciprocated. The Christian must not expect it.

W. F. Besser:

2Co_12:9. In the weakness of the instrument, the power of him who uses it has an opportunity to show how completely it can triumph over difficulties (2Co_4:7). “It is God’s way,” says Luther, “to manifest His power and majesty by means of nothingness and feebleness.” Give up praying away thy thorn, O Christian, and take to heart the promise of all-sufficient grace; then shalt thou begin with Paul to boast of thy weakness and shelter thyself in Christ’s own power! Thou mighty God and merciful Saviour, in covenant with the falling leaves and withered grass of human weakness, dost permit us to witness miracles of Almighty power precisely where our power completely fails us! Teach us to understand an arrangement in which Thy glory is in harmony with our joy, and we become satisfied for Thy sake with every cross and with manifold infirmities; since like a magnet they bring down Thy power to us.

2Co_12:14. If it is indeed reasonable and just that children should support those parents who need their care; surely it is the duty of churches to sustain their spiritual father by a return not only of intercessions in their behalf, at the throne of grace, but of such honor as is required in 1Co_9:11.

Gerlach:

2Co_12:9. The greatest peril to a sinful man is pride and self-exaltation. When his powers and his gifts seem greatest, and all that he attempts succeeds and thrives, great will be his temptation to be proud and self-sufficient; and it will be hard to feel continually that all he has is of grace. Though our own hearts and outward appearances may suggest the contrary, never are we better prepared to have God’s power work within us and around us, than when we are enduring outward and inward afflictions.

2Co_11:19 to 2Co_12:9. Gospel for Sexag. Sunday. Heubner:—The Apostles as the most eminent of the followers of Jesus. How they—1, preached and were faithful in all their duties, from mere love to the Church, and notwithstanding the envy and opposition of false teachers; 2, suffered the greatest hardships in their work without wavering from their steadfastness; 3, were vouchsafed more exalted revelations; 4, were nevertheless more deeply humbled.—How Christian love suffers—1, First, it can bring us into deep afflictions; 2, God will thus purify us, and assimilate us to Jesus; 3, His grace is an abundant consolation. The Christian’s commendation of himself: 1) Its proper occasion: urgent reasons (2Co_12:19-21); 2) Its object: excellences which have a spiritual value, labors, sufferings, etc. (2 Co 12:23–33), gracious tokens which God vouchsafes to us; 3) Its limitations (to boast of these things only as gifts of God, and to induce others to trust in him).—Comp. Oetinger, Epistelpredigten, S. 151ff., Kap. xii. 1–9; Albertini, Predigten, S. 49ff.,Kap xii. 1–10; L. Hofacker, S. 199ff., 757ff.; Zeugnisse Evang. Wahrheit, I. S. 399ff., Kap. xii. 9; Hossbach, 2 Samml. S. 45ff.; Schmidt, Vorhalle des Predigtsegens, 1864, S. 384.

[2Co_12:1-5. The wonderful incident here related, and Paul’s appreciation of it. I. The fact itself. 1. The manner in which he speaks of himself as the subject of this experience (with reluctance and embarrassment 2Co_12:2-3). 2. The time in which it took place (at the commencement of his religious life, 2Co_12:2). 3. The place in which it occurred (in a local heaven, 2Co_12:2; 2Co_12:4). 4. The state in which the Apostle was (so taken up with heavenly things as to be unconscious of his sentient life, 2Co_12:2-3). 5. The things he saw and heard (were not thought useful to our knowledge, and so were withheld 2Co_12:4. II. The Apostle’s estimate of it. 1. He clearly distinguished between an exalted privilege and a gracious attainment. 2. Regarded it as very liable to become a snare. 3. Esteemed his infirmities and afflictions as more useful to him. 4. And yet he evidently highly appreciated what he had here seen and heard.

2Co_12:7-10. I. Prayer.—1. Its appropriate objects; 2. Its encouragements; 3. The importunity allowed; 4. The limitation finally given. II. Its Answer—1. At the best time, however delayed; 2. With transcendent Wisdom , , 3. With a view to spiritual results alone.]

Footnotes:

[1]2Co_12:1.—Rec. and Tisch. have δὴ, others δὲ. The best authorities are in favor of δεῖ. The apparent want of connection gave occasion for changing it into δὴ, δὲ, εἰ—δεῖ (δεῖ was not transferred from 2Co_11:30). [Authorities now seem evenly balanced between the three. Δὴ has in its favor K. M., most of the cursives, the Arm. vers., and (on such a point) the powerful testimony of all the Greek Fathers; δὲ has D. (1st hand) Sin. 114, Copt. Slav. and Latin versions, and Theophyl.; and δεῖ has B. D. (3d hand) E. F. G. L. Sin. (3d hand), many cursives, the Syr. Arm. Vulg. Ital. verss., and Ambrosiast. But as Tisch. suggests, B. is evidently corrupted here by (εἰ—καὶ), and δὲ and δεῖ were most likely to be derived from δὴ, and as the most difficult reading, and the one most consistent with the ironical style of this section, the latter has much the best internal evidence. It is adopted by Bloomf., de Wette, Reiche, Alford, Wordsworth, Conybeare, and Hodge, while Lachmann, Meyer, Osiander, and Stanley adopt δεῖ].

[2]2Co_12:1.—Lachmann has οὐ συμφέρον μὲν, ἐλεύσομαι δὲ (B. δὲ καὶ), on authorities by no means the highest. [B. F. G. Sin. some curss. and verss. (the Copt. Latin Fathers, Damasc. and Vulg., add καὶ with B.)]. The Rec. οὐ συμφέρει μοι· ἐλεύσ. γαρ is the more difficult reading on account of γὰρ, and μὲν—δὲ are evidently corrections to make the sense clearer. [The reading συμφέρον can only be retained with μὲν—δὲ. The variations are very considerable here, but the Rec. is sustained by most of the uncials and cursives, and especially by the verss, (except the Lat. and Vulg.) and the Greek Fathers; and if original it most easily accounts for the variations].

[3]2Co_12:3.—Rec. has ἐκτός, but it was probably taken from 2Co_12:2; for χωρίς is well sustained. [Sin. D. (2d and 3d hand) E. (2d hand) F. G. K. L. M. have ἐκρός; but B. D. (1st hand), E. (1st hand) and Method. have χωρίς].

[4]2Co_12:3.—Lachmann leaves out οὐκ οἶδα, but without sufficient authority [only that of the Vatican and Methodius].

[5]2Co_12:5.—Lachm. throws out μου, but on insufficient evidence. [The only important MSS. for the omission are B. D. (1st hand), with the Copt. Syr. (both) and Arm. versions; while D. (3d hand) E. F. G. K. L. M. Sin. Vulg. and the Fathers insert it].

[6]2Co_12:6.—Τι is wanting in many, and even in some of the better MSS. [B. D. (3d hand) E. (2d hand) F. G. Sin. Vulg.]; but it probably was omitted because it disturbed the sense of the passage, or at least seemed superfluous.

[7]2Co_12:7.—Before the first ἵνα Lachmann inserts διὸ after A. B. F. G. [and Sin.], et al. But “it was probably an interpolation, to disconnect this sentence with the preceding.” [The words καὶ τῇ ὑπερβ. τῶν ἀποκ. were united in sense with εἰ μὴ ἐν ταῖς ἀσθεν. (2Co_12:5). making ἐαν—γᾶρ ἐξ ἐμου a parenthesis, and then Διὸ ἵνα μὴ ὑπεραίρωμαι. (2Co_12:7) began a new sentence. It must be conceded that the documentary evidence for this word is now very strong, and Stanley has adopted it. If it is accepted, the punctuation which is mentioned above must also be adopted, viz.: “I will not glory except in my infirmities, and in the abundance of my revelations. Wherefore, also, lest I should be exalted above measure, there was given,” etc.].

[8]2Co_12:7. Some important MSS. [A. D. E. F. G. Sin. 17, and many versions and fathers] leave out ἵνα μὴ ὑπεραίρωμσι, from not recognizing the emphasis which the Apostle meant to give by the repetition of these words (Meyer).

[9]2Co_12:9.—Rec. after δύναμις inserts μου, which deserves to be retained, though loft out by important MSS., on account of its necessity to the sense. It might easily have been overlooked after—ρις—μις. [And yet B. D. F. G. Sin. and many verss. and fathers (Tisch., Bengel, Lachm., Stanley) omit it].

[10]2Co_12:9.—Τελεῖται is well authenticated [with A. B. D. F. Sin.]. Rec. τελειοῦται was doubtless a gloss [with D. (3d hand) K. L. Sin. (3d hand) Orig. and Athan.].

[11]2Co_12:10.—Both B. and Sin. leave out ἐν before στενοχωρίαις].

[12]2Co_12:11.—Rec. has καυχώμενος after ἄφρων; an exegetical addition, and feebly sustained [with only L., many cursives, the Goth, and Syr. (both) versions, and some Greek Fathers].

[13]2Co_12:12.—Rec. has ἐν before σημείοις, but according to the preponderance of evidence [A. B. D. F. Sin., et al.] it should be erased; it was a repetition from the preceding clause.

[14]2Co_12:13.—Instead of ἡττήθητε Lachm. has ἡσσώθῃτε; but the latter was evidently an error of the transcribers. [B. D. Sin. 17 (Alford) have ἡσσωθ. Tisch. with A. D. (2d and 3d hand) K. L. and the Greek Fathers have ἡττήθ.].

[15]2Co_12:14.—We are not certain about τοῦτο. [Rec. omits it, but it is given in A. B. F. G. Sin. Ital. Vulg. Goth. Syr. Arm. Æth. and most of the fathers]. It has different positions, being sometimes before, and sometimes after τρίτον. Perhaps taken from 2Co_13:1.

[16]2Co_12:14.—Rec. after καταναρκ, has ὑμῶν. Some MSS. have ὑμᾶς. Neither were original [A. B. Sin., et al. omit both].

[17]2Co_12:15.—εἰ καὶ. A. B. F. G. [Sin.] have only εἰ, and a number of MSS. leave both wordb entirely out. Exeget. explanations.

[18][Wordsworth still thinks that μοι is emphatic in contrast with ὀπτασίας κ. ἀποκαλύψεις, and with κυρίου (hence each of these words are contrasted in position at the end of their respective sentences): to glory is not proper or expddient for one like me; I will new, therefore; proceed to such things as have been vouchsafed to me by the Lord, Alford thinks that Paul did actually desist from all boasting here, and that he now proceeds to give a vision and revelation which was intended to show the folly of it (γὰρ); Stanley, that Paul intended here to cease all boasting of himself, but that the necessities of his position repeatedly overcame his reluctance, and betrayed him into boasting again, though more and more of things which really humbled him. Dr. Hodge also thinks that Paul did actually desist at this point, and came to such things as involved no real boasting, but rather a personal humiliation and a recital of God’s goodness. Indeed, most of the interpretations, though resting upon different readings and explanations of the words and connection, come finally to the same thought in only different shades. There are contrasted, what was necessary to his position with what was proper and useful to his person; what related to him as a carnal man with what related to his infirmities as a spiritual man; and what was done by him with what was done by the Lord. He therefore says: I know that boasting of myself is not calculated to benefit me in the higher sense as an individual, but I am compelled by the circumstances in which you Corinthians are, to do something which would ordinarily be so called,—and yet what I have to say will only be humiliating to me as a man, while it tells what wonderful things God has done for me, and proves conclusively my claims as one of the highest Apostles. W. F. Besser: “The ‘high Apostles’ at Corinth could lay no claim to such things as had been mentioned in the preceding chapter, but they spoke much of their numerous visions and revelations. What had the Apostle to set off against those? He would have told the truth if he had spoken of many of his glorious revelations, but he would allude only to one, of which he had hitherto been silent, at least among the Corinthians: and of this he would speak only in a way to show the evident difference between a modest discourse and a carnal prating of personal distinctions. He had experienced a holy joy when his faith in the invisible realities of the Christian hope had been strengthened by a holy trance, but he was not inclined to describe in a wordy style what he had then seen and heard. He was rather disposed to bring forward an humbling incident connected with it, in which he became painfully conscious of his sinful infirmity,—a thorn in the flesh, an angel of Satan, and an earnest prayer,—when he had been favored with a promise of inexpressible consolation, and was led to boast that when he was weak in himself, he was strong in the Lord.” He thus shows that a spiritual grace obtained even by a painful experience was of far greater vaiue than the most exalted outward privilege].

[19][And yet J. E. C. Schmidt, of Giessen, in his Clavis on the N. T., has maintained this opinion with no little degree of plausibility. His main points are, the repeated declaration of the Apostle that he was not boasting of himself, his use of the third person, the strong contrast between τοῦ τοιούτον and ἐμαυτοῦ in 2Co_12:5, and his assertion that he would spare his readers (φείδομαι) this very thing. According to him, the course of thought is: ‘It is not expedient for me to boast: I will come to those visions and revelations of which my opponents make so much. I am reminded of a man whom I knew long since (and who perhaps was claimed by Paul’s opponents to be of their party). Of such a thing (neuter), or of such a man (masculine), I am prepared to boast, as of an incident or person in which is shown the extent of the grace I preach. I also might personally boast of such things without vanity, for I should say the truth,—but of myself I will not, except of my infirmities, lest any one should think of me above what he sees me to be. And lest I should be exalted above measure for these revelations (from the detail of which I forbear), there was given to me a thorn,’ etc. This view would avoid the appearance of inconsistency in the Apostle i.e., of refusing to boast, and yet appearing continually to do so, but it seems altogether too constrained, especially in its explanation of ὑπὲρ τ. τοιούτον καυχ. in 2Co_12:5].

[20][“We may conceive the soul to receive a supernatural vision, either while it remaineth still in the body, or by its departing from the body for a season. The latter may not be called a death, because either the sensitive, or at least the vegetative, soul or faculty continues meanwhile in the body, either naturally or miraculously vivificating it. Again, we may conceive a man’s spirit remaining in the body, to receive such visions, two several ways: either by a real rapture of both body and spirit into that place, whereof the soul or spirit hath such a vision; or else by a representation of such things really absent to the spirit, neither the body nor it changing at all their place; yet, as in dreams, the spirit apprehending a change of place, and a presence of the whole person to those persons and things, which it spiritually and supernaturally, and by the power of God, not by any operation of nature or fancy, beholds. This last, if not only, most commonly happeneth; and thus St. Paul’s rapture will be most agreeable with other Scripture-rapts. Rev_1:10; Rev_17:3; Rev_21:10; Act_12:11; Eze_8:3.”—Old Paraphrase and Annott. on Paul’s Epistles, published by the Oxford Angl. Society. “The infusion of spiritual influences suspends at the same time the usual succession of ideas and the ordinary current of thought; the power of imagination alone remaining active, and the sense of spiritual vision being excited to the highest degree of intensity.”—Lee on Inspiration.]

[21][The reasons for this opinion are not given by our author, and seem to us not quite sufficient. The apparent repetition in the text is partially accounted for by the intervention of the parenthesis, and partially by the peculiarly abrupt and animated style which the recollection of the event occasioned. If the transaction mentioned in 2Co_12:3-4 was different from that mentioned in 2Co_12:2, then Paradise must be a different place from the third heaven, as is contended for by Grotius and many Lutheran and English divines. The question then must arise, why was the visit to Paradise mentioned last, as if this were a higher sphere than that of the third heaven? If Paradise is (as all agree, and as Luk_23:43 and Rev_2:7, compel us to believe), the abode of departed saints immediately after death, and if the third heaven is a different locality (as usually held by those who make this distinction, the abode of saints after the resurrection), we naturally inquire why was the visit to the lower sphere made after that to the higher? If we answer with Bp. Taylor (Fun. Serm. on Sir. G. Dalston Vol. II. p. 135), Bp. Bull (Works, Vol. I. Ser. III. p. 89), and Wordsworth, that “the vision of the heavenly glory would not have satisfied Paul since it was to be attained only at the distant period of the resurrection, and hence that he was shown something to be entered upon immediately after death;” not to insist on the fact that the prospect of the Parousia was not so very distant to the mind of Paul, we may suggest that this only shows that he needed to see Paradise at some time, but not necessarily to see it last. The view of Augustine, Thomas, Estius and Calvin seems to us more strictly conformed to our passage, viz., that the third heaven included the whole world of the blessed, (the Father’s house with its many mansions) in some part (not necessarily some more interior part) of which was Paradise where the ascended Jesus abides with His saints. (Bengel: some inner recess in the third heaven, rather than the third heaven itself; an opinion very generally held by the ancients. See Greg. Obs. c. 18.) Whether the latter is different from the home which the saints are to possess after the resurrection is not determined by 2Co_12:4, in which we recognize simply a more specific designation of the place than in 2Co_12:2.]

Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3. Revelation in which He Might Glory. His Apostleship.

CHAPTER 12

1. Caught up to the Third Heaven. (2Co 12:1-6)

2. The Thorn in the Flesh. (2Co 12:7-10)

3. The Marks of His Apostleship. (2Co 12:11-15)

4. His Continued Deep Concern. (2Co 12:16-21.)

In the previous chapter the apostle gloried in that which in the eyes of man has no glory at all. From the ignominious experience of being let down in a basket he turns to another experience in which he was caught into the third heaven. “I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.” Of these he undoubtedly had many, given to him by the Lord, to comfort and strengthen him. We would never have heard of this great spiritual experience he speaks of now, if he had not felt the need of boasting on account of the deceiving teachers among the Corinthians. He had kept it as a secret to himself for fourteen years; an evidence of his humility. (What a contrast with a certain class of people in our own times who claim to have returned to apostolic faith and apostolic power. They also speak much of visions and revelations, but they constantly make them known, print them in tract form, etc. Often they think themselves more advanced in spiritual things than others and give sad evidences of being puffed up.) In telling us of this experience he does not speak of himself as the apostle, but “as a man in Christ.” It was therefore not a distinction put upon him on account of his calling as an apostle. As a man in Christ, that is, a heavenly man, for such every believer is, he was taken up in a marvelous, unaccountable way, into the heavenly sphere.

“Paul was in a state neither intelligible to himself nor explicable to his brethren. Yet he knows well the man, and can attest the visions which he is unable to describe. It was himself, but in a condition equally distinct from nature and from ordinary spiritual experience. He had while in this state a faculty of perception independent of both bodily and mental organs.” He was in this state, undefined by himself, caught up into the third heaven and being caught up into paradise, he heard unspeakable words, which it is not allowed to man to utter. The word “paradise” is found but three times in the New Testament. The lord used it first in speaking to the dying thief (Luk 23:43) promising him that he would be with Him in that blessed place that very day. Once more our Lord uses this word, promising the overcomer to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God (Rev 2:7).

The passage here is the third in which this word is used. It is the wonderful place above in His glorious presence, and Paul, being caught up to that place, had a foretaste of the joys and blessings of the redeemed. But he does not tell us anything he saw, but only what he heard. And the words he heard were unspeakable; they were unutterable --he had not the ability nor the permission to make them known. Thus the apostle, to whom the great truth concerning the church and her heavenly destiny was especially committed, passed through this great experience. And all who are “in Christ, “who constitute the body of Christ, will ultimately be caught up in clouds to meet the Lord in the air and be forever with the Lord. Then we shall know the unspeakable words. Surely the heart burns within us when we think of such a destiny. And Paul saith, “Of such a one will I glory, but of myself will I not glory.” It was of himself as in Christ he gloried; as he looked to himself as a man, the earthen vessel, he could not glory, save in his infirmities. But was there not danger of being exalted on account of this great experience? Linked with the revelation, is the thorn in the flesh.

“And lest I should be exalted above measure through this 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.”

There was danger of pride of heart after such a vision, and so the Lord permitted a messenger of Satan to buffet the apostle for his own good. Here we have one of the most interesting evidences, that the flesh, the proud, old nature, is still in the believer and not eradicated as some claim. He had perhaps the greatest experience a human being ever had, and yet, though he did not exalt himself, in view of the tendency of the old nature to lift itself up, there was given him this thorn in the flesh. (“Alas! what is man? But God is watchful; in His grace He provided for the danger of His poor servant. To have taken him up to a fourth heaven--so to speak--would only have increased the danger. There is no way of amending the flesh; the presence of God silences it. It will boast of it as soon as it is no longer there. To walk safely, it must be held in check, such as it is. We have to reckon it dead; but it often requires to be bridled, that the heart be not drawn away from God by its means, and that it may neither impede our walk nor spoil our testimony.”--Synopsis.)

What was this thorn in the flesh? Numerous answers have been given to this question. It is evident that it was not something sinful as some suggested, but it must have been some affliction in his body, which made him contemptible in the eyes of others and in his preaching. The exact nature of this affliction in the flesh cannot be determined. And he had gone to the Lord with this thorn in his flesh. “For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.” And the answer came to him. The thorn was not taken away but something better he hears from his Lord. “My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” The assurance of the sufficiency of divine grace was to comfort his heart in the affliction, and that the power of God needed his weakness for its display, was to encourage him as the servant of the Lord. He at once understood the divine message. It enabled him not only to bear with infirmities, reproaches, necessities, persecutions and distresses for Christ’s sake, but to take pleasure in them, for he knew all these things were the things which enable God to manifest His power. He therefore gloried most gladly in infirmities.

