1 I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. 2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know--God knows. 3 And I know that this man--whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows-- 4 was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell. 5 I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses. 6 Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say.
7 To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Thorns of Grace
2 Corinthians 12:1-10
Sermon
by King Duncan
There is a calendar titled The 365 Stupidest Things Ever Said. Each day features a stupid statement from somebody. A page in the calendar had this amazing quote. Listen closely: “If you bought our course, ‘How To Fly In Six Easy Lessons,’ we apologize for any inconvenience caused by our failure to include the last chapter, ‘How To Land Your Plane Safely.’ Send us your name and address and we will send you the last chapter posthaste. Requests by estates will be honored.” (1) If you are a pilot, I hope you didn’t purchase that course. Crazy things happen in this world, don’t they?
Candace Prestwich tells about a day she would rather forget. It was a cold night and her furnace died, so she went to her parents’ house. In the morning, a neighbor called to tell her that her water pipes had burst and flooded both her town house and her neighbor’s. Candace raced home and on the way got a speeding ticket.
Then the furnace repairman arrived and told her he didn’t think he had the proper fuse but would check in his truck. Meanwhile, the plumber cut holes in her bathroom wall to locate the leak.
When the furnace repairman returned, he held aloft a fuse. “I had the right fuse,” he said triumphantly. “This must be your lucky day.” (2)
Candace may not have felt all that lucky that particular day. Life happens.
I laughed when I read about a pastor who was taking a morning walk. He came across a woman pushing a baby carriage up a hill. She was struggling with it a bit, so he offered to push it up for her. It was a rather unwieldy baby carriage, so it was no easy job to get it to the top. Once they had reached her house, the woman thanked the pastor for his help. The pastor replied, “Do you mind if I take a little peek at the precious baby that I’ve been pushing all this time?”
The woman laughed and said, “Pastor, this ain’t a baby we been struggling with. It’s my husband’s weekly beer supply.”
Life happens. I guess it’s better to laugh than to cry.
Actress Mary Tyler Moore sums it up well. You remember her, don’t you? She was at one time America’s sweetheart. It would be easy to believe her life was always charmed. It wasn’t. She was married as a teenager and then divorced. Her sister in college overdosed and died. Then Mary got married a second time and divorced. But she remarried the same guy and got divorced again ‑ three marriages with two men.
Then her son accidentally shot and killed himself. In her despair she turned to booze and became an alcoholic, got off of it, but contracted diabetes as a result of her drinking. Now the diabetes has affected her eyes, and there is a good chance she will be blind by the end of her life. America’s sweetheart, but not without deep, deep heartaches. She summed up her experiences like this: “none of us gets out of here without pain.” (3)
Some of you will say, “Amen,” to that: “none of us gets out of here without pain.” St. Paul was the second most influential person who ever lived. Paul, more than anyone else except Christ, fashioned our faith. If anyone deserved to live a charmed life, it was St. Paul. But of course he did not. Here is what he had to say about his experience: “To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
That’s an interesting expression. Paul says, “there was given me a thorn in my flesh.” We’ve all had the experience of reaching for a rose and drawing back when our finger or hand has been pricked by a thorn. That’s not what St. Paul is describing.
According to one authority, the Greek word here for thorn is stake. Not a tiny thorn found on a rose, but a shaft of wood sharpened at one end to be used in battle to impale someone. “This is not a minor little oops, look what happened to me. This is a stake to be driven through someone. How do we know that? Back in the first century, sharpened wooden stakes were often placed in pits, with the hope that enemy soldiers would fall on them and be impaled. These stakes were also used as a method of torture. Sharpened stakes were the roadside bombs of the ancient world, if you will, and they were described in Greek by the word skolops the exact same word that Paul uses for his thorn in the flesh. In other words, Paul felt that he was stabbed by a sharpened wooden stake, by a messenger of Satan, he says, ‘to torment me, to keep me from being too elated.’” (4)
The Scriptures do not describe for us the nature of Paul’s thorn, or his “stake.” Some have speculated epileptic seizures. Others think it was an acute pain or some chronic sickness. Others think it was the venomous criticism that was heaped on him by some members of the church. Yes, such things happened even back in Bible times and they hurt more than you can imagine. Whatever his thorn was, Paul knew that what Mary Tyler Moore was saying was true: “none of us gets out of here without pain.” Paul knew better than most of us that life does not always go the way we plan. But he also knew that pain is not God’s last word on the human condition. There is hope for the sufferer. There is victory for the anguished of heart. We are God’s people. We are followers of Jesus Christ. With God’s help we can deal with any thorn, any obstacle, any heartache. Indeed, pain and suffering and loss can even bring us closer to God.
Scott Wesley Brown is a well-known singer of contemporary Christian music. He tells of a time years ago when he was doing concerts in churches behind the iron curtain. One night he sang in a small church full of impoverished believers, who were obviously suffering for their faith. In the Soviet Union of those days Christians were denied jobs. They lived on incomes below the poverty level . . . paying a high price in suffering for their faith. Brown reports that even the concrete floor of the poor little church was worn out. After he sang a little woman came up to him and thanked him for his sharing and then, after finding out he was from the United States, she said, “It must be hard to be a Christian there.” Then she walked away.
Well Brown didn’t understand what she had meant. How could this woman living in an atheistic nation who suffered every day for her faith comment that it would be hard to be a believer in the U.S the land of religious freedom where things were so easy for Christians? On the way home from the concert he told his interpreter what had happened and asked what the woman had meant. The interpreter said, “She knows that in the United States you are blessed with wealth. You have fast food restaurants, stylish clothing, luxurious cars and homes . . . so many things. But here all these people have is their faith in Jesus. She knows that it is harder for people who have it easy to put their faith in God. They put their faith instead in things. This is why she felt it must be hard to be a Christian in the U.S.” (5)
He’s right. Even today as the Christian movement stalls in North America and rapidly fades in Europe, it is exploding in parts of China and South America where Christians are either persecuted or very poor. We are grateful for the blessings we enjoy in this prosperous land. Even though we are going through difficult times economically, there are literally billions of people in this world who would gladly swap problems with us. We need to be reminded of that as we come to the end of this Fourth of July weekend. Still, our very prosperity may be our greatest obstacle spiritually. Pain and suffering and loss can bring us closer to God.
This is not to say God sends pain and suffering. We need to understand that. If you are going through a difficult time right now, it is not because God is punishing you for some reason. Neither is God trying to send you a message.
Former mayor of New York City Ed Koch used to tell a story about a judge who was the victim of a mugging. Afterward he held a news conference. In a formal and grave voice, the judge said, “This mugging will in no way affect my decisions in the courtroom in matters of this kind.”
An elderly woman with rage glowing in her face stood up in the back of the room and shouted, “Then mug him again!”
God doesn’t mug us with pain and suffering in order to bring us closer to Him. Notice that St. Paul calls his thorn in the flesh “a messenger of Satan.” It didn’t come from God. God was not seeking to get his attention through his discomfort, whatever that “thorn” might have been. But God could use his pain, his suffering to make him a stronger man. God could use his pain and suffering to make him a blessing to others. Therefore Paul could write: “I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
How can this be? How can his weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and difficulties be a blessing? How can these “thorns of the flesh” be turned into blessings?
For one thing, thorns can give us empathy for others.
A few years ago there was a movie starring Harrison Ford titled, Regarding Henry. It was the story of Henry Turner, a successful Manhattan-based attorney who seems to have everything a perfect wife, a perfect daughter, a perfect life. However, this is just a façade. In reality, Henry’s a despicable and ruthless trial lawyer, unfaithful to his wife and seemingly without regard to the well-being of those around him. No surprise that his family life is a mess.
But then one night he goes out to get a pack of cigarettes and he finds himself in the middle of a robbery that goes bad and he is shot in the head and chest. He survives the injury with significant brain damage, but he initially cannot move or talk or remember anyone or anything. He has to go through months of rehabilitation and relearn everything how to speak, walk, and function normally. And yet it is in this time of immense struggle that Henry discovers how to love his family and friends again and how to find true happiness in life. He becomes a different human being, more caring and understanding and compassionate. To the utter surprise of his wife and daughter, Henry becomes a loving and affectionate man.
No one would wish this kind of experience on any human being, yet Henry Turner would probably never have become an authentic human being without this experience. There are many self-absorbed people in our society who are that way partially because life has been too easy for them. They find it difficult to relate to people who have less than they have. They haven’t a clue how much pain their neighbor is in because they’ve never experienced much pain themselves. They simply cannot identify with persons who have been crushed by life. They dismiss them as losers, as if they were somehow responsible for their fate. It’s interesting how St. Paul begins this passage: “To keep me from becoming conceited . . . there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.” Do you know someone who is “conceited,” who could probably use at least a tiny thorn to puncture their superiority complex? Thorns help us empathize with others.
In the same way, thorns in the flesh help others more easily relate to us. You can see that, can’t you? It’s very difficult for us to relate to someone who is encapsulated in smug self-satisfaction.
Leonard Bernstein was the first conductor born and educated in the United States to receive worldwide acclaim. He was also a highly respected composer and pianist. He was truly one of the most successful musicians in American history. So he might be excused for having a massive ego. And in his younger years, he was rather self-centered. But he changed with age. Here is how he summed it up, “The painful process of growing up is simply the constant, ever-widening realization that you are not the center. It’s painful. That’s why adolescence is painful. Maturing is a painful process.” (6)
Maturing is a painful process, but a necessary one. It helps us empathize with others and it helps others relate to us. Paul’s words are particularly instructive, “To keep me from becoming conceited . . .” Conceit keeps us from empathizing with others and conceit keeps others from relating to us. Tell me, are you comfortable around someone who is smug and self-righteous, certain they have life worked out? Or are you more comfortable around someone who has walked where you walk, experienced what you have experienced? Thorns in the flesh are a way of affirming our oneness with our fellow passengers on planet Earth.
But one thing last thing: thorns can give us a special sensitivity to God. The same pain that drives some people away from God, draws other people closer to God. The people who are drawn closer to God understand that God shares their suffering.
Retired seminary professor Fred Craddock tells a most memorable story about a pastor he met who had no arms. This pastor described to Craddock how difficult it was as a child to put on his own clothes without any arms. He said his mother always dressed him, and he’d gotten to be a pretty big boy. She fed him, she dressed him. But one day she put his clothes in the middle of the floor and said to her armless child, “Dress yourself.”
The boy said, “I can’t dress myself, I don’t have . . .”
She said, “You’ll have to dress yourself,” and she left the room.
He said, “I kicked, screamed, kicked, screamed, yelled, ‘You don’t love me anymore!’ Finally, he realized that if he were to get any clothes on, he’d have to do it himself. After hours of struggle, he got some clothes on. He said, “It was not until later that I knew my mother was in the next room crying.” (7)
God does not cause our suffering, God shares our suffering when we have a thorn in the flesh. Is it a mere coincidence that when Christ hung on the cross, his head was crowned with thorns? Mary Tyler Moore was right, “none of us gets out of here without pain.” But pain can ultimately bless us if it gives us empathy for others, if it helps us be more approachable and help others more easily relate to us, and especially if it gives us a new sensitivity to God.
1. David C. Egner, http://preceptaustin.org/hebrews_9‑10_sermon_illustrations.htm.
2. Reader’s Digest, date unknown.
3. Tommy Nelson, The 12 Essentials of Godly Success (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2005), p. 113.
4. Bill Teng, http://www.heritagechurchva.org/sermons/2006‑28.htm.
5. Mark Adams, http://www.redlandbaptist.org/sermons/sermon19991114.php.
6. John Gruen, The Private World of Leonard Bernstein (New York: Viking Press, 1968), p. 154.
7. Craddock Stories (St. Louis, MO: Chalice Press, 2001).
ChristianGlobe Networks, Inc., Dynamic Preaching Third Quarter 2009 Sermons, by King Duncan
Overview: Paul also boasts about his visions and revelations in the Lord (12:1). He speaks in the third person of a vision he had fourteen years ago (about AD 42) when he was caught up to the third heaven or paradise. There he heard “inexpressible things” which he cannot repeat (12:2–4). Although Paul has had these kinds of private supernatural experiences, he doesn’t boast about them regularly so as not to draw unnecessary attention to himself (12:5–6). But God gave him a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to keep Paul from becoming conceited (12:7). God is completely sovereign over Satan and permits him to act in ways that ultimately serve God’s purposes. Paul responded by asking God to remove this tormenting thorn, but God said “[No,] my grace is sufficient for you, for my power i…
The Baker Bible Handbook by , Baker Publishing Group, 2016
1 I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. 2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know--God knows. 3 And I know that this man--whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows-- 4 was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell. 5 I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses. 6 Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say.
7 To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
A final issue, closely related to the third, apparently pertained to the ability to recount previous personal experiences of revelatory visions (12:1–13). Once again, though there is really nothing to be gained by an attempt to supplement the record of divine support that he has already presented, Paul consents, as before, to “go on boasting” in an attempt to win the wayward Corinthians back to his side (12:1). But once more he does so in a way that shows his reticence to cooperate fully in any contest of credentials proposed by his opponents, speaking modestly of his own experience as only that of a man in Christ.
Proceeding, Paul relates an experience that happened to him some fourteen years earlier (placing it in the period between his first visit to Jerusalem following his conversion and his arrival in Antioch [Acts 9:23–30; 11:19–26]). During this experience, while completely unaware of the whereabouts of his body, Paul was nonetheless brought to a form of consciousness in paradise and enabled to see and hear “things that man is not permitted to tell” (12:4). From the point of view of Paul’s opponents, it is entirely proper for “a man like that” to boast about the privilege of receiving such a vision (12:5). But Paul is unwilling to take this view, or to allow the Corinthians to think that this experience constitutes the real basis for his claim to be an apostle. And so he continues to present a claim that offers a clearer indication of apostolic vocation, a boast in the weakness of what he has done and said in Christ’s service.
Furthermore, the Corinthians should know that following the experience of exaltation there came still further moments of weakness as “a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me” (12:7). Paul’s picturesque description has led to a wide range of interpretations concerning the nature of his thorn, but in the end, little more can be said with certainty than what Paul in fact tells us; namely, that the thorn began to affect him only after his experience, that it was painful for him, and that it had enabled Satan and the thought of sin to gain entrance to his mind. Paul had “pleaded with the Lord” to remove it (12:8). But in response, he received instead divine power that finds its perfect completion when it enables the overcoming of such weak-ness.
Paul’s experience itself then illustrates his message to the church. The true boast of an apostle, of one sent out by the Lord on a mission (for that is what the title truly means), is that in the course of such a mission, the Lord has faithfully provided power in moments of necessity so that the apostle may claim, “When I am weak, then I am strong” (12:10). Accordingly, though he regrets having “made a fool” of himself with a different boast, Paul has shown through it that he deserves to be commended rather than written off as the inferior of his opponents or those whose apostolic authority they might claim as su-perior to Paul’s. All the manifestations of divine power—“signs, wonders and miracles”—have been demonstrated at necessary points in the mission to Corinth, along with a kind of “perseverance” that convinced the Corinthians these were more than the tricks of a charlatan seeking some temporary converts (12:12). Indeed, they have received from Paul all that the other churches have except for the request that they share in the burden of his support.
The Baker Illustrated Bible Commentary by Gary M. Burge, Baker Publishing Group, 2016
In the last section of the letter (2 Cor. 10–13) Paul makes a frontal attack on his opponents to prepare the Corinthians for his third visit to Corinth. In chapter 10 he has already dealt with two of the opponents’ accusations against him. Now, in 11:1–12:13, the apostle condescends to boasting about himself at the provocation of the opponents and in the face of a lack of concrete support from the Corinthians. These opponents, who evidently bill themselves as “apostles,” had made a strong impression on the church at Corinth with their subversive teachings and robust appeal. Their boasting provoked Paul to engage in similar boasting, even though he recognized it to be utterly foolish. He had already resorted to self-commendation earlier in the letter (cf. 1:12–14; 6:3–10). Now, however, in this extended and, in part bitterly ironic “Fool’s Speech” (11:21b–12:13), Paul boasts in an attempt both to counter the accusations of his opponents and to expose the false apostles as frauds who pervert the gospel and lead the Corinthians astray. To a certain degree, the apostle thereby stoops to the methods of the opponents, for they too boast and try to discredit Paul as a fraud; however, Paul uses these methods self-consciously and openly, aware of their foolishness.
The section can be divided into two parts. In the first part (11:1–21a) Paul prepares the Corinthians for his foolish boasting about himself, requesting that they endure it. For the apostle, such boasting must have been insufferable. In the second part (11:21b–12:13) Paul delves into the boasting itself, concentrating on two main points: (1) his apostolic activities and sufferings (11:21b–33) and (2) his apostolic revelations (12:1–10).
11:1–4 In the first part of this section on Paul’s self-praise, he prepares the Corinthians for his foolish boasting about himself (11:1–21a). He begins the preparation in verses 1–4 with the request that the Corinthians put up with his foolishness.
11:1 Paul entreats the Corinthians to permit him the foolishness of boasting. Foolishness is another of the wisdom categories that Paul uses in 2 Corinthians. Based on what he has already said in 6:14–16, Paul would probably classify foolishness within the sphere of all things that stand opposed to Christ, who is the Wisdom of God (cf. 1 Cor. 1:24, 30). By calling his own boasting foolishness, Paul indirectly characterizes the opponents’ self-praise as foolishness as well. The apostle asks the Corinthians’ forbearance as he affects a foolish position for the heuristic purpose of exposing the ludicrous behavior of the opponents.
