'2Co 12:1-10

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A genuine case for boasting (2Co 12:1-10)

Before leaving the subject of boasting, Paul wants to give one more example (2Co 12:1).

Fourteen years previously he had seen a vision, but because he does not want to exalt himself, he speaks about his experience in the third person, referring to himself simply as ‘a man’. By some unknown means he was taken up into Paradise, where he heard and saw things that God does not normally allow people to know (2Co 12:2-4).

He is not telling this story so that the Corinthians will have a higher opinion of him. He wants people to judge him only from their personal experience of him, from what they themselves have seen him do and heard him say (2Co 12:5-6).

It would be easy for Paul to have feelings of self-importance because of his visions, but God intervened to make sure this would not happen. He sent Paul some particular trial (or trials) that constantly hindered him in his work (2Co 12:7).

(Notice that Paul now departs from his original intention of speaking in the third person and reverts to speaking directly in the first person - not ‘a man’ but ‘me’.) God did not answer Paul’s prayer to remove this trial, but that was to Paul’s advantage, because it made him constantly dependent on God’s grace and power.

The greater Paul’s sense of weakness, the more he realized the need to cast himself upon God. Therein lies his strength (2Co 12:8-10).