PAUL AND THE THORN

or His Pain and his Gain


Part One


I think that we may profit by a closer look at what I consider the most remarkable account in the whole New Testament that deals with mortal experience. Certainly there is none like that of St. Paul's being "Caught up to the third heaven" and return. Text: II Cor. 12:1-10


Basic Facts: Paul was "caught up" to the third heaven. We do not know just when this happened - only that this occurred 14 years before II Corinthians was written.


One "Authority" suggests Acts 22:17, Paul's experience in the temple - "I was in a trance."


Another: When Paul was blind for 3 days - Acts 9:9.


How about Acts 14:19, when Paul was stoned and left for dead for a length of time?


The Jews had an expressed belief in seven heavens. Paul settled for three, which he also called Paradise.


Paul states: "I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord." The visions are manifestations that cannot be seen with the eye of sense, and yet presented to the mind; while revelations are the truths conveyed and the ability to apprehend and comprehend.


By saying, "Whether in the body or ... out of the body," Paul is expressing the possibility of belief in an out of the body experience.


In verse 3, the literal translation is, "I know a man," This is Paul's modest way of saying, "I am that man."


In recounting this great experience, St. Paul waits for fourteen years, and then three times states, "I cannot tell." Just think of the possibilities if something even remotely similar to this should happen to some radio or television evangelist! Think of where they could go with that! From day one it could be spread worldwide, and a move be made of it. Yet St. Paul waited 14 years, and then got it told in four verses.


In this "Caught up" experience, Paul said that he heard "unspeakable words ... not lawful for a man to utter." Unspeakably great in content, no doubt. The New American Standard Bible renders "not lawful" as "It is not permitted." Although Paul was a man of many languages, he had no human language that could describe celestial happenings.


Suggestion: Perhaps we should take a lesson from Paul. Don't be too quick to tell something we don't know, or even something we shouldn't tell!


More later, D.V.