Context:
1. Our lesson comes from a section of Second Corinthians in which Paul derides the foolishness of human beings engaging in spiritual bragging. This is rooted in Paul's oft-repeated belief that holiness and acceptability to God aren't the products of moral or religious superiority. These things are gifts God grants to those willing to admit their need of God's forgiveness and God's power to live, granted to those with faith in Jesus Christ. Martin Luther put it well when he said, "We are all beggars."
2. Specifically, of course, Paul condemns the preachers of spiritual pride we've mentioned more than once as we've been focusing on Second Corinthians during our weekend worship celebrations recently.
3. To get a clear fix on what Paul says in this weekend's lesson, we'll begin our verse-by-verse analysis of what he says with verse 1.
Verse-by-Verse Comments:
1It is necessary to boast; nothing is to be gained by it, but I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord.
(a) Bragging super-apostles had dazzled the Corinthian Christians with tales of their visions and revelations, mocking Paul for apparently not having such experiences. Paul decided that to refute them, he needed to recount a vision he'd had fourteen years earlier. It's a foolish game, he says, this spiritual bragging. But, in response to what these false preachers are saying about adversity or pain being punishments from God, he would respond.
As the passage unfolds, we'll see that Paul attaches little public value to visions. Visons, like the gift of tongues he addresses in First Corinthians, are primarily about bringing private consolation to individual Christians. Implicit in Paul's telling about his vision here--and, as we will see, in the way he tells it--is his belief that having visions doesn't necessarily prove one's faith or faithfulness. They don't confer bragging rights on the recipient.
(b) Dan Lewis notes the presence in this lesson of an important motif in Paul's two New Testament letters to the spiritually proud and materially wealthy church at Corinth:
The meaning of virtue was one of the prominent ethical discussions in the writings of ancient intellectuals. 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 Corinthian letters. 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. For to be sure, he was crucified in weakness... And then he says about us all, Likewise, 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 featured contests of athleticism and feats of power. Corinth, the “master” of two harbors, 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 citizenry 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.
2I know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows. 3And I know that such a person—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows— 4was caught up into Paradise and heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat.
Paul feels he has little choice but to tell his story, though. He wants to show that God reveals himself and works in the life and graces weak people, at least as much as in those who are strong by the world's standards.
(b) In this section, Paul is going to underscore the themes of God's strength and his own weakness by repeatedly referring to what God knows and what he doesn't know.
(c) Scholars are unable to reconstruct the exact circumstances in which Paul received this vision. Assuming that the letter was written between 54 and 56AD, the incident would have happened about 40-42AD, approximately seven years after Paul's Damascus Road experience, when the one-time enemy of Christianity encountered the risen and ascended Jesus Christ and himself becomes a Jesus-Follower. (Galatians 1:13-17; Acts 9:1-19 [Note on the Acts passage: Paul's original name was Saul.])
(d) "third heaven": The idea of a layered heaven is found in several places in the New Testament.
(e) "Paradise" was a word that originated in the Persian language. It meant garden, referring to something like the formal gardens one might see in England today. The New Interpreter's Bible points out that Jewish literature uses the term for Eden and more generally of a peaceful place that set above the earth. It was also used of the place where God reigns and takes care of His people. This latter use can be found most notably in Jesus' words to the thief on the cross, Luke 23:43.
(f) One interesting construction of this passage is offered by The New Interpeter's Bible, which says that in it, Paul tells two stories, both about himself.
- One is the story of the man close to God, who received an extraordinary vision, revealing things to him of which no mortal may speak.
- The other is of the same man receiving adversity from Satan, but which God allowed to continue in order to keep him from becoming too elated or too proud.
5On behalf of such a one I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses. 6But if I wish to boast, I will not be a fool, for I will be speaking the truth. But I refrain from it, so that no one may think better of me than what is seen in me or heard from me, 7(a) even considering the exceptional character of the revelations.
(a) Look, Paul says, the only reason I'm going to boast is to showcase my weaknesses. Whatever good I've done, he says, has come from God. I'll boast in my weaknesses because in them, through the prism of my finitude, you can see God's powerful love.
(b) Paul hopes that the Corinthians will remember him, not for spectacular spiritual events, but for his everyday faithfulness, his daily love for God and neighbor, his pointing to Christ rather than to himself. As the New Interpreter's Bible puts it:
Paul will not use any vision or revelation, no matter how grand, to trump his own day-to-day performance.What's important is the power of God, not the puny pseudo-power of Paul!
7(b)Therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated. 8Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, 9but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 10Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.
(a) The word translated as "thorn" in our Bibles could as easily be called a spike or a stake. In fact, according to several sources, a skolops usually referred to one three different things, each far more dangerous than a thorn:
1. It could be part of a palisade erected for defensive purposes. A palisade was a fence put on the perimeter of a fort or of something else that needed protecting. The palisade was composed of "pales," stakes on which enemies might impale themselves.(b) Paul's skolops is ill-defined. It may be a physical ailment or something else. There are lots of theories and nothing definitively proven. But it is probable that the church at Corinth was aware of this "weakness" in Paul.
2. A skolops, similarly, might be placed, pointed tips up, in the bottoms of pits dug into the ground. When set like this, they were designed to gore opposing soldiers who might happen to fall into the pits.
3. A skolops might also refer to a device used to impale enemies in torture.
(c) Paul says that the skolops in his flesh was sent by Satan, probably as a way of thwarting him in his faithfulness to Christ. But, Paul says, that in sending this affliction to him, Satan had actually played into God's hand.
This line of thinking readily harks back to two key Old Testament figures. In Genesis, Joseph underwent horrible afflictions because of the jealousy of his brothers. But when he had the opportunity to get revenge, Joseph didn't do it, explaining that while his brothers had meant it for ill, God had good purposes to which he put it all.
A more direct analogy is with Job. In Job's case, Satan was the direct cause of all of Job's afflictions. And God allowed them to come to him.
God doesn't will awful things to happen to us, Job and Paul would both say. But, if, in our weakness, we keep following the God we meet in Jesus Christ, His greatness and power will be experienced by us and seen in us by others.
(d) In spite of Paul asking God three times to remove the skolops from his flesh, God refuses, seeming to tell Paul that His gracious acceptance of Paul was enough. The power of God is difficult to see in people like Paul's super-apostle accusers. Were the things they did rooted in God or in their own power, persuasiveness, wealth, and ingenuity? It was hard to know.
Not so in the diminutive, balding, sometimes boring, and often-suffering Paul. He was too weak to accomplish anything that mattered on his own. He didn't look like the evangelist sent by Central Casting. God shone through powerfully in his weakness.
As I mentioned in my first pass at this lesson, a good Old Testament figure to consider in order to understand Paul's argument here is Gideon. The people of Israel were facing a great battle. But God wouldn't allow them to go into it with a large force. He told Gideon to reduce its size dramatically. Doing so was militarily insane. There was no way his force could defeat the one amassed against them. But God said that he had to lead a tiny army. Only then, once victory had come to them, would they and the whole land of Israel know that it was God Who had fought for them.
(e) It was to demonstrate His power that God refused to take away Paul's skolops. This refusal is analogous to the Father's refusal of Jesus' request that the cup of His death on the cross might pass. The crucifixion was part of the Father's plan, one to which Jesus was submissive in spite of His understandable fears. (Mark 14:36)
(f) The God we know in Jesus Christ still only works in the lives of those who accept their own weakness and His power. God can work in any and all circumstances for our eternal good. (Romans 8:28)
No comments:
Post a Comment