A Tormenting Thorn-2 Cor 12:1-10

2 Corinthians, New Testament, Sermons

  • Have you had any mystical estatic experiences (2 Cor 12:1, 4)?
  • Do your weaknessnes crush you or strengthen you (2 Cor 12:10)? What are your weaknesses where you might experience the power of God?

The psalmist’s thorn in the flesh (Psalm 38). “Your arrows have pierced me, and your hand has come down on me” (Ps 38:2). “I am bowed down and brought very low; all day long I go about mourning” (Ps 38:6). “I am feeble and utterly crushed; I groan in anguish of heart” (Ps 38:8). “My heart pounds, my strength fails me; even the light has gone from my eyes” (Ps 38:10). “For I am about to fall, and my pain is ever with me” (Ps 38:17).

Differences in boasting. The boasting of Paul’s critics points to how great they are, but Paul’s boasting shows how weak he is and how great God is. The former boasting is self-exaltation and the latter exalts, honors and glorifies God through his self-renunciation.

Visions and revelations (12:1-10) after boasting about his trials. In the 3rd person, he recounts being caught up to the 3rd heaven–paradise–where he heard things which he wasn’t permitted to speak (2 Cor 12:4). Then he tells of:

  • a thorn in the flesh given to torment him and to keep him from becoming conceited,
  • how he sought God repeatedly for its removal, but that
  • God‘s grace was sufficient (2 Cor 12:7-9), through which he learnt the simultaneity of weakness and power, which Paul emphasizes to undermine triumphalist ideas of power and authority held by his opponents, and
  • to support his apostolic authority, despite imprisonments, rejections, insults, hardships, persecutions, difficulties (2 Cor 12:10), which may seem inconsistent.

“I must go on boasting” (2 Cor 12:1a). Though there’s nothing to be gained by boasting, yet there was much to be lost if Paul did not. His opponents drew an agenda, adopted by his converts, and he must now respond. “Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord” (2 Cor 12:1b), as with stories of God’s dealings with people in the OT, and also with God’s dealings with Christians in the NT.

  • Zechariah received a vision while serving in the temple, and was told his prayer had been heard and that his wife Elizabeth would bear a son whose name would be John (the Baptist) (Lk 1:8-23).
  • Jesus’ transfiguration is a vision given to Peter, James and John (Mt 17:9).
  • The women who went to Jesus’ tomb saw a vision of angels who said that Jesus was alive (Lk 24:22-24).
  • Stephen, just before his death, saw a vision of The Son of Man standing at the right hand of God (Acts 7:55-56).
  • The Lord spoke to Ananias in a vision when he instructed him to seek out Saul of Tarsus after the latter had been struck blind on the Damascus road (Acts 9:10).
  • Peter was made ready to visit Cornelius’ household by a threefold vision of unclean animals descending from heaven in a sheet (Acts 10:17, 19; 11:5). On another occasion when he was released from prison by an angel, Peter thought he was seeing a vision (Acts 12:9).
  • The book of Revelation is the description of revelations made to the author on the Isle of Patmos (Rev 1:1).

Paul experienced many visions and revelations of the Lord.

  • The first and most important was the revelation of Christ on the Damascus road (Acts 22:6-11; 26:12-20; Gal 1:15-16).
  • He then saw a vision of a man from Macedonia calling him to come over and help (Acts 16:9-10).
  • During pioneer evangelism in Corinth, he received encouragement from the Lord through a vision (Acts 18:9-11).
  • By revelations from God, he received his gospel (Gal 1:12), his insights into the mystery of the gospel (Eph 3:3-5), his access to true wisdom (1 Cor 2:9-10), and his understanding of particular eschatological truths (1 Th 4:15).

“I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago was caught up to the 3rd heaven” (2 Cor 12:2a). Of Paul’s many visions and revelations, he singles out 1 from 14 yrs ago. His dating of it underlines its historical reality. ‘Paul’s “14 years ago” must be calculated (by internal reckoning) from the time of writing this letter (ad 55), suggesting that this vision/revelation occurred ad 42, at which time Paul would have been in his native Syria-Cilicia (Gal 1:18, 21; 2:1; Acts 9:29-30; 11:25).’ [Barnett]–several years after his conversion, and not the revelation on the Damascus road. Paul hadn’t spoken of this, probably, ‘so that no one may think better of me than what is seen in me or heard from me, even considering the exceptional character of the revelations’ (2 Cor 12:6-7, nrsv). 3rd person (I know a man) is its sacred character, or to maintain a distinction between Paul who was granted this superlative experience and Paul whose behavior and words people see and hear (2 Cor 12:6). Was Paul relating another person’s experience, or his own? The thrust of 2 Cor 12:1, 5, 7 confirms that it’s his own. A man in Christ is simply that Paul is a Christian.