11:2 The reason (gar, untranslated NIV) that Paul asks the Corinthians’ forbearance is that he is jealous for them. The term jealousy, or rather “zeal,” is drawn from the character of Yahweh as the sole husband of Israel (cf. Hos. 1–3; Ezek. 16; Isa. 50:1–2; 54:1–8; 62:5), which is spoken of, correspondingly, as his bride (cf. Isa. 49:18).
Mark 2:19 refers to the Messiah as a bridegroom, and Ephesians 5:22–33 applies this image to the relationship between Christ and the church. Just as Phinehas, the OT prototypical zealot (Num. 25:1–13; cf. Ps. 106:28–31; Sir. 45:23–24; 1 Macc. 2:26, 54), was eager to keep Israel pure from foreign influences, especially intermarriage, which would subvert its devotion to the one true God, so also Paul was zealous to keep the church a pure virgin until the Parousia, when Christ will receive the church for himself.
11:3 The apostle fears that the Corinthians might be led astray by the false apostles. The bridal image that Paul introduces in verse 2 brings to mind the first human bride, Eve, and the intruder who beguiled her into disobedience (Gen. 3:1–7, 13). In Jewish tradition, the serpent is interpreted as Satan (cf. 1 En. 69:6; 2 En. 31:6; Apoc. Ab. 23; L.A.E. 9; Apoc. Mos. 17; b. Yebam. 103b; Pirqe R.El. 13:1; Wis. 2:23–24). Paul has already referred to “Satan” (2:11) and “Belial” (6:15), and in the subsequent context he refers again to “Satan” (11:14; 12:7) as an “angel of light” (11:14).
11:4 The reason (For, gar) for Paul’s fear is given in verse 4. Here, the apostle refers to an individual (someone; lit., “he who comes”), as if there were only one intruder. Perhaps Paul is thinking of the ringleader, for elsewhere he clearly refers to a plural number of opponents. These interlopers did not come on the scene, as some interpreters suppose, after Paul sent 2 Corinthians 1–9 to Corinth, for their presence is known in the earlier chapters of the letter as well (cf., e.g., 2:17; 3:1; 5:12; 6:14–7:1). The fact that Paul’s opponents come into his divinely allotted apostolic territory (cf. 10:13–17) is also a major factor in the conflict in Antioch (cf. Gal. 2:11–12). Interestingly enough, Sirach 45:18 refers to those who were involved in Korah’s rebellion as “outsiders” (allotrioi; cf. Num. 16:40). Of course, the problem is not just that the interlopers illicitly cross a territorial boundary line, but that they actually interfere with Paul’s mission by preaching a different gospel (cf. Gal. 1:6–9) and thus causing the church to defect from its founding apostle. In a similar way, Jewish tradition portrays Korah as denying the Torah that was revealed through Moses (cf. Ps.-Philo 16; Num. Rab. 18:12; b. Sanh. 110a). The way that Paul defends himself in 2:14–4:6 shows that the opponents were promoting a gospel very much like the different gospel that had brought the Galatian churches into confusion, that is, one that emphasized obedience to the Mosaic law. Paul scolds the Corinthians for so easily accepting the opponents and their message. Earlier in the letter he has exhorted them to dissociate completely from the intruders (cf. 5:12; 6:14–7:1). Paul is the primary and legitimate mediator of the Spirit to the Corinthians (3:3, 6). The others proffer only what Paul rhetorically calls a different spirit (cf. Rom. 8:15) and even “a different Jesus” (cf. 2 Cor. 5:16, which refers to Paul’s view of Jesus before his call/conversion). In Paul’s view, the true gospel and the true Spirit are so inextricably bound together that to preach a false gospel is to preach a different spirit. Hence, by accepting a different gospel the Corinthians invalidate their own life in Christ and the Spirit.
11:5–11 In this subsection Paul compares himself favorably with the rival preachers who have come to Corinth to usurp his authority. The transition from verse 4 to verse 5 is important for the identification of the opponents. According to some interpreters, the preachers in verse 4 are to be distinguished from the “super-apostles” in verse 5: the latter are the Jerusalem apostles and the former are their emissaries. However, there is nothing in the text to suggest a major shift in subject between these verses. In fact, the connector between verses 4 and 5 (gar, untranslated NIV) suggests that the term super-apostles in verse 5 elaborates on the preachers mentioned in verse 4. The NIV signals this relationship by translating the super-apostles as those super-apostles.
After stating his thesis (v. 5), Paul handles two accusations that the outsiders have lodged against him concerning his alleged inadequacies: (1) his lack of eloquence in public speaking (v. 6), and (2) his failure to accept support from the Corinthians (vv. 7–11).
11:5 Paul affirms his parity with the super-apostles. The sarcastic term super-apostles (tōn hyperlian apostolōn) shows that, from Paul’s perspective, the outsiders have come to Corinth in order both to subvert his own God-given apostolic authority and to usurp his God-given apostolic territory (cf. 10:13–18) by putting themselves above Paul. As we have seen throughout 2 Corinthians (1:24; 2:6–7, 15, 17; 3:1), Paul compares the opposition to Korah’s rebellion, in which Korah and his followers rebelled against Moses and Aaron in order to set themselves up as the authorities in the congregation (Num. 16–17). Despite his lack of rhetorical ability, which recalls Moses (see on 10:10; 11:6), Paul will not allow that he is inferior to his opponents who seek to arrogate to themselves apostolic power and prestige. The implicit reason for this is that Paul, like Moses, received his apostolic authority from God (cf. 3:5–6; 10:18; Num. 16:11, 28, 30). Ironically, Paul goes on to state later in the same passage that he is “not the least inferior to the ‘super-apostles,’ even though I am nothing” (2 Cor. 12:11; cf. 10:7; 11:21–22). From Paul’s perspective, therefore, the outsiders are less than nothing, despite their pretentious claims.
Very likely Paul refers to the opponents as super-apostles because they call themselves apostles(apostoloi). Perhaps they see themselves as envoys of the “pillar” apostles in Jerusalem (cf. Gal. 2:9), replete with letters of recommendation to attest their sending (cf. 2 Cor. 3:1). As we discussed on 8:23, which speaks of certain brothers who are “apostles of the churches,” there is evidence in Jewish sources of “apostles” who are sent out on specific missions by Jewish authorities. Churches, including the mother church in Jerusalem, probably appropriated this practice. It appears that the opponents, who consider themselves “apostles” in a derivative sense (i.e, by the authority of the sending church), dispute Paul’s apostleship, which allegedly relies on direct revelation of the resurrected Christ for its commission and authority (although 11:12 does refer to the “signs” of apostleship). From Paul’s perspective, this challenge to his authority compares with the situation Moses had to face with the wilderness generation, when he had to demonstrate that the Lord had sent him (cf. Num. 16:28).
11:6 Paul explains the first way in which he is not inferior to the “super-apostles.” He uses very compressed language here that cannot be translated unless it is unpacked. The singular subject of the first half of the verse (I) does not fit with the implied subject (perhaps we) of the plural participle in the second half. Literally, the first half reads as though the apodosis is missing: “Now if I am also an amateur in the speech, but not in the knowledge.…” Thereupon, the second half begins abruptly with the adversative conjunction alla: “but in every way [we] have revealed [the knowledge] in all things to you.” The general sense is relatively clear if these two halves are pieced together and the appropriate words are supplied. Paul acknowledges his deficiency in public speaking very much as Moses did (see on 10:10). But, also like Moses, Paul exults in revealed knowledge mediated to others, albeit in this case it is the knowledge of Christ that God reveals through him to others, including the Corinthians (see on 2:14).
11:7–11 Paul discusses a second way in which he is allegedly inferior to the outsiders, that is, in terms of accepting gifts from the Corinthians.
11:7 The apostle begins with a rhetorical question expecting a negative answer. Was it wrong for him not to accept financial support from the Corinthians, when his opponents evidently did (cf. 2:17; 11:20)? According to Acts 18:3, Paul supported himself while in Corinth by means of manual labor (cf. also 1 Thess. 2:9), although he later accepted contributions from the Macedonians (2 Cor. 11:9; cf. Phil. 2:25; 4:10–20). Already in 1 Corinthians 9:14, Paul defended his right as an apostle to receive support from the churches, even as he also explained why he voluntarily relinquished that right (1 Cor. 9:15–17). Earlier in 2 Corinthians, Paul has touched on the subject of peddling the word of God (cf. 2 Cor. 2:17), and he returns to this contentious issue in the subsequent context (cf. 12:13–18). Since Paul has divine authority for his apostleship, he is not concerned with demonstrating his authority by taking advantage of his privileged position. But he is distressed by accusations of graft and avarice. Hence, he preaches the gospel free of charge. When Moses was charged with lording it over the congregation (Num. 16:3; see on 2 Cor. 1:24) he countered that he had not taken tribute from anyone (Num. 16:15). Evidently Paul follows the same general principle in exercising his apostolic ministry. Seen in this light, Paul could not be accused of exalting himself. Quite the opposite, he was elevating the Corinthians, whom he refused to bilk.
By selflessly refusing support from the Corinthians Paul exemplified among the Corinthians the Lord Jesus Christ, who, though he was rich, yet for their sakes became poor, so that they might become rich through his poverty (cf. 2 Cor. 8:9). Nevertheless, the following verses tend to detract from Paul’s magnanimity.
11:8–9 Paul explains the means by which he was able to preach the gospel free of charge to the Corinthians. This is a remarkable statement in several ways. First, Paul acknowledges that he received support from other churches (see on v. 7). If Paul’s refusal to accept support from the Corinthians was a source of controversy in Corinth, then the fact that he accepted funds from other churches may have contributed to the problem in the first place, since it could have been construed as showing favoritism and a lack of love for the Corinthians (cf. v. 11; 12:13). To mention the receipt of support from other sources may also have exacerbated the situation, demonstrating once again how double-minded and inconsistent Paul really was (cf. 1:17). Second, Paul claims to have robbed (or “plundered”) these other churches, a highly provocative formulation for someone who defends himself against the charge of exploitation in the previous context (cf. 7:2). His manner of speaking is, of course, hyperbolic and ironic, but it would seem to play into the hands of the opponents. Perhaps this is just what Paul wants in this prelude to the “Fool’s Speech.” Third, the apostle states that it was the brothers from Macedonia who supplied his need—members of the very church that is described as destitute in 8:2. With heightening intensity, Paul declares that even when he was very needy in Corinth he was so intent on not being a burden to the Corinthians that he chose to “rob” a church that was in abject poverty rather than risk offending the Corinthians. All of this was ultimately for the Corinthians’ own benefit (so as to serve you).
11:10–11 Paul expresses his determination to continue his policy of declining support from the Corinthians. Here again, Paul uses an oath formula (as surely as the truth of Christ is in me) both to show his determination and to assert his claim (cf. 2 Cor. 1:18, 23; 11:31; Gal. 1:20; Rom. 9:1). The truth of Christ is in Paul in that Christ speaks through him (cf. 13:3). On the one hand, the apostle fears that, in the face of opposition in Corinth, to accept contributions from the Corinthians would deprive him of his boasting. As he states in 1 Corinthians 9:15, he would rather die than have anyone deprive him of the boast of voluntarily declining to exercise his apostolic rights. Like Moses, he wants to be able to declare, with all good conscience, that he has not accepted gifts from the congregation (cf. Num. 16:15). Paul’s boast will not be stopped in the regions of Achaia; he will continue his policy of not accepting support in the territory allotted to him by God (cf. 2 Cor. 10:12–18). It is a question of apostolic prerogative.
On the other hand, Paul fears that his refusal to accept gifts will be interpreted as a lack of love for the Corinthians. Hence, he resorts again to the witness of God (cf. 1:18, 23; also 11:31; 12:2) in order to affirm his love for them (cf. 6:11–12; 12:15). The plethora of oath formulas in this letter shows the defensive position in which Paul finds himself.
11:12–15 After denying that he is inferior to his opponents (vv. 5–11), Paul proceeds to expose them as frauds, indeed as servants of Satan (vv. 12–15). In this section Paul effectively turns the tables on the opponents, showing that they do not compare with him.
11:12 Paul solemnly declares that in the future he will continue to refuse contributions from the Corinthians. He has previously stated (cf. 2:17) that the opponents dishonestly peddle the word of God for money, whereas he himself is free of this blameworthy practice. Hence, by refusing to accept support from the Corinthians, Paul deprives his opponents the opportunity to be considered equal with him (lit., “just as also we [are]”). We may recall that Korah and his followers were jealous of Moses and therefore claimed to be equal with Moses and Aaron in terms of holiness, probably because they wanted the privileges of a special priesthood for themselves (Num. 16:3, 8–11). In the same context, Moses denied that he had accepted any gifts from the congregation (Num. 15:16). In our text, there is a possibility that the clause in order to cut the ground from under may recall that Korah’s followers were swallowed up by the ground as divine judgment on their impertinence (Num. 16:31–35; see on 2 Cor. 2:7), although here the expression is clearly metaphorical, for the word translated “ground” (aphormē) actually denotes “opportunity, pretext, occasion” (cf., e.g., Gal. 5:13; 2 Cor. 5:12).
11:13 Paul further explains (For, gar) why the opponents in Corinth are not equal to him. First, he describes the opponents as false apostles (pseudapostoloi). He thereby coins a term that recalls another neologism of his, i.e., “false brothers” (pseudadelphoi). The latter refers to a Jew who pretends to be a believer, but whose claim is belied by his attempt to thwart the true gospel (cf. Gal. 2:4; 2 Cor. 11:26). Likewise, a false apostle is one who pretends to be an apostle but whose claim is belied by his attempt to work against Paul and his gospel; they have “another gospel” (v. 4). Perhaps Paul coined the term false apostles by analogy to the term “false prophets” (pseudoprophētai) in the OT (cf. Jer. 33:8 LXX). It may be that this derogatory term implies that the opponents called themselves “apostles” (also “servants of Christ,” according to 2 Cor. 11:23). If so, this would not necessarily be a reference to the Jerusalem apostles, for the term “apostle” was used for others besides the Twelve (cf. 8:23; Phil. 2:25). Perhaps the opponents understood themselves as emissaries of the Jerusalem apostles (cf. C. K. Barrett). In any case, Paul’s characterization of his opponents as false apostles fits very well with the Korah typology that he develops in this letter, for Korah and his followers aspired to honor and authority equal with Moses, and, according to Jewish tradition, Korah and his followers were “false,” whereas Moses and Aaron were “true” (cf. b. Sanh. 110b; b. B. Bat. 74a; Num. Rab. 18:20).
Second, Paul goes on to describe the opponents as deceitful workmen. He uses a similar expression in Philippians 3:2 (“evil workers”) to refer to his Jewish-Christian opponents, whom he characterizes as “those who mutilate the flesh” (i.e., practice circumcision). While this does not necessarily imply that the same Judaizing opponents are in view, the similarity is suggestive, especially as they preach “a different gospel” (2 Cor. 11:4; cf. Gal. 1:6–9).
Third, Paul describes the opponents as masquerading as apostles of Christ. Usually, the term is taken metaphorically to mean that the interlopers behaved like apostles in some way, and that is probably correct (note that in v. 15, the same opponents are said to masquerade as “servants of righteousness”). Elsewhere, however, Paul uses the term of literal, physical transformation. In Philippians 3:21, the hope is expressed that believers’ lowly, earthly bodies will be transformed into the glorious, heavenly body of the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ (cf. 4 Macc. 9:22). The term metaschēmatizein means “to transform, to change the outward appearance of a person or thing, to disguise” (cf. T. Reu. 5:6; Philo, On the Eternity of the World 79; On the Embassy to Gaius 80, 346; Josephus, Ant. 7.257; 8.267). In that case, the physical appearance of the opponents may be particularly in view here, just as Paul’s frail physique has already come under discussion in the previous context (cf. 4:7–5:15; 10:10). Yet it is difficult to imagine how the opponents may have been disguised in a literal sense. Perhaps we may think of a glorified outward appearance either through ornamentation, (priestly?) vestment (cf. M. Himmelfarb), or even masking. As we have seen, the merkabah mystic was considered to have had an experience that altered his physical appearance. Hence, the verb in our passage may carry with it the literal sense of physical transformation, even if the primary sense is metaphorical.
11:14–15 The opponents’ masquerading is compared to that of Satan. The association of the opponents with Satan is based on the premise that there are only two opposing spheres—one of Christ and the other of Satan (see on 6:14b–16a). Those who align themselves against the apostle make common cause with the sphere of Satan. The prince of the darkness (cf. 6:14c) disguises himself as an angel of light, an idea based on Isaiah 14:12–15. Furthermore, according to L.A.E. 9:1, when Satan wanted to deceive Eve for a second time, he “transformed himself into the brightness of angels” (cf. Apoc. Mos. 17:2; on the deception of Eve, see further on 2 Cor. 11:3).
Paul strongly implies that his opponents are servants of Satan, although they disguise themselves as servants of righteousness(diakonoi dikaiosynēs). Rightfully, the term servant of righteousness applies to Paul, for he calls himself a “servant” (diakonos) several times in the letter (cf. 3:6; 6:4; 11:23), and his apostolic ministry (diakonia) is a “ministry of righteousness” (3:9), in contrast to the “ministry of condemnation” that leads to “death” (3:6–7). Hence, we see again that the main purpose of the opponents is to usurp Paul’s authority in Corinth, just as the angel of light tried to make himself like God and even to usurp his throne of glory (cf. Isa. 14:13–14). In the end, however, this angel of light is brought down to Sheol, to the depths of the pit (Isa. 14:12, 15; cf. L.A.E. 12–16; 2 En. 29:4–5). Those who try to usurp Paul’s apostolic authority and ministry will meet a similar fate, a fate that Korah and his followers met when they sought equality with Moses, the Lord’s servant, and tried to usurp his authority (Num. 16:31–33). Paul warns ominously that his opponents’ end will be what their actions deserve. In light of the allusions of the text, there can be little doubt that he means the opponents’ demise.