They had compelled him to become a fool in glorying. It should have been different. Instead of his self-defense and vindication in writing all these things to them they should have commended him, for in nothing he was behind the very chiefest of the Apostles, yet he adds “though I be nothing.” He speaks of the signs of an Apostle which were wrought among them by himself. What love and tenderness he manifests once more towards his weak and wavering Corinthian brethren! And still he has deep concern about them. “For I fear lest, perhaps when I come, I find you not such as I would, and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not; lest there be strifes, emulations, wraths, contentions, back-bitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults; and lest when I come again, my God should humble me with regard to you, and that I shall bewail many who have sinned before, and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed.” What a Christ-like servant he was!

Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Co 12:1

Visions and Revelations.

The words carry us at once to an age of miracle. They place us in the midst of a time when the eye and the ear were each occasionally opened to sights and sounds not of this earth, when the ordinary perceptions were in abeyance, and the soul, if it did not, as some have thought, actually abandon the body, was the subject of impressions not resulting from terrestrial objects, but stamped upon its consciousness by a preternatural exercise of power. Such probably was the condition in which Ezekiel saw the dry bones in the valley become instinct with fresh life. And so with the event in St. Paul’s career to which the text refers. The Apostle’s authority had been studiously depreciated by some of his converts, and he would vindicate himself from their derogatory insinuations. He would not dwell upon what he had done, but upon those things rather which God had done to him. "It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory in my own sufferings; I will pass to what testifies to my apostleship, but involves no idea of personal merit. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord."

I. The more we contemplate the portrait of St. Paul as depicted in the New Testament, the more, I think, we are driven back upon the inquiry, What was the source of that life of stupendous toil and faith and suffering? (1) You must give sufficient importance to his own personal sight of the face of Jesus Christ. In St. Luke’s narrative of St. Paul’s conversion we are told only that he heard a voice; but, as St. Paul himself twenty-eight years after relates the event, Christ appeared unto him. Now we know something from the Gospel narratives of the power of the sight of Jesus Christ. Yet Jesus was only as a Man among men. Who can measure therefore the power of the vision of His face seen through the splendour of the Shechinah of His presence? (2) The second source of St. Paul’s energy and self-devotion we take to have been that recorded in the text. "I knew a man," he writes, "about fourteen years ago, caught up by the power of Christ to the third heaven; I knew such a man," he adds, "caught up into paradise who heard unspeakable words which it is not possible to utter." Here lay one main secret of St. Paul’s intense unquenchable zeal: the vision of the face of Jesus Christ, the vision of the eternal world. Out of that double vision grew an unequalled love, an irresistible desire unto God, a disregard of earthly suffering; out of these revelations grew one overmastering passion to spend and be spent for Christ here, to be with Christ for ever hereafter.

II. We may hence gather the cause of our own comparative coldness, our own shrinking from the least cross, our own aversion to self-sacrifice and self-denial. The explanation of it all lies in the vagueness of our spiritual perceptions. There can be no vigorous, strong, masculine Christianity without a distinct vision of the everlasting. Heaven cannot grow dim and minute without earth waxing larger to the eye. We must have a clear vision of the King in His beauty and of the land that is very far off.

J. R. Woodford, Penny Pulpit, New Series, No. 702.

References: 2Co 12:2.—J. Thain Davidson, The City Youth, p. 199. 2Co 12:2, 2Co 12:3.—Brookfield, Sermons, p. 13.

2Co 12:2-4

St. Paul’s Vision of Paradise.

I. It is not difficult to conceive the impossibility of conveying any adequate impression of the component elements of heaven to minds encumbered with the grossness of mortal nature, an impossibility resembling that of communicating problems of astronomy to a cradled infant, of describing the combination of colours in a sunset to one born blind, or of imparting to the deaf the enchantment of harmony. But while the words might consistently be rendered "impossible to utter," it would seem, from the entire suppression of any attempt to describe what he had seen and heard, and from the obvious reserve maintained in Scripture upon the precise nature of the heavenly blessedness, and from the studiously figurative language in which it is always removed, as it were, beyond the reach of close and irreverent investigation—from all these considerations it would seem that it was not only difficult, but inexpedient, to blazon these celestial secrets.

II. So far from conjectures about heaven being discouraged by this reserve in Scripture and this emblematic way of painting it, does it not rather go to encourage conjecture by not tying us down to one limited and defined notion? There can be no better proof of the attractiveness, the blessedness, of what St. Paul witnessed, than the abiding effect it had upon himself. He had garnered up in his heart the ecstatic secret, as a mother garners up in her heart the memory of a departed child. Always and everywhere that vision haunted him. His soul was not distracted, but stimulated, by the never-ceasing desire to recover the rapturous privilege which for a mysterious moment had been in his possession. Piety, a perpetual sense of relation to God and to another state of being; charity, a perpetual sense of relation to men in this present world; hard labour, the outcome of both—these were the most prominent characteristics of his life. The manly, cheerful, humble cultivation of these virtues would go very far towards gaining for us that heavenly-mindedness which is the nearest approach to St. Paul’s singular privilege of which, perhaps, we are at present capable.

W. H. Brookfield, Sermons, p. 13.

References: 2Co 12:4.—H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xviii., p. 404. 2Co 12:5.—Ibid., vol. xxi., p. 162.

2Co 12:7

The Gospel of the Body.

A good life of St. Paul would be the best possible exponent of Christian experience. I do not mean an external biography—for that we have—but a full transcript of his thoughts and feelings. But we have this in a greater degree than we suppose. These epistles of his are not theological treatises, but genuine letters from one man to other men, full of personal feeling and experience, 2nd not impersonal generalisations of truth; they show how the man Paul took in the Gospel, and how it worked in and through him.

I. This experience of the thorn in the flesh is both interesting and valuable, or would be, if we could come at it. But it has been buried under such a mass of comment and conjecture that the simple lessons it contains are hard to reach. The main object seems to have been to discover what the secret nature of the thorn was. The strife is typical of much study of the Bible—infinite scrutiny of the form without much thought of the end. Now it matters little what the thorn in the flesh was; but how it pierced the Apostle, how he bore it, and how it affected him are the real questions. If the real significance of the thorn in the flesh were put in a general way, it would be physical evil a condition of spiritual strength.

II. Consider the moral effect of bodily infirmity. It cuts up our conceit and pride. It wrought in this way in St. Paul. Nothing strikes such a blow at self as an experience of physical infirmity or suffering. Pain is a great humbler, weakness a still greater. Bodily infirmity teaches a man to go carefully in this world of mischance, this world from which chaos is not yet wholly expunged; it co-ordinates him to an uncertain world. Physical infirmity reveals to a man the fact that he is not himself a source of power and the more general truth that the power of the world is outside of him; in other words, it teaches him that he is a dependent being.

III. An experience of physical infirmity gives one a certain wholesome contempt of material things. We have hardly any more imperative command than to secure for the body its highest possible vigour and health; the gospel of the body is yet to be heard and heeded, but this gospel will go no further than to require such care and treatment of the body that it shall best serve the uses of the mind. It is worthy of the greatest care, but only that it may be the most supple and ready servant of our real self. I will think well of the body, but not too well. Hence this experience of physical weakness and infirmity is left in order to help us keep a due balance between flesh and spirit. There are great advantages in not being allowed to feel at home in the body. An animal life antagonises a moral life. When we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. Man does not live by bread alone. Hunger may feed him; blindness may give him light; pain may bring peace; the weakness of the body may be the strength of the spirit. For all this finite order and encasement is a minister to the life which is eternal.

T. T. Munger, The Life, p. 87.

References: 2Co 12:7.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iii., p. 213; G. Matheson, Moments on the Mount, p. 60.

2Co 12:7-9

The Thorn in the Flesh.

I. The first lesson which is suggested by these words is this: that the thorn in the flesh comes for a specific end. Of course it does not come by chance; nothing does. It comes by God’s appointment or permission. But more than this, God does not send it out of mere wilfulness or caprice; He sends it for a certain purpose, and a purpose which we may in many cases find out. Let us look at St. Paul’s case. I believe that to many an earnest-minded man the thorn in the flesh or the crook in the lot never comes in a form so painful as the form in which it came to Paul: the form of something which diminishes or destroys his usefulness, that keeps him from serving as he would his generation and his Saviour, that constrains noble powers or the makings of noble powers to rust sadly and uselessly away. St. Paul’s thorn was given lest he should be exalted above measure.

II. It is beautiful, it is touching, it brings the tear to the eye, to hear St. Paul telling himself about his thorn in the flesh, and how much he needed it to keep him down, and how humbly he desired to submit to God’s heavy hand. But think how differently we should have felt if anybody else had said the same things about Paul. There is all the difference in the world between talking as Paul does in the text about ourselves and about any one else. When trial comes to ourselves let us humbly try to find out the lesson God is teaching us by it; but let us not presume to say why the trial has come to any other man.

III. See what the Apostle did about his thorn in the flesh. See what God did. Every day, I doubt not, when the thorn was first sent would the earnest supplication go up from his heart that this heavy burden might be taken from him; and who shall say that his prayer was not answered, nobly, fully, sublimely answered? There are two ways of helping a man burdened with what he has to do or bear. The one is to give him less to do or bear, to take the burden off the back; the other way is to strengthen him to do or bear all that is sent to him, to strengthen the back to bear the burden. In brief, you may give less work, or you may give more strength. And it was in this way, which even we can see is the better and nobler way, that the wise and almighty Saviour thought it best to answer His servant’s prayer. "My grace is sufficient for thee, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." And we do not need to go far for proof how completely each promise was fulfilled. How thoroughly resigned Paul was; how sanctified to him must that thorn have been; how strengthened his heart must have been with an unearthly strength when he could honestly write such words as follow his account of his Redeemer’s promise. The thorn was there, piercing as deep as ever, marring his usefulness, making him seem weak and contemptible to the stranger; but he liked to have to feel from hour to hour that he must be always going anew to God for help, and so he wrote, not perhaps without a natural tear, "Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me."

A. K. H. B., The Graver Thoughts of a Country Parson, p. 34.

References: 2Co 12:7-9.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xviii., No. 1084; E. J. Hardy, Faint yet Pursuing, p. 39; Homilist, 2nd series, vol. iv., p. 149; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. ii., p. 234.

2Co 12:8-9

Strength in Weakness.

I. We have here the instinctive shrinking from that which tortured the flesh, which takes refuge in prayer.

II. We have, next, the insight into the source of strength for, and the purpose of, the thorn that could not be taken away.

III. Lastly, there is the calm final acquiescence in the loving necessity of continued sorrow.

A. Maclaren, The Unchanging Christ, p. 159.

Reference: 2Co 12:8-10.—F. W. Robertson, Lectures on Corinthians, p. 446.

2Co 12:9

The Quietness of True Power.

Paul speaks in these verses of his own weakness and his thorn in the flesh. He says that he glories in his infirmity, and that in his weakness God had manifested His strength, as though he had been the empty channel which God filled. He teaches us in these words a lesson which we have great need to learn, and it is the quietness of true power.

I. All true power is constructive power. What is the power of Christ? To renew men’s lives; to give the new heart; to produce new virtues. The destructive ministry even of evil is not necessarily a constructive ministry of good. You may destroy evil habits; you cannot give a new heart.

II. Quiet power is a wise power. Everything depends upon adaptation. A sentence may save a soul; a word fitly spoken may never be forgotten. That is always true power, the quiet word, the quiet manner, the spirit that knows that atmosphere is everything.

III. Quiet power is a beautiful power. There is a power that we must obey, but there is no beauty in it, nothing attractive in it. But there is another power that is beautiful. Such a power is that which we exercise at home. The sceptre is full of jewels that are rich in loveliness, held in a mother’s hand.

IV. Quiet power is a Christlike power. We read again and again in the New Testament that all power is given to Christ. Yet it seems to me as if the light broke upon the world without men knowing it. When Christ was there, everything began to change; the atmosphere changed. So it is with the Christian man: "In quietness and confidence shall be your strength."

V. Quiet power is lasting. It is so in all the aspects of life—in the prophetic or in the warning and reproving aspect.

VI. Quiet power is a terrible power.

VII. Quiet power is the Spirit’s power: "Ye shall receive power after the Holy Ghost is come upon you."

W. M. Statham, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxv., p. 99.

I. "My grace is sufficient for thee." With his infirmity hindering him, the great Apostle was to go forth among the Gentiles. Day by day there was to be in him this inward struggle. Christ said to him, "My grace is sufficient for thee. Thou mayest fail, but it shall never fail. By suffering thou shalt be raised, and taught, and purified. Fear not, then: My grace is sufficient for thee. I know thee, I know thy trials, I know Myself, better than thou canst."

II. But we must not for a moment limit our thoughts of His dealings with us to any such purpose as this: merely to compensate us for trials, merely to hold us up through our way, merely to minister to us grace sufficient for us. God has not put the meanest Christian into His world and into His Church only to be held up, only to be rescued from falling, only to escape the wrath to come; but He has put every one of us here to serve and glorify Him, to contribute an active share to the great testimony which shall rise, and is ever rising, to Him, to His faithfulness, His purity, His righteousness, His glory, as from all His works, so in the highest and noblest degree from His Church, the highest and noblest of His works. "My grace is sufficient to enable thee for the work which I have set thee to do, sufficient to enable thee, in spite of the trial, yes and by means of the trial, to bring forth fruit to My glory." "My strength is made perfect in weakness." It is His purpose with all His people that they should work for Him in life and life’s duties, not in their own strength, but in His; that their bearing up in their lifelong conflict and then issuing forth into glorious victory should be seen and felt at every step to be not of themselves, but of Him. And for this purpose it is that He sends to them hindrances, trials, infirmities, thorns in their way, that their own pride, and strength, and stoutness of heart, and firmness of resolve may be broken down, that they may not walk in a light of their own kindling and congratulate themselves on the brightness of their path, but may toil through darkness and disappointment, through briers and through tears, to the sunshine of the everlasting hills, where the Sun of righteousness may light them to the work of life.

H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. vii., p. 211.

2Co 12:9

I. After the fervours of the first love are abated, and after the sweet freshness has passed from the actings and strivings of the new-born soul, there often comes a coldness and a pause. The young soul, new to the ways of grace, does not understand, is bewildered, discouraged, in danger of falling into a practical unbelief. But the Lord says, "My grace is sufficient for thee." Your gospel is not any past experience nor any grand deliverance once for all. It is a present potency which will control all other powers, a present wisdom which will make a path of safety through all perplexities, a present love which will enfold and shelter you even if you stand amid a thousand griefs and fears.

II. A little farther on we meet with one whose beginning has long gone by. You had a calm and blissful time then; but now there has come a chilling and weakening change—in your present mood it may seem almost a desolating change. The quickest and best way of recovery is the way of the text. The Lord is saying to you also, "My grace is sufficient for thee." Take hold of that, and you are safe. Keep fast hold of that, acting in everything like one who believes it true, and ere long the health and joy of other days will come back, and the roots of your faith will grip the soil again.

III. The softening shadow of the text will come over the soul that is in trouble. Let every sufferer, whether by the body, or the mind, or the circumstances, hear for himself and gauge all his trouble while he hears; then let him apply the sure word of promise to its lengths, and breadths, and depths, and heights; then let him carry it home to the aged, the sick, the feeble, and to all whom it may concern, as the word of a God who cannot lie, as the assurance of a Saviour who cannot but pity and help, as the title to a legacy of which they are all made heirs, if they will only claim and inherit, as a shelter for every path, an assuagement for every sorrow, a sweet soul-secret for life and for death to every trusting soul, however troubled: "My grace is sufficient for thee."

A. Raleigh, Quiet Resting Places, p. 201

References: 2Co 12:9.—J. Vaughan, Sermons, 6th series, p. 13, Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxii., No. 1287; Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 309; G. Calthrop, Pulpit Recollections, p. 162; A. Reed, Christian World Pulpit, vol. i., p. 489; G. Brooks, Five Hundred Outlines, p. 337; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iii., p. 350; Obbard, Plain Sermons, p. 164; A. Macleod, Days of Heaven upon Earth, p. 78; S. Macnaughton, Real Religion and Real Life, p. 108.

2Co 12:10

Strength in Weakness.

I. What was it that caused the heart of St. Paul to overflow in this now familiar paradox? It was some special personal temptation of a very painful kind, which he calls a thorn in the flesh. He was attacked by some kind of trial so severe that he speaks of it as a messenger of Satan, and besought the Lord not once, but thrice, that it might depart from him. His prayer was answered, though in a different manner from that which he anticipated. It was answered in substance. His infirmity remained, but he was taught that, so far from being the weaker for it, he might become the stronger; and still more, the power of the Master would "come out," as we say, all the more prominently in consequence of the weakness of His servant. The more painful and obvious the deficiencies under which St. Paul might labour personally, the more clear it would become that any triumphs achieved by him were due, not to himself, but to Christ. His weakness, as we may express it, would be a foil to Christ’s strength.

II. It is indeed a universal law that strength is made perfect in weakness; that strength is brought out into strongest relief when it appears in a naturally weak agent. The law has infinite illustrations, and they are very beautiful. For instance, the most’ timid bird will show courage when its young ones are threatened with danger. Here it is the instinct of parental affection which brings strength out of weakness. And, to take a higher illustration, what is more interesting than to mark how many of the greatest commanders in war, by land and sea, have been men whose constitution seemed always on the point of breaking down? Here it is patriotism or professional pride which makes strength perfect in weakness; but when we come to spiritual dangers and conflicts, there really is no power in heaven or in earth that can give us permanently the victory but the power of Christ from above working in us here below. We must come to feel that Christ is absolutely essential to us; that at the foot of His cross and the foot of His throne in heaven is the only strength which can carry any one of us through life on earth to life in heaven.

H. M. Butler, Harrow Sermons, p. 365.

Strength out of Weakness.

The true position of the Church of God in the world is that of weakness, and it is through this very weakness that she manifests her power. When the Christian is most sensible of his own weakness and most distrustful of his own strength, then the power of Christ rests upon him. The Saviour fills none but the hungry, and strengthens none but the weak.

I. A sense of weakness has a natural tendency to make us strong, because it puts us on our guard against temptation. We are never more in danger of falling into the snares of the devil than when we flatter ourselves that we are most secure.

II. A sense of weakness is calculated to give us strength, because it obliges us to lean upon the Saviour. Self-dependence is a broken reed. It may serve a good turn, perhaps, when no great pressure is to be sustained, but when trials and afflictions come, with their crushing weight, we must have underneath us the everlasting arms. The more we let go confidence in ourselves, the more abundant help shall we receive from God.

III. A sense of weakness has a natural tendency to make us strong by rendering us earnest and persevering in prayer. When good old Bishop Latimer was describing the way in which his father trained him as a yeoman’s son, he said, "I had my bows bought me according to my age and strength: as I increased in them, so my bows were made bigger and bigger." Thus boys grow into crossbow-men, and, by a like increase in the weight of their trials, Christians become veterans in the hosts of the Lord.

J. N. Norton, Every Sunday, p. 385.

Strength in Weakness.

God’s answer to Paul’s prayer lays down a general law. God does not merely promise to perfect Paul’s strength in that particular weakness: He states the general truth, a truth not peculiar to the spiritual life, though appearing there in its noblest aspect, that strength is perfected in weakness.

I. Strength perfected in weakness. We know that the converse is true: that weakness is perfected in strength; for both our reading and our experience show us that the greatest manifestations of weakness are constantly seen in those whom the world deems the strongest. On the other hand, illustrations are equally abundant of strength perfected in weakness. They are all about us in our ordinary life. The consciousness of infirmity often makes its subject so cautious, and puts him under such careful discipline, that he accomplishes more than another who is free from infirmity.

II. Look at the truth on its religious side. Then it comes into even stronger relief, because in the Christian economy weakness is assumed to be an universal condition, and dependence is therefore the universal law of the Christian life. There it is invariably true that real strength comes only out of that weakness which, distrustful of itself, gives itself up to God. There it is invariably true that God’s strength shines through human infirmity, and often selects for its best and richest expressions the poorest, weakest, most burdened, of mankind.

III. In the text there is no encouragement to cherish weakness. Weakness is not commended as a good thing in itself. The object of Christian training is to make men strong; and the Psalmist tells us that God’s children go from strength to strength. But weakness is a universal fact in human nature. Our Lord covers all humanity with the statement that the flesh is weak, and the text does tell us to recognise the fact and to provide against it by taking Another’s strength. The thing which it does commend is the permission of conscious weakness to have Another’s strength push up through itself and pervade and transform it, a

"Holy strength whose ground

Is in the heavenly land."

M. R. Vincent, The Covenant of Peace, p. 96.

References: 2Co 12:10.—P. T. Forsyth, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiii., p. 85; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. viii., p. 7. 2Co 12:11.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxv., No. 1458; J. H. Newman, Sermons on Subjects of the Day, p. 14.

2Co 12:14

The Property Right we are to get in Souls.

I. God evidently means to make every community valuable to every other, and so far at least every man to every other. We see this on a magnificent scale in the articles of commerce. Here we find the nations all at work for each other in so many different climes and localities, preparing one for another articles of comfort, sustenance, and ornament, and then commerce, intervening, makes the exchanges, so that every people is receiving back to itself supplies that the whole human race, we may almost say, has been at work as producers to contribute.

