2 Cor 12.6-10. A thorn was given me. Part 3

My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.

statue of a woman at the cross, Oradea, Romania.

This is part 2. It will not make sense unless you should read part 1 first.

Part 1 might have sounded too harsh. It's not. What is harsh is that Paul has to contend with this disruption in the work.

Following is a verse-by-verse explanation of what Paul is contending with, and more details on what the thorn was and why Paul was content with weakness.

2 Cor 10.8

Even if I boast a little too much of our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for tearing you down, I will not be ashamed of it.

Christ's intention is to build his Church. Since it is on Christ's authority that Paul is working, those who oppose him oppose Christ. In opposing Christ, they tear down his church.

This is certainly pointed to the shepherds (the church leaders and the super-apostles) because the sheep follow, they do not lead. They have the ability to stumble, but the blame goes to them who made them stumble. The shepherds should protect the sheep, never harm them.

It is, interestingly, an opposite approach (but with the same outcome) to Gal 2.18: If I build up again the very things that I once tore down, then I demonstrate that I am a transgressor. The Church cannot exist as a subset of Judaism. The Church is a mutable body and can happily accommodate cultures and customs, but only to the extent those cultures and customs do not tear down. The Jews can retain their customs and traditions, but not in a way that makes Christ's death count for nothing (Gal 2.21). The Jews can continue circumcision and their dietary laws, but (1) they cannot continue Temple worship or sacrifice, because those mean Christ died for nothing, (2) nor can they make their customs a matter of faith, because they never were.

2 Cor 10.12

We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves.

The super-apostles were either allowing people to see them, or promoting themselves, as being in a different class. If it was the leaders in Corinth, that likely meant they regarded their superior wisdom as their qualification for being the leaders. If it was the apostles, that meant they regarded Israel as the people of God and everyone else a step below. Both are an affront to the Gospel, and to Christ, who emptied himself and became a servant, and to God, who only is the only one who raises up.

2 Cor 10.13

We, however, will not boast beyond limits, but will keep within the field that God has assigned to us, to reach out even as far as you.

Paul was assigned the job of reaching into the Gentile areas and coming as far as to Corinth. The apostles lost the right to go into the Gentile areas when they gave it up. If they wanted it, it was theirs. But they didn't want it and gave it to Paul on a handshake. Paul rightly never intruded onto their territory. When he was in Jerusalem, they were the bosses: not because they were his superior, but because he was inside the territory God had assigned them.

2 Cor 10.14

We were not overstepping our limits when we reached you.

The super-apostles are.

2 Cor 10.14

We were the first to come all the way to you with the good news of Christ.

The super-apostles could have been there first. It is not that it is a race. They were not running. The fact that Paul was there first is proof that they didn't want to come.

2 Cor 10.15

We do not boast beyond limits, that is, in the labors of others.

The super-apostles do.

2 Cor 10.15-16

Our hope is that, as your faith increases, our sphere of action among you may be greatly enlarged, so that we may proclaim the good news in lands beyond you.

The Gospel is not just being assaulted in Corinth; it is preventing Paul from going on. If Corinth were stable, he would be free to proclaim the good news to others.

2 Cor 10.16

Without boasting of work already done in someone else’s sphere of action.

This is is a jab at the super-apostles, who left their own territory to interfere in his. He would never do in those new areas what the super-apostles are doing in Corinth, which means any areas he goes to will not be ones where someone else is already working.

An important note: The term "super-apostles" is both a slight to their self-proclaimed importance, and a technical term to distinguish the apostles who stayed in Jerusalem. Paul has nothing against the apostles, only those who are following him from church to church, undoing his work. To use the word "apostles" would throw his net too wide.

2 Cor 10.17

“Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

The apostles, more than anyone, because they lived with Jesus, should understand the lunacy of taking the spotlight.

2 Cor 10.18

It is not those who commend themselves that are approved, but those whom the Lord commends.

Matt 18.4 Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Matt 19.30 Many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.

Matt 20.16 The last will be first, and the first will be last.

Matt 20.26 Whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant.

Matt 25.45 Just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.

Mark 9.35 Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.

Mark 12.31 You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Luke 14.11 All who exalt themselves will be humbled.

Luke 22.27 I am among you as one who serves.

These words were spoken by Christ in the hearing of his disciples. They had no excuse for not remembering, for not doing it, and especially for continuing even after it has been pointed out that they were violating it.