11:16–21a Paul prepares the Corinthians for the boasting in which he is about to engage by asking for their indulgence (cf. v. 1). Having mentioned that the opponents seek to boast in their equality with him (11:12), Paul does some boasting of his own. He knows it is foolish to vaunt his achievements, and perhaps even wrong (cf. 10:18; 12:1, 7), but he accepts the challenge (11:18) of some at Corinth who have forced him to assert his claims (12:11).
11:16 The apostle reiterates his appeal for indulgence from verse 1. Paul is no fool, and in reality he should not be taken as one. He knows that any boasting, except boasting in the Lord, is illegitimate (cf. 10:17–18). Nevertheless, he is willing to engage in boasting because he knows that the Corinthians regard him as a fool. They have forced him into boasting (12:11). Furthermore, Paul uses this technique as a heuristic tool to expose his opponents as frauds and to win the Corinthians back to his cause.
11:17 Paul stresses that the boasting in which he is about to engage is really illicit. He is affecting a role that is totally out of character for a true apostle of Jesus Christ, for he is not talking as the Lord would (lit., “according to the Lord”). In other words, Paul is not boasting in the Lord as he should (cf. 10:17).
11:18 In affecting the role of boastful man, Paul is responding to the challenge of his opponents. The many to which he refers includes the opponents (cf. v. 20). They are boasting in the way the world does (lit., “according to the flesh”); hence, Paul does so, too. He means by this vaunting one’s own achievements. There is a strong contrast in verses 17–18 between the prepositional phrases “according to the Lord” and “according to the flesh.” Paul has already been accused of making his travel plans “according to the flesh” (see on 1:17). Now he turns the accusation of behaving “according to the flesh” back onto the opponents. He performs a similar maneuver in verse 20.
11:19 Paul intensifies his critique by ironically calling the Corinthians wise in putting up with the opponents’ foolish boasting. He uses the same rhetorical strategy in 1 Corinthians 4:10: “We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ!” Yet, as Paul had already argued in his first canonical letter, the Corinthians had a defective understanding of “wisdom,” which led them to boast improperly in spiritual gifts and leaders according to Hellenistic standards of wisdom (1 Cor. 1:10–4:21). Here again, the Corinthians’ particular brand of “wisdom” distorts their vision, causing them to put up with people who are really fools, from the divine perspective that Paul claims to have.
11:20 Paul goes on to explain in five strong verbs how the opponents originally burst onto the scene in Corinth. From this description it seems obvious that the opponents moved into Corinth with the intent of taking over. Their actions were aggressive, and they began to assert their authority over the congregation, even to the point of enslaving the church (cf. Gal. 2:4) and extorting funds. Paul has already defended himself against the charges of lording it over the church (1:24) and exploiting the congregation (7:2; see also on 12:16–18). Now he turns the tables by reapplying similar charges to the opponents (cf. 2:17). With rhetorical acumen, Paul employs the very accusations that his rivals applied to him.
11:21a In summary of his point in verses 16–21a, Paul admits with mock shame that he did not come to the Corinthians like a conquering ruler as his opponents did. The opponents allege that Paul’s personal appearance is weak (10:10; cf. 1 Cor. 2:3). Picking up on that thought, Paul mockingly admits his weakness as a reason he did not come to Corinth to enslave and exploit the Corinthians. In actuality, of course, Paul considers his intentions with the Corinthians to have been forthright and honorable.
11:21b–12:13 In this section, which constitutes what is called the “Fool’s Speech,” Paul boasts in two areas: the labors and sufferings he has endured in the course of apostolic service (11:22–33) and his extraordinary revelations of the Lord that he has received as an apostle (12:1–10). The latter category spills over into a boast that even the opponents would acknowledge as enviable.
11:21b–33 The first area in which Paul boasts is that of the labors and sufferings that he has endured while engaged in apostolic service. These boasts prove doubly foolish, since boasting itself is foolish, and, by the opponents’ standards, suffering and weakness do not count as meritorious qualities. The intricate structure of this subsection is best observed with a diagram (cf. R. P. Martin).
11:21b Paul begins by taking up the challenge of his opponents to boast. He does not let us forget that he is affecting the role of a fool in order to make a rhetorical point about his opponents. Paul has been accused of being bold (cf. 10:1–2), so now he turns this accusation back on his opponents and then accepts it as applying to himself.
11:22 Paul compares himself with his opponents point for point in terms of their Jewish heritage. Do these assertions mean that Paul’s Judaism was called into question by the “super-apostles”? Or should we infer that Paul himself brings these points up in order to reinforce his connection with his Jewish heritage before proceeding further? First of all, Paul describes himself here, as in Philippians 3:5, as a Hebrew (Hebraios). Perhaps he puts this self-description first in the list in order to recall his connection with the historic people of Israel. This point is reinforced by the next self-description.
Second, Paul describes himself as a Israelite (Israelitēs). This tends to underscore and reinforce the archaicizing tendency of the first self-description. The apostle uses the same description of himself in Romans 11:1: “I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.” He states this in order to deny that God has rejected his “people.” Because Paul stands in continuity with the historic people of Israel (cf. Rom. 9:4) he can serve as an example of the faithful remnant which preserves the continuity.
Third, Paul describes himself as Abraham’s descendant (lit., “seed of Abraham”). With this term, the apostle stresses the fact of his genealogical descent (cf. Rom. 11:1) as well as his participation in the salvation-historical privileges of the elect people of God. To Abraham and his seed belong the promises of God (cf. Gen. 12:1–3, 7; 13:15–17; 15:18; 17:7–10, 19). Paul traces his gospel back to the Abrahamic promise (Gal. 3:8), and he regards Christ as the seed of Abraham in the strict sense (Gal. 3:16). In Christ, believers participate in the seed of Abraham and and thus become heirs to the Abrahamic promise (Gal. 3:29).
11:23a After comparing himself favorably to the opponents in terms of membership in the historic Hebrew nation, Paul makes yet another comparison, this time directly in relation to the claim of apostleship. Whereas in the first three comparisons between himself and the opponents (v. 22) Paul was willing to acknowledge his adversaries’ place in the historic people of God, here, in the fourth comparison, he balks at the idea that the opponents are servants of Christ. The apostle has already described the intruders as “servants” of Satan who disguise themselves as “servants of righteousness” (v. 15) and as “apostles of Christ” (v. 13). Therefore, it is obvious that he cannot seriously entertain the notion of their being true servants of Christ. He does so only to introduce several ways in which he is superior to the opponents as a servant of Christ (I am more). It is possible that the opponents described themselves as “servants of Christ,” and that Paul uses their own honorific title in a similar way to his use of their own accusations in verse 20. By stating that it more properly applies to himself, Paul is asserting that he outstrips even the “super-apostles” (cf. 11:5).
11:23b–29 Paul substantiates his claim in verse 23a that he is a servant of Christ more than his opponents are by adducing a list of his apostolic labors and sufferings. The opponents would not be impressed by this litany of troubles; they criticized Paul’s suffering and weakness, and probably did not boast in such things themselves (cf. 5:12). The fact that Paul does so is part of the double “foolishness” of the section. With respect to literary form, this section constitutes a tribulation catalogue (see on 4:8–9). In 6:4–10 Paul uses a similar tribulation catalogue to show that “as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way.” Indeed, several of the items in the list are repeated from the earlier catalogue. Furthermore, many of the sufferings mentioned in the present tribulation catalogue can be illustrated by specific episodes in the book of Acts. Some of the persecutions listed here may even have been practiced by Saul/Paul the Pharisee against believers in Jesus. Now the persecutor becomes the persecuted. Also in Romans 5:3, Paul boasts in tribulations.
11:23b Paul lists the areas in which he is excels as a servant of Christ. The hyperbolic language in this list is unmistakable in the Greek text. Each noun in the series is modified by an adverb denoting superabundance: the first two nouns have perissoterōs (“far more, far greater”); the next one has hyperballontōs (“exceedingly, immeasurably”); and the last one has pollakis (“frequently”). Such hyperbolic language is characteristic of 2 Corinthians as a whole (cf. 1:5, 8, 12; 2:4, 7; 3:9, 10; 4:7, 15, 17; 7:4, 13, 15; 8:2, 7, 14; 9:8, 12, 14; 10:8, 15; 12:7, 15).
The catalogue begins with the boast that Paul has worked harder (lit., “with far greater labors”). Although this could refer to manual labor that he undertook in Corinth (and elsewhere) to support himself, here it probably refers specifically to apostolic labors as in 10:15, where boasting is also mentioned in connection with such labors. In 1 Corinthians 15:10 (cf. Gal. 1:14), Paul boasts that he has “worked harder” than any other apostle, although he quickly corrects his statement to acknowledge that it is actually the grace of God working through him (cf. 2 Cor. 10:17). If in our text, the apostle likewise boasts that he has worked harder than the “false apostles” (cf. 11:13), does that imply a connection between the Jerusalem apostles and the false apostles in Corinth? As we have seen, it is possible that the outsiders who infiltrated the Corinthian church regard themselves as having been sent by the Jerusalem church (cf. 3:1; see also on “false brothers” in v. 26b). However, there is an important difference between the two passages: Whereas in 1 Corinthians 15:10 Paul means the comparison between himself and the Jerusalem apostles positively, because he and they agree together on the essence of the gospel (cf. 1 Cor. 15:1–11), in 2 Corinthians 11:23b Paul can mean the comparison with the false apostles in Corinth only ironically, since the latter oppose Paul and proclaim a different gospel (cf. 11:4). For Paul, the “apostolic” labors of the false apostles cannot be seriously compared to his own genuinely apostolic labors. Here we have a good illustration of the doubly ridiculous nature of Paul’s boasts in the “Fool’s Speech.”
Paul’s second boast is that he has been in prison more frequently (lit., “with far more imprisonments”; cf. also 6:4–5). The book of Acts records only one imprisonment of Paul, in Philippi, before his arrest in Jerusalem (cf. Acts 16:23–30). It is possible, however, that he was incarcerated also in Ephesus. According to 1 Clement 5:6 Paul was in prison a total of seven times; however, this number may not preserve a reliable tradition, since along with “imprisonment,” two other persecutions (banishment and stoning) are listed as having occurred seven times. Paul often had company while in prison; hence, he sometimes refers to his coworkers as “fellow-prisoners” (cf. Rom. 16:7; Col. 4:10; Phlm. 23). In the present context, however, the apostle mentions only his own imprisonments because of the apologetic situation.
Finally, Paul boasts that he has been flogged more severely (lit., “with more abundant floggings”) and exposed to death again and again (lit., “with frequent deaths”). These tribulations are taken up in the following verses by the references to the “forty lashes minus one” (v. 24), to being beaten with rods (v. 25), and to stoning (v. 25). Previously (1:8–10), Paul has recounted a near-death experience he had in Asia.
11:24–26a Having listed the various ways in which he is more a servant of Christ than his opponents, Paul begins simply to enumerate his tribulations without directly comparing himself to the opponents. The first two tribulations in this list are corporal punishments, which elaborate on the flogging mentioned in verse 23b. The forty lashes minus one refers to a form of corporal punishment administered in the synagogue (cf. Deut. 25:1–3; S. Gallas) and possibly practiced by Paul himself on believers (Acts 22:19) before his conversion. Whenever he entered a new city, Paul used the synagogue as a basis for evangelism (cf. Acts 9:20; 13:5, 14; 14:1; 17:1–2, 10, 17; 18:4, 19, 26; 19:8), since his gospel was “to the Jew first” (Rom. 1:16; cf. 1 Cor. 9:20). The fact that the apostle received a synagogal punishment not only tends to corroborate the testimony of Acts at this point, but also shows that he was taken seriously as a Jew who operated within the parameters of Judaism, as an erring member rather than as an outsider or an apostate. Hence, in a backhanded way, the “forty lashes minus one” further underscores Paul’s claim to being an Israelite in verse 22. But what was it about Paul and his apostolic ministry to the nations that caused Jews in various localities to punish him by flogging? Perhaps Paul’s own connection of persecution with the requirement of circumcision provides at least a partial answer (cf. E. P. Sanders).
With the words beaten with rods (v. 25) Paul indicates that he also received corporal punishment at the hands of the Romans. According to Acts 16:22–23 the Roman magistrates in Philippi ordered Paul and Silas to be beaten with rods before throwing them into prison. Since this form of punishment was usually reserved for slaves and provincials, it has often been argued that Paul was not a Roman citizen as Acts reports (22:25). Even in Acts, however, Paul was beaten and scourged by the Romans unless he made his Roman citizenship known to the authorities in time (cf. Acts 16:37; 22:25–29). Furthermore, Roman officials sometimes ignored strict legality in their treatment of citizens. For example, before the outbreak of the Jewish War in A.D. 66 the procurator Gessius Florus had two Jews who were Roman citizens publicly flogged and crucified (cf. Josephus, War 2.308).
Paul mentions that he was stoned (or, more unequivocally, with the NRSV, “received a stoning”) once. Stoning is the most common form of execution in the Bible, being used in the case of apostasy (Lev. 20:2; Deut. 13:10–11; 17:2–7), blasphemy (Lev. 24:14, 16, 23; 1 Kgs. 21:10), sorcery (Lev. 20:27), Sabbath violation (Num. 15:35–36), misappropriation of devoted things (Josh. 7:25), a disobedient son (Deut. 21:21), and adultery of a bride (Deut. 22:21, 24). Interestingly enough, Korah’s rebellion incited the crowd to stone Moses (Josephus, Ant. 4.22), as they had almost done on other occasions (cf. Exod. 17:4; Num. 14:10). According to Acts 14:19, Jews from Antioch and Iconium came to Lystra and persuaded the people to stone Paul. Although Paul was left for dead outside the city, he miraculously walked away from the ordeal.
Three times Paul had been shipwrecked. This cannot refer to the shipwreck he experienced on the way to Rome (Acts 27:13–44), which came at a later time, but rather to earlier experiences not mentioned in the book of Acts.
11:26b Next Paul lists the various situations in which he has been in danger (lit., “in dangers”). From this description it seems that, at one time or another, Paul has been in danger from almost every group (bandits, countrymen, Gentiles, false brothers) and in almost every place (rivers, city, country, sea). The apostle has frequently suffered persecution at the hands of his own countrymen (genos; lit., “race, nation”), i.e., his own people Israel. Yet in verse 22 Paul boasts that he is a Hebrew and an Israelite (v. 22). It is ironic, therefore, that the very nation of which Paul boasts is also the source of grave danger for him. The book of Acts contains many examples of Paul’s persecution at the hands of his own people. In 1 Thessalonians 2:14–16, Paul puts the Jewish persecution of himself in salvation-historical perspective: Drawing a line from the OT prophets, through Jesus, to himself, Paul shows, in effect, that his countrymen have always resisted those whom God has sent.
It is also ironic that Paul cites danger from false brothers as part of the evidence that he is more a servant of Christ than the “false apostles,” especially if, as is likely, both sets of opponents probably stem from the Jerusalem church and represent similar perspectives. In Galatians 2:4 Paul refers to “false brothers” who spied out the freedom that he and Titus had in Christ, so that they might enslave them. In 2 Corinthians 11:26b, the term false brothers may even include the aforementioned “false apostles” who tried to “enslave” the Corinthians (v. 20). In that case, Paul would be implying that he is more of a servant of Christ than his opponents in Corinth because he has been in danger by those very opponents. The seemingly ridiculous nature of such a proposition would not be out of character with the irony of the “Fool’s Speech.”
11:27 More tribulations follow, this time without the word “dangers.” These tribulations both reinforce the ones Paul has already listed (e.g., apostolic “labors” in v. 23b) and underscore the general impression of great suffering over an extended period of time. In particular, Paul may be detailing the kind of deprivations he experienced even in Corinth because he refused support from the Corinthians (see on 11:7–9).
11:28–29 In addition to the tribulations that come upon the apostle from the outside (vv. 23b–27) Paul mentions here personal suffering that arises from his care and empathetic concern for the churches. The Corinthian correspondence itself is an eloquent testimony to Paul’s pastoral care and concern for the churches. We may recall, for example, how much Paul fretted about the Corinthians and their reaction to his tearful letter before he heard back from Titus (cf. 2 Cor. 2:12–13; 7:5–7). In Paul’s own words, “We were harassed at every turn—conflicts on the outside, fears within” (7:5). Paul is evidently still quite concerned about the situation in Corinth, particularly as some members have been led into sin by the intruders.
11:30–33 Paul concludes the tribulation catalogue with a statement emphasizing his stance on boasting (v. 30), an oath formula (v. 31), and a concrete illustration of the persecution he endures (vv. 31–33).
11:30 The apostle emphasizes his stance on boasting carefully phrasing the sentence as conditional. He would rather not boast, since any kind of boasting, other than boasting in the Lord (cf. 10:17), is foolishness (cf. 11:1, 16–17). But if the apologetic situation in Corinth requires it (lit., “If it is necessary to boast”), then he will boast in such as way as to reveal his weakness. The long catalogue of Paul’s adversities in 11:23b–29 is meant to illustrate this weakness. As we shall see, Paul is setting his readers up for a surprising insight into the relationship between suffering, weakness, and Paul’s apostleship (see on 12:1–10).
11:31 Paul invokes God as a witness to the veracity of his claim that he boasts only in his weakness. This is not the first time in the present letter that he invokes God as witness (cf. 1:18, 23; 11:10). The polemical situation in Corinth requires Paul to assert his claim in an elaborate oath formula (cf. 1:17).
