2 Corinthians 12:2-10 (New International Version)

2I 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. 3And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows— 4was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell. 5I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses. 6Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say.
7To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9But 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. 10That 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.

Brother,

As you know, the meaning of virtue was one of the prominent ethical discussions in the writings of ancient thinkers. So-called "virtue lists" abound in classical literature; they typically commend such traits as piety, reverence, excellence, practical knowledge and patience. One quality of character, however, that one never finds in the Greco-Roman "virtue lists" is the trait of weakness.

You probably have noticed how often this quality was mentioned by Paul in his letters to the Corinthians. We are weak... Who is weak and I do not feel weak? If I boast, I will boast about the things that show my weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest upon me. Not only does Paul champion weakness in himself, he extols the weakness of Christ.

What! Christ weak! Yes, he was crucified in weakness... And then he says about us all, we are weak in him... The point is this: true holiness is not a matter of personal power—it is a matter of God’s power in the midst of personal weakness.

The city of Corinth, like many ancient cities, was inundated with the images of power. The impressive temple of Apollo under the brow of the acropolis greeted all visitors to the city. The biennial Isthmian Games which I refered to last week, featured contests of athleticism and feats of power. Corinth, the “master” of two harbours, was an economic trade center and power-broker for much of the Mediterranean world. Hence, it is not surprising that the cult of power was alive and well among Corinth’s citizens and even among the Christians who responded to Paul’s preaching.

Sometimes the exaltation of power infiltrated even their understanding of the graces and gifts of the Holy Spirit. It is almost certain that Paul’s detractors in Corinth boasted of superior ecstatic experiences, since Paul chose such an experience for his own climactic “boast.” His words, “I will go on to visions and revelations,” indicate as much, and we know from 1 Corinthians that the Corinthian church valued highly the more sensational kinds of spiritual experiences. The ecstatic experience that Paul chose to recount in 2 Corinthians 12 occurred some fourteen years prior, and it happened to someone Paul does not name but says he knew. It becomes clear that the person of whom Paul speaks is Paul himself, since, still in the same context, he shifts from “the man” to “me.”

There is no way to directly identify this experience with any known occasion recorded in the book of Acts or in Paul’s correspondence. Some have suggested his vision on the Damascus Road as a possibility, others his trance in the Jerusalem temple, and still others his near death in Lystra. None of these can be proved.

In this experience, Paul was caught up to the “third heaven,” to “Paradise.” Both of these terms are known from the Jewish and Christian writings. Heaven, the place where God lives, was depicted as multi-layered, usually in a sevenfold way. By entering the third heaven one could stand near the Lord. Paradise was a Persian word meaning “garden,” and in Jewish apocalyptic literature it represented the home of the righteous who had died.

The irony of this ecstatic experience is sharply upheld in that in it Paul heard things that were not possible to describe nor permissible to repeat. It is also ironic for Paul to say, “I will boast about a man like that, but not about myself,” since that man was, in fact, Paul. Instead, Paul contents himself to boast of his weaknesses. If he wished to follow the lead of his opponents in boasting of amazing experiences, I suppose he could have done so truthfully. However, he declines.

But Paul saw an inner connection between the ecstatic experience he had just recounted and another personal situation, this time a debilitating one. Paul suffered from some deep personal affliction, so deep that he compares it to a skolops (= thorn, splinter). While Paul obviously uses a metaphor, the reference is ambiguous. Tertullian thought it was a physical affliction, Augustine and Luther thought it was a temptation. Arguments have been put forth in favor of migraines, epilepsy, convulsions, ophthamalia, malaria, a speech impediment, rheumatism, fever, and even leprosy!

Whatever the case, Paul certainly understands his experience in a Job-like context. Just as Job’s affliction was dealt by Satan but permitted by God, so Paul understands his own affliction to be a blow from his archenemy, yet at the same time, allowed by God in order to prevent any conceit on his part. If ecstatic experiences might tend toward conceit, the direct refusal by God to answer Paul’s prayer for healing drove him toward humility. Three times he prayed for healing, but God declined, only letting Paul know that saving grace was enough and that divine power is brought to perfection in human weakness.

In this divine “no,” Paul understood more clearly the nature of God’s power. If his opponents boasted of spectacular things, Paul was obliged to boast of his weaknesses, not because weakness itself was glorious, but because it was the way in which Jesus’s power was most clearly showed.

“Therefore,” Paul says, “I delight in sickness, insult, pressing needs, persecution, and distress.” His final summary is, I'm sure you will agree, one of the most quotable quotes in the Bible: “When I am weak (in myself), then I am strong (in the Lord)!” What a foil for his opponents’ misguided philosophy, “When I am strong (in personal power), then I am strong (in spiritual things).”

Holiness often is confused with personal power. A holy person is construed as one who is disciplined. He or she is a person with a rigorous code of conduct. Holiness is believed to be the expression of religious fervour, the measurement of ourselves and others by a demanding list of religious criteria. The problem with this way of seeing holiness is that it misses the very heart of what holiness is all about in the first place.

Perhaps that is why Paul says so much about weakness when writing to the Corinthians. As Greeks, the Corinthians took great pride in their intellectual and cultural history. They were especially in love with the classical virtues of wisdom and power. In their approach to the Christian life, they championed all the ancient Greek virtues that were part of their heritage.

Paul was different, he knew that the message of the cross put all virtues in a very different light. The cross was shameful. To the Jew it was the symbol of God’s curse. To the Greek, it was the sign of public disgrace. To the Roman, it was the death of traitors and rebels. Nothing in the whole structure of ancient culture, either Jewish, Greek or Roman, prepared anyone for the preaching of the cross. It was a stumbling block to Jews and absurd to the Greeks. But to those whom God had called, it was Christ—the wisdom of God and the power of God.

In our culture that stresses personal autonomy and social advancement what should our response be?

Mark