II. Let us look a little into this matter of property and see how it comes. We get a property in things by putting our industry into them by ways of use, culture, and improvement. This makes our title, and then the ownership is bought or sold as by title. Just so when a Christian benefactor enters good into a soul: when he takes it away from the wildness and disorder of nature by the prayers and faithful labours he expends upon it, the necessary result is that he gets a property in it, feels it to be his, values it as being his. And how great and blessed a property it is to have, we can only see by a careful computation of the values by which he measures it. (1) First, as he has come to look himself on the eternal in everything, he has a clear perception of souls as being the most real of all existences—more real than lands and gold and a vastly higher property, because they are eternal, and the title, once gained, is only consummated by death, not taken away. (2) Next, finding this or that human spirit or soul in a condition of darkness and disease and fatal damage, he begins forthwith to find an object in it and an inspiring hope to be realised in its necessity. He takes it thus upon himself, draws near to it, hovers round it in love and prayer and gracious words, and more gracious example, to regain it to truth and to God. (3) Then, again, as we get a property in other men by the power we exert in them, how much greater the property obtained by that kind of power which is supernaturally, transformingly beneficent, that which subdues enmity, illuminates darkness, fructifies sterility, changes discord to harmony, war to peace, and raises a spirit to be a temple of God’s indwelling life. (4) Furthermore, when one has gained another to God and a holy life, there is a most dear, everlasting relationship established between them, one leading, so to speak, the other towards eternity, and the other beholding in him the benefactor by whose work and example he is consciously exalted for ever, and this gracious relationship will give them an eternally mutual property in each other. (5) The salvation of men is thus seen to be a work that ought to engage every Christian, and a work that, to be fitly done, must be heartily and energetically done.

H. Bushnell, Sermons on Living Subjects, p. 148.

Reference: 2Co 12:15.—J. Armstrong, Parochial Sermons, p. 259.

The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Division 7. (2Co 12:1-21; 2Co 13:1-14.)

The perfecting of ministry.

We are thus introduced to what is no doubt the perfecting of ministry, the way in which, on the one hand and on the other, God is found by the soul thus pledged to His service; on the one hand the heights of blessedness to which the Lord is ready to lead His own, the wondrous comfort yielded to those who have need of comfort; while, on the other hand, we see the need of discipline also found in close connection with the comfort itself, and in such an one as Paul the apostle; and if needed by such an one, who is there that shall claim exemption from it? The effect is that to which the last chapter has in measure already brought us, the abasement of the earthen vessel, only that the excellency of the power may be realized to be of God and not of man, His strength perfected in weakness, so that the weakness itself may be gloried in, and in the consciousness of such weakness one may find strength.

1. The apostle comes now to what it is evident he said little of to others, and which was given for the joy and comfort of his own soul alone. The visions and revelations of the Lord of which he speaks were not intended to be communicated, went beyond even the possibility of communication. They were not, therefore, for others, they were for himself; and yet they are intimated here surely for the blessing of others, and that we may realize what in the same condition one may count upon from the same Lord. Paul was in this pre-eminent, as he always is. We may lose, by insisting too much upon this, all the blessing for ourselves. It is plain that the apostle does not speak of himself here as an apostle. That is not how he puts it. As an apostle, the revelations would, in fact, have been for others. They were not that, but for himself; and he speaks of himself, (for clearly it is of himself that he is speaking,) yet in such terms as would make any Christian his fellow. "I know a man in Christ," he says; but who is there among Christians who is not a man in Christ? We must be careful to note the way in which Scripture presents things to us, or we shall lose very much of the blessing of them. It is "a man in Christ," -so simply put that if it were not for what is afterwards said, we might even question whether it were the apostle at all. It is clear that he does not want us to realize these things as simply apostolic. The "man in Christ" is, indeed, in some sense much more than the apostle. A "man in Christ" is one who is before God in the value and power of what Christ is for God. The apostle knew this indeed as no one else, one may say, has known it; but that which he knew so well, nevertheless, belongs in its blessedness to every Christian, and is open for every Christian to enjoy it. Let us impute to ourselves what differences there may be, and not escape from the comfort or from the exhortation that there is in it, by making "a man in Christ" really an exception among such men. That cannot be why it is so presented here. If ministry be, as we have seen it is, something which, in one form or another, every member of the body of Christ as such is to exercise; if every member of Christ is needed to fill out that epistle of Christ which the Church is, "read and known of all men," then assuredly we have our part in all that this epistle of ministry can give us, allowing fully for the pre-eminence of the apostle and for all that was really exceptional in him, but which implied, more than anything else, exceptional devotedness.

He speaks then of this man in Christ, -a heavenly man, because Christ is heavenly, -taken up into his own sphere, in heaven, in a marvelous way, of which he can give no account. Whether it was in the body, he knows not. Whether it was out of the body, he knows not. He says this twice, for a purpose doubtless. He would have us not think upon the circumstances so much, upon the exact part that miracle had to do with it; for from the miraculous we naturally seek to withdraw ourselves, (we do not expect miracles,) but he leaves it open. He was caught away to the third heaven, whether in body or in spirit he cannot really tell. He thought, perhaps, but little of himself, drawn out of himself as he was by the power of what was communicated to him. It was a joy indeed beyond expression, the Paradise of God, which was somehow opened to him, something which had value and power for his soul, which he could not even utter to others.

Here is the man to glory in, he says; and he separates this man, as it were, from himself, the man in the flesh, who can glory only in his infirmities. How plainly it seems that he would have us separate what he was himself from this wondrous vision given to him! It seems as if he would designedly have us separate all that was exceptional in him from this which is yet in itself so exceptional to all experiences. But would he not open the door thus to us, as far as he could open it? Would he not say, I a man in Christ, as such, was caught up to the third heaven? "Such an one." How many of us could except ourselves from this, and say we are not such? We are not Christians at all if that be not true of us. Such an one as this was caught up to the third heaven. Would not God draw our hearts after such unspeakable blessedness, and would He not satisfy hearts that He had thus taught to long after it? "He satisfieth the longing soul and filleth the hungry soul with goodness." How good if only we longed with an irrepressible longing for that which God must needs come in to satisfy!

But indeed we must not separate the man that Paul was in another sense from the vision which he enjoyed. We may separate the apostle, but we must not separate the man devoted to Christ; the man who, having received Christ Jesus the Lord, walked so really in Him; the man for whom earth was marked by the cross, and to whom therefore, heaven was open. Let us lay all possible emphasis upon such things as this. There is no royal way into the enjoyment of such things by a mere desire to have visions. The way is only by the way Paul really entered. We are right in believing that there was something exceptional about him. We are wrong in believing that it was a mere official distinction, as one may say; something, therefore, which separates us in kind from the man who enjoyed these things. It was the man who himself, in the joy of what he was in Christ, sought with his whole heart to present every man perfect in that same Christ whom he enjoyed. It was this man whom God caught somehow away into Paradise, and made him hear unspeakable things, the joy of which remained, however too deep for utterance. But we are immediately reminded now, that after all here was a man, upon another side, very like ourselves; a man who, if he looked at himself, could glory only in those infirmities which left him the weak creature that he was, in the hands of a God almighty for him. He does not now want to glorify himself with these revelations. He desires none to think of him above that which he sees him really to be, or hears about him.

2. He discloses to us the other Paul of whom he would not glory. He lets us know, in fact, that it was himself who had received the revelation, only in the same sentence in which he makes known to us a thorn in the flesh which the very revelation itself obtained for him. How absolute a rebuke to everything that men dream of practical perfection in the Christian, to find that one who could be caught up where perhaps no one of us has ever been, unconscious of himself while thus occupied with unutterable things, yet had need when he came out of the vision to have a messenger of Satan himself made a help to him, because of the tendency to pride of heart which the very vision might engender! Let us notice carefully that it is not said that he had been exalted by it. It was for no actual sin of his own that the messenger of Satan had to buffet him. It was simply because of that which was yet in him, whether exhibited or not, -of tendencies which might be checked, but which needed checking. Thus the thorn in the flesh followed the vision. It is evident, also, that this implied some bodily weakness, or deformity, which might make him little in the eyes of men, thus lowering him in the very character of a minister of Christ which the vision might be implied to nerve him for the more. It is in this way that he goes to the Lord, that is, to Christ, the Lord of the servant, to seek Him about it. Thrice he beseeches Him that this might depart from him. He is answered, and yet he is not answered. He is answered, not as he expects, but he is answered in a fuller way than he expects. The thorn is not removed, but the sufficiency of divine grace is what is assured him, and that, after all, the power of God requires but this human weakness, and is displayed the more as the weakness itself is displayed. This is, as we know, but the good of that earthen vessel in which he has already told us the divine treasure is. Here was the light of heaven itself in a vessel manifestly of earth. He must accept this position. He should find it no loss. Nay, is it not gain when a man can glory in the very infirmities that he would just now have had taken away, as realizing that they do but cause a power greater than his own to rest upon him? Who would exchange the power of Christ for the power of plausible human appearance, an eloquence of human words, or anything, in short, which would be so simply human as these are? Think of the power of Christ making itself manifest in the simplest words, perhaps, that human lips could utter! Think of divine power manifesting itself in one who to man’s eyes was weak almost to contempt!

Of course, the infirmities here that he can glory in imply no moral imperfection. In such a thing as this he could not glory. He goes on to tell us directly what it is that he takes pleasure in, "in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in straits for Christ’s sake," -whatever made him, in fact, manifestly but an earthen vessel, wrote death upon the man Paul, in order that the life of Jesus might exhibit itself in its full divine character. It is a hard lesson to learn, but the very hardness of learning it only shows the more how necessary a lesson it is to learn. Why is it so hard a thing for us to learn it, except just for this tendency to pride of heart in us, to which, as we see, even the great apostle here was not a stranger? How thankful should we be for the discipline, in this way, which makes so little of us, but only to exalt and glorify God through us! The apostle, at any rate, accepted this thoroughly. To suppose, as people have supposed, that the thorn was taken away finally by the importunity of his request is to do away with the lesson we are meant to learn by it. To take away the thorn would have been to take away the glorying in it. How wonderful to be the one in whom divine glory had thus chosen to manifest itself! and such was not only Paul, but such clearly is every man in Christ. There is no exception in all this, except, alas, the exception made by our own dullness and slowness to receive the blessing which the man in Christ will find from God, just in proportion as he is really out and out that which is implied in it.

3. The apostle returns, for a moment, to exhibit, as it were, once more that folly of his which became something else in the end for which he used it, but for which he was compelled to use it, as he says here. He could not give way, in the presence of those who sought designedly to lower him that they might exalt themselves. He owns that he is nothing yet, as we see, that could not hinder the signs of an apostle being wrought among them through him. They belonged well to one who came amongst the Corinthians with fear and trembling because of the burden of the message that he carried, because of the testimony to Christ His. Saviour which was in it. With such an one the signs of an apostle were in perfect harmony, wrought among them, as he says, first of all in all patience, giving the moral quality first, but in signs also, wondrous and mighty works. There was nothing, then, in which they had been inferior to other assemblies, except in that independence of them which he might seem to have manifested. If that were a wrong, they must forgive it to him. For him it was the independence only of a parent who sought the welfare of his children, rather than to be ministered to by them. "For the children," he says, tenderly, "ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children," and he, how gladly would he spend and be spent for the souls of those he loved, even though the love that he poured out upon them might but deprive him in measure of the love they gave him.

4. The attacks made upon him went further, even, than this. Some were saying, it is evident, that even in thus not burdening them there was an element of deception, -he did not himself burden them, nevertheless it was only in the craft of one who knew how to catch them with guile. It is strange that any can plead such a sentence as being an argument for guile being rightly employed by a Christian. It is the thing that he is charged with that he is speaking of here, and the thing which he immediately repels by the questions following. Had he shown his guile, then, by making a gain of them by means of others sent, that gain which personally he would not make? Titus had been sent by him and a brother in his company. Had Titus then made a gain of them? Had they not walked in the same spirit and in the same steps also? They were even thinking, some among them, that all this defence of himself was merely excuse made by a conscience that was not at ease. "We speak," he says, "before God in Christ; and all things, beloved, for your edifying." But the condition of things even yet made him fear sometimes as to those that he would find in such a condition as would humble him with regard to them and make them suffer from the rod he brought. He feared the presence of "strifes, emulations, wrath, contentions, evil speakings, whisperings," and that he might have to bewail many who had already sinned, and who had not, as others had, repented with regard to the immorality, the open outbreaks of the flesh which had been manifested amongst them.

5. Now, at last, at any rate, he was coming to them. Everything would be looked at, and in the mouth of two or three witnesses everything be established. Love itself, while it has no limit, yet can be forced to act in a way contrary to its desire. If he came again he would not spare. They were questioning his apostleship, and questioning whether Christ had been speaking in him. Why did they not look at themselves if they wanted proof of that? Were they not sufficient proof? Had they not indeed evidence of the power of God in that which had been wrought, not merely amongst them, but in them? For they came behind in no gift. Whatever weakness might have been exhibited, it was a Christ crucified he preached, crucified through weakness, yet He lived now by the power of God. So too His ministers might be weak after His pattern, yet the power of God manifested in them through Him by whom they lived before God. But if they wanted a proof, then, of the apostle’s workmanship, they were his workmanship. Let them examine themselves if they were in the faith. Let them prove themselves instead of him.

The want of understanding the long parenthesis here, which is, after all, in the apostle’s manner, has made people think that Paul intended them really to examine themselves if they were in the faith. On the contrary, his argument is based upon the very fact that they need not and could not do it. He turns immediately to them with the question: "Do ye not recognize yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you, except indeed ye be reprobates?" If everything was gone, their profession and all that was implied in it, then indeed his work was gone, and the proof of his apostleship, as far as they were concerned, would be truly wanting. But he himself, at any rate, and those who had labored amongst them, were not reprobates; and they only prayed that His people might do no evil, not that they themselves might appear approved, but that they might do right, even though they might be reprobating their teachers.

After all, nothing could be really done against the truth -nothing could prevail against that -but for the truth. We must be on the other side of things, with God, in order to realize how truly this is so; but it is so, and the apostle in his devoted love towards them could rejoice if they were strong indeed, however weak he might be manifested. What he sought and prayed for was their perfecting, and his object now in writing was that he might not have to come amongst them to use a severity which indeed could be justified in the authority which the Lord had given him; an authority, nevertheless, meant for building up and not for pulling down. In all this we see the heart of true ministry, as is manifest, -the self-forgetfulness of a love that poured itself out because it was love; not for any gain, except indeed what love could count gain.

Through all, let them rejoice. Joy is what becomes us, whatever the circumstances may be, and even in the very consciousness of failure itself; but the true Christian joy is in the Lord, and that should not fail or vary. Let them rejoice, then, and with that seek in all things perfection. Let them be of good comfort, of one mind, which could only therefore be the mind of Christ, if it were to be the mind of Christians. Let them be at peace; and He who was the God of love and peace would be with them. He bids them salute one another, and sends the salutation of the saints, praying that the grace of the Lord Jesus and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit might be with them all.

F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2 Corinthians Chapter 12

Nevertheless, though forced to speak of himself, the apostle would glory only in his infirmities. But he is, as it were, outside his natural work. His past life unfolds before his eyes. The Corinthians obliged him to think of things which he had left behind. After having ended his account, and declared that he would glory in his infirmities alone, there was one circumstance that recurred to him. Nothing can be more natural, more simple, than all these communications. Must he glory? It is but unprofitable. He would come to that of which a man-as in the flesh-could not glory. It was the sovereign power of God, in which the man had no part. It was a man in Christ of whom he spoke-such a one had been caught up to the third heaven, to paradise; in the body, or out of the body, he knew not. The body had no part in it. Of such a one he would glory.

That which exalted him on the earth he would put aside. That which took him up to heaven-that which gave him a portion there-that which he was “in Christ”-was his glory, the joy of his heart, the portion in which he readily would glory. Happy being! whose portion in Christ was such that, in thinking of it, he is content to forget all that could exalt him as man; as he says elsewhere as to his hope, “that I may win Christ.” The man, the body, had no share in a power, to taste of which he had to be caught up into heaven; but of such a one he would glory. There, where God and His glory are everything, separated from his body as to any consciousness of being in it, he heard things which men in the body were not capable of entering into, and which it was not fitting that a mortal man should declare, which the mode of being of a man in the body could not admit. These things had made the deepest impression on the apostle; they strengthened him for the ministry; but he could not introduce them into the manner of understanding and communicating which belongs to man’s condition here below.

But many practical lessons are connected with this marvellous favour shewn to the apostle. I say, marvellous; for in truth one feels what a ministry must his have been, whose strength, and whose way of seeing and judging, were drawn from such a position. What an extraordinary mission was that of this apostle! But he had it in an earthen vessel. Nothing amends the flesh. Once come back into the consciousness of his human existence on earth, the apostle’s flesh would have taken advantage of the favour he had enjoyed to exalt him in his own eyes, to say, ‘None have been in the third heaven but thou, Paul.’ To be near God in the glory, as out of the body, does not puff up. All is Christ, and Christ is all: self is forgotten. To have been there is another thing. The presence of God makes us feel our nothingness. The flesh can avail itself of our having been in it, when we are no longer there. Alas! what is man? But God is watchful; in His grace He provided for the danger of His poor servant. To have taken him up to a fourth heaven-so to speak-would only have increased the danger. There is no way of amending the flesh; the presence of God silences it. It will boast of it as soon as it is no longer there. To walk safely, it must be held in check, such as it is. We have to reckon it dead; but it often requires to be bridled, that the heart be not drawn away from God by its means, and that it may neither impede our walk nor spoil our testimony. Paul received a thorn in the flesh, lest he should be puffed up on account of the abundant revelations which he had received. We know, by the epistle to the Galatians, that it was something which tended to make him contemptible in his preaching: a very intelligible counterpoise to these remarkable revelations.

God left this task to Satan, as He used him for the humiliation of Job. Whatever graces may be bestowed on us, we must go through the ordinary exercises of personal faith, in which the heart only walks safely when the flesh is bridled, and so practically nullified, that we are not conscious of it as active in us when we wish to be wholly given to God, and to think of Him and with Him according to our measure.

Three times (like the Lord with reference to the cup He was to drink) the apostle asks Him that the thorn may be taken away; but the divine life is fashioned in the putting off of self, and-imperfect as we are-this putting off as to practice that which, as to truth, if we look at our standing in Christ, we have put off, is wrought by our being made conscious of the humiliating unsuitableness of this flesh, which we like to gratify, to the presence of God and the service to which we are called. Happy for us when it is by way of prevention, and not by the humiliation of a fall, as was the case with Peter! The difference is plain. There it was self-confidence mingled with self-will in spite of the Lord’s warnings. Here, though still the flesh, the occasion was the revelations which had been made to Paul. If we learn the tendency of the flesh in the presence of God, we come out of it humble, and we escape humiliation. But in general (and we may say in some respects with all) we have to experience the revelations that lift us up to God, whatever their measure may be, and we have to experience what the vessel is in which it is contained, by the pain it gives us through the sense of what it is-I do not say through falls.

God, in His government, knows how to unite suffering for Christ, and the discipline in the flesh, in the same circumstance; and this explains Heb 12:1-11. The apostle preached: if he was despised in his preaching it was truly for the Lord that he suffered; nevertheless the same thing disciplined the flesh, and prevented the apostle priding himself on the revelations he enjoyed, and the consequent power with which he unfolded the truth. In the presence of God, in the third heaven, he truly felt that man was nothing, and Christ everything. He must acquire the practical experience of the same thing below. The flesh must be annulled, where it is not a nullity, by the experimental sense of the evil which is in it, and must thus become consciously a nullity in the personal experience of that which it is. For what was the flesh of Paul-which only hindered him morally in his work, by drawing him away from God-except a troublesome companion in his work? The suppression of the flesh felt and judged was a most profitable exercise of the heart.

Observe here the blessed position of the apostle, as caught up into the third heaven. He could glory in such a one, because self was entirely lost in the things with which he was in relation He did not merely glory in the things, neither does he say “in myself.” Self was completely lost sight of in the enjoyment of things that were unutterable by the man when he returned into the consciousness of self. He would glory in such a one; but in himself, looked at in flesh, he would not glory, save in his infirmities. On the other hand, is it not humiliating to think that he who had enjoyed such exaltation should have to go through the painful experience of what the flesh is, wicked, despicable, and selfish?

Observe also the difference between Christ and any man whatsoever. Christ could be on the mount in glory with Moses, and be owned as His Son by the Father Himself; and He can be on the plain in the presence of Satan and of the multitude; but, although the scenes are different, He is alike perfect in each. We find admirable affections in the apostles, and especially in Paul; we find works, as Jesus said, greater than His own; we find exercises of heart, and astonishing heights by grace; in a word we see a marvellous power developed by the Holy Ghost in this extraordinary servant of the Lord; but we do not find the evenness that was in Christ. He was the Son of man who was in heaven. Such as Paul arechords on which God strikes and on which He produces a wondrous music; but Christ is all the music itself.

Finally, observe that the humiliation needed to reduce the rebellious flesh to its nothingness is used by Christ to display His power in it. Thus humbled, we learn our dependence. All that is of us, all that constitutes self, is a hindrance; the infirmity is that in which it is put down, laid low, in which weakness is realised. The power of Christ is perfected in it. It is a general principle; humanly speaking, the cross was weakness. Death is the opposite of the strength of man. Nevertheless it is in it that the strength of Christ revealed itself. In it He accomplished His glorious work of salvation.