11:32–33 The generalized tribulation catalogue in 11:23b–29 illustrates the “weakness” of which Paul prefers to boast in verse 31. Likewise, in verses 32–33 Paul provides a concrete illustration of those tribulations (“dangers from nations,” “dangers in the city,” v. 26) in his dramatic escape from the clutches of “King Aretas.” The emphatic position of in Damascus at the very beginning of the sentence suggests that the location of the incident is of some importance to Paul. We can deduce from Galatians 1:17 that Paul was in Damascus twice—once at or near his call to apostleship (cf. Acts 9; 22; 26:12–23), and once on his return from Arabia. It is reasonable to assume that the episode recounted here took place on one of these visits, since there is no indication that Paul was operating in this area in later years. Although this incident might seem to provide a fixed point in Pauline chronology, especially since it is linked with the reign of Aretas IV, king of Nabatea from ca. 9 B.C. to A.D. 40, there are still many uncertainties in the historical reconstruction (cf. R. Riesner), including the thorny question of whether, and if so when, the Nabateans controlled Damascus during the late 30s A.D. (cf. G. W. Bowersock).
Here Paul recounts the escape from Damascus in order to illustrate the weakness and apostolic tribulations to which he has referred in the previous context. Perhaps the Corinthians would recall the apostle’s ignoble retreat from Corinth during his second, painful visit to the congregation. The staunch opposition to his gospel, no less than by his own people and by fellow believers in Christ, may have seemed to undermine his apostolic credibility.
Paul’s escape from Damascus was effected by lowering him in a basket from a window in the wall—the antithesis of the assault on a city described in 10:4. Similar language is used in the story of the Israelite spies whom Rahab lowered down the wall of Jericho (Josh. 2:15). In fact, the same verb ([kata]chalan) is used for lower in Joshua 2:15 LXX; Acts 9:25; and 2 Corinthians 11:33. Like the spies, Paul slipped through the enemies’ hands. Here we see again that Paul relates his own experiences to OT events.
12:1–10 Up to this point in the “Fool’s Speech” Paul boasts that, as a servant of Christ, he is superior to his opponents (the so-called super-apostles) mostly in terms of his far greater sufferings (11:21b–33). In 12:1–10 the apostle goes on to boast of his surpassing revelatory experience. In contrast to the disgraceful descent from the wall in Damascus (11:33), Paul here recounts a glorious ascent into heaven (cf. T. Jos. 1:4 for a similar contrast between descent as humiliation and ascent as exaltation). Although Paul realizes that such boasting is futile, he nevertheless engages in it, succumbing temporarily to the pressure from his opponents (v. 1). Yet, having very briefly and discretely mentioned an example of this revelatory experience (vv. 2–4), Paul immediately returns to boasting about his weaknesses (v. 5), explaining that a thorn in the flesh was given to him (passivum divinum) to keep him from being too elated or conceited because of the abundance (or surpassing character) of the revelations (v. 7). In other words, the formal cause of Paul’s weakness is none other than his extraordinary revelatory experience! With this tour de force, Paul is able to boast about his visions, at the same time explaining why he is so weak. All the while, he is boasting in the Lord (cf. 10:17), the fount of both his revelatory experience (12:1) and his strength in weakness (vv. 9–10).
We may surmise that the opponents deny Paul’s revelatory experience (Paul is a fraud [see on 5:16]) and/or depreciate it in view of their own experience (they have independent access to revelation). As we suggested above in 5, the opponents’ attack may well have concentrated on Paul’s miserable body, arguing that a merkabah mystic would have been transformed in the process of the encounter with the divine. In the present text, Paul turns this argument around by making his miserable body actually become a proof of his superior revelatory experience!
12:1 Paul makes the transition to his new topic of boasting with a disclaimer. Even though he fundamentally doubts the efficacy of such activity, Paul is being compelled to boast in order to counter the boasting of his opponents (cf. 11:22). In view of this “counter-boasting,” we may assume that the opponents also claim to have visions and revelations. It is uncertain whether Paul intends a distinction between “visions” and “revelations.” Perhaps he merely amplifies in order to impress his readers with the quantity of his revelatory experiences (compare the hyperbolic language in v. 7). If, as we argued, 2:14 refers to Paul’s encounter with the divine throne-chariot and the revelation that derives from that experience, it is interesting to note that God “always” leads the apostle in triumph in Christ, perhaps indicating the frequent occurrence of these audiences with God. In any case, what Paul sees in visions is integrally connected with the revelations he mediates. More importantly, we may ask whether these visions are from the Lord (so the NIV) or “of the Lord” (objective genitive), for the genitive kyriou can legitimately be translated either way. The latter is more probable, since elsewhere Paul bases his apostolic commission on his having actually seen the risen Lord (1 Cor. 9:1; 15:8). That being the case, the opponents’ claim to similar visions and revelations threatened to undermine Paul’s apostolic authority unless he could point out a decisive difference between his own experience and that of his opponents.
12:2–4 After announcing his topic as that of “visions and revelations of the Lord” (v. 1), Paul goes on in verses 2–4 briefly to mention a concrete example of his heavenly experience. He recounts the experience twice, in slightly different terms. The purpose for recounting this event is not to describe the revelation itself (indeed, little of its actual content is mentioned) but to intimate the extraordinary quality of Paul’s revelatory experience.
12:2 Paul portrays his heavenly experience as a datable, historical event. If Paul’s point is to provide an example of his own “visions and revelations of the Lord” in order to counter his opponents’ similar claims, then it seems strange that he would recount his experience in the third person, as if he were reporting about an acquaintance (I know a man). But by verses 5–7a at the latest the reader realizes that verses 2–4 refer to Paul’s own experience, for the apostle boasts in the experience. The reason for this use of the third person remains unclear, although many explanations have been offered. It is perhaps worth pointing out that Jesus, whom Paul otherwise seeks to imitate (cf. 1 Cor. 11:1; 2 Cor. 1:5; 4:10; see below on 12:8), referred to himself in the third person as the “Son of Man” (cf. Mark 2:10, 28; 8:31, 38, etc.). In any case, Paul’s evasiveness in 12:2–4 is not to be explained as shyness or humility; the apostle is being modestly decorous with his addressees when he says that he knows a man in Christ (cf. the similarly sensitive situation in 7:12), for, after the extensive discussion in 2:14–3:18, there can be little doubt that Paul regards his role as revelatory mediator (on par with, and even superior to, Moses) as being foundational to his whole apostolic ministry. Elsewhere in the Corinthian correspondence Paul adamantly claims that his apostleship is based on his vision(s) of Christ: “Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?” (1 Cor. 9:1; cf. 15:1–8; Gal. 1:12, 16). Although his original christophany on the way to Damascus remains the pivotal encounter with the resurrected Christ, other revelations and visions should not be discounted (cf. Acts 16:9; 18:9; 22:17–18; 23:11; 27:23). The vision that Paul describes in 2 Corinthians 12:2–4 (and others like it) is crucial to Paul’s claim to apostolic authority, which he is defending in chapters 10–13.
Paul describes himself as a man in Christ (en Christō). Assuming the unity of the letter as it stands, in Christ recalls 2 Corinthians 2:14, 17, the only other place in the letter in which the apostle uses the phrase in Christ in reference to his own personal experience. In 2:14, where Paul describes his ongoing apostolic experience as one of God leading him in triumphal procession in Christ, he alludes, as we have seen, to the divine throne-chariot on which Christ is seated at the right hand of God. In 2:17 Paul has in mind the same merkabah experience when he refers to speaking before God in Christ (the same expression occurs in 12:19, which underscores that there is a relationship between 12:1ff. and 2:14–17). As we shall see, our passage is also otherwise linked with 2:14–4:6, where Paul argues that he is a revelatory mediator on par with Moses.
Even without the allusion to 2 Corinthians 2:14, 17, our passage has long been suspected of referring to Paul’s encounter with the divine throne-chariot (cf. G. Scholem), for the text recounts that Paul was caught up to the third heaven. The verb harpazein is used here as elsewhere in the sense of being taken up and carried away at another’s initiative. In regard to whether the experience was in the body or out of the body, the very fact that Paul’s affliction in this connection was physical (v. 7) may indicate the former. In several apocalypses the verb harpazein refers to heavenly ascent (cf. Gk. Apoc. Ezra 1:7; 5:7; Apoc. Mos. 37:3–5; 1 Thess. 4:17). The description of Paul’s being “caught up” to the third heaven (2 Cor. 12:2–4) and his being “led in triumphal procession” (2:14) may be mutually interpretive.
Paul reports that he was caught up to the third heaven. Although Jewish and Christian apocalypses often presuppose a cosmology of seven heavens (cf. A. Y. Collins), some texts do speak of three heavens, the third of which is the highest, the dwelling place of God himself (cf. 1 En. 14:8–25; T. Levi 3:4). Since Paul goes on to characterize his revelatory experience as exceptional (v. 7), he probably has in mind an ascent to the highest of three heavens, for otherwise his opponents could claim to have penetrated a higher heaven. The preposition used here (to, heōs) may also indicate that the apostle had reached the uppermost limit. The equation of the third heaven with “paradise” (v. 4) confirms this view.
12:3–4 Paul repeats the same account here in slightly different terms. Instead of stating, as in verse 2, that the man was caught up to the “third heaven,” Paul substitutes paradise. According to 2 Enoch 8:1–3 (cf. Apoc. Mos. 37:5; 40:1), Enoch was taken “up to the third heaven, and … looked downward, and … saw Paradise.… And in the midst … the tree of life, at that place where the Lord takes a rest when he goes into paradise” (OTP). The reference to paradise in our text has led many scholars to compare the account of the “Four Who Entered Pardes” (a Persian word meaning a walled garden, but also connected with the garden of Eden as the eschatological paradise in Jewish literature), which is found both in the Talmud and in the Hekhalot literature (cf. C. R. A. Morray-Jones). Of these four, only R. Aqiba was deemed worthy of beholding God’s glory behind the curtain (Schäfer, 346).
In our passage, we are struck by the fact that Paul’s description of his heavenly experience is so cryptic. He describes nothing of the vision itself and barely mentions the audition, if indeed a sharp distinction between prophetic visions and auditions can be maintained (cf. Amos 1:1 LXX: “The words [logoi] of Amos … which he saw [eiden] about Jerusalem”; also Mic. 1:1; Hab. 1:1). Part of the explanation for this vagueness can be found in verse 4, where the apostle states that he has heard ineffable things (inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell). Paul does not usually disclose the content of his visions and revelations. This corresponds to the general reluctance in Jewish mystical and apocalyptic literature to describe certain aspects of the heavenly journey. According to Hekhalot Zutarti, the merkabah mystic is to keep quiet about the mysteries he contemplates (Schäfer, 335). In rabbinic Judaism, all study and discussion of the divine throne-chariot in public was prohibited, unless the person was a scholar who understood of his own knowledge (m. Ḥag. 2:1). Those who ignored these injunctions did so at their own peril. The story is told, for example, of a certain Galilean who announced that he would publicly lecture on the merkabah, but who was stung by a wasp and died (b. Šabb. 80b). Of course, Paul’s revelatory experience is not completely ineffable; otherwise, he could not present himself as a revelatory mediator on par with Moses. Even in the present context, the apostle divulges the content of a personal revelation to him by the risen Lord (cf. v. 9), a revelation perhaps directly connected with Paul’s heavenly ascent (vv. 2–4).
12:5–6 In the following verses Paul at first continues the third person and only gradually reveals that the heavenly journey recounted in verses 2–4 is his own. Paul’s point here is simply this: Although he would be fully justified in boasting about his extraordinary revelatory experience, he refrains from doing so in favor of boasting in his physical weaknesses. If Paul’s weakness was one of the primary criteria the opponents were using to undermine his apostolic authority in Corinth, particularly with respect to Paul’s alleged revelatory experience, then it would seem foolhardy for him to give his opponents additional ammunition against him. Yet this is precisely Paul’s tactic in the so-called Fool’s Speech. (Paul’s strategy was never any different in Corinth [cf. 1 Cor. 2:3–4].) It is clear from 2 Corinthians 12:1–10 that Paul does not disparage the revelations as such; they are a reason for boasting (cf. vv. 5a, 6a) and elation (v. 7b, e). Nevertheless, he deftly chooses instead to stress the formal cause of his weaknesses as a means of indirectly reveling in his visions and heavenly journeys.
He refrains from boasting about ineffable revelatory experiences that the Corinthians could not see or hear for themselves. He relies instead on the outward manifestation of those experiences in what I do or say. In his first canonical letter to the Corinthians Paul reminded the church of how his manner among them “in weakness and in fear and in much trembling” served to emphasize that the persuasiveness of his message was not based on the latest wisdom of this world or rhetorical flair, but “in a demonstration of the Spirit and power” (1 Cor. 2:3–4). Paul had been sent to proclaim “Christ crucified” (1:23) and to live a correspondingly “cruciform apostolic” existence (2:1–4; 4:8–13), in order that their faith might not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God (2:5), for to those being saved, the suffering of Christ and the suffering of his apostle were not a stumbling block or foolishness, but the vehicle through which the very power and wisdom of God were being displayed and revealed in the world (cf. 1:23–24 compared to 2:4–5). Clearly, therefore, Paul had not changed his approach; the Corinthians had changed theirs.
12:7–10 In this section Paul makes a startling admission, one that would have been potentially damaging to him in the hands of his opponents. The apostle admits that God himself is ultimately responsible for his physical weakness! Just as God was responsible for his heavenly ascent (note the divine passives in vv. 2 and 4), so also God was responsible for his receiving a “thorn in the flesh” (note the divine passive in v. 7); however, the real crux of Paul’s admission consists in the reason for which he was given this physical malady, that is, to keep him from becoming conceited. If a glorious outer appearance is missing in Paul, it can be explained by his superlative inner experiences, which might normally make him proud. By this argument, Paul can justify his obvious physical weakness and yet underscore his apostolic authority.
12:7 In order to make his dramatic point, Paul refers back to his thesis in verse 1, that he has had a plurality of revelations. The phrase at the beginning of this verse (lit., “and/ also because of the extraordinary character of the revelations”) does not go well with the end of verse 6, and it does not fit the grammar of verse 7, unless one deletes the inferential conjunction dio (“therefore”), as some manuscripts do. Yet there is no apparent reason why a scribe would have added the conjunction, whereas there is a good grammatical reason why a scribe would have omitted it. The NIV has seen fit to connect the clause in question to verse 7, to ignore the inferential conjunction, and to translate the sentence as if it began with the immediately following subordinate conjunction hina (“in order that”). This maneuver yields a tolerably coherent translation that may approximate what was originally meant. Unfortunately, the NIV fails to represent the fact that the Greek text twice repeats the purpose clause (“in order that I might not become conceited”), once at the beginning of the sentence and once at the end. The repetition obviously serves to emphasize the purpose of the thorn in the flesh.
The apostle has had many revelations, of which the encounter described in verses 2–4 is merely one example. Paul uses hyperbole (surpassingly great) to express the extraordinary quantity and quality of the revelations he has experienced. This is the same kind of exaggeration as he used in the tribulation catalogue in 11:23b (and throughout 2 Corinthians, for that matter). The inherent danger in such an amazing revelatory experience is that one could become boastful and proud. Paul admits to becoming conceited because of the revelations he had received. He seems to warn the Colossians against this kind of pride in Colossians 2:18. Humility was to be one of the characteristics of the merkabah mystic (cf. Schäfer, 621, 683; but see 225, where the merkabah mystic is addressed as “son of the proud”). Warnings against self-exaltation with regard to visionary experience are common in the Hekhalot literature (cf. Morray-Jones). Perhaps Paul’s tendency to be conceited because of his merkabah experience can be compared to that of the Teacher of Righteousness in the Qumran community, who boasted of his ascent to heaven (cf. 4Q427 f7.1.8–17; 4Q471 f6.4; 4Q491 f 11.1.14, 18).
To keep Paul from becoming conceited because of his revelatory experience, a thorn in my flesh was given to him (i.e., by God). In other words, the formal cause of Paul’s weakness, which the opponents so vehemently decry, is none other than his extraordinary apostolic revelations! By this subtle and ingenious maneuver, Paul deconstructs his opponents’ most effective argument against his apostleship. In effect, Paul makes suffering and weakness—even the extreme sort that he constantly endures (cf. 11:23bff.)—a sign of genuine, and even exceptional, apostleship since the more often that an apostle ascends to the divine throne of glory, the more his pride will need to be held in check by earthly suffering.
It is difficult to ascertain whether the thorn (skolops) refers to a persecutor (cf. Num. 33:55; Ezek. 28:24) or to a physical ailment (cf. Ps. 32:4[LXX 31:4]). If the following clause (“a messenger of Satan to torment me”) is meant to be an appositional modifier of “thorn,” then the former interpretation is possible. On the other hand, the latter interpretation cannot be dismissed, especially if Paul is alluding to Psalm 32:4: “For day and night your [sc. the Lord’s] hand was heavy upon me; I was tormented with bodily suffering while a thorn (akanthan) was stuck in me.” Psalm 32, a thanksgiving for healing and forgiveness after confession of sin, concludes with an exhortation to boast: “And boast, all you who are upright in heart” (v. 11). The “thorn in the flesh” (not represented in the MT) is a metaphor for the psalmist’s unspecified physical ailment. The parallel to 2 Corinthians 12:7 is obvious (cf. Gal. 4:12–20), for our passage also makes a connection between the thorn in the flesh and boasting in weakness (cf. 2 Cor. 12:9). The fact that Paul knew this psalm is shown by the citation of Psalm 32:1–2 in Romans 4:7–8 (“Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man [anēr] against whom the Lord will not reckon sin”). If our passage alludes to this psalm, then it may imply that Paul received divine forgiveness for his conceit.