“Caught up to the 3rd heaven” (2 Cor 12:2); “caught up to paradise” (2 Cor 12:4)–same verb ‘to catch up’ when speaking of Christians who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord who will then be ‘caught up’ to meet the Lord in the air (1 Th 4:17). [3rd heaven /Paradise parallel in the Apocalypse of Moses 37:5–God hands Adam over to the archangel Michael and says, ‘Lift him up to Paradise/ 3rd heaven, and leave him there until that fearful day of my reckoning, which I will make in the world.’] [Differing cosmologies were in vogue, variously portraying 3, 5 or 7 heavens, which were spoken of as a series of hemispherical strata above the earth. It has been suggested that the reference to ‘the heavens, even the highest heaven’ (lit. ‘heaven and the heaven of heavens’) in Solomon’s dedication prayer (1 Kings 8:27) gave rise, among the Jews, to the heavens in 3 strata, which is probably no more than a Hebrew superlative. In the pseudepigraphical writings (e.g. T. Levi 3) there’s several heavens, and 7 heavens in rabbinic writings.] [In Jewish (1 Enoch 39:3f.) and Gentile (Plato, Rep. 10:614-621) literature there’re similar accounts to Paul’s experience: Babylonian Talmud (Hag. 14b)–a story of 4 rabbis temporarily taken up into Paradise, awesome experience, only 1, Rabbi Akiba, returned unharmed. It post-dates Paul (R. Akiba died ad 135). Such accounts were circulating in the 1st and 2nd centuries of the Christian era.] All these literary parallels in terminology, concepts or experience of being caught up, show 3 things.

  1. what Paul spoke of was understandable to his contemporaries.
  2. the experience of being caught up into Paradise was awe-inspiring, which explains in part Paul’s great reticence in describing it.
  3. the experience of being caught up to the 3rd heaven places Paul on a level with the great heroes of faith, which completely outflanks his opponents.

It’s all the more remarkable that he didn’t maximize it, but instead, having disclosed the bare fact, he quickly directs attention away from his experience and to his weakness as the only safe ground for boasting.

“Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know – God knows” (2 Cor 12:2b). If Paul doesn’t know the exact mechanism of his rapture, so can’t we. But In the body or out of the body has in the OT Enoch (Gen 5:24) and Elijah (2 Kgs 2:9-12) were transported bodily to heaven permanently not temporarily. Elijah was also carried off bodily from one place to another by the Spirit of the Lord (1 Kgs 18:12). In the NT, Jesus was taken by the devil to the pinnacle of the temple and to a high mountain (Mt 4:5, 8), but the mechanism (whether bodily or visionary) isn’t specified. In Revelation John was carried away ‘in the Spirit’ to a wilderness (Rev 17:3), and to a great high mountain (Rev 21:10). Whether ‘in the Spirit’ is out of the body or a visionary experience isn’t clear.   “And I know that this man – whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows – was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell” (2 Cor 12:3-4). Inexpressible things–only here in the NT. Common in ancient inscriptions it was associated with mystery religions and too sacred to be divulged. This was a common among devotees of the mystery religions of Paul’s day, but unusual in Christian circles. With the ‘mystery’ of the gospel, it was something which, though previously hidden, had now been made known to Paul and prophets through the Spirit for the express purpose that they should proclaim it to all people (1 Cor 2:1; Eph 3:1-9; 6:19- 20; Col 1:25-27; 4:3). Only here does Paul speak of something revealed to him that he could not speak about, presumably because it was so sacred and intended for him alone. Paul’s account of his rapture differs markedly from other such accounts from the ancient world, both in brevity and absence of what he saw. Paul speaks only to what he heard.

“I will boast about a man like that” (2 Cor 12:5a). Paul continues to speak in the 3rd person. He was forced to boast of the Paul who 14 years ago experienced such a revelation, but refuses to make that the ground of present boasting: “but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses” (2 Cor 12:5b). Having felt forced into the futile exercise of boasting about spiritual experience, Paul returns to the one safe ground of boasting – his personal weakness (2 Cor 11:30; 12:7-10). Before doing so, he insists, “Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth” (2 Cor 12:6a). In his boast about that experience, he would not, in one sense, be acting foolishly, because it is true.