It is not sin in the flesh that is the subject here when infirmity is spoken of, but what is contrary to the strength of man. Christ never leant on human strength for a moment; He lived by the Father, who had sent Him. The power of the Holy Ghost alone was displayed in Him. Paul needed to have the flesh reduced to weakness, in order that there might not be in it the motion of sin which was natural to it. When the flesh was reduced to its true nothingness as far as good is concerned, and in a manifest way, then Christ could display His strength in it. That strength had its true character. Remark it well: that is always its character-strength made perfect in infirmity. The blessed apostle could glory in a man in Christ above, enjoying all this beatitude, these marvellous things which shut out self, so much were they above all we are. While enjoying them, he was not conscious of the existence of his body. When he was again conscious of it, that which he had heard could not be translated into those communications which had the body for their instrument, and human ears as the means of intelligence. He gloried in that man in Christ above. Here below he only gloried in Christ Himself, and in that infirmity which gave occasion for the power of Christ to rest on him, and which was the demonstration that this power was that of Christ, that Christ made him the vessel of its manifestation. But this nevertheless was realised by painful experiences. The first was the man in Christ, the second the power of Christ resting on the man. For the first the man as to flesh is nothing; as to the second it is judged and put down-turned to weakness, that we may learn, and Christ’s power may be manifested. There is an impulse, an ineffable source of ministry on high. Strength comes in, on the humiliation of man as he is in this world, when the man is reduced to nothingness-his true value in divine things-and Christ unfolds in him that strength which could not associate itself with the strength of man, nor depend on it in any way whatsoever. If the instrument was weak, as they alleged, the power which had wrought must have been-not its power, but that of Christ.

Thus, as at the beginning of the epistle we had the true characteristics of the ministry in connection with the objects that gave it that character, so we have here its practical strength, and the source of that strength, in connection with the vessel in which the testimony was deposited, the way in which this ministry was exercised by bringing a mortal man into connection with the ineffable sources from which it flowed, and with the living, present, active energy of Christ, so that the man should be capable of it, and yet that he should not accomplish it in his own carnal strength-a thing moreover impossible in itself. [11]

Thus the apostle gloried in his sufferings and his infirmities. He had been obliged to speak as a fool; they who ought themselves to have proclaimed the excellence of his ministry had forced him to do it. It was among them that all the most striking proofs of an apostolic ministry had been given. If in anything they had been behind other churches with regard to proofs of his apostleship, it was in their not having contributed anything to his maintenance. He was coming again. This proof would still be wanting. He would spend himself for them, as a kind father; even although the more he loved, the less he should be loved. Would they say that he had kept up appearances by taking nothing himself, but that he knew how to indemnify himself by using Titus in order to receive from them? It was no such thing. They well knew that Titus had walked among them in the same spirit as the apostle. Sad work, when one who is above these wretched motives and ways of judging and estimating things, and full of these divine and glorious motives of Christ, is obliged to come down to those which occupy the selfish hearts of the people with whom he has to do-hearts that are on a level with the motives which animate and govern the world that surrounds them! But love must bear all things and must think for others, if one cannot think with them, not they with oneself.

Is it then that the apostle took the Corinthians for judges of his conduct? He spoke before God in Christ; and only feared lest, when he came, he should find many of those who professed the name of Christ like the world of iniquity that surrounded them; and that he should be humbled amongst them, and have to bewail many who had already sinned and had not repented of their misdeeds.

For the third time he was coming. Everything should be proved by the testimony of two or three witnesses; and this time he would not spare. The apostle says, “This is the third time I am coming”; yet he adds, “as if I were present the second time, and being absent now.” This is, because he had been there once, was to have gone there on his way to Macedonia, was coming a second time, but did not on account of the state the Corinthians were in; but this third time he was coming, and he had told them beforehand; and he said beforehand, as if he had gone the second time, although now absent, that if he came again he would not spare.

He then puts an end to the question about his ministry by presenting an idea which ought to confound them utterly. If Christ had not spoken by him, Christ did not dwell in them. If Christ was in them, He must have spoken by the apostle, for he had been the means of their conversion. “Since,” he says, “ye seek a proof that Christ speaketh in me, examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith. Do ye not know yourselves, that Christ dwelleth in you, unless ye be reprobates?” and that they did not at all think. This was quite upsetting them, and turning their foolish and stupid opposition, their unbecoming contempt of the apostle, to their own confusion. What folly to allow themselves to be led away by a thought which, no doubt, exalted them in their own eyes; but which, by calling in question the apostleship of Paul, necessarily overturned, at the same time, their own Christianity!

From “which to you-ward is not weak” to the end of2 Corinthians 12:4 is a parenthesis, referring to the character of his ministry, according to the principles brought forward in the previous chapter: weakness, and that which tended to contempt, on the side of man; power on God’s part: even as Christ was crucified in weakness and was raised again by divine power. If the apostle himself was weak, it was in Christ; and he lived in Him, by the power of God, towards the Corinthians. Whatever might be the case with them, he trusted they should know that he was not reprobate; and he only prayed to God that they should do no evil, not in order that he should not be reprobate (that is, worthless in his ministry, for here he is speaking of ministry), but that they might do good even if he were reprobate. For he could do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. He was not master of the Corinthians for his own interest, but was content to be weak that they might be strong; for what he desired was their perfection. But he wrote, being absent, as he had said, in order that when present he might not be obliged to act with severity, according to the authority which the Lord had given him for edification, and not for destruction.

He had written what his heart, filled and guided by the Holy Ghost, impelled him to say; he had poured it all out; and now, wearied, so to speak, with the effort, he closes the epistle with a few brief sentences:-”Rejoice, be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace.” Happen what might, it was this which he desired for them; and that the God of love and of peace should be with them. He rests in this wish, exhorting them to salute one another with affection, as all the saints, including himself, saluted them; praying that the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, might be with them all.

Footnotes for 2 Corinthians Chapter 12

11: This chapter is altogether a striking one. We have Christians in the highest and lowest conditions; in the third heaven, and in actual low sin. In the first, a man in Christ (true in position, if not in vision, of us all), the apostle glories, and we are right to glory-that is a man in Christ. As to what he is in himself he has to be brought to utter nothingness. But neither the glorying in the man in Christ, nor his being made nothing of in flesh, is power: the latter is the path to it; but then, being nothing, Christ’s power is with him, rests on him, and here he has power in service, the man in Christ his own place-Christ in, or His power on, the man, his strength to serve. So that we have the highest apprehension of the Spirit, the lowest failure in flesh, and the way of power in making nothing of the latter, Christ’s power being thereon with us, practical power while in the body. But there will be the sense of weakness, the want of proportion between what we are as to the earthen vessel, and what is ministered and enjoyed. It is not merely what is evil but the earthen vessel in which the treasure is.

John Nelson Darby — Synopsis of the Books of the Bible: the New Testament (c. 1857–1862) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

12:1-7 Paul’s accusers at Corinth leveled the charge that Paul did not have ecstatic spiritual experiences. He was no mystic, they said, but a plain person with no impressive gift (see 10:10). So even though Paul’s authority did not come from visions and revelations from the Lord, he reveals his secret that he did, in fact, have such experiences.

12:1 This boasting will do no good: See study note on 11:21b-29.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

2Co 12:1. Δὴ) truly.—οὐ συμφέρει μοι, it is not expedient for me) on account of the danger of becoming elated, and of the buffetings of Satan, and of hindering the exercise of Christ’s power.—ἐλεύσομαι) I will come, he does not say, I come. He does not eagerly run at it; so, I will glory, not I glory, at the very conclusion of 2Co 12:5.—γὰρ, for) The cause, stated in the form of a short preface.—ὀπτασίας καὶ ἀποκαλύψεις, visions and revelations) Visions, in reference to seeing; revelations, to hearing, 1Sa 9:15, LXX. Both in the plural number, because those raptures had two degrees [when he was caught up first “to the third heaven,” 2Co 12:2; then “into paradise,” 2Co 12:4], as he presently mentions. So of revelations, 2Co 12:7. Paul had more visions and revelations, independently of these here.—Κυριου, of the Lord) 2Co 12:8, i.e., of Christ, 2Co 12:2.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Co_12:1.[349] Scarcely has Paul, in 2Co_11:32 f., begun his καυχᾶσθαι τὰ τῆς ἀσθενείας with the incident in Damascus, when he breaks off again with the thought which, in the instantaneous, true tact of his consciousness (comp. on 2Co_11:32 f.), as it were bars his way: ΚΑΥΧᾶΣΘΑΙ ΔΕῖ, Οὐ ΣΥΜΦΈΡΕΙ ΜΟΙ (see the critical remarks): to boast of myself is necessary, not beneficial for me. Let it be observed that οὐ συμφ. is the antithesis of ΔΕῖ (necesse, non utile est), and that a comma only must therefore stand after δεῖ; further, that ΜΟΙ belongs not merely to ΣΥΜΦ., but also to ΔΕῖ (Tob_5:14; Kühner, ad Xen. Mem. iii. 3. 10, Anab. iii. 4. 35; Mätzner, ad Antiph. p. 257);[350] lastly, that συμφ. means the moral benefit as opposed to the ethical disadvantage of the self-exaltation (comp. 2Co_12:7, and see Theophyl.): saluberrimum animo ἡ τῆς οἰήσεως συστολή, Grotius. Comp. Ignat. Trall. 4 : πολλὰ φρονῶ ἐν θεῷ, ἀλλʼ ἐμαυτὸν μετρῶ, ἵνα μὴ ἐν καυχήσει ἀπόλωμαι. The δεῖ arose out of the existing circumstances of the Corinthians, by which Paul had seen himself necessitated to the καυχᾶσθαι; but the οὐ συμφέρει prevails with him to pass on to something else and far higher, as that in which there lay no self-glory (2Co_12:5). With the reading δή (see the critical remarks) the δή would only make the notion of καυχᾶσθαι more significantly[351] prominent, like the German eben or ja [certainly, or indeed] (see Krüger, § 69, 19. 2; Klotz, ad Devar. p. 392; Bäumlein, Partikell. p. 98), but could not, as Hofmann (with an inappropriate appeal to Hartung) assumes, denote glorying simply and absolutely, in contrast with a καυχᾶσθαι τὰ τῆς ἀσθενείας. This Paul would have known how to express by something like ἉΠΛῶς ΔῊ ΚΑΥΧᾶΣΘΑΙ.

ἘΛΕΎΣΟΜΑΙ] not: I would (to which Hofmann practically comes), but: I will (now) come to speak. See Wolf, Curae; Dissen, ad Pind. Ol. ix. 83, p. 119.

γάρ] He might also have said ΟὖΝ, but his conception is, that by his passing over to something else the Οὐ ΣΥΜΦΈΡΕΙ ΜΟΙ is illustrated and confirmed. See Klotz, ad Devar. p. 235; Bäumlein, Partik. p. 86.

εἰς ὀπτασίας καὶ ἀποκαλ. κυρίου] i.e. to facts, in which Christ imparted to me visions and revelations.[352] The genitivus subjecti κυρίου is the characteristic definition, which both words need (not simply the second, to which Hofmann limits it). Theophylact remarks that in ἀποκαλ. there is added to ὀπτασ. something more, ἡ μὲν γὰρ μόνον βλέπειν δίδωσιν, αὕτη δὲ καί τι βαθύτερον τοῦ ὁρωμένου ἀπογυμνοῖ. This distinction, however, keeps the two ideas apart contrary to their nature, as if the apocalyptic element were not given with the ὀπτασία. Ὀπτασία (species visibilis objecta vigilanti aut somnianti, Grotius) is rather a special form of receiving the ἀποκάλυψις (comp. Lücke, Einl. in d. Offenb. Joh. I. p. 27, ed. 2), which latter may take place by means of such a miraculous vision (Dan_9:23; Dan_10:1; Dan_10:16); see also Luk_1:22; Act_26:19. This is the meaning of ὀπτασία here, and ἀποκαλ. is a wider idea, inasmuch as revelations occur also otherwise than in the way of visions beheld, although here ensuing in that way; comp. 2Co_12:7, where ἀποκαλ. stands alone.

That Paul by what follows wishes to prove, with a polemic object against the Christine party, that external acquaintance with Christ was superfluous (so Baur; see also Oecumenius), is not to be assumed, just because otherwise the mention of his having had a vision of Christ would be necessary for its bearing on the sequel. Nor can we from this passage infer it as the distinctive feature of the Christines, that they had claimed to stand by visions and revelations in a mystical connection with Christ (Schenkel, Dähne, de Wette, Goldhorn; comp. also Ewald, Beyschlag), since Paul is contending against specifically Judaistic opponents, against whom he pursues his general purpose of elucidating his apostolic dignity, which enemies obscured in Corinth,[353] from the special distinctions which he, and not his opponents, had to show (comp. Räbiger, p. 210; Klöpper, p. 99 ff.).

[349] See on ver. 1 ff., Beyschlag in the Stud. u. Krit. 1864, p. 206 ff.; Hilgenfeld in his Zeitschr. 1864, p. 173 ff.; and again, Beyschlag in the Stud. u. Krit. 1865, p. 217 ff.; also Holsten, zum Evang. des Paul. u. d. Petr. 1868, p. 21 ff.

[350] Reiche (Comment. crit. I. p. 404) objects that Paul must have written solenniter et perspicue: καυχᾶσθαι ἐμὲ δεῖ, οὐ δὲ συμφέρει μοι. But if μοι were not to be referred jointly to δεῖ, seeing that δεῖ with the dative and infinitive certainly is found in classical writers seldom (see also Ellendt, Lex. Soph. I. p. 399 f.), and never in the N. T., an ἐμέ would not be necessary; but καυχ. δεῖ may be taken absolutely: boasting is necessary (under the circumstances given), not advantageous is it to me. The non-use of δέ or ἀλλά is in keeping with the very common asyndetic juxtaposition of contrasted statements, 1Co_7:6; Rom_2:29; 2Co_5:3, et al. Reiche himself, defending the Recepta, lays the whole emphasis on μοι: my boasting takes place not for my own advantage, but for yours (in order to correct your judgment regarding me, etc.). He explains it, therefore, as if Paul had written: οὐκ ἐμοί or οὐκ ἐμαυτῷ συμφέρει. Theodoret had already taken it erroneously, quite like Reiche.

[351] Δή est particula determinativa, id verbum, quod sequitur, graviter efferens, Kühner, ad Xen. Mem. iii. 7. 2. Comp. also Hartung, Partik. I. p. 283. Erasm.: gloriari sane non expedit mihi. It might accordingly be taken also with a touch of irony, like scilicet: boast indeed I must. See Stallbaum, ad Plat. Symp. p. 173 E; Hartung, l.c. Holsten also, l.c. p. 28, takes it in the ironical sense.

[352] As is well known, from this passage arose the apocryphal Ἀποκάλυψις Παύλου, and (or?) the Ἀναβατικὸν Παύλου. See Lücke, Einl. in d. Offenb. Joh. I. p. 244 ff. ed. 2. Theophylact finds the proof that this treatise is not genuine in ἄῤῥητα, ver. 4.

[353] According to Hilgenfeld, Paul means now to impart yet something greater than the vision of Christ (?) at his call. Not something greater, but something quite of another kind. Holsten, too, finds in the ὀπτασίας something, which exalts Paul above the original apostles, since to the latter such things had not been imparted after the resurrection of Christ. That, indeed, we do not at all know. We are acquainted with analogous disclosures also by Peter. And how scanty are our sources regarding the history of the Twelve!

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Co 12:1-6 . THE APOSTLE’S VISION: IF HE CHOSE, HE COULD BOAST OF IT.

2Co 12:1 . With Tisch., W.H. and the R.V. we adopt the reading (see crit. notes): καυχᾶσθαι δεῖ · οὐ συμφέρον μέν , ἐλεύσομαι δὲ κ . τ . λ .: I must needs glory, though it is not expedient ( sc. , my opponents drive me to it); but I will come to visions such as were seen by Daniel (2Co 10:1 ), which were predicted as to be granted in the New Dispensation (Joe 2:28 f., quoted in Act 2:17 ), which were seen by St. Peter (Act 10:10 ), and by St. John (Rev 1:10 ; Rev 4:1 ), as well as by St. Paul himself (Act 9:3 , cf. 1Co 9:1 , Act 9:12 ; Act 22:17 ) and revelations of the Lord, sc. , revelations granted by Christ (Rev 1:1 ). St. Paul repeatedly insists that he received his message διʼ ἀποκαλύψεως Ἰη . Χρ . (Gal 1:12 , Eph 3:3 ; cf. 1Co 11:23 ; 1Co 15:3 ); on one occasion he went up to Jerusalem κατὰ ἀποκάλυψιν (Gal 2:1 ); and he claims to have the power of speaking ἐν ἀποκαλύψει (1Co 14:6 ), as had also some of his Corinthian converts (1Co 14:26 ). He now mentions one signal instance of such a “vision and revelation” which was vouchsafed to him.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Chap.

12:1-10.] He proceeds to speak of visions and revelations vouchsafed to him, and relates one such, of which however he will not boast, except in as far as it leads to fresh mention of infirmity, in which he will boast, as being a vehicle for the perfection of Christ’s power. In order to understand the connexion of the following, it is very requisite to bear in mind the burden of the whole, which runs through it—ἐν ταῖς ἀσθενείαις καυχήσομαι. There is no break between this and the last chapter. He has just mentioned a passage of his history which might expose him to contempt and ridicule—this was one of the ἀσθένειαι. He now comes to another: but that other inseparably connected with, and forming the sequel of, a glorious revelation vouchsafed him by the Lord. This therefore he relates, at the same time repudiating it as connected with himself, and fixing attention only on the ἀσθένεια which followed it.

1.] (I have in recent editions suspended the very difficult question of this reading, not finding it possible to decide whether of the two deserves a place in the text. Meantime, the rec. is left in, and on it the following note is written.) Let only the two readings καυχᾶσθαι δὴ οὐ συμφέρει μοι, ἐλεύσομαι γάρ, and καυχᾶσθαι δεῖ, οὐ συμφέρον μέν· ἐλεύσομαι δέ, be compared, and it would certainly seem as if the former more resembled the nervous elliptic irony of the great Apostle, and the latter the tame conventional propriety of the grammatical correctors. The other variations, δέ for δή, and the prefixing of εἰ, are too palpable emendations to require critical treatment. The difficulty however is considerably lessened, when the right connexion is borne in mind. To boast, verily, is not to my advantage: for (i.e. it will be shewn to be so, by the following fact of a correction administered to me ἵνα μὴ ὑπεραίρωμαι) (on the other reading, I must boast, though it is not to my advantage: but) I will proceed to visions and revelations of the Lord. δή in this sense implies a consciousness of a reason why the assertion is true, and is therefore naturally followed by γάρ, if the sentence is completed. The same sense is found in Plato, Phæd. p. 60, ὦ Σώκρατες, ὕστατον δὴ σὲ προσεροῦσι νῦν οἱ ἐπιτήδειοι, καὶ σὺ τούτους,—the completion of the sense being,—‘for you are to die to-night:’—πολλοὶ κακῶς πράσσουσιν, οὐ σὺ δὴ μόνος, Eur. Hec. 464: i.e. οὐ σὺ δὴ μόνος κακῶς πράσσεις, πολλοὶ γὰρ ἄλλοι … (See Hartung, Partikellehre i. 270, who however explains δή in these examples somewhat differently.) The force of it here then, is: “I am well aware that to boast is not good for me: for I will come to an instance in which it was so shewn to me.”

εἰς ὀπτ. κ. ἀπ. κυρ.] q. d. ‘and the instances I will select are just of that kind in which, if boasting ever were good, it might be allowed:’ thus the γάρ gives a more complete proof. ὀπτασία is the form or manner of receiving ἀποκάλυψις, the revelation. There can hardly be an ὀπτασία without an ἀποκάλυψις of some kind. Therefore Theophylact’s distinction is scarcely correct, ἡ ἀποκάλυψις πλέον τι ἔχει τῆς ὀπτασίας· ἡ μὲν γὰρ μόνον βλέπειν δίδωσιν· αὕτη δὲ καί τι βαθύτερον τοῦ ὁρωμένου ἀπογυμνοῖ.

κυρίου, gen. subj., vouchsafed me by the Lord,—not obj., ‘of [i.e. revealing] the Lord’ [as the subject of the vision], for such is not that which follows.

No particular polemical reason, as the practice of particular parties at Corinth to allege visions, &c. (Baur), need be sought for the narration of this vision: Paul’s object is general, and the means taken to attain it are simply subordinate to it, viz. the vindication of his apostolic character.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

12:1-10. Glorying About Revelations to His Soul and a Thorn for His Flesh

I have received two sublime revelations, and also, to preserve me from vanity respecting this great favour, a humiliating infirmity.

