2 Corinthians 12:1-13

He Glories in Wondrous Experiences, Dreadful Weakness and The Manifestation of Miracles, In All of Which He Is a Match For His Opponents (2 Corinthians 12:1)

Having stressed the differences between himself and the opposing visiting preachers in that he had been the one who founded their church and first built up a people in Corinth for Christ (2 Corinthians 11:2); in that he had brought the Corinthians the true knowledge about Jesus (2 Corinthians 11:6); in that he made it free and without charge (2 Corinthians 11:7); and in that he came in humility and not in an overbearing way (2 Corinthians 10:1; 2 Corinthians 11:29), and having matched their claims to pure descent (2 Corinthians 11:22) and having more than matched their claims to being servants of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 11:23), Paul now goes on to look at the further attributes which they boast about as making them superior, their visions and revelations, and their performing of ‘signs'.

And yet how hard he finds it to ‘boast' comes out in that he refers to what he is about to describe in the third person. He does not want to speak of it brazenly. He does not want to focus attention on himself. It had been so awe-inspiring and holy that he cannot speak of it directly. Indeed so uniquely awe-inspiring that God had to give him something to counterbalance it in order to keep him genuinely humble. That is why he has just mentioned his humiliating descent in the basket, and will mention his ‘thorn in the flesh', in order to keep a proper perspective. And he then expresses regret that he has to mention his other-worldly experience at all. For even the experience itself was ‘unspeakable', something that could not be talked about.

What a contrast there is here between Paul and his opponents. Instead of glorying in his unique experience he pulls back a corner of the curtain and then immediately closes it. But he has let enough light through for the signal to be picked up. None of his opponents have even dared to claim an experience like this, and none have had an experience which needed to be followed by God's action to prevent them becoming too exalted about it.