Life Project Blog

It would appear from these verses in Chapter 13 that Paul is wrapping up this final defense of his ministry by taking the offensive. He will shortly make another trip to Corinth, and when he arrives, any remaining opposition will be dealt with in strength, not by Paul’s strength, but with the strength of the Lord.

This will be my third visit to you. “Every matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.”I already gave you a warning when I was with you the second time. I now repeat it while absent: On my return I will not spare those who sinned earlier or any of the others, since you are demanding proof that Christ is speaking through me. He is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you. For to be sure, he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by God’s power. Likewise, we are weak in him, yet by God’s power we will live with him in our dealing with you. (13:1-4)

Paul has had enough of the Corinthian rebellion; Jesus has had enough of the Corinthian rebellion― it’s about the get real.

Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test? And I trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test. (13:5-6)

In these remarkable verses Paul is telling the people in Corinth to examine, to test themselves to determine whether or not they are in Christ at all. If they are, they should have the Holy Spirit within them, and if they do not, then they have failed the test and were never in Christ: Ouch!

Of course, should they pass this self-examination, the Spirit will confirm that Paul is for real and that their whole rebellion is wrong, a complete fake. This assumption of Paul’s brings us to the heart of the entire matter and to a point that all of us need to learn. If we are in Christ and someone comes along and challenges the church or its leadership, we usually insist that the church, or its leadership must defend themselves against such charges, for this is the way of Men. Yet Paul has just turned the tables entirely, by telling them to examine themselves, their motivations and whether or not they are really followers of Christ. If they are really followers of Christ, they need to seek God’s guidance and be prepared to prove their allegations with two or three honest witnesses― God is not amused by people who sow dissention and division in His Body, the church.

Naturally, God is even less amused by people in positions of authority or leadership who abuse their positions in the church, so if you are indeed His follower, you must have your facts straight and be prepared to prove them before you launch an attack against anyone.

That is where these individuals in Corinth have gone wrong.

It would seem from our text that this is going to be their last chance to get things right in Corinth, because when Paul comes to town, there will be no end of trouble for anyone who hasn’t either repented or gotten their facts straight, for the truth will come out. It would seem that Paul is optimistic about the result:

Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice! Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you.

Greet one another with a holy kiss. All God’s people here send their greetings.

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (13:11-14)

As we’ve seen before, most of the Corinthians had come to terms with what was happening in their congregation and had come to realize that the outside instigators of these problems were troublemakers who simply desired to tear down the Church. With these words of encouragement for everyone, coming after Paul’s injunction for self-examination, I think that Paul believed the Corinthians would have the issues settled before his arrival there. Things happen in this life, sometimes people are led astray for a time by criticism, by lies, by instigators… Sometimes people who appear to be the very strongest in the church are fooled and have a hard time recognizing their mistake; this is the human condition.

Yet in the final analysis, people who truly love the Lord and who honestly seek His guidance, not to win the argument, but to follow Him, will find the path of truth. As long as the others will adopt the path of love and allow the ones in error to repent and be restored, harmony, love and unity will endure.

Oh, and just in case, Paul is on his way to make sure they get it right.

I have made a fool of myself, but you drove me to it. I ought to have been commended by you, for I am not in the least inferior to the “super-apostles,” even though I am nothing. I persevered in demonstrating among you the marks of a true apostle, including signs, wonders and miracles. How were you inferior to the other churches, except that I was never a burden to you? Forgive me this wrong!

2 Corinthians 12:11-13

In these verses, Paul has begun his transition into the reasons for his having written this entire section of the letter. He loves the people of Corinth and has been grieved by their willingness to be led astray by those he has come to call “super-apostles”, clearly a derisive term. Paul does not believe that he has treated the Corinthians any differently than any other congregation he has dealt with, even though his critics have apparently told them that he was trying to take advantage of them financially. On that score he actually has treated them differently; he didn’t take any support from them, and so, he apologizes for that. Do I detect the slightest little hint of sarcasm?