The text goes on to state that, in connection with this thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan (angelos Satana) was sent to torment Paul. Seeing that the thorn is connected to Paul’s revelatory experience (and particularly his encounter with the merkabah), we should think of an “angel of Satan” rather than of a human messenger. We may recall the role of Satan in the physical affliction of Job, which was sanctioned by God himself in the heavenly court (cf. Job 1:6–12; 2:1–8; also Zech. 3:1).
It is also possible that the satanic messenger tormented Paul during his heavenly ascent to the merkabah. Some texts speak of angelic opposition during the journey to reach the throne of God (J. Maier), especially to those travelers considered unworthy or impure (Schäfer, 1, 213–215, 224–228, 258–259, 407–410; also 346, 673). If such a situation can be inferred from the text, then the satanic opposition is susceptible of two interpretations. On the one hand, the satanic opposition to the apostle could be construed by the interlopers in Corinth as evidence that Paul was not worthy of ascending to the highest heaven. On the other hand, it could also be used to demonstrate that Paul is not on the side of Satan (cf. Mark 3:20–27, where Jesus uses a similar argument against the accusation of demon possession).
12:8–9a Not only did God allow Paul to be given the physical affliction through the angel of Satan, but when Paul petitioned the Lord for relief, he was refused. In the Hekhalot literature, prayer is frequently used in order to overcome or avert danger to the merkabah mystic, especially to make certain that the ministering angels do not destroy the traveler (cf. Schäfer, 1, 558, 586). The number three times helps to relate Paul’s prayers in the midst of chronic suffering to the previous tribulation catalogue, which likewise indicates the number of times some ordeals occurred (cf. 11:24–25). According to Psalm 55:17, the psalmist utters his complaint and moans three times a day—evening, morning, and noon—and the Lord hears his voice. Paul pleaded with the Lord “about this” (the phrase is omitted by the NIV), that is, about the aforementioned thorn in the flesh. If Lord refers here to Jesus Christ (cf. v. 9b), then we have evidence that the apostle practiced prayer to the resurrected Lord (cf. 1 Thess. 3:12–13; 1 Cor. 1:2; 16:22; Acts 7:59). Furthermore, it is interesting to note that Jesus is reported to have pled with God three times that his “cup” be taken from him (cf. Mark 14:32–41 par.). In Romans 8:15, 17, Paul seems to allude to the Gethsemane experience when he cites Jesus’ Aramaic address to God as “Abba” in the context of suffering with Christ (cf. Mark 14:36).
In verse 9a Paul gives the answer of the resurrected Lord to his threefold request. Although the apostle’s repeated request is not directly denied, a negative answer is strongly implied by the words, “my grace is sufficient for you.” The verb be sufficient (arkein) recalls what Paul has already said in 2 Corinthians 2:16 and especially 3:4–6, namely, that his “sufficiency is from God.” In other words, just as Paul’s sufficiency for being the revelatory mediator is God (who has made him sufficient [3:6]), so also Paul’s sufficiency for coping with the thorn in the flesh (which God gave him) is also God (12:9). Hence, whether in strength or weakness, Paul’s sufficiency and boast are the Lord. As Paul states in Philippians 4:13, he can do all things (even live in adverse circ*mstances!) through the Lord who gives him strength. God’s/Christ’s grace (charis) made Paul an apostle in the first place, causes his ministry to flourish, and sustains him in the process (cf. Gal. 1:15; 2:9; 1 Cor. 3:10; 15:10; Rom. 1:5; 12:3; 15:15).
The risen Lord goes on to state the reason his grace is sufficient for Paul in his physical distress: Christ’s power is made perfect in Paul’s weakness. The contrast of terms is striking. Ultimately, the quality and character of the revelatory mediator is inconsequential, a lesson that is abundantly reinforced by the example of the OT prophets (cf., e.g., 1 Kgs. 18:4–18). Moses is the prime example of divine power being made perfect in weakness of the human revelatory mediator (cf., e.g., Exod. 3:1–15:21).
Citing a personal revelation from the risen Lord suits Paul’s apologetic purpose in context, for just as he mentions his thorn in the flesh in order to explain his weakness while reveling in his extraordinary revelatory experience (2 Cor. 12:7), so also here Paul cites this word from the risen Lord in order to do the same thing. Hence, in contrast to the opponents’ position, there is practically no stigma attached to Paul’s weakness. To the contrary, Christ’s power is made perfect in the apostle’s weakness (cf. 4:7).
12:9b–10 If Christ’s power is made perfect in Paul’s weakness (and thus indirectly attests to Paul’s revelatory experience and his apostolic authority), then the apostle’s positive response to the revelation of the Lord seems quite logical: he will boast in his weaknesses. This idea of strength in weakness must seem counterintuitive, especially to the opponents, who “take pride in what is seen” (2 Cor. 5:12). However, Paul now realizes that everything that he once regarded as a cause for boasting is nothing in comparison with knowing Christ and sharing in his sufferings, so that he may participate in Christ’s resurrection (cf. Phil. 3:5–11).
Paul boasts in his weakness so that (hina) Christ’s power might rest on him. The verb actually denotes “take up one’s abode, dwell” and may well recall that the presence of God dwelled in the tabernacle and the temple (cf. Exod. 25:8; Ezek. 37:27; 2 Cor. 6:16). If so, the verb ties our passage back to 2 Corinthians 5:1, where Paul refers to his mortal body as “our earthly house of the tent,” alluding to the tabernacle in 1 Chronicles 9:23 LXX. Even during his earthly pilgrimage in the body, the apostle is conscious of the presence of God in his life through the Spirit. He was also conscious that the same power of the resurrected Christ would one day transform his mortal body.
Because Paul is the dwelling-place of the power of Christ, he takes delight in his weaknesses (v. 10a). Rather than continue his prayer for relief from the thorn in the flesh (cf. v. 8), Paul has now come to accept his infirmity and even to delight in it for Christ’s sake. This sounds almost masoch*stic, as if Paul likes to be abused. Certainly it opens the door to later Christian ideas of asceticism and martyrdom. Yet the apostle has come to his understanding of suffering after realizing that the power of Christ manifests itself most fully and obviously when he is at his weakest. Paradoxically, when I am weak, then am I strong. His light and momentary troubles are achieving for him an eternal glory that far outweighs them all (4:17).
Paul’s weaknesses are explicated in verse 10b by a short tribulation catalogue that resembles similar catalogues in 4:8–12; 6:4–10; and especially 11:23–29. This shows that, in discussing his revelatory experience in 12:1–10, Paul has not really left his theme in 11:23, namely, that he is more a servant of Christ than his opponents because of his greater sufferings. Yet it has become apparent that boasting in weakness and suffering is not so foolish as it might seem at first, for the extremity of his weaknesses only reflects the magnitude of his extraordinary revelatory experience, which is the very foundation of his apostolic authority. Furthermore, his boasting in his weakness is ultimately consonant with his principle of boasting only in the Lord, who gave him both his apostolic prerogative and his weakness (cf. 10:17).
Additional Notes
11:1 Cf. E. J. Schnabel, “Wisdom,” DPL, pp. 967–73.
11:2 On jealousy in Paul, see David Rhoads, “Zealots,” ABD, vol. 6, pp. 1043–54.
11:3 Cf. D. G. Reid, “Satan, Devil,” DPL, pp. 862–67.
11:4 Cf. Fee, “Another Gospel Which You Did Not Embrace,’” pp. 111–33, arguing that the opponents’ different gospel is a triumphalistic message rather than the true Pauline gospel of Christ crucified.
11:5–11 On the identity of the super-apostles in 11:5 and 12:11, see Victor Paul Furnish, 2 Corinthians (AB 32A; New York: Doubleday, 1985), pp. 502–5.
11:8–9 Note that in 6:9 Paul describes himself as “poor” and as “having nothing” (cf. v. 27; 1 Cor. 4:11–12).
11:10 Most churches today would be more than happy to accept free service from a minister. Why, then, would the Corinthians be so annoyed by Paul’s refusal to accept their offers of financial assistance (2 Cor. 11:10; 1 Cor. 9:15)? The answer(s) to this question may be found in the Corinthians’ cultural context. Most considered manual labor degrading and unseemly for a philosopher (cf. R. F. Hock, The Social Context of Paul’s Ministry: Tentmaking and Apostleship [Philadelphia: Fortress, 1980]). To make matters worse, Paul hints that his earnings hardly sufficed and that he was in need (2 Cor. 11:9; cf. Phil. 4:12; 1 Cor. 4:10–12). His poverty would hardly persuade others of the power of his gospel. A second irritant stems from Paul’s acceptance of aid from the much poorer Macedonians (2 Cor. 11:9; cf. 8:2). This must have struck the Corinthians as a sign of Paul’s inconsistency and as demeaning to them (2 Cor. 11:8–9a). The congregation’s status was involved. In Roman societal structure, refusal of a benefaction was tantamount to a refusal of friendship and would have been construed as an act of social enmity (cf. Peter Marshall, Enmity at Corinth: Social Conventions in Paul’s Relations with the Corinthians [WUNT 2/23; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1987]).
11:13 Cf. C. K. Barrett, “PSEUDAPOSTOLOI (2 Cor. 11:13),” in Essays on Paul (London: SPCK, 1982), pp. 87–107.
Martha Himmelfarb argues that the transformation that takes place during heavenly ascent corresponds to priestly investiture (Ascent to Heaven in Jewish and Christian Apocalypses [New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993]).
11:14–15 On Satan, see further on 2:11. In b.B. Bat. 16a Satan is called “the angel of death.” On Satan’s many disguises, see T.Job 6:4; 17:2; 23:1; b. Qidd. 81ab; b. Sanh. 95a, 107a.
Paul’s use of the term “minister” of himself (cf. 2 Cor. 3:6; 6:4; 11:23) may have been prompted by the opponents’ own self-understanding, for Paul elsewhere prefers the prophetic title “slave of Christ” (Rom. 1:1; Gal. 1:10).
If we would doubt that Paul could refer to “apostles” with letters of recommendation from the Jerusalem authorities as “servants [of Satan],” we need recall only Paul’s severe condemnation of Peter in Antioch (cf. Gal. 2:11–14, with the anathema of Gal. 1:8–9).
11:21b–33 For a structural diagram of this passage, see Martin, 2 Corinthians, p. 370.
11:22 In Hellenistic-Jewish literature, the term “Hebrew” occurs much less commonly than its synonyms Israēl and Ioudaios. It is used primarily in two senses: (1) as a term for the language and script (cf. Acts 6:1) and (2) as an archaic name and lofty expression for the Hebrew nation (cf. 2 Macc. 7:31), particularly with respect to ancestral lineage (cf. Ezekiel the Tragedian, Exagoge 7, 12, 35, 43, 107). In the OT, the people were known as Hebrews long before the exodus from Egypt. According to Acts 21:40–22:3 Paul spoke the language(s) of Palestine, even though he was a Diaspora Jew from Tarsus. In the present context, however, the term seems to have less to do with language than with Paul’s nationality, although these two aspects are, of course, closely related (cf. Gen. 10:5, 20, 31). Cf. Niels Peter Lemche, “Hebrew,” ABD, vol. 3, p. 95; K. G. Kuhn, “Israel,” TDNT, vol. 3, pp. 365–69, 372–75. A late inscription (possibly fourth-fifth century A.D.) attests to the existence of a “synagogue of the Hebrews” in Corinth.
11:23b–29 Cf. Scott B. Andrews, “Too Weak Not to Lead: The Form and Function of 2 Cor. 11:23b–33,” NTS 41 (1995), pp. 263–76.
Ben Witherington III argues that Paul’s boasts in his weakness are intended as a parody on the Res Gestae, the list of Augustus’s achievements as Roman emperor (Conflict and Community in Corinth: A Social-Rhetorical Commentary on 1 and 2 Corinthians [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995], pp. 450–52). More to the point, however, Paul seems to describe himself here as someone who is in exile from his own country (and from his heavenly home [cf. 2 Cor. 5:6]) and who expresses his sufferings and endurance in that situation (cf., e.g., Ovid, Tristia 3–5; Epistulae ex Ponto). We may compare the teaching of Diogenes (ca. 400–325 B.C.), founder of the Cynic sect, who came to Corinth during the Isthmian games (cf. Dio Chrysostom, Discourses 8–9, esp. 8.13, 16; 9.12–13). In a list of other persecutions that Paul had to endure (i.e., imprisonment and stoning), 1 Clem. 5:6 explicitly refers to the apostle as one who has been “exiled” (phygadeutheis) from his own country.
It is worth noting that, according to Josephus, Moses boasted that he devoted himself to tribulations on behalf of the people (Ant. 4.42).
When Paul refers to having been flogged, we may also consider that the Romans used flogging as a form of interrogation (cf. Acts 22:24).
11:24 Cf. A. E. Harvey, “Forty Strokes Save One: Social Aspects of Judaizing and Apostasy,” in Alternative Approaches to New Testament Study (ed. A. E. Harvey; London: SPCK, 1985), pp. 79–96.
On Jewish disciplinary methods and attitudes in the Greco-Roman period, see Torrey Seland, Establishment Violence in Philo and Luke: A Study of Non-Conformity to the Torah and Jewish Vigilante Reactions (Leiden: Brill, 1995). On rabbinic loanwords for whipping, see Daniel Sperber, A Dictionary of Greek and Latin Legal Terms in Rabbinic Literature (Bar-Ilan University Institute for Lexicography: Dictionaries of Talmud, Midrash and Targum 1; Ramat-Gan: Bar-Ilan University Press, 1984), pp. 23–24, 181–82.
Cf. E. P. Sanders, “Paul on the Law, His Opponents, and the Jewish People in Philippians 3 and 2 Corinthians 11,” in Anti-Judaism in Early Christianity, Vol. 1: Paul and the Gospels (ed. Peter Richardson; Studies in Christianity and Judaism 2; Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1986), pp. 75–90 (here pp. 85–87).
11:25On the Roman citizenship of Paul, see Hengel, Pre-Christian Paul, pp. 6–15. Hengel argues that Paul deliberately allowed such beatings in order to participate in the sufferings of Christ.
Stoning was not an exclusively Jewish form of execution (cf. Acts 14:5). As a spontaneous expression of rage by a mob, stoning was a very widespread form of lynch justice. The pre-Roman Corinthians are said to have practiced stoning (cf. Pausanias 2.3.6; see also Plutarch, Philopoemen 21.5).
11:26b On Paul’s persecution at the hands of Jews, see Ernst Baasland, “Persecution: A Neglected Feature in the Letter to the Galatians,” ST 38 (1984), pp. 135–50; Colin G. Kruse, “Afflictions, Trials, Hardships,” DPL, pp. 18–20. On 1 Thess. 2:14–16, see James M. Scott, “Paul’s Use of Deuteronomic Tradition,” pp. 645–65 (esp. pp. 651–57).
In the context of the mention of Israel as a “nation” (genos), the term ethnē (translated Gentiles in the NIV) should be rendered “nations.” This prepares the way for the account of the incident under King Aretas in 11:30–33 (see further below). Paul thinks primarily in terms of nations (cf. Scott, Paul and the Nations.)
11:29 The NIV translates the verb pyroumai as I inwardly burn. On the other hand, the verb can be understood figuratively as signifying “be inflamed with grief.” Cf. William Horbury and David Noy, Jewish Inscriptions of Graeco-Roman Egypt (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), pp. 64–69 (esp. p. 67). Note the other references to grief and sorrow in the letter (cf. 2 Cor. 2:1–5, 7; 6:10; 7:8–11).
11:32–33 Cf. Rainer Riesner, Die Frühzeit des Paulus. Studien zur Chronologie, Missionsstrategie und Theologie (WUNT 71; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1994), pp. 29, 66–79; Justin Taylor, “The Ethnarch of King Aretas at Damascus: A Note on 2 Cor. 11, 32–33,” RB 99 (1992), pp. 719–28.
The story of Paul’s escape from Damascus is told in somewhat different terms in Acts 9:23–25. Cf. Mark Harding, “On the Historicity of Acts: Comparing Acts 9.23–5 with 2 Corinthians 11:32–3,” NTS 39 (1993), pp. 518–38.
Cf. Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, “Paul in Arabia,” CBQ 55 (1993), pp. 732–37.
Escaping through a city wall is a symbol of exile (cf. Ezek. 12:4–5, 7, 12). As we have seen, Paul portrays himself as an exile in this context (see on 11:23b–29).
If the reference to being lowered in a basket from a window in the wall is meant to contrast with the assault on a city described in 10:4 (citing Prov. 21:22), then the purpose for this contrast may be twofold: (1) to emphasize Paul’s weakness in contrast to the wise, and (2) to prepare the description of the ascent to the third heaven in 12:2–4. According to our interpretation, both 10:4 and 12:2–4 relate to Paul’s merkabah experience.
12:1–10 When Paul implies that his opponents’ boasting forces him to boast about his own superior revelatory experience, he may have in view Korah’s rebellion, which attempted to eliminate the mediators of divine revelation by usurping the authority of Moses and Aaron (Num. 16:3; cf. Exod. 19:6; 29:45; Deut. 7:6; 14:2; 26:19; 28:9). After all, as a “holy nation,” the people had received a direct divine revelation at Sinai, without mediators (Exod. 19:1–20:21). If Korah and his followers can claim that Moses and Aaron are superfluous as mediators, how much more can Paul’s opponents claim in the new covenant situation that there is no need for mediators (cf. Jer. 31:34)?
12:1 When Paul speaks here of visions and revelations in the plural, we are reminded that in merkabah mysticism the ascent to heaven was made during the lifetime of the mystic (i.e., not just after death!) and could be repeated numerous times. Moses’ revelatory experience provides the prototype of repeated entrance into the presence of God. According to the book of Acts, Paul received a number of visions (cf. Acts 9:12; 16:9–10; 18:9–10; 22:17–21; 23:11; 27:23–24).