2 Cor 11.3

Your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

What the super-apostles doing is dangerous. The believers in Corinth are not innocent, but they are children, in comparison. It is their fault they are still on milk, but Paul recognizes they are and deals with them accordingly. They are vulnerable. They need to be protected, not disturbed. They are straying into dangerous territory. Matt 18.4-15 talks directly to what the super-apostles are doing:

Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.

If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world because of stumbling blocks! Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to the one by whom the stumbling block comes!

If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life maimed or lame than to have two hands or two feet and to be thrown into the eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into the hell of fire.

Take care that you do not despise one of these little ones; for, I tell you, in heaven their angels continually see the face of my Father in heaven. What do you think? If a shepherd has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost.

2 Cor 11.4

If someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you submit to it readily enough.

The accusation is the same as in Gal 1. There is no other Gospel! The believers in Corinth should not believe it, and the ones preaching it should certainly not preach it. In Gal 1 Paul says anyone who proclaims a different Gospel should be accursed. If the super-apostles are not in this group, they should be very clear and very vocal that they have done no such thing. But the evidence is that they are the culprits: three times actually (that we know of): Antioch, Galatia, and Corinth.

2 Cor 11.5

I think that I am not in the least inferior to these super-apostles.

Paul is being accused of not being on their level.

2 Cor 11.12

And what I do I will also continue to do, in order to deny an opportunity to those who want an opportunity to be recognized as our equals in what they boast about.

Paul has been talking about how he humbled himself before them. Now he says he will continue to act the same way, because it is safe territory: those who claim to be his equal will never copy him in the downward direction.

2 Cor 11.13

Such boasters are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.

Paul is not talking about a new group here. He is bluntly, directly saying that the super-apostles are false-apostles when they promote themselves above other believers, when they do not tell the people the entire Gospel, and when they shade the Gospel by their imposing pillars.

2 Cor 11.14

And no wonder! Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

Strong language. But in line with Paul's characterization of Peter and his friends in Gal 1.7-9:

There are some who are confusing you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let that one be accursed! As we have said before, so now I repeat, if anyone proclaims to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let that one be accursed!

Again Paul brings in the reference to an angel. In Gal 1 it is to provide the extreme example: the apostles are no higher than an angel from heaven: they are not protected by their notoriety.

Some see this as a reference to the thorn that was given Paul by Satan to torment him, strengthened by Jesus' rebuke of Peter in Matt 6.23: "Get behind me Satan!" It's possible, but I think not:

1. In 2 Cor 11.14 Paul uses Satan as a strong warning about ignorantly straying into his territory. Earlier in the letter, in 2 Cor 2.11, Paul tells the church to welcome back the man who has repented "so that we may not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs." Paul is not saying the leaders are intentionally taking Satan's side against Christ, but he is saying that (1) Satan will take advantage of any opportunity and (2) he can fool anyone, so we must take care. In 2 Cor 12.7 the situation is different. Paul refers to Satan as a direct agent in the giving of the thorn; there is no disguise, there is no confusion. That is quite a bit stronger.

2. In Matt 6.23 Jesus is replying to Peter's statement as a repeating of the temptation in the wilderness. Jesus slaps down the suggestion strongly because it is the same thing he fought against then. He is not necessarily insinuating that Satan is speaking through Peter.

3. Paul was given the thorn years earlier, before this situation in Corinth developed. It is not necessary to make the thorn contemporaneous with the revelation (it could have been a few years later), but 14 years later seems unlikely.

2 Cor 11.15

So it is not strange if his ministers also disguise themselves as ministers of righteousness.

Strong language! Paul has taken off the gloves. Possibly too strong, but it is on par with his words in Gal 1.8,9 (let that one be accursed!), 2.11 (he stood self-condemned), 2.21 (if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing), 4.9 (how can you turn back again to the weak and beggarly elemental spirits?), 5.4 (you have fallen away from grace), 4.9 (a little yeast leavens the whole batch), 4.10 (whoever it is that is confusing you will pay the penalty), 4.12 (I wish those who unsettle you would castrate themselves!), 4.17 (what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit), 5.12 (It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh that try to compel you to be circumcised), and 5.13 (they want you to be circumcised so that they may boast about your flesh)

2 cor 11.15

Their end will match their deeds.

Again, strong language. If it is not a direct reference to Matt 18.4 (it would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea) it at least echoes the thought: to harm a child is a terrible offense. In this case, the apostles were told to give their lives for Christ. To stop the children from coming to him is unthinkable, and so the consequences are unthinkable also.

2 Cor 11.19

You gladly put up with fools, being wise yourselves!

Paul is calling the super-apostles fools.

2 Cor 11.20

You put up with it when someone makes slaves of you, or preys upon you, or takes advantage of you, or puts on airs, or gives you a slap in the face.