1 This glorying is forced upon me. I have indeed nothing to gain by it, for myself or for the good of the Church; but I will pass on to a worthier subject, viz. visions and revelations granted to me by the Lord Jesus Christ. They have been called delusions or inventions, but they are sober fact. 2 I can tell you of a man who was in ecstasy with Christ fourteen years ago—it was Christ’s doing and no credit to the man: whether he was still in the body, I cannot tell, or whether he was in rapture away from the body. I cannot tell; that is known to God alone: he was caught up, this man of whom I speak, even to the third heaven. 3 I can tell you also that this man of whom I speak, either in the body or apart from the body (God knows which), 4 was caught up into the Paradise where God dwells, and there listened to utterances unutterable, such as no human being is allowed to repeat. 5 Of such a man as this, not knowing his own condition and yet so honoured, I am prepared to glory; but of myself personally, such as you know me, I am not prepared to glory, except as regards what I have called my weaknesses. 6 I am not bound to abstain in this way, for if I choose to glory about other things, I shall not be a fool in so doing, for I shall only be saying what is true; but I do abstain, because I do not want anyone to form a higher estimate of me than that which he can gather from what he sees me do or hears me say. 7 And then there is the exceeding greatness of the revelations. Therefore, in order that I should not be exalted overmuch about these, there was given to me a painful malady, like a stake driven into my flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, that I should not be exalted overmuch. 8 About this affliction I three times made supplication to the Lord, praying Him to remove it from me. 9 And this was His reply; “It is sufficient for thee that thou hast received grace to become My Apostle and to convert the nations; for it is when man’s strength fails that My power is brought to perfection.” Most gladly, therefore, I shall prefer glorying in all my weaknesses to asking the Lord to free me from them, so that the power of Christ may spread a sheltering cover over me. 10 That is why I am so well pleased with weaknesses, such as wanton injuries, dire hardships, persecutions, and desperate straits, when they are endured for Christ’s sake. For it is just when, in myself I am utterly weak that in Him I am truly strong.

1. καυχᾶσθαι δεῖ οὐ συμφέρον μέν, ἐλεύσομαι δὲ κ.τ.λ. Owing probably to accidental mistakes in copying and conjectural emendations by puzzled scribes, the text of this verse is so confused that it is impossible to disentangle the original text with certainty; but on the whole this wording is likely to be right, or nearly so; ‘I must needs glory: it is not indeed expedient, but I will come to visions, etc.’ It is however possible that καυχᾶσθαι δὲ οὐ συμφέρον μέν, ἐλεύσομαι δὲ κ.τ.λ. may be what the Apostle dictated; ‘Now to glory is not indeed expedient, but I will come to visions, etc.’ The difference between these two is not very important. * What is clear is that, before passing from the great peril at Damascus to experiences of a very different kind, he cannot refrain from remarking once more that all this foolish glorying is forced upon him; he knows that it is not profitable, that it may lower his self-respect and the respect which others have for him, but he has no choice about it; ὑμεῖς με ἠναλκάσατε (v. 11). Συμφέρον is used in a wide sense; ‘likely to be edifying to other Christians or to myself’ (8:10; 1Co 6:12, 1Co 6:7:35, 1Co 6:10:23, 33, 1Co 6:12:7).

ὁπτασίας καὶ ἀποκαλύΨεις κυρίου. Seeing that κυρίου belongs to both substantives, the genitive is probably subjective; ‘visions and revelations which proceed from the Lord,’ rather than those in which the Lord is seen and revealed; cf. διʼ ἀποκαλύψεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ (Gal 1:12). But where either objective or subjective makes good sense, it is sometimes difficult to see on which side the balance of probability lies; e.g. in the phrase τὸ εὐαγγέλιον τοῦ Θεοῦ or Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ. ‘Vsions and revelations’ is a cross division, for some, but not all, visions reveal something, and some, but not all, revelations are made without anything being visible. †In this case, however, all the ‘visions’ would reveal something, for they proceed from the Lord (κυρίου), who sends them for the very purpose of making something known. It is perhaps true to say that, except in the Apocrypha (Ecclus. 43:2, 16; addition to Est 4:3), ὀπτασία always means a vision that reveals something (Luk 1:22, Luk 1:24:23; Act 26:19; Mal 3:2; Dan 9:23, Dan 9:10:1, Dan 9:10:7, Dan 9:8, Dan 9:16 [Theod.], where LXX has ὅρασις or ὅραμα). The word was probably colloquial before it became Biblical.

The incidents to which this verse forms an introduction, like that of the flight from Damascus, had probably been used as a means of attacking St Paul. People may easily have said that these ecstatic experiences, which he claimed to have had, proved that he was a deluded enthusiast, if not actually crazy. If they were not deliberate inventions, they were the outcome of vivid and unrestrained imagination. He had thought about them till he believed that they had taken place. It is possible that this view survives here and there in the Clementine Homilies and Recognitions, the Judaizing writers of which now and again, under cover of Simon Magus, make an attack on St Paul. In particular they deride the ‘visions’ of Simon Magus.“Simon said, Visions and dreams, being God-sent, do not speak falsely in regard to those things which they have to tell. And Peter said, You were right in saying that being God-sent they do not speak falsely. But it is uncertain whether he who sees has seen a God-sent dream”(Clem. Hom. xvii. 15; cf. Hom. xi. 5, ii. 17, 18; Recog. ii. 55, iii. 49, iv. 35). See Hort, Clem. Recog. pp. 120 ff.; Hastings, DB. iv. p. 524; JTS., Oct. 1901, p. 53.

It is not likely that εἰ before καυχᾶσθαι (א3 39, f Vulg.) is original. καυχᾶσθαι δεῖ (B D 3 F G L P,; d f g Vulg. Syrr. Goth.) is probably to be preferred to καυχᾶσθαι δέ (א D* Copt.) or καυχ. δή (K M, Aeth.). But in MSS. the confusion between ει and ε is very freq., and δέ may be original. The various readings in 1Co 6:20 illustrate the confusion between δεῖand δή. οὐ συμφέρον (א B G 17, 67* *) rather than οὐ συμφέρει (D K L P); Gregory (preleg. p.75) shows that συμφέρον has better authority than συνφέρον. μέν(א B G P 17,67* * f Vulg. Copt.) rather than μοι (D3 K L m,Syr-Hark., Chrys.); but D * Aeth. Goth have neither μέν nor μοι. B 213 have ἐλευσὁμαι δὲ καί.

The variations in the text of this verse do not justify its exclusion as an interpolation. See above on 11:32, 33.

1. ‘For the flesh’ is on the whole more probable than ‘in the flesh’ (AV, RV). Why omit ἐν if ‘in the flesh’ is intended? Earlier English Versions differ. Wiclif and the Rhemish follow the ambiguous stimulus carnis adopted in the Vulgate from Cyprian (Test. iii. 6, De Mortal. 13) and the translator of Irenaeus (5:1. 3:1); they have ‘pricke of my flesh.’ Between these come Tyndale ‘unquyetnes of the flesshe,’ Coverdale ‘warnynge geven unto my flesh,’ Cranmer ‘unquyetnes thorow the flesshe,’ and the Genevan ‘pricke in the fleshe.’ No one now would adopt either ‘of’ or ‘through,’ but ‘unto’ is not very different from ‘for.’ See Winer, p. 276, and Waite, ad loc.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He goeth forward in his purpose, and because those bragging mates boasted of revelations, he reckoneth up those things which lift him up above the common capacity of men: but he useth a preface, and excuseth himself advisedly.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

CHAPTER XII.

St. Paul mentions some wonderful revelations which he had

received from the Lord, 1-5.

He speaks of his suffering in connection with these

extraordinary revelations, that his character might be

duly estimated, 6.

That he might not be too much exalted, a messenger of Satan is

sent to buffet him; his prayer for deliverance, and the Divine

answer, 7-9.

He exults in sufferings and reproaches, and vindicates his

apostleship, 10-13.

Promises to come and visit them, 14, 15.

Answers some objections, 16-18.

And expresses his apprehensions that when he visits them he

shall find many evils and disorders among them, 19-21.

NOTES ON CHAP. XII.

Verse 1. It is not expedient for me] There are several various readings on this verse which are too minute to be noticed here; they seem in effect to represent the verse thus: "If it be expedient to glory, (which does not become me,) I will proceed to visions," c. The plain meaning of the apostle, in this and the preceding chapter, in reference to glorying is, that though to boast in any attainments, or in what God did by him, was in all possible cases to be avoided, as being contrary to the humility and simplicity of the Gospel yet the circumstances in which he was found, in reference to the Corinthian Church, and his detractors there, rendered it absolutely necessary; not for his personal vindication, but for the honour of the Gospel, the credit of which was certainly at stake.

I will come to visions] οπτασιας. Symbolical representations of spiritual and celestial things, in which matters of the deepest importance are exhibited to the eye of the mind by a variety of emblems, the nature and properties of which serve to illustrate those spiritual things.

Revelations] αποκαλυψεις. A manifestation of things not before known, and such as God alone can make known, because they are a part of his own inscrutable counsels.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

1. It is not expedient for me to glory Now, when as it were in the middle of the course, he restrains himself from proceeding farther, and in this way he most appropriately reproves the impudence of his rivals and declares that it is with reluctance, that he engages in this sort of contest with them. For what a shame it was to scrape together from every quarter commendations, or rather to go a-begging for them, that they might be on a level with so distinguished a man! As to the latter, he admonishes them by his own example, that the more numerous and the more excellent the graces by which any one of us is distinguished, so much the less ought he to think of his own excellence. For such a thought is exceedingly dangerous, because, like one entering into a labyrinth, the person is immediately dazzled, so as to be too quick-sighted in discerning his gifts, while in the mean time he is ignorant of himself. Paul is afraid, lest this should befall him. The graces conferred by God are, indeed, to be acknowledged, that we may be aroused, — first, to gratitude for them, and secondly, to the right improvement of them; but to take occasion from them to boast — that is what cannot be done without great danger.

For I will come to visions. “I shall not creep on the ground, but will be constrained to mount aloft. Hence I am afraid, lest the height of my gifts should hurry me on, so as to lead me to forget myself.” And certainly, if Paul had gloried ambitiously, he would have fallen headlong from a lofty eminence; for it is humility alone that can give stability to our greatness in the sight of God.

Between visions and revelations there is this distinction — that a revelation is often made either in a dream, or by an oracle, without any thing being presented to the eye, while a vision is scarcely ever afforded without a revelation, or in other words, without the Lord’s discovering what is meant by it.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

XII.

(1) It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come . . .—The English “doubtless” corresponds to a Greek illative particle. To boast, then, is not expedient for me. The MSS., however, present a considerable variety of readings. The best-authenticated text is probably that which would be represented in English by, I must needs glory. It is not, indeed, expedient, but I will come . . . The sequence of thought would seem to be that the Apostle felt constrained by the taunts of his opponents to indulge in what looked like self-assertion in vindication of his own character; that he was conscious, as he did so, that it was not, in the highest sense of the word, expedient for him; and that, under the influence of these mingled feelings, he passed over other topics on which he might have dwelt, and came at once to that which had been made matter of reproach against him.

Visions and revelations of the Lord.—It need scarcely be said that the history of the Acts is full of such visions (Act_9:4-6; Act_16:9; Act_18:9; Act_22:18; Act_23:11; Act_27:23). One other instance is referred to in Gal_2:2. There is scarcely any room for doubt that this also had been made matter of reproach against him, and perhaps urged as a proof of the charge of madness. In the Clementine Homilies—a kind of controversial romance representing the later views of the Ebionite or Judaising party, in which most recent critics have recognised a thinly-veiled attempt to present the characteristic features of St. Paul under the pretence of an attack on Simon Magus, just as the writer of a political novel in modern times might draw the portraits of his rivals under fictitious names—we find stress laid on the alleged claims of Simon to have had communications from the Lord through visions and dreams and outward revelations; and this claim is contrasted with that of Peter, who had personally followed Christ during his ministry on earth (Hom. xvii. 14-20). What was said then, in the form of this elaborate attack, may well have been said before by the more malignant advocates of the same party. The charge of insanity was one easy to make, and of all charges, perhaps, the most difficult to refute by one who gloried in the facts which were alleged as its foundation—who did see visions, and did “speak with tongues” in the ecstasy of adoring rapture (1Co_14:18). It may be noted as an instance of St. Luke’s fairness that he, ignorant of, or ignoring, the charge of madness that had been brought against St. Paul, does not grudge the Apostle of the Circumcision whatever glory might accrue from a true revelation thus made through the medium of a vision (Act_10:10-11).

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

It is not expedient doubtless for me to glory,.... Though it was lawful for him to glory, and was necessary in the present circumstances of things, in vindication of himself, and to preserve the Corinthians from being carried away with the insinuations of the false apostles; and so for the honour and interest of Christ and the Gospel; yet it was not expedient on some other accounts, or profitable and serviceable to himself; he might find that it tended to stir up pride, vanity, and elation of mind in him, and might be interpreted by others as proud boasting and vain glorying; wherefore he chose to drop it, and pass on to another subject; or rather though it was not expedient to proceed, yet, before he entirely quitted it, he thought it proper to say something of the extraordinary appearances of God unto him. Some copies, and the Vulgate Latin version, read, "if there was need of glorying, it is not indeed expedient"; the Syriac version, "there is need of glorying, but it is not expedient"; and the Arabic version, "neither have I need to glory, nor is it expedient for me: I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord"; such as the Lord had made to him, and not man; and which were not the fruit of his own fancy, or the delusions of Satan; but were from the Lord Jesus Christ, and his glory. The apostle might very well speak of "visions" or heavenly appearances, since he was favoured with many; his conversion was owing to a vision or appearance of Christ to him, whom he saw with his bodily eyes, and heard him speaking to him, and which he calls "the heavenly vision"; at another time when at Troas, a vision appeared to him in the night, and a man of Macedonia stood and prayed him to come over and help them; and when at Corinth the Lord spoke to him by a vision, and bid him not be afraid, but go on preaching the Gospel, because he had much people there to be brought in through his ministry: and as for revelations, besides what are ordinary and common to all believers, he had extraordinary ones; the Gospel and the scheme of it, the knowledge of the several particular doctrines of it, were not attained to by him in the common way, but he had them by the revelation of Jesus Christ; the several mysterious parts of it, particularly that of the calling of the Gentiles, to which might be added, the change that will be upon the living saints at Christ's second coming, were made known to him by revelation; and sometimes in this extraordinary way he was directed to go to such or such a place, as at a certain time he went up to Jerusalem by "revelation", where he was to do or suffer many things for the sake of Christ: though he had no revelation of anything that was different from, and much less contrary to the Gospel, and as it was preached by the other apostles; for there was an entire agreement between him and them in their ministry; see Gal 2:2, and these visions and revelations were for his instruction, direction, and encouragement in the ministration of the Gospel; and being of an extraordinary nature, were suitable to those extraordinary times, and not to be expected in an ordinary way, nor is there any need of them now; besides, these were visions and revelations of the Lord, and not the effects of enthusiasm, and a warm imagination, nor diabolical delusions, or the pretensions and cheats of designing men; and were for the confirmation and establishment of the Gospel, and not to countenance a new scheme, or introduce a new dispensation; wherefore all visions and revelations men pretend to, which are for such a purpose, are to be despised and rejected.

, and these visions and revelations were for his instruction, direction, and encouragement in the ministration of the Gospel; and being of an extraordinary nature, were suitable to those extraordinary times, and not to be expected in an ordinary way, nor is there any need of them now; besides, these were visions and revelations of the Lord, and not the effects of enthusiasm, and a warm imagination, nor diabolical delusions, or the pretensions and cheats of designing men; and were for the confirmation and establishment of the Gospel, and not to countenance a new scheme, or introduce a new dispensation; wherefore all visions and revelations men pretend to, which are for such a purpose, are to be despised and rejected.

2 Corinthians 12:2

co2 12:2

co2 12:2

co2 12:2I knew a man in Christ about fourteen years ago,.... Which is to be understood of himself, as appears from Co2 12:7, where he speaks in the first person; and the reason why he here speaks in the third, is to show his modesty and humility, and how much he declined vain glory and popular applause; and whilst he is speaking of himself, studies as it were to conceal himself from being the person designed, and to draw off the mind of the reader from him to another person; though another cannot be intended, for it would not have been to his purpose, yea, quite beside it, when he proposes to come to visions and revelations he had of the Lord, to have instanced in the rapture of another. Moreover, the full and certain knowledge he had of this man, of the place he was caught up to, and of the things he there heard, best agrees with him; as also his attesting, in such a solemn way, his ignorance of the manner of this rapture, whether in the body or out of the body, and which he repeats and refers to the knowledge of God, clearly shows he must mean himself; besides, it would otherwise have been no instance of any vision of his, nor would the rapture of another have at all affected his character, commendation, and praise, or given him any occasion of glorying as this did: though he did not choose to take it, as is clear by his saying that if he gloried of it he should not be a fool, yet forbore, lest others should entertain too high an opinion of him; and after all, he was in some danger of being elated with this vision along with others, that the following sore temptation was permitted, to prevent his being exalted with it above measure: and when he calls this person, meaning himself, a "man", it is not to distinguish him from an angel, whose habitation is in the third heaven, and so no wonderful thing to be found there; or from any other creature; nor perhaps only to express his sex, a man, and not a woman, though the Syriac version uses the word peculiar to the masculine sex; but merely to design a person, and it is all one as if it had been said, I knew a person, or I knew one in Christ: and the phrase "in Christ", is not to be connected with the word "know", as if the sense was, that he called Christ to witness the truth of what he was about to say, and that what he should say was not with a view to his own glory, but to the glory and honour of Christ only; but it is to be connected with the word "man", and denotes his being in Christ, and that either, as Dr. Hammond thinks, in a singular and extraordinary manner; as John is said to be "in the spirit", Rev 1:10, that is, in an ecstasy; and so here this man was in the Spirit of Christ, and transported by him to see visions, and have revelations; or rather it intends a spiritual being in Christ, union to him, the effect of which is communion with him. The date of

fourteen years ago, may refer either to the time when the apostle first had the knowledge of his being in Christ, which was at his conversion; he was in Christ from all eternity, being given to him, chosen in him, loved by him; set as a seal upon his heart, as well as engraven on the palms of his hands, and represented by him, and in him, in the everlasting covenant; and so in time, at his crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and session at the right hand of God; in consequence of all which, when the set time was come, he became a new creature, was converted and believed in Christ, and then he knew himself to be in him; he was in him secretly before, now openly; and this was about fourteen years before the writing of this epistle; the exact time of his conversion might well be known and remembered by him, it being in such an extraordinary manner: or also this date may refer to the time of his rapture, which some have thought was some time within the three days after his conversion, when he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank; some have thought it to be eight years after his conversion; but the most probable opinion is, that it was not at Damascus, but when he was come again to Jerusalem, and was praying in the temple, and was in a trance or ecstasy, Act 22:17, though the difference there is among chronologers, and the uncertainty of their conjectures, both as to the time of the apostle's conversion, and the writing of this epistle, makes it very difficult to determine this point. They that make this rapture to be at the time of his conversion, seem to be furthest off of the truth of things; for whether his conversion be placed in the 34th year of Christ, as some, or in the 35th, as others, or in the 36th; and this epistle be thought to be written either in the 56th, or 58th, or 60th, the date of fourteen years will agree with neither: they indeed make things to agree together best, who place his conversion in the year 36, make this rapture to be eight years after, in the year 44, and this epistle to be written in the year 58. Dr. Lightfoot puts the conversion of the apostle in the year 34, the rapture of him into the third heaven, in the year 43, at the time of the famine in the reign of Claudius, Act 11:28, when he was in a trance at Jerusalem, Act 22:17, and the writing of this epistle in the year 57. That great chronologer, Bishop Usher, places Paul's conversion in the year 35, his rapture in the year 46, and the writing of this epistle in the year 60. So that upon the whole it is hard to say when this rapture was; and it may be, it was at neither of the visions recorded in the Scripture, which the apostle had, but at some other time nowhere else made mention of: when, as he here says,

such an one was caught up to the third heaven, the seat of the divine Majesty, and the residence of the holy angels; where the souls of departed saints go immediately upon their dissolution; and the bodies and souls of those who have been translated, caught up, and raised already, are; and where the glorified body of Christ is and will be, until his second coming. This is called the "third" heaven, in respect to the airy and starry heavens. The apostle refers to a distinction among the Jews of , "the supreme heaven, the middle heaven, and the lower heaven" (f); and who also make a like division of worlds, and which they call , "the supreme world, and the middle world, and the lower world" (g); and sometimes (h) the world of angels, the world of the orbs, and the world of them below; and accordingly the Cabalistic doctors talk of three worlds; , "the third world", they say (i), is the supreme world, hidden, treasured, and shut up, which none can know; as it is written, "eye hath not seen", &c. and is the same with the apostle's "third heaven". The state and condition in which he was during this rapture is expressed by the following words, put into a parenthesis,

whether in the body I cannot tell, or whether out of the body I cannot tell, God knoweth: whether his soul remained in his body, and he was caught up soul and body into heaven, as Elijah was carried thither soul and body in a chariot with horses of fire; or whether his soul was out of his body, and he was disembodied for a time, as Philo the Jew (k) says that Moses was "without the body", during his stay of forty days and as many nights in the mount; or whether this was not all in a visionary way, as John was "in the Spirit" on the Lord's day, and Ezekiel was taken by a lock of his head, and lifted up by the Spirit between earth and heaven, and brought "in the visions of God to Jerusalem", cannot be said. The apostle did not know himself, and much less can any other be able to say how it was; it is best with him to refer and leave it to the omniscient God; one of the four persons the Jews say entered into paradise, who are hereafter mentioned in See Gill on Co2 12:4, is said to have his mind snatched away in a divine rapture (l); that is, he was not himself, he knew not where he was, or whether in the body or out, as says the apostle.