The genitive “of Christ” (from the Lord in the NIV) may be objective. In that case, just as merkabah mystics saw God enthroned at the climax of their heavenly ascents, so also Paul may have seen Christ enthroned.
12:2–4 For the interpretation of 2 Cor. 12:2–4 that is developed here see further my essay, “The Triumph of God in 2 Cor. 2:14: Another Example of merkabah Mysticism in Paul,” NTS 42 (1996), pp. 260–81. We may compare Paul’s heavenly ascent to that of Philo (cf. Peder Borgen, “Heavenly Ascent in Philo: An Examination of Selected Passages,” in The Pseudepigrapha and Early Biblical Interpretation [ed. James H. Charlesworth and Craig A. Evans; JSPSup 14; Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1993], pp. 246–68).
12:2 Of course, Jesus’ self-designation as the “Son of Man” is a huge problem in itself.
The Coptic Apocalypse of Paul from Nag Hammadi (NHC v, 2), whose Greek original may stem from the second century A.D., provides a gnostic interpretation of 2 Cor. 12:2–4 in which Paul is made to allude to Ps. 68:18. Cf. Douglas M. Parrott, “The Apocalypse of Paul (V, 2),” in The Nag Hammadi Library in English (3d ed.; San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988), pp. 256–59 (here p. 259). This clear allusion to Ps. 68:18 provides evidence that Paul’s ascent to heaven in 2 Cor. 12:2–4 was interpreted in light of Ps. 68:18 from an early period, even though the Pauline tradition may have undergone significant modification in the gnostic text. Hence, we see that 2 Cor. 2:14 and 12:2–4 are linked by their common basis not only in merkabah mysticism generally but also in the Ps. 68:18 tradition particularly.
Unfortunately, many interpreters have misunderstood Paul’s rhetoric here to mean that he places no importance on his revelatory experience. Cf., e.g., Furnish, 2 Corinthians, p. 544.
The dating of Paul’s vision to a time fourteen years ago is difficult to ascertain, for much depends on when 2 Corinthians itself (or at least this section of the extant letter) is dated. Furthermore, to which experience does the apostle refer? There is no necessary connection between our text and the “fourteen years” reported in Gal. 2:1. In view of these uncertainties, Riesner uses 2 Cor. 12:2–4 for the relative chronology only after the date of 2 Corinthians (A.D. 55/56) has been established on other grounds (Die Frühzeit des Apostels Paulus, pp. 242, 285). The suggestion that 2 Cor. 12:1–4 refers to Paul’s conversion experience seems improbable, for if Paul’s conversion took place about A.D. 33, and the heavenly experience recounted here took place fourteen years before the writing 2 Corinthians (assuming the unity of the letter), then the experience occurred about A.D. 42. With so many assumptions and uncertainties, however, this reconstruction must remain conjectural. Indeed, any reconstruction is bound to beg the question at some point.
Prophetic oracles are frequently dated. For example, Isaiah’s encounter with the throne of God in the temple is dated to “the year that King Uzziah died” (Isa. 6:1). Perhaps the number fourteen has some traditional significance. We may note, for example, that Ezekiel’s vision of the restored temple and land (Ezek. 40–48) took place “in the fourteenth year after the city [sc. Jerusalem] was struck down” (40:1). The text goes on to state that “on that very day, the hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me there.” Jewish tradition has it that the Israelites spend seven years in conquering the land and seven years in dividing it among the twelve tribes (Seder ʿolam Rabbah 11; b.Qidd. 37a, b; b. Zebaḥ. 118b; Gen. Rab. 35:3; 98:15; cf. Josephus, Ant. 5.68). Furthermore, Jacob spent fourteen years secluded in the land and studying under Eber (b. Meg. 16b, 17a; Gen. Rab. 68:5, 11; Exod. Rab. 2:6).
Cf. Gershom Scholem, “The Four Who Entered Paradise and Paul’s Ascension to Paradise,” in Jewish Gnosticism, Merkabah Mysticism, and Talmudic Tradition (2d ed.; New York: Jewish Theological Seminary, 1965), pp. 14–19. On the connection of 2 Cor. 12:2–4 to Jewish mysticism see also Alan F. Segal, “Paul and the Beginning of Jewish Mysticism,” in Death, Ecstasy, and Other Worldly Journeys (ed. John J. Collins and Michael Fishbane; Albany, N.Y.: SUNY Press, 1995), pp. 95–122 (esp. pp. 108–9).
On the verb caught up (harpazein), see Martha Himmelfarb, “The Practice of Ascent in the Ancient Mediterranean World,” in Death, Ecstasy, and Other Worldly Journeys, pp. 123–37 (esp. pp. 128–33), who argues that “the dominant understanding of ascent in ancient Jewish and Christian literature is of a process initiated not by the visionary but by God” (p. 133). As John J. Collins observes, prophetic visions of the divine throne typically serve two functions: they establish the credentials of the visionary, thereby legitimating him as an intermediary between heaven and earth, and they provide revealed information (The Scepter and the Star: The Messiahs of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Other Ancient Literature [ABRL; New York: Doubleday, 1995], p. 140).
The connection between 2 Cor. 12:1–10 and 2:14–3:18 is further substantiated, if, as several scholars have suggested, the Lord’s answer to Paul’s request in 2 Cor. 12:9 reflects a midrash on Deut. 3:26, where God responds to Moses’ request to enter the land (cf., e.g., Markus N. A. Bockmuehl, Revelation and Mystery in Ancient Judaism and Pauline Christianity [WUNT 2/36; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1990], p. 143; Furnish, 2 Corinthians, p. 530; but see Ulrich Heckel, Kraft in Schwachheit [WUNT 2/56; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1993], p. 89), for 2 Cor. 2:14–3:18 Compares Paul and Moses in several ways. Moreover, Paul argues in 2 Cor. 2:16b that the reason for his sufficiency is really the same as that of Moses (cf. 12:9).
On the concept of the third heaven, see Adela Yarbro Collins, “The Seven Heavens in Jewish and Christian Apocalypses,” in Death, Ecstasy, and Other Worldly Journeys, pp. 59–93 (esp. pp. 66–68).
In the body or out of the body could reflect the ambivalence that some merkabah mystics felt as to whether their experience was physical or mental, for example, Merkabah Rabbah (Schäfer, 680) states: “Rabbi said: When my heart heard this great secret, the world above me was transformed to clearness, and my heart was as if I had come into a new world. Day after day, it seemed to my soul as if I stood before the Throne of Glory.” See also 1 En. 14:8: “And behold I saw the clouds: And they were calling me in a vision; … and in the vision, the winds were causing me to fly and rushing me high up into heaven” (OTP). Most of the descriptions, however, seem to portray the heavenly journey in concrete, physical terms. In our text, the fact that Paul received a thorn in the flesh (2 Cor. 12:7) may indicate that his heavenly journey was in the body, if he received this affliction during the journey. Perhaps the apostle uses the uncertainty about his revelatory experience as a way of partially explaining why his body was not transformed by the ascents, for an out-of-body experience may not have been expected to produce physical change in the visionary. In that case, we may ask what difference, if any, Paul may have thought there was between believers’ revelatory experience (cf. 3:18) and his own experience.
12:3–4 On paradise, see Sandra R. Shimoff, “Gardens: From Eden to Jerusalem,” JSJ 26 (1995), pp. 145–55; J. H. Charlesworth, “Paradise,” ABD, vol. 5, pp. 154–55.
Cf. C. R. A. Morray-Jones, “Paradise Revisited (2 Cor. 12:1–12): The Jewish Mystical Background of Paul’s Apostolate, Part 1: The Jewish Sources,” HTR 86 (1993), pp. 177–217; idem, “Paradise Revisited (2 Cor. 12:1–12): The Jewish Mystical Background of Paul’s Apostolate, Part 2: Paul’s Heavenly Ascent and its Significance,” HTR 86 (1993), pp. 265–92. For a rebuttal of this position, see now Alon Goshen-Gottstein, “Four Entered Paradise Revisited,” HTR 88 (1995), pp. 69–133. For an answer to the objections of Goshen-Gottstein see James Davila, “The Hodayot Hymnist and the Four who Entered Paradise,” RevQ 17 (1996) 457–77.
On the reluctance of Jewish mystics to recount certain aspects of their heavenly journeys, see Morray-Jones, “The Jewish Mystical Background of Paul’s Apostolate, Part 2,” pp. 271–72, 281, 283; Alan F. Segal, Paul the Convert: The Apostolate and Apostasy of Saul the Pharisee (New Haven: Yale, 1990), p. 58; Bockmuehl, Revelation and Mystery, p. 175. Cf. Dan. 12:4; Apoc. Zeph. 5:6; 4 Ezra 14:4–6, 44–46. Perhaps one of the things that man is not permitted to tell is the name of YHWH himself, as often in Hekhalot literature (cf., e.g., Schäfer, 670, 961; also Philo, On the Embassy to Gaius 353). Obviously, the merkabah mystic was not prohibited from telling everything that was revealed to him; otherwise, he could never be a mediator of revelation. See also Jean-Pierre Ruiz, “Hearing and Seeing but Not Saying: A Look at Revelation 10:4 and 2 Corinthians 12:4,” Society of Biblical Literature 1994 Seminar Papers (ed. Eugene H. Lovering Jr.; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1994), pp. 182–202.
12:7 I am indebted to my colleague, Martin G. Abegg, for the parallel to the boasts of the Teacher of Righteousness. On the Hekhalot warnings against self-exaltation, see Morray-Jones, “The Jewish Mystical Background of Paul’s Apostolate, Part 2,” pp. 271–72. In Hekhalot Rabbati (Schäfer, 272), God is extolled as one who humbles the proud and exalts the humble.
Galen, the second-century medical writer, uses the expression thorn in the flesh several times in combination with participles (Desimplicium medicamentorum temperamentis ac facultatibus libri xi 696; In Hippocratis aphorismos commentarii vii 17b.630; also Photius Bibl. 175b). These examples show that Paul uses the dative sarki in a locative sense, and that his elliptical expression skolops tē sarki means “a thorn (stuck) in the flesh.” It is no use trying to specify what the precise nature of Paul’s physical ailment might have been, whether epilepsy, depression, headaches, malaria, leprosy, a speech impediment, or some other. Our text is as unspecific about the ailment as the psalm that evidently lies behind it (Ps. 32:4). We have already noted Paul’s use of psalmic form and context in 2 Cor. 1:3–11 and 4:13. Moreover, 2 Cor. 6:9 (“as disciplined and yet not put to death”) is widely acknowledged as an allusion to Ps. 117:18 LXX (“with discipline the Lord disciplined me and yet did not give me over to death”). This shows that Paul did indeed seem himself as under divine discipline at points.
Sometimes Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” is interpreted in light of Gal. 4:15 as an eye disease. Cf. T. J. Leary, “‘A Thorn in the Flesh’—2 Corinthians 12:7,” JTS 43 (1992), pp. 520–22. As with our passage, however, Paul’s statements in Gal. 4:12–20 can be interpreted as referring either to an illness or to persecution. Cf. A. J. Goddard and S. A. Cummins, “Ill or Ill-Treated? Conflict and Persecution as the Context of Paul’s Original Ministry in Galatia,” JSNT 52 (1993), pp. 93–126.
12:8 Cf. Michael D. Swartz, Mystical Prayer in Ancient Judaism: An Analysis of Ma’aseh Merkavah (TSAJ 28; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1992), who shows that in Ma’aseh Merkabah, a central text of Jewish merkabah mysticism, prayers are seen as the instruments by which the visionary ascends, experiences the vision of the merkabah and the heavenly realm, and protects himself from the terrifying dangers of that vision (pp. 5, 69, 128, 137, 141).
When Paul refers to the Lord here, he probably means the Lord Jesus Christ, for v. 9 interprets “the power” (NIV: my power) to mean “Christ’s power.”
It is interesting to note that Moses also made an entreaty to the Lord that was firmly denied (Deut. 3:23–26).
12:9 On the connection between power and weakness, see Timothy B. Savage, Power Through Weakness: Paul’s Understanding of the Christian Ministry in 2 Corinthians (SNTSMS 86; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995).
The stative verb arkein (be sufficient) falls within the same semantic field as hikanos (“sufficient”), hikanotēs (“sufficiency”), and hikanoun (“make sufficient”) in 2 Cor. 2:16; 3:5, 6, and the two are often used synonymously (cf. Exod. 12:4, LXX; Plutarch, Phocion 30.1; Strabo, Geography 2.4.8). Hence, instead of hikanon estin in Luke 22:38, Codex Bezae has arkei.
If the “Lord” in v. 8 and the he in v. 9 refer to the Lord Jesus Christ, then this verse constitutes the earliest record of the words of Jesus in the NT, since Paul’s letters constitute the oldest literature in the NT.
Understanding the Bible Commentary Series by James M. Scott, Baker Publishing Group, 2016
Direct Matches
The founder of what became known as the movement of Jesus followers or Christianity. For Christian believers, Jesus Christ embodies the personal and supernatural intervention of God in human history.
Birth and childhood. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke record Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem during the reign of Herod the Great (Matt. 2:1; Luke 2:4, 11). Jesus was probably born between 6 and 4 BC, shortly before Herod’s death (Matt. 2:19). Both Matthew and Luke record the miracle of a virginal conception made possible by the Holy Spirit (Matt. 1:18; Luke 1:35). Luke mentions a census under the Syrian governor Quirinius that was responsible for Jesus’ birth taking place in Bethlehem (2:15). Both the census and the governorship at the time of the birth of Jesus have been questioned by scholars. Unfortunately, there is not enough extrabiblical evidence to either confirm or disprove these events, so their veracity must be determined on the basis of one’s view regarding the general reliability of the Gospel tradition.
On the eighth day after his birth, Jesus was circumcised, in keeping with the Jewish law, at which time he officially was named “Jesus” (Luke 2:21). He spent his growing years in Nazareth, in the home of his parents, Joseph and Mary (2:40). Of the NT Gospels, the Gospel of Luke contains the only brief portrayal of Jesus’ growth in strength, wisdom, and favor with God and people (2:40, 52). Luke also contains the only account of Jesus as a young boy (2:41–49).
Baptism, temptation, and start of ministry. After Jesus was baptized by the prophet John the Baptist (Luke 3:21–22), God affirmed his pleasure with him by referring to him as his Son, whom he loved (Matt. 3:17; Mark 1:11; Luke 3:22). Jesus’ baptism did not launch him into fame and instant ministry success; instead, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where he was tempted for forty days (Matt. 4:1–11; Mark 1:12–13; Luke 4:1–13). Mark stresses that the temptations immediately followed the baptism. Matthew and Luke identify three specific temptations by the devil, though their order for the last two is reversed. Both Matthew and Luke agree that Jesus was tempted to turn stones into bread, expect divine intervention after jumping off the temple portico, and receive all the world’s kingdoms for worshiping the devil. Jesus resisted all temptation, quoting Scripture in response.
Matthew and Mark record that Jesus began his ministry in Capernaum in Galilee, after the arrest of John the Baptist (Matt. 4:12–13; Mark 1:14). Luke says that Jesus started his ministry at about thirty years of age (3:23). This may be meant to indicate full maturity or perhaps correlate this age with the onset of the service of the Levites in the temple (cf. Num. 4:3). John narrates the beginning of Jesus’ ministry by focusing on the calling of the disciples and the sign performed at a wedding at Cana (1:35–2:11).
Galilean ministry. The early stages of Jesus’ ministry centered in and around Galilee. Jesus presented the good news and proclaimed that the kingdom of God was near. Matthew focuses on the fulfillment of prophecy (Matt. 4:13–17). Luke records Jesus’ first teaching in his hometown, Nazareth, as paradigmatic (Luke 4:16–30); the text that Jesus quoted, Isa. 61:1–2, set the stage for his calling to serve and revealed a trajectory of rejection and suffering.
All the Gospels record Jesus’ gathering of disciples early in his Galilean ministry (Matt. 4:18–22; Mark 1:16–20; Luke 5:1–11; John 1:35–51). The formal call and commissioning of the Twelve who would become Jesus’ closest followers is recorded in different parts of the Gospels (Matt. 10:1–4; Mark 3:13–19; Luke 6:12–16). A key event in the early ministry is the Sermon on the Mount/Plain (Matt. 5:1–7:29; Luke 6:20–49). John focuses on Jesus’ signs and miracles, in particular in the early parts of his ministry, whereas the Synoptics focus on healings and exorcisms.
During Jesus’ Galilean ministry, onlookers struggled with his identity. However, evil spirits knew him to be of supreme authority (Mark 3:11). Jesus was criticized by outsiders and by his own family (3:21). The scribes from Jerusalem identified him as a partner of Beelzebul (3:22). Amid these situations of social conflict, Jesus told parables that couched his ministry in the context of a growing kingdom of God. This kingdom would miraculously spring from humble beginnings (4:1–32).
The Synoptics present Jesus’ early Galilean ministry as successful. No challenge or ministry need superseded Jesus’ authority or ability: he calmed a storm (Mark 4:35–39), exorcized many demons (5:1–13), raised the dead (5:35–42), fed five thousand (6:30–44), and walked on water (6:48–49).
In the later part of his ministry in Galilee, Jesus often withdrew and traveled to the north and the east. The Gospel narratives are not written with a focus on chronology. However, only brief returns to Galilee appear to have taken place prior to Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem. As people followed Jesus, faith was praised and fear resolved. Jerusalem’s religious leaders traveled to Galilee, where they leveled accusations and charged Jesus’ disciples with lacking ritual purity (Mark 7:1–5). Jesus shamed the Pharisees by pointing out their dishonorable treatment of parents (7:11–13). The Pharisees challenged his legitimacy by demanding a sign (8:11). Jesus refused them signs but agreed with Peter, who confessed, “You are the Messiah” (8:29). Jesus did provide the disciples a sign: his transfiguration (9:2–8).