“But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, or because of these surpassingly great revelations” (2 Cor 12:6b-7a). Paul’s reason for making less of his past experience is that he wants people’s evaluation of him to be based on “what I do or say” (lit. ‘what he sees [in] me or hears from me’). ‘Seeing and hearing encompass the 2 primary ways of evaluating a person – observe conduct and listen to what is said. In Paul’s case it’d be to all his behavior as a person and as a missionary-pastor, and to all his preaching and teaching’ [Harris]. Paul doesn’t want people’s evaluation of him as an apostle to be based on his past revelatory and visionary experiences.   “Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh” (2 Cor 12:7b). Instead of maxing his rapture, as his opponents did of their spiritual experiences, Paul immediately explains how he was kept from becoming conceited. Thorn (skolops), only here in NT, is anything pointed (a stake, the pointed end of a fish-hook, a splinter, a thorn). [‘But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land, those you allow to remain will become barbs [ skolopes ] in your eyes and thorns in your sides’ (Num 33:55, lxx). ‘No longer will the people of Israel have malicious neighbors who are painful briers [skolops] and sharp thorns’ (Eze 28:24). ‘Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes [ skolopsin]; I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way’ (Hos 2:8).] In each case, skolops frustrates and causes trouble in the lives of those afflicted. That Paul’s thorn was a trouble and frustration to him is evident from his thrice-repeated prayer for its removal (2 Cor 12:8).

The thorn is “a messenger of Satan, to torment me” (2 Cor 12:7b). Satan is allowed to harass Job–a great hero of faith and endurance–only within the limits set by God (Job 1-2). Paul longed to revisit them after he was forced to leave Thessalonica (Acts 17:1-10), but could not because Satan blocked his way (1 Th 2:17-18). In both OT and NT Satan has no power other than that allowed him by God. In the Gospels Jesus has complete power over all the forces of darkness. Satan has no power over him (Jn 14:30-31), and demons must obey his will (Mk 1:21-28; 5:1-13). This power Christ gave to his disciples (Mk 6:7). Yet with Paul Satan was allowed to block his way and torment him with a thorn in the flesh. Satan’s actions, bad in themselves, are made to serve God’s purposes: Former led to the gospel coming to Berea, Athens, Corinth; torment kept Paul spiritually well-balanced, preventing conceit.

The nature of Paul’s ‘thorn in the flesh’ [Insufficient to decide]:

  1. some form of spiritual harassment, limitations of a nature corrupted by sin, torments of temptation, oppression by a demon;
  2. persecution, for eg., instigated by Jewish opposition or by Paul’s Christian opponents;
  3. some physical or mental ailment: eye trouble, malarial fever, stammering speech, epilepsy, headaches, neurological disturbance;
  4. the Corinthian church’s rejection of his apostleship.

Modern interpreters — some sort of physical ailment. Paul calls it a thorn in the flesh. Gal 4:15 — an eye problem.   “3 times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me” (2 Cor 12:8). No essential similarity between Paul and Jesus in Gethsemane, though both prayed 3 times that something be removed, and the removal requested was not granted. Just as Jesus was strengthened for his dreadful ordeal, similarly to Paul: “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you’ ” (2 Cor 12:9a). The thorn won’t be removed, but his grace would enable him to cope: “for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor 12:9b). Paul pointed out that by God’s deliberate choice not many of his converts were wise according to worldly standards, nor influential, nor of noble birth. Why? ‘God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong … so that no one may boast before him’ (1 Cor 1:26-31). God reminds Paul that his power is manifested in the weak. It also justifies Paul’s rejection of the boasting by his opponents, and for his own practice of boasting in weakness.

“Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ‘s power may rest on me” (2 Cor 12:9c). It doesn’t mean he enjoys weaknesses; what he delights in is Christ’s power that rests on him in these weaknesses. It’s experiencing Christ’s power in his weakness that enables Paul to boast. [‘To rest on’ (episkenod) is found only here in the NT, and not in the lxx or the papyri. Before Paul, its only known use is by Polybius the Greek historian (c. 201-120 bc) who used it twice of the billeting of soldiers. It may be better to translate as ‘dwell in’ or ‘reside’ rather than ‘rest on.’]

Power through weakness. “That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor 12:10). Delight (verb-eudokeo)–‘be content with’ (nrsv) is not a masochist, enjoying his sufferings. Paul delights in his sufferings only because he knew that Christ’s power would rest on him in the midst of them. Paul’s opponents criticized his apostleship for his weakness (2 Cor 10:10), and likely regarded his many persecutions and insults as inconsistent with being an apostle of the exalted Christ. By expounding the principle of divine power through human weakness, Paul defends his claim to apostleship and cut the ground from under their claims.

Reference:

  1. Charles Hodge. 1 & 2 Corinthians. A Geneva Series Commentary. The Banner of Truth Trust. 1857, 1859.
  2. Colin Kruse. 2 Corinthians. Tyndale NT Commentaries. 1987, 2005.
  3. Geoffrey Grogan. 2 Corinthians. The Glories & Responsibilities of Christian Service. 2007.
  4. David Garland. 2 Corinthians. The New American Commentary. 1999.
  5. Paul Barnett. The Message of 2 Corinthians. 1988.
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