The morning
Manna will be provided at 6am. Thanks. Studying
Genesis in the SSnet.org series Lesson 2, may the Holy Spirit be the speaker to
your heart. The Topic today
is: "The Crucibles of Maturity" The Opening
Hymn will be 229 "Spirit of the Living God" The Sabbath
School Quarterly, downloadable from SSnet.org in the Teacher's Edition is on
page 23 and for the laymen edition or Standard Edition, on page 19. The SSnet.org
site allows anyone, anywhere to read the lesson in their own language. Choose
your own language to see God speaking also to your heart. ---Many people
speak of Paul as the "perfect apostle". They are not far wrong. ---However,
introspectively, and that is what 2 Corinthians 12 is about, Paul makes interesting
comments. ---Between 2
Corinthians 12:1-10 Paul speaks of Visions and remarkable revelations that he
got since Damascus. ---He does not
want to glory at all in himself. In 11:30 he says he will glory in things
pertaining to his own weakness. ---The
principle here is that the overcoming saint, even though not sinning, will
always feel humble and in need of Christ. It should be that the closer you come
to Christ, you should be more aware of the wound marks on your conscience of
sins of the past. They are a constant reminder and pain to remember. ---Paul speaks
of himself being caught up into heaven 14 years before vv. 2-4. ---Paul is the
"man in Christ" who went into the third heaven by revelation or
vision. ---Paul does
not want to say directly that it is himself. He is careful to say that but it
is understood to be him. Scholars think it is a "high degree of celestial
exaltation". ---He is not
sure whether in the body or in vision but the reality was very clear of what he
saw there (vv. 3-4). Many interpreted Paradise = Third Heaven. ---Respecting
Paul in the exalted state going there, he will glory but respecting Paul in the
earthly state now writing, "I will not glory except in my
infirmities" (11:30). (see vv. 5-6). ---Keep in mind
that the Corinthian church was cosmopolitan and the most complex problematic
church of all Paul's churches. ---The best
pastoral solution for Paul at this church is humbleness and care in expression
and avoidance of any reference of self-achievement. That is the psychological
secret of his narrative style for their weak sake. ---The rule is
that if the speaker is humble about himself, although he attained much, then
there is no room for the audience to boast about spiritual achievements, even
far less than Paul in quality and quantity. ---Paul says
that if he wish to glory (thinking of those revelations) he shall not be
foolish because they were real experiences and truthful. But he forebear to
speak (pheibomai de me tis) = I refrain from glorifying respecting myself. Why?
Because some man may regard Paul more than he really is. The Greek could easily
make him a "god" and worship him because of his experiences. This is
a problem. It was common in those days in outside sects floating around. ---One can see
a case in Acts 14:8 at Lystra where it happened. ---There was
also the danger of underrating Paul. Overrating was a problem but also
underrating. Paul had to delicately dance here in the narrative to them. ---In vv. 7-8
Paul admitted that in order for him not to exalt himself too much by reason of
the greatness of the revelations given to him "there was given to me a
thorn in the flesh". ---What is the
thorn in the flesh? Eyesight. A physical infirmity. It was something that
disciplined him to be humble. ---Scholars
think that it gave him a sharp pain. Definitely in the flesh, says the text. No
one knows what it actually was but Ellen White says it is eyesight. ---She is
closely right because he said elsewhere that he is writing in big letters to
them. ---Some
scholars think it is spiritual assaults of Satan: blasphemous thoughts; stings
of consciences over his earlier life; enticements to unchastity. Others think
it was problems with adversaries with the colleagues; still others think that
it was severe bodily suffering: pain in the head; haemorrhoids; falling
sickness; epileptic attacks of cramp. ---The angel of
Satan is said to strike Paul with the fist "might buffet me" =
kolaphizo. Was Paul put under surveillance by a tough Roman "guard"
who handled him roughly at times? ---"Respecting
this I three times besought the Lord that he might depart from me". The
Lord? Not Christ but the Father (so did Calvin and others understood it). See
verse 9. ---v. 9
"And He said to me: My grace is sufficient for you for my power is made
perfect in weakness". ---The agony
was not removed but in its place was given assurance of divine grace and its all
sufficiency. ---Scholars are
at loss what this skolops tei sarki "thorn in the flesh" really was.
But Ellen White is maybe a better option. ---Did Paul
suffer from cataract in the one eye? Or both? In those days there was no
solution for this. The agony could not be removed. ---"Most
gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities in order that the power
of Christ may fix a tent [= epi-skeno] over me [= may encamp over me]. ---One scholar
thought it was referring to the Shechinah glory that was experienced in the
temple in past history. ---v. 10 "Wherefore
[a triumphant conclusion] I take pleasure [am well content] in infirmities,
insults, in necessities, in persecutions, in straits, for the sake of Christ,
for when I am weak, then I am powerful [because the power of Christ encamps
over me and I have an inward assurance of strength]. ---This is
Christian psychology from the bible in truth at its best! ---It can also
be ours. ---It is not a
moral deficit but a physical one. Eyesight, maybe cataract? Source: J. R.
Boise, 1896 Notes Critical and Explanatory on the Greek Text of Paul’s
Epistles pages 304ff. He was a professor in Chicago in the days of our
pioneers. A Baptist. Online available at search archive.