Jesus withdrew from Galilee to Tyre and Sidon, where a Syrophoenician woman requested healing for her daughter. Jesus replied, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel” (Matt. 15:24). Galileans had long resented the Syrian provincial leadership partiality that allotted governmental funds in ways that made the Jews receive mere “crumbs.” Consequently, when the woman replied, “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table,” Jesus applauded her faith (Matt. 15:27–28). Healing a deaf-mute man in the Decapolis provided another example of Jesus’ ministry in Gentile territory (Mark 7:31–37). Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Christ took place during Jesus’ travel to Caesarea Philippi, a well-known Gentile territory. The city was the ancient center of worship of the Hellenistic god Pan.
Judean ministry. Luke records a geographic turning point in Jesus’ ministry as he resolutely set out for Jerusalem, a direction that eventually led to his death (Luke 9:51). Luke divides the journey to Jerusalem into three phases (9:51–13:21; 13:22–17:10; 17:11–19:27). The opening verses of phase one emphasize a prophetic element of the journey. Jesus viewed his ministry in Jerusalem as his mission, and the demands on discipleship intensified as Jesus approached Jerusalem (Matt. 20:17–19, 26–28; Mark 10:38–39, 43–45; Luke 14:25–35). Luke presents the second phase of the journey toward Jerusalem with a focus on conversations regarding salvation and judgment (Luke 13:22–30). In the third and final phase of the journey, the advent of the kingdom and the final judgment are the main themes (17:20–37; 19:11–27).
Social conflicts with religious leaders increased throughout Jesus’ ministry. These conflicts led to lively challenge-riposte interactions concerning the Pharisaic schools of Shammai and Hillel (Matt. 19:1–12; Mark 10:1–12). Likewise, socioeconomic feathers were ruffled as Jesus welcomed young children, who had little value in society (Matt. 19:13–15; Mark 10:13–16; Luke 18:15–17).
Passion week, death, and resurrection. Each of the Gospels records Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem with the crowds extending him a royal welcome (Matt. 21:4–9; Mark 11:7–10; Luke 19:35–38; John 12:12–15). Luke describes Jesus’ ministry in Jerusalem as a time during which Jesus taught in the temple as Israel’s Messiah (19:45–21:38).
In Jerusalem, Jesus cleansed the temple of profiteering (Mark 11:15–17). Mark describes the religious leaders as fearing Jesus because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching, and so they “began looking for a way to kill him” (11:18). Dismayed, each segment of Jerusalem’s temple leadership inquired about Jesus’ authority (11:27–33). Jesus replied with cunning questions (12:16, 35–36), stories (12:1–12), denunciation (12:38–44), and a prediction of Jerusalem’s own destruction (13:1–31). One of Jesus’ own disciples, Judas Iscariot, provided the temple leaders the opportunity for Jesus’ arrest (14:10–11).
At the Last Supper, Jesus instituted a new Passover, defining a new covenant grounded in his sufferings (Matt. 26:17–18, 26–29; Mark 14:16–25; Luke 22:14–20). He again warned the disciples of his betrayal and arrest (Matt. 26:21–25, 31; Mark 14:27–31; Luke 22:21–23; John 13:21–30), and later he prayed for the disciples (John 17:1–26) and prayed in agony and submissiveness in the garden of Gethsemane (Matt. 26:36–42; Mark 14:32–42; Luke 22:39–42). His arrest, trial, crucifixion, death, and resurrection followed (Matt. 26:46–28:15; Mark 14:43–16:8; Luke 22:47–24:9; John 18:1–20:18). Jesus finally commissioned his disciples to continue his mission by making disciples of all the nations (Matt. 28:18–20; Acts 1:8) and ascended to heaven with the promise that he will one day return (Luke 24:50–53; Acts 1:9–11).
Generally speaking, in Scripture the word “fool” is used to describe someone in a morally deprived state. It does not, as in contemporary American usage, refer to a person’s lack of intellectual ability or to one whose actions convey those of a buffoon. Terms for “fool” appear all through Scripture, but wisdom literature contains the highest concentration. Proverbs uses over half a dozen words to describe the fool. All of them indicate some kind of moral breach and fall on a scale from the most morally hardened to the naive.
Obstinacy, recalcitrance, and closed-mindedness characterize the morally dense fool. Such individuals have no use for advice from others because they are “wise in their own eyes” (Prov. 3:7; cf. 12:15; 16:2). Fools frequently scoff at correction and rebuke (9:78, 12; 13:1; 14:6; 15:12; 19:25; 20:1; 21:11, 24; 22:10; 24:9). They manifest arrogance (21:24). Fools do not learn from their own mistakes or those of others but instead often repeat them (26:11). One of the main problems is that fools “lack sense,” which ultimately implies that they lack character (see 6:32; 7:7; 9:4, 16; 10:13, 21; 11:12; 12:11; 15:21; 17:18; 24:30). Such a person consistently makes poor decisions and loses the appetite and passion necessary for acquiring wisdom.
According to the book of Proverbs, three qualities make up the essential nature of the fool. First, the fool is unwilling to learn by means of discipline (3:11–12; 17:10), or formal instruction (17:16), or a word of advice (12:15), or personal experience (26:11). Second, the fool lacks self-control. Both the speech (15:2) and the behavior (14:16) of fools demonstrate a lack of restraint. They take the path of least resistance to easy money (1:8–19) and easy sex (7:6–27). Third, the fool is the one who rejects the fear of the Lord (1:7).
In the NT, the fool is the one who does not trust in God or in the power that God displays through the resurrection of Christ (Luke 24:25; Rom. 1:22; 1Cor. 15:36). Jesus makes references to the fool when he tells the stories of the wise and foolish builders (Matt. 7:24–27) and the wise and foolish maidens (Matt. 25:1–13). Paul uses the term “foolish” to rebuke the Galatians for their refusal to accept the gospel (Gal. 3:1). However, in his correspondence with the church in Corinth, Paul reverses the conventional understanding of folly and uses it as a rhetorical strategy to communicate his message. He speaks of the message of the cross as foolishness to the world (1Cor. 1:18). On another occasion, in order to argue against the arrogance of his opponents, Paul engages in “a little foolishness” (2Cor. 11:1) as he boasts about his ministry, which is riddled with failure (2Cor. 11–12).
The tangible presence of God, experienced as overwhelming power and splendor. The main Hebrew word referring to glory, kabod, has the root meaning “heavy” (1Sam. 4:18), which in other contexts can mean “intense” (Exod. 9:3; NIV: “terrible”), “wealthy” (i.e., “heavy in possessions” [Gen. 13:2]), and “high reputation” (Gen. 34:19; NIV: “most honored”). When used of God, it refers to his person and his works. God reveals his glory to Israel and to Egypt at the crossing of the sea (Exod. 14:4, 1719). He carefully reveals his glory to Moses after Israel’s sin with the golden calf in order to assure him that he will not abandon them (33:12–23).
In the NT the glory of God is made real in the person of Jesus Christ (John 1:14; Heb. 1:3). He is, after all, the very presence of God. When he returns on the clouds, he will fully reveal God’s glory (Matt. 24:30; Mark 13:26; Luke 21:27).
Grace is the nucleus, the critical core element, of the redemptive and sanctifying work of the triune God detailed throughout the entire canon of Scripture. The variegated expressions of grace are rooted in the person and work of God, so that his graciousness and favor effectively demonstrated in every aspect of the created realm glorify him as they are shared and enjoyed with one another.
The biblical terminology informing an understanding of grace defines it as a gift or a favorable reaction or disposition toward someone. Grace is generosity, thanks, and good will between humans and from God to humans. Divine expressions of grace are loving, merciful, and effective. The biblical texts provide a context for a more robust understanding of divine gift. The overall redemptive-historical context of grace is the desire of the eternal God to bring glory to himself through a grace-based relationship with his creation. The Creator-Redeemer gives grace, and the recipients of grace give him glory.
The present abode of God and the final dwelling place of the righteous. The ancient Jews distinguished three different heavens. The first heaven was the atmospheric heavens of the clouds and where the birds fly (Gen. 1:20). The second heaven was the celestial heavens of the sun, the moon, and the stars. The third heaven was the present home of God and the angels. Paul builds on this understanding of a third heaven in 2Cor. 12:24, where he describes himself as a man who “was caught up to the third heaven” or “paradise,” where he “heard inexpressible things.” This idea of multiple heavens also shows itself in how the Jews normally spoke of “heavens” in the plural (Gen. 1:1), while most other ancient cultures spoke of “heaven” in the singular.
Although God is present everywhere, God is also present in a special way in “heaven.” During Jesus’ earthly ministry, the Father is sometimes described as speaking in “a voice from heaven” (Matt. 3:17). Similarly, Jesus instructs us to address our prayers to “Our Father in heaven” (6:9). Even the specific request in the Lord’s Prayer that “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (6:10) reminds us that heaven is a place already under God’s full jurisdiction, where his will is presently being done completely and perfectly. Jesus also warns of the dangers of despising “one of these little ones,” because “their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven” (18:10). Jesus “came down from heaven” (John 6:51) for his earthly ministry, and after his death and resurrection, he ascended back “into heaven,” from where he “will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11).
Given this strong connection between heaven and God’s presence, there is a natural connection in Scripture between heaven and the ultimate hope of believers. Believers are promised a reward in heaven (“Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven” [Matt. 5:12]), and even now believers can “store up for [themselves] treasures in heaven” (6:20). Even in this present life, “our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil. 3:20), and our hope at death is to “depart and be with Christ, which is better by far” (1:23). Since Christ is currently in heaven, deceased believers are already present with Christ in heaven awaiting his return, when “God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him” (1Thess. 4:14).
In Gen. 3 the serpent entices humankind to sin. Not until Rev. 12:9 are we told explicitly that the serpent is Satan.
In the OT, “evil spirit” may be a heavenly being sent by God (1Sam. 16:1423; 18:10; 19:9; cf. 1Kings 22:22–23). The OT engages in extensive rebuke of the superstitions of the surrounding nations that included belief in demons (Deut. 32:17; Ps. 106:37; perhaps Isa. 13:21; cf. Rev. 18:2).
Jesus’ encounter with the devil in the wilderness recalls Adam and Eve’s encounter with the serpent in Eden. The setting, significantly, is now a wasteland. The second man to walk the earth with no sin claims the right to take back the dominion that Adam passed to the serpent. Jesus can have the whole world (without the cross) if only he will submit to the devil’s rule (Luke 4:5–7). Jesus rejects the offer. Later, he sees Satan’s fall from heaven to earth (Luke 10:18; cf. Rev. 12:5–12). Whereas once the devil had access to God’s courtroom, now his case is lost. His only recourse is murderous persecution. Between the ascension of the Son of Man (Acts 1:9) and the final judgment, this is understood to be the experience of Christ’s people (Dan. 7:25; Rev. 12:17; cf. 1Pet. 5:8).
Whereas the OT provides sparse information about Satan and his angels/demons, the NT opens with an intensity of activity. Demons are also called “evil spirits,” and they are associated with physical illness, madness, and fortune-telling. In Acts 17:22 Paul describes his pagan Athenian listeners as “demon-fearers” (NIV: “religious”). Jesus’ miracles demonstrate his lordship over Satan’s regime as the demons flee in terror before him (Mark 1:23–26; 5:1–15). According to Paul, Christians are temples of the Holy Spirit (1Cor. 6:19), and John urges believers to “test the spirits to see whether they are from God” (1John 4:1), assuring them that they need not fear Satan or his forces, “because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” (1John 4:4). On judgment day Satan will be cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:14–15) along with all of God’s enemies.
“Salvation” is the broadest term used to refer to God’s actions to solve the plight brought about by humankind’s sinful rebellion and its consequences. It is one of the central themes of the entire Bible, running from Genesis through Revelation.
In many places in the OT, salvation refers to being rescued from physical rather than spiritual trouble. Fearing the possibility of retribution from his brother Esau, Jacob prays, “Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau” (Gen. 32:11). The actions of Joseph in Egypt saved many from famine (45:57; 47:25; 50:20). Frequently in the psalms, individuals pray for salvation from enemies that threaten one’s safety or life (Pss. 17:14; 18:3; 70:1–3; 71:1–4; 91:1–3).
Related to this usage are places where the nation of Israel and/or its king were saved from enemies. The defining example of this is the exodus, whereby God delivered his people from their enslavement to the Egyptians, culminating in the destruction of Pharaoh and his army (Exod. 14:1–23). From that point forward in the history of Israel, God repeatedly saved Israel from its enemies, whether through a judge (e.g., Judg. 2:16; 3:9), a king (2Kings 14:27), or even a shepherd boy (1Sam. 17:1–58).
But these examples of national deliverance had a profound spiritual component as well. God did not save his people from physical danger as an end in itself; it was the necessary means for his plan to save them from their sins. The OT recognizes the need for salvation from sin (Pss. 39:8; 51:14; 120:2) but, as the NT makes evident, does not provide a final solution (Heb. 9:1–10:18). One of the clearest places that physical and spiritual salvation come together is Isa. 40–55, where Judah’s exile from the land and prophesied return are seen as the physical manifestation of the much more fundamental spiritual exile that resulted from sin. To address that far greater reality, God announces the day when the Suffering Servant would once and for all take away the sins of his people (Isa. 52:13–53:12).
As in the OT, the NT has places where salvation refers to being rescued from physical difficulty. Paul, for example, speaks of being saved from various physical dangers, including execution (2Cor. 1:8–10; Phil. 1:19; 2Tim. 4:17). In the midst of a fierce storm, Jesus’ disciples cry out, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!” (Matt. 8:25). But far more prominent are the places in the Gospels and Acts where physical healings are described with the verb sōzō, used to speak of salvation from sin. The healing of the woman with the hemorrhage (Mark 5:25–34), the blind man along the road (Luke 18:35–43), and even the man possessed by a demon (Luke 8:26–39), just to name a few, are described with the verb sōzō. The same verb, however, is also used to refer to Jesus forgiving someone’s sins (Luke 7:36–50) and to his mission to save the lost from their sins (Luke 19:10). Such overlap is a foretaste of the holistic salvation (physical and spiritual) that will be completed in the new heaven and earth (Rev. 21–22). The NT Epistles give extensive descriptions of how the work of Jesus Christ saves his people from their sins.
Direct Matches
Generally speaking, in Scripture the word “fool” is used to describe someone in a morally deprived state. It does not, as in contemporary American usage, refer to a person’s lack of intellectual ability or to one whose actions convey those of a buffoon. Terms for “fool” appear all through Scripture, but wisdom literature contains the highest concentration. Proverbs uses over half a dozen words to describe the fool. All of them indicate some kind of moral breach and fall on a scale from the most morally hardened to the naive.
Obstinacy, recalcitrance, and closed-mindedness characterize the morally dense fool. Such individuals have no use for advice from others because they are “wise in their own eyes” (Prov. 3:7; cf. 12:15; 16:2). Fools frequently scoff at correction and rebuke (9:7–8, 12; 13:1; 14:6; 15:12; 19:25; 20:1; 21:11, 24; 22:10; 24:9). They manifest arrogance (21:24). Fools do not learn from their own mistakes or those of others but instead often repeat them (26:11). One of the main problems is that fools “lack sense,” which ultimately implies that they lack character (see 6:32; 7:7; 9:4, 16; 10:13, 21; 11:12; 12:11; 15:21; 17:18; 24:30). Such a person consistently makes poor decisions and loses the appetite and passion necessary for acquiring wisdom.
According to the book of Proverbs, three qualities make up the essential nature of the fool. First, the fool is unwilling to learn by means of discipline (3:11–12; 17:10), or formal instruction (17:16), or a word of advice (12:15), or personal experience (26:11). Second, the fool lacks self-control. Both the speech (15:2) and the behavior (14:16) of fools demonstrate a lack of restraint. They take the path of least resistance to easy money (1:8–19) and easy sex (7:6–27). Third, the fool is the one who rejects the fear of the Lord (1:7).
All half a dozen terms used for “fool” indicate, to one degree or another, a moral breach. The one exception is peti, the word used to indicate the “simple” (e.g., Prov. 1:4; 19:25; 21:11). This word is at the other end of the moral spectrum from “fool” and refers to one who is young, vulnerable, and inexperienced. The simple are the gullible, impressionable persons. These individuals can be influenced for either good or ill, depending on whom they listen to. Both Woman Wisdom and Woman Folly make compelling calls to the simple (Prov. 9:6, 16). This simple youth will make moral mistakes along the way, but the peti has yet to harden into a full-fledged fool, one who is incorrigible and unteachable.
In the NT, the fool is the one who does not trust in God or in the power that God displays through the resurrection of Christ (Luke 24:25; Rom. 1:22; 1Cor. 15:36). Jesus makes references to the fool when he tells the stories of the wise and foolish builders (Matt. 7:24–27) and the wise and foolish maidens (Matt. 25:1–13). Paul uses the term “foolish” to rebuke the Galatians for their refusal to accept the gospel (Gal. 3:1). However, in his correspondence with the church in Corinth, Paul reverses the conventional understanding of folly and uses it as a rhetorical strategy to communicate his message. He speaks of the message of the cross as foolishness to the world (1Cor. 1:18). On another occasion, in order to argue against the arrogance of his opponents, Paul engages in “a little foolishness” (2Cor. 11:1) as he boasts about his ministry, which is riddled with failure (2Cor. 11–12).
Generally speaking, in Scripture the word “fool” is used to describe someone in a morally deprived state. It does not, as in contemporary American usage, refer to a person’s lack of intellectual ability or to one whose actions convey those of a buffoon. Terms for “fool” appear all through Scripture, but wisdom literature contains the highest concentration. Proverbs uses over half a dozen words to describe the fool. All of them indicate some kind of moral breach and fall on a scale from the most morally hardened to the naive.