(f) Targum in 2 Chron. vi. 18. (g) Tzeror Hammor, fol. 1. 4. & 3. 2, 3. (h) Tzeror Hammor, fol. 83. 2. (i) Zohar in Numb. fol. 66. 3. (k) De Somniis, p. 570. (l) Cosri, p. 3. sect. 65. fol. 190. 1. 2.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

1 It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.

Ver. 1. It is not expedient for me] Because it carries a show at least of pride and folly; and Christians must be shy of the very shows and shadows of sin, ministers especially, whose practice easily passeth into an example. Howbeit for the Corinthians it was expedient, because they thought more meanly of Paul than was meet.

To visions and revelations] The false apostles, haply, boasted of such as some seducers do today, who dream Midianitish dreams, and then tell the same to their neighbours for gospel. But take heed, the old prophet may bring men into the lion’s mouth, by telling them of an angel that spake to him.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

It is not expedient - It is not well; it does not become me. This may either mean that he felt and admitted that it did not become him to boast in this manner; that there was an impropriety in his doing it though circumstances had compelled him, and in this sense it is understood by nearly, or quite, all expositors; or it may be taken ironically. “Such a man as I am ought not to boast. So you say, and so it would seem. A man who has done no more than I have; who has suffered nothing; who has been idle and at ease as I have been, ought surely not to boast. And since there is such an evident impropriety in my boasting and speaking about myself, I will turn to another matter, and inquire whether the same thing may not be said about visions and revelations. I will speak, therefore, of a man who had some remarkable revelations, and inquire whether he has any right to boast of the favors imparted to him.” This seems to me to be the probable interpretation of this passage.

To glory - To boast; 2Co 10:8, 2Co 10:13; 2Co 11:10. One of the charges which they alleged against him was, that he was given to boasting without any good reason. After the enumeration in the previous chapter of what he had done and suffered, he says that this was doubtless very true. Such a man has nothing to boast of.

I will come - Margin, “For I will.” Our translators have omitted the word (γὰρ gar) for in the text, evidently supposing that it is a mere expletive. Doddridge renders it, “nevertheless.” But it seems to me that it contains an important sense, and that it should be rendered by then. “Since it is not fit that I should glory, then I will refer to visions, etc. I will turn away then from that subject, and come to another.” Thus, the word (γὰρ gar) is used in Joh 7:41. “Shall then μὴ γὰρ mē gar Christ come out of Galilee?” Act 8:31. “How can I then τὼ tō; γὰρ gar except some man should guide me?” see also Act 19:35; Rom 3:3; Phi 1:18.

To visions - The word “vision” is used in the Scriptures often to denote the mode in which divine communications were usually made to people. This was done by causing some scene to appear to pass before the mind as in a landscape, so that the individual seemed to see a representation of what was to occur in some future period. It was usually applied to prophecy, and is often used in the Old Testament; see my note on Isa 1:1, and also on Act 9:10. The vision which Paul here refers to was that which he was permitted to have of the heavenly world; 2Co 12:4. He was permitted to see what perhaps no other mortal had seen, the glory of heaven.

And revelations of the Lord - Which the Lord had made. Or it may mean manifestations which the Lord had made of himself to him. The word rendered “revelations” means properly an “uncovering” (ἀποκάλυψις apokalupsis, from ἀποκαλύπτω apokaluptō, to uncover), and denotes a removal of the veil of ignorance and darkness, so that an object may be clearly seen; and is thus applied to truth revealed, because the obscurity is removed and the truth becomes manifest.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

If I must glory. St. Paul in the whole of this discourse shews the repugnance he had of speaking in his own praise, and that if he did it, it was only through constraint, and for the advantage of the Corinthians; as also to defend himself from calumniators. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory; it is neither comely, nor of any advantage to myself, to glory; nor would I do it but in this case of necessity, where glorying is necessary for the glory of God, and for your good, to vindicate myself to you from the imputations that some others lay upon me.

I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord: do any of them boast of visions and revelations from God? I have something of that nature to glory in as well as they. Some make this difference between visions, and revelations; that visions signify apparitions, the meaning of which, those that see them do not understand; revelations signify the discoveries of the mind and will of God to persons immediately, either by dreams, or by some audible voice, which maybe without any object represented to the eye. Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar seem to have had such visions as they did not understand, till interpreted by Joseph and Daniel; but undoubtedly Paul’s visions were not such. The difference therefore seems rather to be, that in all visions which good and holy men had, there was a revelation; but every revelation did not suppose a vision.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

His Privileges and Trials

The Apostle unwillingly resumes his boasting and tells of a revelation he received from God; but returns again to dwell on his weaknesses, and especially on his bodily infirmity, through which Christ's grace was manifested.

Paraphrase. '(1) It is not expedient for me to boast again: I have really been compelled to do it. I will now mention my experiences of divine visions and revelations, (2) Fourteen years ago I experienced such a divine ecstasy that I knew not whether I was still in the flesh or whether I had been translated to another sphere. (3) I repeat, I did not know in what state of being I was; (4) but I had a divine revelation which caused me unspeakable joy and taught me truths too deep for words to express.'

1. It is not expedient, etc.] RV 'I must needs glory though it is not expedient'; i.e. in self-defence.

2. I knew (RV 'know') a man] St. Paul is speaking of himself, of course, as 2Co_12:7 shows. In Christ] so much devoted to Christ and under His influence, that Christ completely dominated him and, as it were, lived in him. Whether in the body.. out of the body] The Apostle was in a trance or ecstatic state in which consciousness of the outer world was for the time suspended: sight, hearing, feeling were gone, and he was lost in contemplation of the divine. His reference to the experience is too vague for us to draw any conclusions from it: it must be remembered that he was not giving information about his revelations, but only mentioning the facts to prove that he was 'not a whit behind the very chiefest Apostles.' The third heaven] the highest state of bliss.

3. And I knew] repetition of 2Co_12:2 for emphasis.

4. Into paradise] Paradise is used as a synonym for the third heaven of 2Co_12:2. The word is used in the NT. for the abode of the blessed after death: cp. Luk_23:43; Rev_2:7. Lawful] better, 'possible.'

5, 6. Paraphrase. 'I can boast of these experiences, for they were due to no labours or merits of my own; but I will not boast of anything I have done myself, though I may speak of my weaknesses through which God's grace toward me has been manifested. (6) For even if I wanted to boast of all the privileges I have received, I should be justified, for my words would be true; but I am unwilling that any one should be led to think of me more highly than my services warrant.'

5. Of such an one] He can boast of these experiences because they do not glorify him as an individual. Of myself] He will not boast, as he might, of what he has done.

7-10. Paraphrase. 'And lest I should be uplifted by spiritual pride as the result of these revelations, a painful bodily weakness—the very work of Satan—was inflicted upon me. (8) I prayed earnestly for the removal of this affliction; (9) but the Lord answered me saying, “My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” And therefore I rejoice in my sufferings, because it is in enduring them that I realise most clearly that Christ is helping me. (10) I am glad when trials and persecutions for Christ's sake are my lot, for in my moments of greatest weakness I am strengthened with power from on high.'

7. A thorn in the flesh] some extremely painful bodily disease whose symptoms recurred at intervals. Some, like Lightfoot, suggest epilepsy; others, like Farrar, ophthalmia; and Ramsay holds that it was malarial fever: cp. Gal_4:13-15. The messenger of Satan] RV 'a messenger of Satan.' For the idea, cp. Job_2:5-7; Luk_13:16; Act_10:38.

8. The Lord] Christ, as 2Co_12:9 shows. Thrice] He probably made this 'thorn' the subject of earnest prayer on three special occasions: cp. Mat_26:44.

9. My grace, etc.] 'It is enough for thee that thou hast my grace; my power makes itself felt when there is no other support' (Stevens). For the thought, cp. Luk_22:43; Psa_20:6; Psa_138:3. The best answer to prayer is the consciousness of the support of the unseen Hand. Rest upon] RV 'cover.'

11, 12. Paraphrase. 'Well now, you have compelled me to boast like a fool. I should not have needed to do so, for you ought to have spoken in my defence; but I think I have shown that insignificant though I be, I am at least on an equality with these preëminent apostles of yours. (12) You certainly had all the proofs of my true apostleship in the work I did and the conduct I exhibited among you. (13) For wherein did I treat you differently from other Churches except in my refusal of support from you? Pray forgive me this great injury.'

11. I ought to have been commended] Instead of listening to his detractors they should have vigorously defended him. Though I be nothing] i.e. as my enemies say.

12. Signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds] miracles in various aspects. That St. Paul claimed to have wrought miracles is evident also from Rom_15:18-19 : cp. Gal_3:5.

13. Forgive me] The verse is ironical.

14-18. Paraphrase. 'I am now about to pay you a third visit, and, as on former occasions, I shall accept nothing for my support. It is not your possessions but your very selves that I want; for you are my spiritual children, and it is not customary for children to lay by wealth for their parents, but rather for parents to lay by for their children. (15) And I am ready to give all I possess to win your souls. Are you going to continue indifferent to my love for you? (16) But some have been saying that while I took nothing from you directly, I was cunning enough to rob you indirectly. (17) Well, I appeal to yourselves. Did any of the brethren I sent take anything from you? (18) When Titus and his companion visited you, did they not live and act exactly as I had done?'

14. The third time] His former visits were (1) the visit recorded in Acts 18, when he founded the Church, and (2) the short visit 'in sorrow,' not mentioned in Acts, but referred to in Act_2:1 : see Intro. 1 (c). I will not be burdensome] see on 2Co_11:7-12. Not yours, but you] cp. 2Co_8:5. The parents for the children] He wished to act towards them as a self-denying parent: cp. 1Co_4:14, 1Co_4:15.

15. Though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved] RV 'If I love you more abundantly, am I loved the less?'

16. But be it so] He now meets another insinuation: this one is disposed of.

18. I desired (RV 'exhorted') Titus] This visit of Titus must have been made at an earlier period than that referred to in 2Co_2:13 and 2Co_7:6 and that intimated in 2Co_8:6, 2Co_8:17 as about to be made. There were evidently three visits of Titus to Corinth: (1) that here mentioned and referred to in 2Co_8:6 ('as he had begun'), during which he seems to have organised the collection; (2) that referred to in 2Co_2:13; 2Co_7:6, when he went to quell the rebellion, bearing this very letter (2 Corinthians 10-13); (3) that referred to in 2Co_8:6, 2Co_8:17, when he conveyed 2 Corinthians 1-9. See Intro.

(d) 12:19-13:10. Warnings against Evil and Exhortations to Holiness

The Apostle reminds them that he is not pleading his cause before them, but writing for their edification.

Paraphrase. '(19) Do you think that all I have been writing is a defence of my conduct to satisfy you? It is not you, but God, who will judge me. What I have written is for the purpose of helping you to strengthen character and raise the standard of Christian life. (20) I am afraid lest when I visit you I find you unrepentant and obstinate, and I have to use severity. I am afraid lest the dark passions and vices I reproved still disfigure the Church, (21) and lest I be distressed and humiliated by the impenitence and shamelessness of those who were given to sensual sins and still continue their evil habits.'

19. Again, think ye] RV 'Ye think all this time that we are excusing ourselves,' i.e. pleading our cause. In Christ] as inspired by Christ's Spirit through living in union with him. For your edifying] He seeks not their favourable verdict, but their growth in goodness.

21. When I come again] The 'again' should be joined with the next clause, 'God will again humble me.' He had been humbled at his last visit—the visit 'in heaviness' referred to in 2Co_2:1.

J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The revelations vouchsafed to him (vers. 1-6). The counteracting "thorn in the flesh" (vers. 7-10). One more apology for glorying (vers. 11, 12). His disinterestedness (vers. 13-15). Indignant refutation of the charge that he had made gain of them through the agency of subordinates (vers. 16-18). Caution and warnings (vers. 19-21).

It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. This rendering follows the best-attested reading; but it is at least doubtful whether, instead of dei or de, the ironic dh of K, M, and the Greek Fathers is not the true reading. In mere vowel variations, especially in passages where the meaning does not lie on the surface, the diplomatic (external) evidence is less important. If St. Paul wrote dh, it means, "of course it is not expedient for me to boast." I will come; for I will come; if the reading of D is correct. In that case it is hardly possible to define the counter currents of feeling which caused the use of the conjunction. Visions and revelations. The word used for "visions" means presentations perceived in a state which is neither sleeping nor waking, but which are regarded as objective; "revelations" are the truths apprehended as a result of the visions. Optasia, for "visions," only occurs elsewhere in Luk_1:22 Luk_24:23; Act_26:19. comp. Gal_2:2

Vers. 1-5.

Apostolic piety and psychology.

is not expedient," etc. These verses present two subjects of thought.

I APOSTOLIC PSYCHOLOGY. The words reveal certain ideas which Paul had concerning the human mind. He had the idea:

1. That whilst here it is capable of existing separate from the body. "Whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell." If he had been certain that the soul could not exist whilst here apart from the body, would he have spoken thus? And who is not conscious of the mind having experiences in which the body does not participate? Paul speaks of himself as entering regions far away.

(1) The third heaven." The Bible speaks of three heavens.

(a) The atmospheric, There the clouds travel and perform their functions.

(b) The starry. There the sun, moon, and stars appear.

(c) The heavens that lie beyond the heavenly orbs; where God and his holy angels are supposed to have their special residence. Up to this" third heaven" Paul was caught.

(2) Paradise. "Caught up into Paradise." The word here denotes some place in the universe distinguished in beauty and fruitfulness. Paul regarded it possible for the soul to go away into those distant regions of supernal brightness and beauty. Who has not been conscious of being borne far away from the body on the wing of thought?

1. That whilst here it is capable of receiving extraordinary revelations apart from the body. "Heard unspeakable words." Things of the soul may be unutterable either from necessity or from impropriety. The deepest things of the heart are unutterable in any language. Perhaps what Paul saw and heard in the spirit was neither possible nor proper to communicate. There are but few of us who have not received impressions of distant things. We are often caught away to distant scenes, and see and hear extraordinary things.

2. That whilst here it may exist apart from the body and the man not know it. "Whether in the body, I cannot tell." He was so charged with spiritual things that he had lost all consciousness of matter and his relations to it. The man whose soul is flooded with the higher elements of being does not know for the time whether he is "in the body" or "out of the body.

3. That wherever or however it exists it constitutes the man. "I knew a man in Christ." That which had these wonderful revelations he regarded as the man. To the apostle the body was the costume of the man, which he put on at birth and took off at death. In fact, he regarded the body as his not him, the soul as himself.

II APOSTOLIC PIETY. There are three things concerning piety here.

1. Humility. That the man of whom Paul here speaks is himself scarcely admits of a doubt. Why should he speak of himself in the third person? It is because of that modesty of nature which is ever the characteristic of a truly great soul. Humility is an essential attribute of piety.

2. Christism. "A man in Christ." To be in Christ is to live in his ideas, character, spirit, as the atmosphere of being. He who lives in the spirit of Christ becomes a man.

3. Transport. His soul was borne away in ecstasy. The time when the revelation occurred is specifiedfourteen years ago." Strange that he did not speak of it before. Piety has its hours of ravishments, ecstasies, and transfigurations.

HOMILIES BY C. LIPSCOMB Vers. 1-6.

Supernatural communications as evidences of his apostleship.

The old question as to his apostolic authority, which had recently been revived in a most exciting form, was not yet disposed of, and he must now discuss it in another aspect. So far as external circumstances were concerned, had not the prophetic declaration to Ananias been fulfilled? will show him how great things he must suffer for my Name"s sake." And, furthermore, he had proved that his own state of mind, the inward being of his soul, had corresponded with his call to suffer. The flesh had been subdued. Years of growth had brought him to a stage of experience that allowed him to speak of glorying in his infirmities. But he would now turn to another branch of experiences, viz. "visions and revelations of the Lord." Glorious as these exaltations were, they would see that, while they were exceptional in certain respects, yet they fell in with the providential discipline of his life, and opened the way for a keener sense of his infirmities by "a thorn in the flesh" All along St. Paul has been painfully aware that his enemies were using these infirmities to his official disparagement. Painfully, we say, for it is obvious that he was sensitive to the disadvantages under which he appeared before the public. "Humble," "rude in speech," "bodily presence weak," "speech contemptible," were things that had some foundation in fact. Of course, his adversaries exaggerated them, but the apostle could not escape instinctive feeling, and at times acute feeling, touching this matter. This, however, was only one source of depression. A fuller account of his sufferings, physical and mental, than he had ever given bad just now been presented, and the conclusion of it was that his bodily disadvantages as a speaker, his low repute as a public teacher, his constant endurance of pain and solicitude, had resulted in his realizing the fact that this very weakness was his strength. Could "visions and revelations" be entrusted to him such visions and revelations and he not be humbled by Divine direction? The more glorious the revelation, the greater the necessity for him to be reminded, and most painfully reminded, that the treasure was committed to an "earthen vessel." Witness the following: a man fourteen years ago the memory of it still vividly present as a reality of today such a man, whether in the body or out of the body it was impossible to tell, elevated to, the third heaven, and hearing "unspeakable words not lawful for a man to utter." "Fourteen years ago" the fact now first divulged, and yet the fact alone; the secret disclosures still a secret and personal to the man alone; and the sanctity such that it would be profanation to make the contents of the communication known. "Caught up to the third heaven, caught up into Paradise," face to face with the Lord Jesus in his mediatorial glory; and there, the senses laid to rest and the body forgotten and the spirit opened to receive instruction and inspiration, the man taught what he was to be and what he was to do as the servant on earth of his Divine Master. Of this man, as a man in Christ, he would boast; of himself in the flesh and subject to its infirmities, be would not boast save of his weakness. Under grace, what a debtor was he to these humiliations! Intellectual pride and vanity, spiritual pride and vanity, pride and vanity as a Jew to whom the God of the fathers had manifested himself how could these be kept down except by mortifications of the flesh? If, nevertheless, he were to boast of these revelations, he should do it truthfully. Suppose, then, that he should make this boast; who would be able to transfer himself into the proper attitude of a listener? It would not be weakness, but power, the observer would see. "I forbear," and I shrink from it, lest the contrast between this power and my visible weakness, this glory and my present humiliation, be too great for any man to bear. L.

HOMILIES BY E. HURNDALL Vers. 1-4.

Apostolic experiences in heaven.

I THE APOSTLE HAD A HEAVENLY EXPERIENCE DURING HIS EARTHLY LIFE. His earthly experience was, vary largely, dark and sorrowful; but amidst the darkness appears this brilliant flash of heavenly light.

1. He gives us this experience as an actual fact, and as such we must receive it. It was a reality to him. He records it that it may come before us as a reality, not as a mere fancy or illusion.

2. It furnished him with an opportunity of contrasting mans treatment and Gods. In the closing verses of the preceding chapter we have a catalogue of Paul"s tribulations, many of these occasioned by human perversity and enmity. Men treated Paul evilly; God gave him this special and marvellous heavenly experience!

II THE CHARACTER OF THIS EXPERIENCE.

1. A real entrance into the heavenly world. Paul has no doubt about this. His only doubt is whether he was in the body at the time. He most distinctly conveys that there was a removal of his spirit into another sphere; he is not sure whether his body accompanied his spirit. There could not have been a doubt as to whether he was "in the body" if his experience had been a mere trance or any special influence brought to bear upon his mind. There was a removal, but whether of body and spirit, or of spirit alone, the apostle cannot declare. We may note the apostolic belief that conscious life is possible to us when we are out of the body." The apostle did not know whether his experience was of this order, but he evidently recognizes this order of experience as possible. We may note further that the apostle regarded heaven or paradise as a place as well as a state. "Third heaven" and "paradise" seem to be used synonymously heaven" indicating the realm in which God"s glory is pre-eminently manifested. The rabbins taught the existence of seven heavens, but it is not probable that Paul refers to their notions.

2. An entrance effected by God. It was not by the apostle"s merit or power; it was by a Divine act he was "caught up." Admittance to the heavenly world is in the hands of God; if we enter, then God must effect the entrance for us. Christ, the Way, is given to us by God.

3. Astonishing visions. Paul saw much (ver. 1).

4. Wonderful revelations. He heard much. "Unspeakable words," understood by him, but not to be repeated on earth. Possibly they would not have been intelligible to any who had not participated in the heavenly experience. Our curiosity craves to know what Paul saw and heard, but our needs do not demand it. We have the speakable words of the gospel, which, rightly received, will prepare us to hear by and by the "unspeakable words" of heaven and to behold the heavenly glories.

III THE OBJECT OF THIS EXPERIENCE.

1. To encourage the apostle in his many labours and sufferings. Christ took his disciples up into the mountain and was transfigured before them; then he brought them down into the world of men to toil and to endure.

2. To quicken his faith in the unseen. Great natures doing great works have often great trials of faith. A big devil always comes against a big Christian.

3. To speed him onward to the final rest of Gods people. He was a much loved child; the Father showed him special favour.

4. That others to whom the experience should be recounted might participate in the benefit. The experience was for us as well as for the apostle. From us its special features are largely hidden; but it is revealed to us, and this knowledge may well encourage us in the earthly service, quicken our faith, and hasten our footsteps towards the glories beyond the veil.

A general lesson may be learnt from the event that those who have special trials and sorrows experience also special comforts and helps. H.