Now I am ready to visit you for the third time, and I will not be a burden to you, because what I want is not your possessions but you. After all, children should not have to save up for their parents, but parents for their children. So I will very gladly spend for you everything I have and expend myself as well. If I love you more, will you love me less? Be that as it may, I have not been a burden to you. Yet, crafty fellow that I am, I caught you by trickery! Did I exploit you through any of the men I sent to you? I urged Titus to go to you and I sent our brother with him. Titus did not exploit you, did he? Did we not walk in the same footsteps by the same Spirit?

2 Corinthians 12:14-18

Things are starting to clear up for us in this paragraph, for now it is clear that the super-apostles have claimed that Paul took the people in by tricks to part them from their money… only Paul didn’t accept any of their money. Yet they, some of them at least, believed the lies. Much like our politicians, it appears that the super-apostles also claimed that Paul was dishonest with them because while he was tricking them out of their money, he didn’t take any from them. Oh yes, we see people in the news do this all the time, claiming both sides of a question at the same time, and expecting us not to notice.

Paul seems to have noticed.

Have you been thinking all along that we have been defending ourselves to you? We have been speaking in the sight of God as those in Christ; and everything we do, dear friends, is for your strengthening. (12:19)

With these words, Paul has another transition. In the remaining verses of chapter 12, Paul makes it clear that his larger concern is that when he returns to Corinth he will discover that nothing has changed, that those opposing him and spreading falsehood about him will still persist in their sin. In chapter 13 we will see that if this is the case, he won’t be so nice as he was last time…

2 Corinthians 12:1-10

I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. (12:1)

With this little bit of transition, Paul takes us in to a second subsection in his enhanced defense of his ministry in Corinth; his readers are still in the woodshed. Here, Paul is getting into a subject that he really doesn’t mention much about in his writings, and apparently in his public teaching: visions and revelations he has experienced. We can infer from this that his opponents, those super-apostles, have big claims to special revelation. If that was true, then we know why Paul would talk about something here that he normally avoided. Why would he normally refrain from discussing these subjects? Because there is “nothing to be gained”.

I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. 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. (12:2-4)

So, Paul knows a guy who, 14 years ago, during the period in Paul’s life we know nothing at all about, who was caught up to the “third” heaven… After the story, Paul has an interesting comment to make:

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. (12:6b-7a)

It sounds like this guy was really Paul after all, doesn’t it? Now look at 7b:

Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.

Linking the story with his thorn in the flesh makes it pretty clear that Paul is that man. Yes, the super-apostles make their wild claims and tell their entertaining stories, but Paul, who really doesn’t like to talk about it, has real stories to tell. Yet even though he has such stories to tell that also have the benefit of being true, he refrains because his message is about Christ, not about himself. I’ll lay out what Paul only implied: If the gospel of Jesus Christ isn’t enough for you, if you need entertaining fiction to seal the deal, that’s your problem.

As for the thorn in his flesh, we don’t know what it was. In the old days it was taught that the thorn was lust and burning sexual desire, but that explanation has been pretty well discarded now for lack of evidence. More recently people have theorized that the thorn was some sort of medical problem, possibly his eyesight, or maybe malaria or leprosy or chronic migraines or…?

The truth is that we don’t know, and as always in cases like this, beware the teacher who claims to know for certain that which is not revealed in Scripture. Much more to the point is what our text actually does say:

Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 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. (12:8-10)

This thorn, this “messenger of Satan”, is something God chose not to take away; it almost reminds one of the story of Job, doesn’t it? God, for reasons of His own, has apparently allowed Satan to torment Paul physically so that Paul would not become prideful and/or arrogant in the pursuit of his mission as the Apostle to the Gentiles, with its crowning accomplishments, signs, wonders and miracles, for such pride and arrogance would surely damage Paul’s ability to carry out this great calling. Instead, in spite of Paul’s weaknesses, which evidently were obvious enough, Paul would overcome his weakness by the power of the Spirit working through him.

Don’t we all have a weakness or weaknesses? I certainly do. In an odd way, as I read these words of shame for the Corinthians who chose to follow false apostles, I find comfort and a great deal of encouragement, for they tell me that even though I am weak, God is strong, and when I serve His purpose as best I can, He provides me with His power to get the job done… in spite of the fact that I am unworthy and inadequate.