Transcript

As we set sail back into 2 Corinthains 11, we find the apostle Paul talking a lot about boasting. Some people think Paul himself is bragging, and they are troubled by that. Aren’t Christians supposed to avoid bragging of any sort? Well, as we work our way from 2 Corinthians 11:16 to 12:13, Paul shows us he is troubled by it too—but not for the reasons you might be thinking.

Let me give you a little backstory to set the stage here. Some vocal critics were slandering Paul’s ministry to the Gentile churches. They were persuasive and had managed to get some of the Corinthians to listen to them. The trouble is, these opponents of Paul were actually false teachers, corrupting the gospel. They wanted to bring Gentile Christians into submission to the law of Moses.

To make themselves credible, the false teachers were boasting about their credentials and their successes. They were also quick to talk about weaknesses in Paul’s life.

So, Paul needed to do a little boasting of his own. But it was a very different kind of boasting than what his critics were doing. These false teachers were acting the way cult leaders have always behaved—solidifying their power through arrogance, intimidation, and even violence—and getting away with it.

Here in verses 16-18, Paul says that boasting is a foolish thing to do. But he is willing to appear foolish if his boasting will rescue his friends in Corinth.

Paul takes on these arrogant false teachers, point by point. He writes in verse 22, “Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they offspring of Abraham? So am I.”

The false teachers were boasting of being full-blooded Jews, ethnically and spiritually descendants of Abraham. But they did not hold any edge over Paul. He could say the same thing.

Now beginning in verse 23, Paul makes a shift in his strategy. The false teachers claimed to be “servants of Christ.” Paul claims to be a better one—but not for reasons they would have ever listed. In fact, his reasons sound so strange he admits, “I am talking like a madman,” which is exactly what his opponents were calling him.

Instead of boasting in things that made him appear strong or spiritually mighty, Paul starts listing things that make him look weak, humanly speaking. From verse 23 through the rest of chapter 11, Paul boasts of his sufferings—all the difficult things that happened to him because he was serving Christ.

And what a résumé!

Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people . . . danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers, in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant? If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. (verses 24-30)

Beloved, this is not a résumé people would be impressed with. Who would go into a job interview and say, “Let me tell you areas where I am not that impressive.” And that is the point. These false teachers opposing Paul would never talk like this. Paul even gives an example his critics would never have repeated, because it looked like a total failure. Paul writes, “The governor . . . was guarding the city of Damascus in order to seize me, but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped his hands” (verses 32-33).

The false teachers would have changed the account to read something like, “The governor tried to kill me, but I rode out of Damascus in the king’s own chariot, having shown them all how powerful I was.” Now that would be impressive!

But not Paul. He was not interested in being impressive. He was interested in being faithful. So, now you can understand how Paul’s boasting was a demonstration of his humility.

Paul goes on to write in chapter 12, “I must go on boasting. Though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord” (verse 1). His comment that there is nothing to be gained by boasting shows his reluctance to continue. He sees no benefit in it except for this one crucial need—to set the record straight and protect the Corinthians from these proud false teachers.

Paul then gives a stunning example that these false teachers would have tried to turn into best-selling books: Paul was given a personal tour of heaven! He writes in verse 2, “I know a man in Christ.”

Down in verse 7 we realize “this man” is actually Paul himself, but he downplays that at the outset. He also keeps his account of this amazing tour of heaven brief and rather simple. He says in verse 3 that he was caught up into paradise. Well, tell us about it, Paul. How amazing that God chose you for this. Give us the details!

But Paul writes in verse 4, “And he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter.” In other words, “God does not want me to talk about what I saw and heard.” And do not miss this: Paul obeyed the Lord and kept quiet.

How many people are there today who say they were given a tour of heaven and then tried to write a bestseller about it? Now, I have to admit, if God gave me a tour of heaven, I would probably be telling you about it.

Paul could have become a great celebrity in the Christian world and been held in awe everywhere if he had only published his tour of heaven, but he refused.[1]

How did Paul keep from becoming proud of all that God had revealed to him and accomplished through him? Paul answers that question in verse 7:

So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.

What was this thorn in the flesh? There are all kinds of opinions out there. It was some kind of physical condition; it was an ailment with his eyesight; it was some sort of oppressor or some kind of spiritual oppression. The truth is, we do not know for sure. Paul did not tell us—he did not fill in the blank, so to speak. And I think God wanted it that way so that we can write into that blank what our struggle happens to be.

And here is why. Suffering was never intended by God to be wasted. It always has something to teach us.

Paul does not tell us what his thorn was, but he does tell us what God taught him:

Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (verses 8-9)

Did the grace of God make that thorn more enjoyable? Not at all. But Paul welcomed what it did for him, for it made him depend on Christ’s strength one day at a time and caused him to boast in the power and grace of God. Beloved, let us make that our boast as well!