It's uncertain to what extent this is literal or figurative, but the message is simple: the believers at Corinth are easily attracted away from the pure Gospel because they require something more in line with their expectations. In 1 Cor 1.22 Paul says that Greeks (they) desire wisdom and that therefore the cross is foolishness to them (v 23). Here he says they are so insistent on getting what they want that they will tolerate any amount of abuse to get it.

2 Cor 11.21

To my shame, I must say, we were too weak for that!

Paul says, sarcastically, that he will not give them what they want.

2 Cor 11.22-23

Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of Christ? I am talking like a madman—I am a better one.

Here it is clear that Paul is not talking about two groups of apostles: super and false. They are the same people. They are ministers of Christ, just as he is, although he is a better one.

2 Cor 11.23

with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless floggings, and often near death.

Paul might be listing these hardships for the benefit of the believers at Corinth, but more likely he is gearing up to what he is about to say, and it is directed at the super-apostles, to shame them. Peter and John knew what it was like to be in prison and flogged. Paul does not say the super-apostles have not worked: they have. They have also been imprisoned and flogged. They should understand what that means: how it wears a person down and leaves the dread for the next time. This dread stopped Peter. After his last imprisonment, when he was near death, he left Jerusalem and dropped out of the story for many years: 7 or 8.

The same difficulties that stopped them did not stop Paul. It is self-protection that will lead a person to say, "well, if he's still going, it must not be so difficult." But that is just blind, stupid self-justification. We cannot allow someone to be ahead of us, so we bring him down to our level, or lower, by demeaning him. The truth is: they stopped, Paul didn't. They stayed, Paul didn't. The only honest thing for them to do is recognize that, not hide it. So long as they refuse to admit that Paul kept going through the difficulties that stopped them, they will live in darkness.

2 Cor 11.23-26

Five times I have received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked; for a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from bandits, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea.

Paul is now listing the things he suffered that they, the super-apostles, did not. He went much farther into the terror than they did. If they consider themselves his superior, they must at least recognize that they gave up after just a couple beatings and imprisonments. They did nothing like this.

In Gal 5.17 Paul puts it in stark terms:

From now on, let no one make trouble for me; for I carry the marks of Jesus branded on my body.

His hardships are not just war stories. He carries on his bodies permanent proofs of the times he was flogged, beaten, and stoned. He did not do it to receive the marks as some sort of badge of honor. They are marks he received because he walked into the danger, for Christ: dangers that they did not walk into for Christ. But now that he has them, he says they are what they are: warnings to leave him alone, because Christ gave them, and it is to their peril to regard them as nothing.

2 Cor 11.26

danger from false brothers

There, he's said it: In his list of wounds he has suffered for Christ are attacks from false brothers. Of all the things a person might expect to encounter on the path of Christ, false brothers are the most surprising and the most disappointing. Being beaten by the Jews or by unbelievers is difficult, but at least it's not your own family. This leaves not just a dread of the next time, but a resentment that it happens at all. And along with the resentment is being handcuffed because he has no defense against the actual disciples and brothers of Christ. He cannot name them and he cannot directly point out their hypocrisy, because doing so will only polarize the people. He has to attack what they are doing, not who they are. It is a difficult place for Paul to be in. He is virtually without any recourse. The churches hang in the balance. He must protect them. He cannot do anything that would spare him and destroy them. As their father, he must be the one to shoulder the weight.

2 Cor 11.27-28

in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, hungry and thirsty, often without food, cold and naked. And, besides other things, I am under daily pressure because of my anxiety for all the churches.

The weariness of the path: hard days, sleepless nights, hunger, thirst, cold, without proper clothes for the weather, and worries about the welfare of his people. Sleepless nights could be because of the cold or rain, hunger or thirst, worries about the next day, pain that keeps him awake (there is no aspirin or ibuprofen), or: the super-apostles. His anxiety about the churches is multiplied many times over by the aggressions of James and Peter, not just because of the danger to the believers, but because of the injustice of it. They should be helping, not hurting. They should stay in Jerusalem, where they claimed they wanted to stay. More than that, they should be the ones to understand that nothing is unclean, circumcision does not save, and Jesus did not come to continue the status quo but to tear it down.

2 Cor 11.29

Who is made to stumble, and I am not indignant?

Paul claims the right to be upset when his little ones are made to stumble. The question is, why aren't they?

2 Cor 11.30

If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.

Boasting is bad, but if a person must boast, it should at least be for the right reason.