HOMILIES BY R. TUCK Ver. 1.

Visions and revelations,

will come to visions and revelations of the Lord." The apostle had been dwelling on his personal experiences. He had been compelled by the evil things that were said of him to refer to his own life, conduct, and sufferings for Christ"s sake, in self-vindication. He would, however, not have spoken one word about these things if the honour of Christ had not been bound up with his claim to apostleship. He had now said everything that needed to be said about himself; and it was every way pleasanter and healthier to turn away from his own doings and sufferings, and to fix his heart and his thoughts upon what God had done for him. Upon the Divine visions and revelations given to him he in great part rested his apostolic claim. To him an apostle was, just what a prophet of the olden time had been, a man who had direct and personal communications with the Lord Jesus, and received instructions immediately from him. For such instances in St. Paul"s career, Act_9:4-6 Act_16:9 Act_18:9 Act_22:18 Act_23:11 Act_27:23; Gal_2:2; and the scenes recorded in the chapter now before us. This claim to direct revelation the enemies of St. Paul denied, and laughed to scorn his pretensions as the indications of insanity. Dean Plumptre tells us that "in the Clementine Homilie"s a kind of controversial romance representing the later views of the Ebionite or Judaizing party, in which most recent critics have recognized a thinly veiled attempt to present the characteristic features of St. Paul under the pretence of an attack on Simon Magus, just as the writer of a political novel in modern times might draw the portraits of his rivals under fictitious names we find stress laid on the alleged claims of Simon to have had communications from the Lord through visions and dreams and outward revelations; and this claim is contrasted with that of Peter, who had personally followed Christ during his ministry on earth. What was said then, in the form of this elaborate attack, may well have been said before by the more malignant advocates of the same party. The charge of insanity was one easy to make, and of all charges, perhaps, the most difficult to refute by one who gloried in the facts which were alleged as its foundation who did see visions and did "speak with tongues" in the ecstasy of adoring rapture." Compare the expression, "whether we be beside ourselves," in 2Co_5:13. When the particular visions came to which reference is made in the passage before us cannot certainly be known. St. Paul only aids us by referring to the time as "about fourteen years ago." The suggestion we prefer is that they were granted during the time of his fainting after the stoning at Lystra, and were the Divine comfortings of that hour of sorest peril and distress. (Act_14:19)

I VISIONS AND REVELATIONS ARE AGENCIES WHICH GOD HAS ALWAYS USED. They do not belong to any one age. We have no right to say that they are limited to ancient times. There have always been the true and the counterfeit; but the true should not be missed or denied because the false have been found out. There are good gold coins, or men would not trouble to make spurious sovereigns. Fanaticism deludes its victims into imaginary visions, but souls that are kin with God, and open to him, can receive communications from him. Illustrate from all ages, e.g. Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Samuel, David, Isaiah, Joseph (the husband of Mary), aged Simeon, Zacharias, etc. So in the Christian age we find visions granted to Cornelius, Philip, Peter, and John, as well as Paul, and traces of prophets, such as Agabus, and even of prophetesses. St. Paul"s visions were probably of the nature of a trance; the mind being absorbed in contemplation may be prepared to receive Divine revealings. It is right to subject all claims to visions to careful scrutiny, and the things communicated to men at such times must be tested by their harmony with the written revelation; but we need not refuse to recognize the truth that God has direct relations to souls now as certainly as in past ages. Both truth and duty may still be directly revealed.

II THEY COME TO CERTAIN PREPARED INDIVIDUALS. Not to masses, not to Churches, not to meetings. The vision is for individuals, who are thus made agents in the communication to men of the Divine thought and will. F.W. Robertson says, "To comprehend the visions we must comprehend the man. For God gives visions at his own will, and according to certain and fixed laws. He does not inspire every one. He does not reveal his mysteries to men of selfish, or hard, or phlegmatic temperaments. He gives preternatural communications to those whom he prepares beforehand by a peculiar spiritual sensitiveness. There are, physically, certain sensitivenesses to sound and colour that qualify men to become gifted musicians and painters; so, spiritually, there are certain strong original susceptibilities (I say original, as derived from God, the origin of all), and on these God bestows strange gifts and sights, deep feelings not to be uttered in human language, and immeasurable by the ordinary standard. Such a man was St. Paul a very wondrous nature, the Jewish nature in all its strength. We know that the Jewish temperament fitted men to be the organs of a revelation. Its fervour, its moral sense, its veneration, its indomitable will, all adapted the highest sons of the nation for receiving hidden truths and communicating them to others.

III THEY COME ON PARTICULAR OCCASIONS. By the law of Divine economy, only when they are the precise thing demanded, the only agency that will efficiently meet the case.

IV THEY COME IN GRACIOUSLY ADAPTED FORMS. Heard voices sometimes, at other times dreams, ocular visions, symbols, trances, and mental panoramas. Close by showing that, because the modern mode is direct to souls, immediate to the shaping of men"s thoughts, and not through symbols, or dreams, or visions, we need not lose the conviction that, upon due occasions still, God gives to some amongst us insight and revelation of his truth. R.T.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

It is not expedient - Unless on so pressing occasion. Visions are seen; Revelations, heard.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Paul’s Boast of His Weakness.

Supernatural revelations:

v. 1. It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.

v. 2. 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.

v. 3. And I knew such a man, (whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;)

v. 4. how that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.

v. 5. Of such an one will I glory; yet of myself I will not glory but in mine infirmities.

What a disagreeable task the apostle found this matter of glorying to which the attitude of the Corinthians had driven him is here again apparent: I must needs glory, though, indeed, it is not expedient. Not of his own free will, not because he delights in it, does he recount his sufferings and experiences in the work of the Lord, but because of the enmity of the false teachers and the gullibility of the disciples at Corinth. He is fully aware of the fact that there is no personal advantage for him in this boasting of the things he endured and the things which the Lord made known to him, but he now intends to mention some visions and revelations of the Lord which the Lord vouchsafed to him. See Act 2:17; Act 10:10; Rev 1:10; Rev 4:1; Act 9:3.

One vision, of which Paul now tells, stands out from the rest on account of its extraordinary character: I know a man in Christ fourteen years ago. He is sure of the facts which he here relates, since he himself was the Christian to whom the Lord vouchsafed this revelation, his humility not permitting him to name himself in connection with such a wonderful vision. The time had been impressed upon his memory so emphatically that he will not forget the date. It seems that he had the vision before entering upon his ministry proper, perhaps during his sojourn at Tarsus, Act 9:30; Act 11:25, the intention of the Lord being to give this new instrument of His mercy such evidence of His grace and power, by means of a foretaste of the bliss of heaven, that he would not despair in the midst of the manifold tribulations to which he was to be subjected. It was an extraordinary, miraculous experience; for Paul twice declares that he does not know whether he was in the body or out of the body; he was not able to say whether he was taken up into heaven bodily and saw all the glories with the eyes of his body, or whether only his spirit, temporarily freed from the confines of the mortal body, had seen the heavenly bliss. Many a time the apostle may have puzzled over the miraculous experience, but he was not able to come to a conclusion, and therefore left the matter to God.

The vision itself was unlike any other which he had had: That he was caught up to paradise and heard unspeakable words which no human lips can utter. The Bible often speaks of heaven in the plural, as in the Lord’s Prayer (in the Greek text), but just what distinction and degrees are to be observed we cannot tell from the various passages. Paul was undoubtedly transported to the third heaven, to paradise, to the place where the redeemed souls were living in the most intimate communion with God, where they saw their Savior face to face. Paul had had a taste of that bliss and glory in this vision. And he had heard words which were unutterable for any mere human tongue, or which he that had heard them would forever retain as a blessed secret; the substance of the divine communication upon that memorable occasion had been so exalted that it would have been profaned by repetition in human language.

A mere glimpse of the bliss of heaven it had been, but Paul was undoubtedly justified in saying: On account of that person will I glory, but on my own behalf I will not boast except in my weaknesses. Only such incidents will the apostle mention in a vein of boasting in which his own person was not actively engaged, which were bestowed upon him by the mercy of God alone, when he was lifted out of his own individuality and could view himself almost as a third person. Of himself, in his normal state, he has only one testimony to give, namely, that of his weakness, of his sufferings. And even here the glory is, in the last analysis, only God’s; for sufferings and tribulations can be subjects of boasting only inasmuch as they are borne with Christian fortitude given by God.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

That is, "I acknowledge it neither decent nor advantageous, with respect to myself, to go on in farther boasting and glorying; but since it may be necessary with respect to you, I will declare what visions and revelations I have received from the Lord; in which I shall give such an evidence of the favours of Christ to me, and such a testimony of my mission from heaven, as none of these false apostles or dceitful workers can pretend unto."

Learn hence, That although glorying or boasting, in itself is so expedient a thing, savours of pride, and is an evidence of folly, when it is not necessary and just, and therefore all Christians should be backward to it: Yet that which is so inexpedient in itself, may, upon a just and fitting occasion, be not only lawful, but laudable, both a necessary and commendable duty.

Observe, 2. The present subject matter of St. Paul’s glorying; it was heavenly raptures and visions which he gloried in.

Learn thence, That divine revelations, acquainting the soul with heaven, are matters most worthy of humble and modest glorying. Oh! if God would vouch-safe to favour us with the sight of what St. Paul saw, what little things would crowns and sceptres, empires and kingdoms, seem to us? How would it make us long, groan and cry, to be with Christ!

But though none of us must expect such raptures and ecstasies as the apostle had, blessed be God for that clear revelation of his heavenly glory which the gospel gives, and for that assurance which faith gives, that Christ as our forerunner is entered into, and keeps possession of it, in the name and stead of all believers: He has prepared it for us, and is daily preparing us for that, and in his own appointed time will put us into the actual possession of it; not for a few hours (which was all the apostle enjoyed) but for eternal ages.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

PAUL’S VISIONS AND REVELATIONS

1. “Indeed it is not profitable to me to boast.” He indulges in it because constrained by his adversaries to defend his claims to the apostleship, and thus vindicate the Divine authenticity of his ministry. “I will come to Visions and revelations of the Lord.

2. “I knew a man in Christ fourteen years ago (whether in the body, I know not; or out of the body, I know not, God knoweth): such an one having been caught up to the third Heaven.” In Oriental phraseology the atmosphere enveloping the globe is the first heaven; the astronomical worlds — sun, moon and stars — the second, and the home of the glorified saints and angels, the third. Hence we see that this man was caught up to Heaven proper, as understood in common parlance.

4. “He was caught up into Paradise, and heard unutterable words, which it is impossible for a man to speak.” i. e., those words were unutterable by mortals, consequently he was incompetent to repeat them, and as the Greek says, “it was impossible for a man to speak them.” The case is very clear that Paul himself was the man caught up to the third Heaven, and the time of its occurrence was evidently when they stoned him at Lystra in Pisidia, during his first great evangelistic tour with Barnabas. As the writing was A. D. 57, fourteen years would drop back to A. D. 43, which would just about suit the chronology, as he was converted about 35, and spent three years in Arabia and at Damascus, equal to 38. Then, returning to Jerusalem, he proceeded to preach in the Hellenistic synagogues, where Stephen had preached until he and others had persecuted him unto death. Hence, very appropriately going hack on his old track, he was endeavoring with all his might to undo all the bad work of his mistaken ministerial life before he was converted. We know not how long he preached at Jerusalem till the opposition which had martyred Stephen four years previously became so rife against him that the brethren found it necessary to rescue him from their hands, leading him to Cesarea, and sending him off home to Tarsus, this occurring about A. D. 39 or 40. There the historic curtain falls, and we hear no more of him till Barnabas went after him and brought him to Antioch to Help in their work in that great Syrian metropolis. After a year they go off on that missionary tour to the Island of Cyprus, the home of Barnabas; returning back to the Continent, and evangelizing Pamphylia, they proceed into Bithynia, where he was stoned at Lystra. As the time he spent at Tarsus, when they sent him home, is unknown, and the location of this wonderful vision at Lystra only gives him two or three years to constitute that unknown period at Tarsus (which he doubtless used diligently to the glory of God, evangelizing Cilicia, Phrygia and Galatia, and doubtless at that time founding churches in those countries), we may quite safely settle down on the Lystrian martyrdom as the epoch of this wonderful Heavenly vision. The solution becomes very simple. of course, it is more than probable that the cruel stoning actually killed him, his disembodied spirit going up to Heaven and there abiding, seeing scenes and hearing words indescribable in mortal phraseology. “Unlawful” in the KJV. is incorrect, “impossible” being the true rendering. There was no law forbidding him to tell on earth the things he saw and the utterances he heard in Heaven; but we must remember that all earthly languages are superlatively materialistic. This is the reason why the Bible abounds in material imagery, constituting a vast series of vehicles by which the unutterable realities of Heavenly truth are in a measure transmitted to us. Divest the Bible of this imagery, i. e., types, symbols, emblems and illustrations, and we could not understand it. Heaven is a world of pure spirituality, utterly unencumbered with material organism of any kind. Hence the pure spiritual realities of Heavenly existence are incommunicable in the materialistic phraseology used in this mortal world. Therefore when we go to Heaven we will receive a new language, dropping the vast and cumbrous vocabulary of materialistic utterances which we have used in this life and adopting the pure and unadulterated spiritual phraseology of the angels and glorified saints.

5. “In behalf of such an one I will boast, but I will not boast in behalf of myself, except in my infirmities.” This sentence does not abnegate the identity of Paul with this man that went up to the third Heaven and there heard and saw those wonderful things, because he was sent back to reanimate his body and go on and finish his work. Hence there is a great difference between incarnate Paul and his disembodied spirit. You also see in these passages Paradise and the third Heaven used synonymously. This is in harmony with the uniform teaching of inspiration. Our Savior told the dying thief that he should meet Him in Paradise on the day of the crucifixion (Luk 23:43). He told the two Marys and Martha, on the resurrection morn, that He had not yet ascended up to His Father. Hence the Paradise of the thief was not Heaven properly so called, but that intermediate Elysium of the Old Testament saints designated “Abraham’s bosom” (Luk 16:22). When our Savior expired on the cross, His human soul descended into Hades (1Pe 3:19; Eph 4:8; Act 2:31); proclaimed His victory to the inmates of the Pandemonium; crossed that chasm, impassable to finite beings, intervening between the Hell of Dives and the Heaven of Lazarus; entered that intermediate Paradise, i. e., “Abraham’s bosom”; met the thief true to His promise; enjoyed a glorious ovation through the oncoming Sabbath; abolished that intermediate Paradise, leading them all up with Him (Eph 4:10); received His body from the sepulcher on the third morning, all these inmates of the Old Testament Paradise accompanying Him the forty days, invisible because not having their bodies, and ascending with Him from Mt. Olivet up to Heaven (Psalms 24). Hence the identity of Paradise and Heaven in Paul’s day. We see in this last verse that Paul certifies that he will only glory in his infirmities, which have already been described.

6. “For if I shall wish to boast, I will not be a fool: for I shall speak the truth.” We can not properly denounce a man as a fool when lie speaks the truth. The Greek word here translated “fool” is not moros, “a natural fool,” but aphroon, “a spiritual fool,” i. e., one rejecting the light of the Holy Spirit, and consequently a fool, not simply in the estimation of mortals, but of the Heavenly intelligence’s. “But I abstain lest some one may reckon unto me above what he sees me or hears from me.” He does not want to be misapprehended nor overestimated. Lord, help us to do likewise, and see that we are not estimated above what we really are.

7. “And in order that I may not he exalted by the abundant excess of revelations, a thorn in my flesh was given unto me, the messenger of Satan that it may buffet me, in order that I may not he exalted.

8. “For this three times I called on the Lord, that it may depart from me.

9. “And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will most gladly rather boast in my infirmities, in order that the power of Christ may have its residence in me.” It is flagrantly out of harmony with the context to conclude that this unrevealed and unknown trouble designated “the thorn in the flesh” was sin in any form or manifestation whatever.

(a) The thorn was not in his spirit, but in his flesh, i. e., his mortal body, here used not antithetical to the Holy Spirit, but to his human spirit. Hence the thorn in the flesh was a bodily ailment of some sort.

(b) He here positively and unequivocally identifies it with his infirmities, which are neither actual nor original sin, but the weaknesses and failures and shortcomings appertaining to this life resultant from the effects of the Fall, reaching our spiritual being through the media of the body and mind, on whose organs we are dependent for our communication with this world. Hence all bodily and mental disabilities and failures properly come in here. I am satisfied that this thorn in the flesh was ocular feebleness, which was the most prominent infirmity in his life.

“For I testify unto you that, if possible, plucking out your eyes, you would have given them unto me” (Gal 4:15)

If his eyes had been all right, they never would have thought of relieving him by giving him one of theirs. He was a double graduate, having graduated in the Greek colleges of Tarsus and the Hebrew universities of Jerusalem, thus having prematurely worn out his eyes. Besides, the wonderful glory radiating from the transfigured Jesus, who a appeared to him on his way to Damascus, utterly eclipsed his mortal vision, wrapping him in rayless midnight. God makes no mistakes. Paul had the self-will of a rhinoceros, fortified by the greatest intellectual power, educational achievement and official promotion. He thought he not only saw everything, but saw it just right. Consequently it was necessary to take from him every ray of his former light, grandeur and glory, dropping him down to the bottom of self-abasement and preparing him for his deep Arabian plunge into egotistical annihilation, thus sweeping away every vestige of the old carnal selfhood that had made him a champion of Satan’s host. Though he became the recipient of Divine healing in the restoration of his eyesight through the ministry of Ananias, yet we have abundant reason to believe that ocular feebleness became his great physical disability till relieved at Nero’s block. Of course, he asked God to take it away, and continued to ask until the negative verdict came, bearing the happy assurance, “My grace is sufficient for you.” I am satisfied that God made this serious physical infirmity a great blessing to Paul, as you see he became, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, the revelator of more Scripture than any other man in the history of revealed truth. I became a good reader when six years old, on through my childhood and youth devouring books with enthusiasm, ploughing all day and reading by a brush light until midnight, spending the next day digesting and assimilating what I had read, as I walked behind the plough, and then going to our rural polemic society on Saturday night and astonishing the people by an off- hand speech of a solid hour, all wondering where I ever found out what I was telling them. A student twenty-one years in school ever and anon, I studied so assiduously that I went away from all my comrades. The result of thus excessively using my eyes, which seemed to me as strong as an eagle’s, was that failure began at the age of twenty. During the six years following I studied through the entire collegiate course, with great difficulty and suffering. I then learned how to make my memory — naturally excellent — a substitute for eye power, which resulted in a wonderful development of that most invaluable faculty. Reading my lesson but once, I so committed it to memory that I could repeat it like a declamation, while my comrades, who had read it over a dozen times, were blundering over it.

I had to commit it to memory because I could not give it much attention with my eyes. Aided by spectacles, I read much in several different languages, till ten years ago my eyes signally failed, not visually, but potentially.

Oculists all told me they were worn out, and no remedy. Consequently I gave up all reading but the Greek Scriptures, the New Testament being more important than the Old, whose Hebrew I was very reluctant to surrender. To my unutterable surprise, God has put me to writing (not much with my own hand, as my eyes are too feeble, but dictating to an amanuensis). I see now the glory of God in the whole matter. I was such an inveterate reader that I would actually have spent my life devouring books if I had enjoyed continuously the eagle-eye power peculiar to my childhood.

No one was ever so surprised as myself when I became a book-writer. As I could not read, I had opportunity to think and dictate to others. Homer, the greatest poet the world has ever seen, the author of the twenty-four poetic books constituting the Iliad and twenty-four more in the Odyssey, which have charmed the world three thousand years, was blind. So was Milton, the brightest and the best of the English bards. God needed Paul to think, preach and dictate the truth to an amanuensis. If his eyes had qualified him to read, he would have expended much brain and nerve power in that way which he needed in the production of that profound original thought, illuminated and inspired by the Holy Ghost, which has eclipsed all the tall sons of Zion, bringing them low down at the feet of Jesus and Paul to study the profound and unsearchable truth of God revealed by the Holy Ghost. Hence I can see a good reason for withholding complete convalescence and invigoration of ocular power from Paul. When God answered him, “My grace is sufficient for thee,” He gives as a reason, “For dynamite is made perfect in weakness,” or, as the Greek says, “in the absence of strength.” That is a patent fact. If you want real power to be illustrated, revealed and magnified, we are to have nothing in its way, but clear the field and give it full play. A giant who is stout enough to whip all the adversaries that can crowd into the ring does not want a lot of feeble folks in his way, even though they propose to help him. He wants the arena clear of all obstruction. Then he bids defiance to every foe who dares to enter. So human power is liable to get in the way of the Divine dynamite. “Then most gladly will I rather boast in my infirmities, in order that the dynamite of Christ may have its residence in me.” He is going out to fight the world, the flesh and the devil; so he wants the field perfectly clear, every obstruction removed so that the Omnipotent dynamite of Christ may just move in and have its abode in him.

10. “Therefore I delight in infirmities.” The word for infirmities here means utter destitution of strength so as to clear the way for the incoming of Divine power. “In insults.” How many of us can say that we delight in insults? It was because Paul had perfect faith in God to make all of those insults and infirmities a means of grace to him and a blessing to others. Do you not know that you will get blessings in insults, rebuffs and abuses heaped on you by Satan’s people which you could never receive without?

