“It is doubtless not profitable for me to boast. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 12:1 NKJV)
“Of such a one I will boast; yet of myself I will not boast, except in my infirmities (weakness).” (2 Corinthians 12:5 NKJV)
“And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure.” (2 Corinthians 12:7 NKJV)
Wanna take a fresh look at Paul’s thorn in the flesh in 2 Corinthians chapters 11& 12? Great! First, I need to remove any blinders of “tradition;” then open my eyes to the illumination of the Holy Spirit. Ready? Buckle up buddy. Feel free to get out your Bible, or open up an app, here we go…
In chapter 11, and the beginning of chapter 12, Paul gives a lengthy discourse on all that he could rightfully “boast” about, however his conclusion is that such boasting is foolish. He actually humbles himself, realizing in 12:1 that boasting is not “profitable.” Paul was pointing out that God had given him much that could tempt him to become prideful but he was choosing to remain humble. Look at verses 5 and 6: ” Of such a one I will boast; yet of myself I will not boast, except in my weaknesses. For though I might desire to boast, I will not be a fool; for I will speak the truth. But I refrain , lest anyone should think of me above what he sees me to be or hears from me.” Paul humbles himself and then immediately speaks about being “exalted above measure” in verse 7. In context I can see clearly that when Paul referred to being “exalted above measure” he was not referring to becoming prideful. This can be seen even more clearly by cross referencing this passage with the following verses:
“Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility for ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.” (1 Peter 5:5-6 NKJV)
“My soul shall make its boast in the LORD; the humble shall hear of it and be glad.” (Psalm 34:2 NKJV)
Paul was telling me that he had made the conscious decision to humble himself, refuse to allow pride to become an issue, and position himself to be exalted by God in His time.
I need to answer some foundational questions from 12:7:
What was Paul’s “thorn in the flesh? “a messenger”
From whom did the messenger come? “of Satan”
Why was this messenger of Satan “given” to Paul? “to buffet me lest I be exalted above measure.”
How was Paul going to be “exalted above measure”? “by the abundance of revelations.”
Tradition has taught me that Paul had some kind of physical ailment given to him by God to break his pride and keep him humble. While Paul may have had an ailment of some sort (this has been an on going debate), nothing in the context of this passage leads to the conclusion that this is what Paul is referring to when he talks about this “thorn.” As for the pride issue, it appears that Paul had a solid handle on his pride. He was highly aware of what he had to be prideful for (credentials, experience, and revelations), but had already made a conscious decision to humble himself (reminds me of 1 Peter 5:5-11). God actually promises that if we humble ourselves He will exalt us (sound familiar?).
Scriptures are very clear that Paul was actually given a personally assigned demon directly from Satan. The description of Paul’s life makes it very clear that this demon was carrying out Satan’s mandate to steal, kill, and destroy. He tried more than once to kill Paul. When that didn’t work, he did everything in his power to steal the Word that had been revealed to Paul, and destroy his ministry before God could exalt him to a place in which that revelation could bear fruit (Paul spread the Gospel throughout the region to the Gentiles, and wrote most of the New Testament).
Being “exalted above measure” is not referring to God slapping Paul down to keep him humble, it is actually expressing God’s desire to exalt Paul to a position of impact and influence resulting from receiving revelation knowledge. It is Satan that is trying to kill Paul (shipwreck, snake bite, stoning, etc.), steal the Word he is preaching (riots, someone falling out a window, uprisings, etc.), and destroy his ministry (scourgings, imprisonments, false accusations, etc).
When the blinders of tradition were removed from my eyes, and the Holy Spirit opened my childlike eyes of faith, it became obvious that this passage doesn’t even come close to what I had originally thought.
I had to ask myself, “Why would Satan want to keep Paul from becoming prideful?” Doesn’t Satan actually want believers to become prideful in order to open them up to his attacks and cause them to fall? Laying aside my preconceived ideas, it became easy for me to see that if this passage was saying that the thorn in the flesh was going to stop Paul from becoming prideful then Satan wouldn’t have sent him. Satan knew first hand what happens when you are puffed up with pride (he was cast out of Heaven for his pride). He actually fights to fill us with pride knowing that pride will cause us to fall.
Nowhere in this passage is there anything that points to God being the one who gave the thorn to Paul. God gave the Revelation that opened the opportunity for Him to exalt Paul to the place of impact and influence that he had in spreading the Gospel of the Kingdom. As with Paul, God gives me revelation knowledge in order to lift me up into position to reach this world with His message. Why would He do something to keep Paul down and limit the effectiveness of Paul’s getting the Word out? He wouldn’t!
There is so much more say…..tomorrow. For now let’s take time to digest…
…Eric’s Life Lesson # 75: “Time to turn over the apple cart.” Part 10: It’s my thorn in the flesh. (I’ve got some tweezers you can borrow) continued