2 Cor 11.31

The God and Father of the Lord Jesus (blessed be he forever!) knows that I do not lie.

Paul is swearing by everything holy that what he is about to say is not a lie.

2 Cor 11.32-33

In Damascus, the governor under King Aretas guarded 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 from his hands.

This is a strange interruption in Paul's explanation. Until now he has tried to bring the super-apostles into line by pointing out that they stopped, they said they wanted to stay in Jerusalem, they were in an area that God had assigned to someone else, and they were saying things that put them at great risk of making the lambs of Christ to stumble.

Now, Paul brings up this incident that neither shows his weakness nor shames the super-apostles for their interference. Why?

The likely reason Paul mentions it is to give a date marker for what happens next. He wants them to remember back to this time: their first meeting of him. Below is a slice of the New Testament Timeline (you can see the entire PDF here) that highlights the time period we are looking at.

The explanation of the time when Paul escaped Damascus is in Gal 1.15-20:

When God, who had set me apart before I was born and called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, so that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles, I did not confer with any human being, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were already apostles before me, but I went away at once into Arabia, and afterwards I returned to Damascus.

Then after three years I did go up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and stayed with him fifteen days; but I did not see any other apostle except James the Lord’s brother. In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!

After Paul's encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus he went into Arabia and then returned to Damascus. After three years (dated from his conversion) he went to Jerusalem in response to a revelation. This is when the apostles met him: immediately after he escaped Damascus in a basket.

Interestingly, again Paul calls upon God as a guarantee that he is not lying. In Galatians, Paul is insisting that he is not a puppy to the apostles. He is not jealous of them, he does not want to be part of them, and he is not impressed with them. He met Christ on the road to Damascus and did not go to Jerusalem until God told him to. But even then, he went to introduce himself to Peter, not to be taught by him, and left after just 15 days. His point (in Galatians) is that yes, his message is different from theirs, and that is because he received it by revelation (Gal 1.11-12). He is not their student. He has no dream of attaining their stature. He has no desire to be approved by them.

Their gospel is not the gospel; his is. This is not a matter of stature; it is a matter of life and death, and Paul says in stark terms that anyone who opposes the gospel should be accursed.

After 14 years Paul again went to Jerusalem, again in response to a revelation. The outcome of that visit was the Jerusalem Council and the letter from James to the church at Antioch, which Paul hand-delivered to them. It was an atrocity, but Paul did it, because Jerusalem was the territory of the apostles and he submitted to them when he was there, as was right.

We don't know when Peter went to Antioch and caused problems, but Paul prior to his first missionary journey might not have had the wherewithal to stand up to Peter. He was still known as Saul and was the understudy to Barnabas. It seems unlikely he would have stepped out of Barnabas' shadow to confront Peter. After that first mission trip (where he stopped being known as Saul and became the first, above Barnabas), Paul went to Jerusalem for the Council, so there was no opportunity to encounter Peter in Antioch before the Council. It seems likely that Paul returned to Antioch after the Council, then Peter came.

Regardless, Peter went to Antioch and split the church so strongly that even Barnabas went over to his side. (We don't know if this was before or after Paul and Barnabas split over the issue of John Mark, but John Mark was the nephew of Peter, so it might have had some bearing.) Paul confronted Peter in public over his hypocrisy. At some point after that (probably very soon, and likely after Peter had left Antioch), Paul wrote his letter to the church at Galatia. We don't know if Peter was in Galatia. Paul uses the encounter with Peter in Antioch as the lesson for the church in Galatia. The hypocrisy he confronted in Antioch requires the same remedy to set things right in Galatia. The fact that Peter is mentioned in the letter to Galatia means that if he was not there, he was at least known to them, and how he was known to them is a mystery because there is no record of Peter being in Galatia.

(Significantly, the decision of the Jerusalem Council sent to the church in Antioch was a rule for them. It was wrong, but nevertheless, Antioch was close to Israel. It was the main center of Hellenistic Judaism at the end of the Second Temple period. It was 300 miles north of Jerusalem (a 10-day walk) with a large Jewish population, and therefore a city that could reasonably (but not rightly) be said to fall within the Jewish sphere of influence. It was not Jerusalem or Samaria, but it was not the ends of the earth either, so the apostles could consider it as their area of work. They therefore did not consider it unreasonable to settle the dispute in Antioch from Jerusalem, and ask the Gentiles to respect the sensibilities of the large Jewish community there, to not restart the hostilities.