Darkness shows us worlds of light we never saw by day. From the bottom of a deep well you can see the stars at noon-day. If you never receive an insult you will never have the happiness to know that your religion is competent to shout your way through the abuses, lies, calumniation’s, slanders and contumelies piled on you by the devil’s people. John Wesley said: “The insults, rebuffs, abuses and disappointments we meet in this life are the greatest helps to a sanctified experience.” “In necessities,” i. e., in destitution of the necessaries of life, requiring him to suffer in many ways for Christ’s sake. The Stoic philosophers of ancient Greece taught that the true philosophy of a happy life consists in the greatest possible independence of the material world. Hence Diogenes, their celebrated leader, made it his chief aspiration to dispense with everything appertaining to the material world which he could get along without, teaching his pupils that the more we are disencumbered the freer we are, the more independent and the happier. Hence, refusing to live in a house, he used a tub for his residence, which he rolled on wheels to the place in the city of Athens where he preferred to abide for the time. He had succeeded in reducing down his furniture to a plate to eat out of and a cup to use in drinking. On one occasion, when he saw a boy eating his vegetables out of a hollow bread crust, he threw away his plate, saying: “Boy, I thank you for teaching me a lesson in economy.” On another occasion, when he saw a boy drinking water out of his hands, he cast away his cup, thanking him for another lesson in economy. When Alexander the Great, his school-mate, having visited him in his tub, said: “Now, my old friend Diogenes, I have conquered all the world and I am dispensing kingdoms in many different countries to my friends; what shall I give you?” The response was, Alexander, I can not think of any favor you can do me unless it will be just to stand aside and let the sun shine into my tub.” Then when the great philosopher told the world’s great conqueror that there were many other worlds besides this, it is said that the latter broke down in tears to think that he never could have but this one world. Oh, what a contrast the craving of the modern church after worldly things, with the great apostle, who said he delighted “in necessities,” i. e., destitution, in simply having nothing. “In persecutions.” Reader, can you say that! you actually delight in persecutions? Multiplied thousands in the martyr ages by-gone, actually prayed for a martyr’s crown, decidedly preferring to go out of the world in that way. I fear there are not many nowadays who can truly and candidly say: “I delight in persecutions.” Lord, help us all into a radical Pauline experience, where all the antagonism of the world, the flesh and the devil will only be a source of delight to us. “In distresses.” The Greek word, stenochooria, is from stenos, “narrow, tight,” and choora, “place.” Hence it means all sorts of tight places, troubles, trials, conflicts, in every conceivable way, difficulties indiscriminately. If the preachers were like Paul every one would want the poorest circuit or the work most encompassed and involved in difficulty, really the hardest fields of labor. That is really the true conception. If we are here for ease and comfort, “Ichabod” is already written on our escutcheon and life is a failure. The greater the difficulties, the grander the opportunities and the more illimitable the field for real efficiency, and the more auspicious the omens that you will wear a starry crown in the good time coming. From the time the Lord sanctified me thirty years ago, as the old brethren still surviving will certify you, I kept the constant petition before Conference for the hardest and most difficult fields of labor. Afterward I located, simply that I might take the world for my parish, as John Wesley said. “On behalf of Christ.” So this is the reason why Paul delighted in infirmities, insults, necessities, persecutions and diseases, not that any sensible man would seek them for their own sake, but he rejoiced in them for Christ’s sake. Lord, help us to do likewise. “For when I am with out strength then am I dynamite.”

Evidently this was the secret of Paul’s wonderful power and efficiency. He succeeded in learning how to keep self and the world out of the arena and sink away into God. I am an old revivalist. We always had to have a repetition of Gethsemane and Calvary before we could reach the triumphant resurrection and the glorious ascension. On arrival, finding all elated over the new evangelist and shouting over the revival already in sight, I knew that we had to get rid of great car-loads of human lumber and trash before we could see the glory of God. Soon my plain, hard, rough preaching and earnest crying to God would disgust them, so all their hopes would evanesce, and giving up all expectation of a revival, they would be very sorry they had called me, feeling it was a mistake of their lives. Then came the salient point in the campaign. Frequently at that epoch they would run me off, of course defeating the enterprise outright. When they bore with me in utter desperation, all blue as indigo, feeling that it was infinitely worse than a failure, they all got out of the way and I was out of the way, because they were all disgusted with me. When we reached that significant crisis, a shout always began in the deep interior of my heart, because I knew victory was at hand and we would all see the glory of God as no one had ever seen nor anticipated before. I never knew a failure; when all human resources and hope evanesced away and we reached the place of nothing but insults, destitution’s, weakness, persecutions and tight places for Christ’s sake, then the dynamite came and blew down the walls of Jericho, busted up the devil’s kingdom, revealing the glory of God and the victories of Christ on all sides to the unutterable surprise of everybody, bearing all opposition before it and inundating the whole country with the glory of God. In many cases, where they all so fell out with me, I had no home, but stood for days and weeks alone with Jesus, preaching the truth fearlessly of men and devils, unearthing all the hidden things of darkness, exposing all Satan’s refuges of lies, cutting every cable with the sword of the Spirit, after the power came and the tide swept over everything, they almost pulled me to pieces to take me to their homes, and I actually became the most popular man ever known in that country. To give you the simple history of the literal verifications of this Pauline scripture I have witnessed in my own ministry would fill a great volume. Depend upon it and adopt it as a maxim, never letting it slip: “When I am without strength then am I dynamite.” Our resources, power and hope must evacuate the field before omnipotent grace can glorify God. Poor humanity must get out of the way before the power and glory of God can be revealed. The reason why we don’t have revivals everywhere after the Pentecostal style is because we have too much power, too many resources and too much encouragement. You will never see the glory of God till all this gets out of the way.

11. “I am become a fool; you compelled me.” His enemies, minifying his ministry, and even impeaching his apostolic authority, and thus seeking to destroy his ministerial influence, had compelled him thus to vindicate himself by giving this paradoxical testimony to the wonderful power of God through his humble instrumentality. “For I ought to have been commended by you.” The emphasis here is on “you,” i. e., that you should have done this commendation instead of me. “For I was not inferior to the very chief of the apostles, if indeed I am nothing.” Evidently the reference is here to the entire original Twelve, whose apostleship had never been called in question.

12. “The signs of an apostle were wrought out among you in all patience, signs and wonders and mighty works.” During the eighteen months he had preached among them, when God used him to found their church, great and mighty works were wrought; not only Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, but even Sosthenes, his successor and leader of the opposition, and many other Jews, had been gloriously converted; besides, great numbers of Gentiles, even Erastus, the chamberlain of the city, and quite a multitude, especially from the dismal hell-dens of debauchery and sensuality which cursed that emporium of idolatry and adultery, had been wonderfully saved and many of them powerfully sanctified. Finally the crowning glory of the mighty works wrought among them culminated in the mighty baptisms of the Holy Ghost, and His glorious endowment of many with the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit, qualifying them to prophesy, speak with tongues, discern spirits and work miracles. As they were all young in their Christian experiences, the gospel being new and fresh among them and three years having rolled away since those wonderful meetings where God had miraculously blessed the labors of Paul, and now many other preachers having come and found a place in their minds and hearts, of course the trend of things was somewhat to blur and obliterate the memories of the olden times.

13. “For what is that in which you are inferior to other churches but that I did not burden you? Grant unto me this injustice.” Again he reminds them of his noble self-sacrifice in preaching unto them the gospel gratuitously.

14. “Behold! this third time I am ready to come unto you, and I will not burden you.” We have no account of his second visit to them. The presumption is it was very transient, probably occurring soon after his departure and before he got away from Europe and crossed the sea into Asia. “For I do not seek yours, but you.” This animadverts (critical remarks) severely on his adversaries, who in many cases had doubtless labored among them for the fleece more than for the flock. There is so little of this purely disinterested ministry in the church that preachers are not all discounted by the bold emphasis they lay on temporal support. It seems that they are past all shame on this subject. It is astounding to hear a preacher in the pulpit publicly speak of his salary, and boldly adopt measures to work it up. I could not stand anything of the kind. When the Lord ceases to feed me I will starve gladly for Christ’s sake. How many preachers now can candidly say to the people, “I seek not yours, but you”? Surely every one called and sent of God does feel and talk like Paul. My temporal life, since the Lord sanctified me especially, has been by faith, like my spiritual. If a preacher can not trust God fully and unequivocally for his temporal support, how can he preach to his people the truth of God appertaining to personal faith so that they will all “walk by faith and not by sight,” and live by faith alone? “For the children ought not to lay up treasures for the parents, but the parents for the children.” The deep and penetrating thought of Paul is constantly illustrating spiritual truth from temporal affairs patent to perpetual observation. In this statement he beautifully reminds them of his spiritual paternity with them all.

15-16. “But most delightfully will I spend and be spent in behalf of your souls, even though the more loving you, I may the less be loved.” Lord, help us all to emulate our apostolic example in that deep self-abnegation and annihilation which will enable us to spend and be spent for the people of God, getting the Bride ready for her coming Lord without the slightest reference to temporal emolument. When shall the Church be delivered from the awful scourge of a hireling ministry, so out rightly condemned by our Savior? How infinitely alien are the utterances of Paul and Jesus from anything favoring temporal support, except simply the good Providence of God! When we let temporalities come in the way of spirituality’s, we had better hang our trumpet on the wall and blow it no more, till down in the straw we receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost, consuming selfishness world without end. “But be it so, I did not burden you. But being crafty, I caught you with guile.” If he had come to Corinth seeking temporal support and remuneration for his preaching, those Jews and heathens would have seen at once that he was actuated by a personal interest, this fact becoming an insuperable barrier against all the efforts he possibly could have made to win them for his Christ. The craftiness here and the “guile” with which he caught them was simply the policy he adopted, i. e., making his own living by manual labor, and preaching to them night and day with sympathetic tears flowing demonstrative of his tender love for them, while they could see no human motive actuating in this noble philanthropy; meanwhile, the Holy Spirit, through the truth sanctified with tears, sent arrows of conviction into their hearts, revealing an open Hell, death and doom on the one side; salvation, Heaven and a glorious immortality on the other. The result was that scores and hundreds fell under the triumphant power of God and were swept triumphantly into grace. Now do not forget that the guile and craft of Paul consisted in preaching the gospel without saying one word about temporal support. When Holiness people depart from this precept and cease to go and work without a word spoken or an assurance given relative to finances, they had better go back and hunt a place in the fallen churches whence they came. We must verify in precept and practice the literal truth of the New Testament. If you will adopt the Pauline craft and “guile,” like him you will catch men. But you can not do it without leaving finances sub rosa in toto. Of course this does not mean that you receive no temporal support. Rest assured God will attend to it. It does not mean that Paul received none at Corinth because he recognizes Gaius, one of the very few wealthy members in that church, as his host, and that of the whole church, we are thus assured that he enjoyed the kind hospitality and the home of Gains, and it does not follow that others did not co-operate in his temporal support. Of course this was not so in the beginning, as they had to rise from the dead before they could embark in living enterprises. Lord, help us all to use the same craft and “guile” which enabled Paul to catch multiplied thousands and save us from the egregious mistake made by the popular clergy in rendering temporal support so prominent as to impress the people that they are following Jesus for the loaves and fishes, thus disgusting and alienating them.

17. “By which one of those whom I sent unto you did I fleece you?” The answer is in the negative. He had first sent to them Timothy with his cohort, and afterward Titus with his comrades, both of whom had spent their lives with Paul and so imbibed his spirit that he could fully vouch for them in finances and everything else. Like Paul, we should be careful to send out none who would permit temporal interest to get in the way of spiritual. Well does Paul remind them of the decisive contrast between himself and the preachers he sent and the mercenary evangelists who had been among them.

18. “I called Titus, and sent along with him the brother.” We know not the name of this brother whom Paul sent along with Titus. Doubtless he was Aristarchus, Gains or Philemon, alluded to in chapter 2Co 8:18-22.

“Whether did Titus fleece you in any respect? Did we not walk in the same spirit? Did we not in the same footsteps?”

Paul here fully endorses Titus and the brother who helped him, feeling fully assured that neither of them said a word or gave an insinuation or the remotest intimation in the favor of personal support. Oh, what mistakes are made along that line! Surely we can go like Paul, as he was the greatest traveler in his day. The great trouble is, as we see from this teaching, that we can not give any attention to our temporal support without imperiling the salvation of souls. Why can we not have faith in on Heavenly Father to feed us like He feeds the birds, and, if we go without a few days, feel it a blessed privilege to enjoy a fast for the glory of God and the good of our souls, and only shout the louder?

19. “For a long time you think that we are apologizing to you.” This, of course, would become ere-long, a natural conclusion. But you see he utterly disclaims an apologetic attitude. The man of God is no apologist. He is Heaven’s messenger commissioned from the throne. Hence he needs no excuse, and should make no apology under any circumstances. If you are in any way out of kilter, do not tell the people. God can take a worm and thrash a mountain. “We speak in the presence of God in Christ: and all things, beloved, for your edification.” Hence we see that the ministers of God are all in Christ, not in the world nor sin. If you are not in Christ, and a new creature, you can not possibly be a minister of God. Not only are we in Christ, but we speak in the very presence of God. Good Lord, help us to realize and never to say or do anything that would not be appropriate if the splendors of the great white throne were flashing all around us. Besides, we find that l things are to be conducive to edification — not intellectual, but spiritual. Hence the metaphysical, literary and dogmatic discourses so common in the pit are utterly out of order because, while they may entertain the people intellectually, they do not really edify them spiritually. Edify means “to build up an edifice,” i. e., to instruct, sanctify and establish the people in God.

20. “For I fear lest perchance having come, I shall not find you as I wish, and I shall not be found unto you such as you wish.” He is still determined by his letters and the preachers sent to them to get them all in as good fix as possible for his reception, thus preferring to settle controversies, refute heresies, correct irregularities, reform abuses and bring all the people into beautiful harmony with God and His Word while at a distance, so when among them he will have nothing to do but as in the first place, when God so wonderfully blessed his labors: preach to them the living Word in spite of men and devils. “Lest perhaps there shall be contentions, envy, animosities, self-seekings.” These four words comprehend the dark, malevolent affections constituting the dismal virus of inbred sin, which only the wonderful efficacy of the cleansing blood and the fire of the Holy Ghost can exterminate.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I must needs glory, though it is not expedient; but I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord . [I feel constrained to go on with my boosting, though I recognize that it is not expedient for me to do so since it gives my enemies further material for detraction and vilification. Yet I will speak of the visions which the Lord gave me and the revelations which they brought me.]

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

1–5. It is not expedient for me, doubtless, to glory. It was distasteful for him to speak on himself, and he could only do it when compelled by the disparagement of adversaries. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. Supernatural things revealed to the spiritual eye and divine truths revealed to the human spirit.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

Connecting Statement:

In defending his apostleship from God, Paul continues to state specific things that have happened to him since he became a believer.

I will go on to

"I will continue talking, but now about"

visions and revelations from the Lord

Possible meanings are 1) Paul uses the words "visions" and "revelations" to mean the same thing in hendiadys for emphasis. AT: "things that the Lord has allowed only me to see" or 2) Paul is speaking of two different things. AT: "secret things that the Lord has let me see with my eyes and other secrets that he has told me about" (See: Hendiadys)

I know a man in Christ

Paul is actually speaking of himself as if he were speaking of someone else, but this should be translated literally if possible.

whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know

Paul continues to describe himself as if this happened to another person. "I do not know if this man was in his physical body or in his spiritual body"

God knows

"only God knows"

the third heaven

This refers to the dwelling place of God rather than the sky or outer space (the planets, stars, and the universe).

translationWords

boast

vision

reveal

lord

Christ

body

God

caught up

heaven

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

1. The text of this difficult verse is in exceptional confusion, the result of accidental mistakes and conjectural emendations. About εἰς ὀπτασίας … κυρίον there is no doubt; but in the first half of the verse the only words about which all witnesses agree are καυχᾶσθαι and οὐ and ἐλεύσομαι.

Before καυχᾶσθαι א3 39, f Vulg. insert εἰ, which may safely be rejected. καυχᾶσθαι δεῖ (BD3FGLP, d f g Vulg. Syrr. Goth.) rather than καυχᾶσθαι δέ (אD, Copt.) or καυχᾶσθαι δή (KM, Aeth.); but the confusion between ε and ει is so easy and frequent, that δέ may be right. οὐ συμφέρον (אBFG 17, 67) rather than οὐ συμφέρει (DD3KLP); and μέν (אBFGP 17, 67, f Vulg. Copt.) rather than μοι (D3KLM, Syr-Harc., Chrys.); but D, Aeth. Goth. have neither μέν nor μοι. ἐλεύσομαι δέ (אBFGP 17, 73, 80, 118, 213, f g Vulg. Copt. Arm.) rather than ἐλεύσομαι γάρ (DkL, Syrr. Goth.). B, 213 read ἐλεύσομαι δὲ καί. The whole should probably run: Καυχᾶσθαι δεῖ· οὐ συμφέρον μέν, ἐλεύσομαι δέ: but Καυχᾶσθαι δὲ οὐ συμφέρον μέν, ἐλεύσομαι δέ may be original. Certainty is unattainable. With the confusion between δεῖ and δή (KM above) comp. 1Co 6:20, where L has δεῖ for δή. In the best texts συμφέρον is preferred to συνφέρον: see Gregory, Prolegomena, p. 75.

1. Καυχᾶσθαι δεῖ· οὐ συμφέρον μέν, ἐλεύσομαι δὲ κ.τ.λ. See critical note. The confusion as to the text need excite no suspicion that the whole verse is spurious. An interpolation of this kind, when once made, would be no more liable to corruption than an original text: an interpolator would be likely to insert what was simple, and in no need of tinkering. The variations in the text are such as would spring naturally from different mistakes in copying and different attempts to correct these mistakes. Assuming the text as quoted to be correct, translate; I must needs glory: it is not indeed expedient, but I will come to visions &c. He is forced to glory, although he knows that glorying is not good. But there is another point which he must urge, viz. the revelations granted to him. By οὐ συμφέρον is meant that it is not profitable: he glories, not because it pays to do so, But because he cannot help himself. Or, reading δὲ οὐ for δεῖ· οὐ, we have; But to glory is not indeed expedient, but I will come &c. Κυρίου belongs to both ὀπτασίας and ἀποκαλύφεις. These experiences were not delusions, and they were not the work of Satan. Κυρίου is probably the subjective genitive, of Him from whom the visions and revelations proceed, as in διʼ ἀποκαλύψεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ (Gal 1:12); not the objective, of Him who is seen and revealed, as in ὀπτασίαν ἀγγέλων (Luk 24:23) or ἐν τῇ ἀποκαλύψει τοῦ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ (2Th 1:7). The objective genitive would apply to Act 9:4-6; Act 18:9; Act 22:18; Act 23:11, and perhaps Act 27:23; but not to Act 9:12 or Act 16:9: the subjective genitive would cover all these, and also Gal 2:2. The subjective genitive would here be more certain, if ἀποκαλύψεις stood alone: ἀποκάλυψις Κυρίου may = Κύριος ἀποκαλύπτει: but ὀπτασία Κυρίου cannot be thus resolved. An ὀπτασία is a special kind of ἀποκάλυψις: a revelation may be made without anything being seen. On the other hand, not all visions are revelations. But an ὀπτασία Κυρίου would be a revelation; He would not send it unless He had something to make known. Indeed, in Scripture, ὀπτασία seems not to be used, except of visions that are revelations (Luk 1:22; Luk 24:23; Act 26:19; Mal 3:2; Theodotion’s version of Dan 9:23; Dan 10:1; Dan 10:7-8; Dan 10:16, where in the LXX. we have ὅρασις or ὅραμα). Three times in the Apocrypha ὀπτασία is otherwise used (Sir 43:2; Sir 43:16; and the addition to Est 4:13). But in the canonical books other words are employed, where mere sight or appearance, as distinct from divine manifestation, is meant. The word ὀπτασία is not classical; and it was probably colloquial before it became Biblical. It survives in modern Greek. See Kennedy, Sources of N. T. Greek, p. 154.

The conjecture that S. Paul is here answering an attack which had been made on him respecting his claim to have had ‘visions and revelations’ seems to receive some confirmation from the Clementine Homilies and Recognitions, a sort of religious romance, in parts of which S. Paul appears to be criticized in the person of Simon Magus. That Simon throughout represents S. Paul is an untenable hypothesis; for specially Pauline doctrines are not attributed to Simon and condemned by S. Peter. But here and there the Judaizing authors or compilers of these two writings have, under cover of Simon Magus, made a hit at the Apostle, whose teaching and work they so disliked; and they may be employing an old taunt against S. Paul when they laugh at the ‘visions’ of Simon Magus; see especially Hom. xvii. 14–20. “Simon said, Visions and dreams, being God-sent, do not speak falsely in regard to those things which they have to tell. And Peter said, You were right in saying that, being God-sent, they do not speak falsely. But it is uncertain if he who sees has seen a God-sent dream” (15). Comp. Hom. xi. 35, ii. 17, 18; Recog. ii. 55, iii. 49, iv. 35; and see Hort, Clementine Recognitions, pp. 120 ff.; also Hastings’ DB. iv. p. 524.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Revelations [αποκαλυψεις] . See on Rev 1:1.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.