February 26, 2006
VISIONS AND REVELATIONS
2 Corinthians 12:1-13

   Paul had written, "let no man think me a fool; if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little. That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting.  Seeing that many boast after the flesh, I will boast also" (2 Cor. 11:16-18). He boasted not of triumphs and victories, but of his weaknesses, sufferings, indignities endured, hardships encountered and dangers borne beyond measure. How did their false apostles measure up on this scale?
   Paul concluded, "If have to boast, I will boast of the things which concern my weaknesses," and added an oath, "The God and Father of our Lord Jesus...knows that I lie not" (11:30-31). His boasting continued as he came "to visions and revelations of the Lord" (12:1). He recalled an experience over fourteen years prior, how that he knew "a man in Christ caught up into the third heaven." In this ecstasy he had no awareness of bodily presence. He could not tell whether he were in the body or out of the body. God could tell, but Paul could not. He was caught up into this paradise and heard things which human language could not express. He said of "such an one," that is, "a man in Christ," he would boast, yet of myself I will not boast, except in my infirmities." He continued, "though I might desire to boast, I will not be so foolish, for I will say the truth, but now I restrain myself, lest any man should think of me above that which he sees me to be or that he hears of me, and lest I should be exalted above measure."
   These revelations were so exceeding great that "there was given to me a thorn for the flesh, an angel of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure" (12:7). Thrice Paul begged the Lord to remove this painful thorn, yet He refused. The danger was too great, and the flesh even in the great apostle must be humbled. God's grace was sufficient, His strength would be made perfect in Paul's weakness. "Most gladly..." expressed Paul's willingness to endure this satanic buffeting messenger.
   We might never have known about these visions and revelations except for the goading of the Corinthians, provoking Paul to boast. Almost regretfully he wrote, "I am become a fool in boasting; you have compelled me: for I ought to have been commended by you, because in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing"! (12:11).

Ivan L. Burgener