The edge of controversy might be that Paul used Antioch as his staging area. He visited to Jerusalem, but he left from Antioch for his mission trips and always returned there. Antioch being close to Jerusalem might have given the apostles the impression that Paul remained under their authority, but Paul probably considered Antioch to be far enough distant from Jerusalem for them to understand that he was trying to stay clear of them. Why Paul needed Antioch as a staging area is not known. Possibly he liked the comfort of being in a Jewish area, or possibly the church there was his close circle of friends. Regardless, in hindsight, it now seems a bad idea to accept the authority of the apostles by taking the Council's decision to Antioch and then assuming the apostles would not see Antioch as their area. It might have been prudent for him to move west, to be completely away from them. Still, ultimately they considered everything under their authority, so possibly it would have made no difference.

Regardless, to apply the Council's decision to areas where there were few Jews is not right. That it was imposed upon Antioch was bad enough. To take it into true Gentile areas with only a small population of Jews was absurd. The Gentiles had a right to be Gentiles. Israel was not the overseer of the entire world. Should their decision have also been the rule in Rome, Spain, France, England, India, China? Nonsense. It was wrong for Antioch, but at least Antioch was due north of Jerusalem and a center of Judaism. It stood before the turn left: to the ends of the earth.)

Back to the point.

The timing of Paul's letter to the Galatians mentions the three years from his encounter with Christ until he visited Jerusalem and introduced himself to Peter and James. The Jews were stirred up against him, so he left and went to Caesarea, then Tarsus, Syria, and Cilicia. A couple years later Barnabas then sent for him and he went to Antioch (maybe 40 AD).

All that background information does not answer the question why Paul (in 2 Cor 11.32) recounts his escape from Damascus, some 22 years earlier. It bookends his close escapes with death, Damascus being the first and all the others he listed in chapter 11 coming between then and his second letter to Corinth, but that seems a weak connection. More likely it has more to do with the super-apostles than with Paul.

It is possible (likely) that Paul has been talking to the super-apostles through his letter to the Corinthians since 11.22b. His last statement directed to the church is 11.22a: "To my shame, I must say, we were too weak for that!" Now, it is all for the super-apostles, and he will continue his discussion with them until 12.13, when he picks up again his message to the church: "How have you been worse off than the other churches, except that I myself did not burden you? Forgive me this wrong!"

Now the escape from Damascus becomes a reminder to the apostles of what was going on then. A bit earlier Peter and John had gone to Samaria and had seen there first-hand that the Samaritans had received Christ, been baptized into Christ, and had received the Holy Spirit (likely accompanied with the speaking in tongues, since Simon the magician was impressed). A bit later Peter was in Lydda, where he healed Aeneas, and in Joppa, where he raised Dorcas the the dead. Peter then went to Cornelius' house and saw first-hand that the Gentiles had received the Holy Spirit. Again, he reported back to Jerusalem. Now everyone knew that the church of Christ had truly been extended to Samaria and to the Gentiles. They had confirmed it for themselves.

No dates can be determined with certainty, but it is likely all of these events happened within two or three years either side of after Paul's escape from Damascus. The apostles were running at full strength. They were preaching, healing, raising from the dead, enduring beatings with joy, and being imprisoned.

When Paul brings their attention back to those early times he is reminding them that there was a time in their history when they regarded beatings and imprisonment as steps forward in the work of God. Then at the end of his extended discussion, he says, "The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience, signs and wonders and mighty works." Paul too performed healings, Paul too raised from the dead—but after the days of the apostles. They started strong but quickly fainted. Within 7 or 8 years they had run their course: not nearly enough to fulfill their commission.

But the time of Saul was getting started. As they slowed down he picked up speed. Now they were energized again: not by the Spirit but by Paul's expansion into the Gentile areas. They were previously called to confirm new expansions first-hand: first to Samaria and then to the Gentiles, then to Antioch in the person of Barnabas. So their expectation was that they would be the ones to confirm the church's expansion. The problem here, of course, is that (1) they had already confirmed that the Gentiles were true believers, (2) Paul did not need their confirmation, and (3) they didn't just confirm: they corrected. Before the people accepting Christ, being baptized, and receiving the Holy Spirit was proof. Now it's not. Now the fact that Paul is doing it requires them to fix things.

Paul takes them back to a time when they were everything and he was nothing. They had the race all to themselves. He came to Jerusalem after escaping from Damascus. This was their first encounter with him. He was nothing to them. He went to Caesarea and then to Tarsus. If they had never heard from him again they probably would not even remembered meeting him. He was nothing. They were everything.

It is this that he is reminding them of: why he first came to Jerusalem; the first time they met him; how they regarded him (rightly we could say) as no one important.