Obstinacy, recalcitrance, and closed-mindedness characterize the morally dense fool. Such individuals have no use for advice from others because they are “wise in their own eyes” (Prov. 3:7; cf. 12:15; 16:2). Fools frequently scoff at correction and rebuke (9:7–8, 12; 13:1; 14:6; 15:12; 19:25; 20:1; 21:11, 24; 22:10; 24:9). They manifest arrogance (21:24). Fools do not learn from their own mistakes or those of others but instead often repeat them (26:11). One of the main problems is that fools “lack sense,” which ultimately implies that they lack character (see 6:32; 7:7; 9:4, 16; 10:13, 21; 11:12; 12:11; 15:21; 17:18; 24:30). Such a person consistently makes poor decisions and loses the appetite and passion necessary for acquiring wisdom.
According to the book of Proverbs, three qualities make up the essential nature of the fool. First, the fool is unwilling to learn by means of discipline (3:11–12; 17:10), or formal instruction (17:16), or a word of advice (12:15), or personal experience (26:11). Second, the fool lacks self-control. Both the speech (15:2) and the behavior (14:16) of fools demonstrate a lack of restraint. They take the path of least resistance to easy money (1:8–19) and easy sex (7:6–27). Third, the fool is the one who rejects the fear of the Lord (1:7).
All half a dozen terms used for “fool” indicate, to one degree or another, a moral breach. The one exception is peti, the word used to indicate the “simple” (e.g., Prov. 1:4; 19:25; 21:11). This word is at the other end of the moral spectrum from “fool” and refers to one who is young, vulnerable, and inexperienced. The simple are the gullible, impressionable persons. These individuals can be influenced for either good or ill, depending on whom they listen to. Both Woman Wisdom and Woman Folly make compelling calls to the simple (Prov. 9:6, 16). This simple youth will make moral mistakes along the way, but the peti has yet to harden into a full-fledged fool, one who is incorrigible and unteachable.
In the NT, the fool is the one who does not trust in God or in the power that God displays through the resurrection of Christ (Luke 24:25; Rom. 1:22; 1Cor. 15:36). Jesus makes references to the fool when he tells the stories of the wise and foolish builders (Matt. 7:24–27) and the wise and foolish maidens (Matt. 25:1–13). Paul uses the term “foolish” to rebuke the Galatians for their refusal to accept the gospel (Gal. 3:1). However, in his correspondence with the church in Corinth, Paul reverses the conventional understanding of folly and uses it as a rhetorical strategy to communicate his message. He speaks of the message of the cross as foolishness to the world (1Cor. 1:18). On another occasion, in order to argue against the arrogance of his opponents, Paul engages in “a little foolishness” (2Cor. 11:1) as he boasts about his ministry, which is riddled with failure (2Cor. 11–12).
The present abode of God and the final dwelling place of the righteous. The ancient Jews distinguished three different heavens. The first heaven was the atmospheric heavens of the clouds and where the birds fly (Gen. 1:20). The second heaven was the celestial heavens of the sun, the moon, and the stars. The third heaven was the present home of God and the angels. Paul builds on this understanding of a third heaven in 2Cor. 12:2–4, where he describes himself as a man who “was caught up to the third heaven” or “paradise,” where he “heard inexpressible things.” This idea of multiple heavens also shows itself in how the Jews normally spoke of “heavens” in the plural (Gen. 1:1), while most other ancient cultures spoke of “heaven” in the singular.
The Abode of God
One of the challenges in understanding “heaven” as the present dwelling place of God involves God’s omnipresence. In one sense, God is present everywhere. David asks in Ps. 139:7, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?” He answers that regardless of whether he goes as high up as anyone can go (“up to the heavens”), as low down as anyone can go (“in the depths), as far east as anyone can go (“the wings of the dawn”), or as far west as anyone can go (“the far side of the sea”), God is still there (Ps. 139:8–9).
Although God is present everywhere, God is also present in a special way in “heaven.” During Jesus’ earthly ministry, the Father is sometimes described as speaking in “a voice from heaven” (Matt. 3:17). Similarly, Jesus instructs us to address our prayers to “Our Father in heaven” (6:9). Even the specific request in the Lord’s Prayer that “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (6:10) reminds us that heaven is a place already under God’s full jurisdiction, where his will is presently being done completely and perfectly. Jesus also warns of the dangers of despising “one of these little ones,” because “their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven” (18:10). Jesus “came down from heaven” (John 6:51) for his earthly ministry, and after his death and resurrection, he ascended back “into heaven,” from where he “will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11).
At times, “heaven” becomes virtually a synonym for God himself. In the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15, the son confesses to his father, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you” (v.21). This son’s sin against “heaven” has nothing to do with environmental issues such as air pollution, and everything to do with his relationship with God. Note also Matthew’s expression “the kingdom of heaven” versus “the kingdom of God” used elsewhere.
The Final Dwelling Place for Believers
Given this strong connection between heaven and God’s presence, there is a natural connection in Scripture between heaven and the ultimate hope of believers. Believers are promised a reward in heaven (“Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven” [Matt. 5:12]), and even now believers can “store up for [themselves] treasures in heaven” (6:20). Even in this present life, “our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil. 3:20), and our hope at death is to “depart and be with Christ, which is better by far” (1:23). Since Christ is currently in heaven, deceased believers are already present with Christ in heaven awaiting his return, when “God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him” (1Thess. 4:14).
However, this picture of heaven is more complicated. It is true that heaven is sometimes used in Scripture to refer to the present abode of all departed believers who have left this present life and entered the intermediate state between death and the bodily resurrection (2Cor. 5:4). It is this hope in a bodily resurrection that sets Christianity apart from other religions. Ultimately, the Christian hope is not that people will receive new physical bodies and float around some ethereal “heaven” like astronauts in outer space for all eternity. Instead, God has created human beings with physical bodies to inhabit a physical world, and our future hope is one of new resurrection bodies inhabiting new heavens and a new earth (Isa. 65:17; 66:22; 2Pet. 3:13). Just as there will be a certain continuity between the bodies of believers in this present life and their new resurrection bodies (we will know one another), there will also be a certain continuity between this present earth and the new earth to come. Yet, at the same time, everything will also be changed and made new and perfect, as God has designed it to be (Rom. 8:18–21).
The clearest description of this new reality is found in Rev. 21–22, where John describes how he “saw ‘a new heaven and a new earth,’ for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away” (21:1). Here is “the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband” (21:2), when “God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (21:3–4). Even better than all the descriptions of such things as streets of “gold, as pure as transparent glass” (21:21) is that God himself will come and dwell in the midst of his people. As Paul has phrased it, “Now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face” (1Cor. 13:12). The day will come when we will see God as he is, in all his glory (1John3:2).
Two other ideas complete our picture of life in these new heavens and new earth. Heaven will be a place of continued activity and service. Notice Jesus’ blessing in Matt. 25:21: “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things.” The other principle is that there will be different degrees of reward. Although our ultimate reward is simply being with God himself, Paul also reminds us that if what believers do with their lives “survives, the builder will receive a reward,” and if what they do “is burned up, the builder will suffer loss” (1Cor. 3:14–15 NRSV). Our choices make a difference for time and eternity (cf. Rev. 14:13). See also Heavens, New.
The present abode of God and the final dwelling place of the righteous. The ancient Jews distinguished three different heavens. The first heaven was the atmospheric heavens of the clouds and where the birds fly (Gen. 1:20). The second heaven was the celestial heavens of the sun, the moon, and the stars. The third heaven was the present home of God and the angels. Paul builds on this understanding of a third heaven in 2Cor. 12:2–4, where he describes himself as a man who “was caught up to the third heaven” or “paradise,” where he “heard inexpressible things.” This idea of multiple heavens also shows itself in how the Jews normally spoke of “heavens” in the plural (Gen. 1:1), while most other ancient cultures spoke of “heaven” in the singular.
The Abode of God
One of the challenges in understanding “heaven” as the present dwelling place of God involves God’s omnipresence. In one sense, God is present everywhere. David asks in Ps. 139:7, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?” He answers that regardless of whether he goes as high up as anyone can go (“up to the heavens”), as low down as anyone can go (“in the depths), as far east as anyone can go (“the wings of the dawn”), or as far west as anyone can go (“the far side of the sea”), God is still there (Ps. 139:8–9).
Although God is present everywhere, God is also present in a special way in “heaven.” During Jesus’ earthly ministry, the Father is sometimes described as speaking in “a voice from heaven” (Matt. 3:17). Similarly, Jesus instructs us to address our prayers to “Our Father in heaven” (6:9). Even the specific request in the Lord’s Prayer that “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (6:10) reminds us that heaven is a place already under God’s full jurisdiction, where his will is presently being done completely and perfectly. Jesus also warns of the dangers of despising “one of these little ones,” because “their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven” (18:10). Jesus “came down from heaven” (John 6:51) for his earthly ministry, and after his death and resurrection, he ascended back “into heaven,” from where he “will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11).
At times, “heaven” becomes virtually a synonym for God himself. In the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15, the son confesses to his father, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you” (v.21). This son’s sin against “heaven” has nothing to do with environmental issues such as air pollution, and everything to do with his relationship with God. Note also Matthew’s expression “the kingdom of heaven” versus “the kingdom of God” used elsewhere.
The Final Dwelling Place for Believers
Given this strong connection between heaven and God’s presence, there is a natural connection in Scripture between heaven and the ultimate hope of believers. Believers are promised a reward in heaven (“Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven” [Matt. 5:12]), and even now believers can “store up for [themselves] treasures in heaven” (6:20). Even in this present life, “our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil. 3:20), and our hope at death is to “depart and be with Christ, which is better by far” (1:23). Since Christ is currently in heaven, deceased believers are already present with Christ in heaven awaiting his return, when “God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him” (1Thess. 4:14).
However, this picture of heaven is more complicated. It is true that heaven is sometimes used in Scripture to refer to the present abode of all departed believers who have left this present life and entered the intermediate state between death and the bodily resurrection (2Cor. 5:4). It is this hope in a bodily resurrection that sets Christianity apart from other religions. Ultimately, the Christian hope is not that people will receive new physical bodies and float around some ethereal “heaven” like astronauts in outer space for all eternity. Instead, God has created human beings with physical bodies to inhabit a physical world, and our future hope is one of new resurrection bodies inhabiting new heavens and a new earth (Isa. 65:17; 66:22; 2Pet. 3:13). Just as there will be a certain continuity between the bodies of believers in this present life and their new resurrection bodies (we will know one another), there will also be a certain continuity between this present earth and the new earth to come. Yet, at the same time, everything will also be changed and made new and perfect, as God has designed it to be (Rom. 8:18–21).
The clearest description of this new reality is found in Rev. 21–22, where John describes how he “saw ‘a new heaven and a new earth,’ for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away” (21:1). Here is “the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband” (21:2), when “God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (21:3–4). Even better than all the descriptions of such things as streets of “gold, as pure as transparent glass” (21:21) is that God himself will come and dwell in the midst of his people. As Paul has phrased it, “Now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face” (1Cor. 13:12). The day will come when we will see God as he is, in all his glory (1John3:2).
Two other ideas complete our picture of life in these new heavens and new earth. Heaven will be a place of continued activity and service. Notice Jesus’ blessing in Matt. 25:21: “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things.” The other principle is that there will be different degrees of reward. Although our ultimate reward is simply being with God himself, Paul also reminds us that if what believers do with their lives “survives, the builder will receive a reward,” and if what they do “is burned up, the builder will suffer loss” (1Cor. 3:14–15 NRSV). Our choices make a difference for time and eternity (cf. Rev. 14:13). See also Heavens, New.
Origins,Composition, and Constitution
Origins.The Bible is not unique in offering an account of human origins.Interesting accounts are found in Sumerian (Enki and Ninmah, Hymn toE-engurra), Akkadian (Atrahasis Epic, Enuma Elish), and Egyptiantexts (Pyramid Texts, Instruction of Merikare). These texts provide ahelpful window into the biblical world and show the common concern toexplain the origin and role of humanity in the world.
Onedistinct feature of ancient Near Eastern texts is that they generallyspeak of human origins in a collective sense. Specialists refer tothis phenomenon as polygenesis. Such a collective creation betterserves the purpose of the gods, who have made the human race as alabor force. In the Bible, however, the book of Genesis describes anoriginal human pair who are the progenitors of the human race. Thisphenomenon is referred to as monogenesis. Humanity is not merelycreated to serve and do the work of the gods. Instead, it is aspecial creation of God, intended to bear his image.
Composition.The composition of humanity is described in Gen. 2:7: “The LordGod formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into hisnostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”Humanity is not distinct from animals in having the breath of life(1:30). Indeed, the description of the composition of humanity isalso quite, well, human. Genesis describes humans as made from thedust. Dust is not fertile, nor is it pliable. It refers to the earthand that which is dead. The wordplay between “man”(’adam) and the “ground” (’adamah) appears tobe a major focus of the text (2:7) and suggests that the majorconnection being established concerns the first humans as archetypes.
Constitution.Certain passages of Scripture have led interpreters to posit atrichotomous nature of humanity (i.e., mind, body, soul; cf. 2Cor.4:16; 5:1–9; 1Thess. 5:23). Likewise, even though theGreek language can bifurcate the soul (psychē) and the body(sōma), a kind of dualism should not be inferred from this (cf.Matt. 6:25; 27:50; Luke 10:27; 2Cor. 4:11). Either approach isforeign to the unified biblical mind-set. The only dualism in theanthropological perspective of the NT is in the nature of humanity inrelation to Christ’s new creative work.
Formand Function
Form:male and female.Just as God created man (’ish), he also created woman (’ishah)(Gen. 1:26–27). Although woman is initially created as a“suitable helper” (2:18), it should be noted that theunderlying Hebrew term (’ezer) is used almost exclusively inreference to God elsewhere. This suggests that “suitablehelper” does not indicate a difference of essence, value, orstatus.
TheBible describes woman as coming from the “side” of man,probably communicating something about their equality (Gen. 2:21–22).Thus, it should be understood that just as all humanity shares aconnection to the ground, so also a man shares an intimate connectionwith a woman. Although the phrase “one flesh” often istaken as a euphemism, it probably is a remarkably descriptivestatement of the archetypal nature of Adam and Eve (cf. 2:24).
Function:image of God.The distinction between humanity and the other animals created by Godis that humans are created in God’s image. The concept of theimage of God, however, is not unique to the biblical text (Gen.1:26–27; cf. Instruction of Merikare). Throughout the ancientNear East, kings were thought to actually be the image of a god. Inthe Christian understanding, only Christ is the image of God (2Cor.4:4), whereas humanity is created in the image of God. Although thismay imply a kingly role with regard to humanity’s function overthe rest of creation, the main parallel should be seen in how imagesare meant to represent a god’s presence.
Humanityin Pauline Thought
Paul’sconception of humanity is thoroughly eschatological insomuch as hisvision of Christ as the image of God is identified with Christ as“risen Lord.” Christ as the image of God is the finaldestiny of the humanity that is “in Christ” (1Cor.15:23–28; 44–49; Eph. 1:9–10). Because of theeffects of sin, creation has been subjected to futility (Rom.8:19–22), and humanity to death (Rom. 5:12–14; 1Cor.15:21–22). Yet Paul’s outburst of “new creation”(Gal. 6:15; cf. 2Cor. 5:17) indicates his understanding of thecosmological, and therefore anthropological, effects of being unitedwith Christ. Indeed, if God is making the “former things”into “new things” (2Cor. 5:17; cf. Isa. 65:17–19),this new creative act certainly impacts humanity. That reality isalready partially realized in the elimination of distinctions in thispresent “evil age” (Gal. 1:4), for in Christ “thereis neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there maleand female, for you are all one” (Gal. 3:28; cf. 1Cor.12:12–13; Gen. 17). Until the end, the Christian lives in thetension of already beginning to experience the act of new creationand not yet completely disinheriting the effects of sin (Rom.8:18–30; 2Cor. 12:5–10).
Speech (2Kings 19:16; Isa. 37:17) or gesture (2Sam.10:4) that shames, demeans, disrespects, abuses, offends, or slightssomeone. Insults in the biblical world were also part of propagandaand warfare; for example, Nabal hurled insults at David (1Sam.25:14; cf. Lam. 3:61–63). Divine wrath is implored forvengeance against those who insult God (2Kings 19:22–23;Neh. 4:4; Ezek. 21:28; Zeph. 2:8), while responding in kind seems tobe acceptable (Isa. 37:23), since, as the psalmist bemoans, insultsdirected at God include the psalmist too (Ps. 69:9). Romans 15:3 putsthese sentiments in the mouth of Christ (cf. Ps. 22:7).
Jeremiahbewails insults directed at him for simply being a prophet (Jer.20:8) and laments the desecration of the temple as an insult to Godand his people (51:51). While prudence ignores insults and showsself-control (Prov. 12:16), correcting mockers invites insult (9:7;22:10).
Jesus’followers are to anticipate insults (Heb. 10:33) and even count themas blessings (Matt. 5:11; Luke 6:22) because they are partaking ofwhat Jesus himself went through (Matt. 27:39; 27:44; Mark 15:29;15:32; Luke 18:32; 23:39; 1Pet. 4:14). But 1Pet. 2:23;3:9 discourage responding in kind when insulted. Paul, as part of hissuffering (1Thess. 2:2), even delighted in insults for Christ’ssake (2Cor. 12:10). Discriminating against the poor is aninsult to them (James 2:6), while insulting the Spirit of graceresults in divine judgment (Heb. 10:29).
Origins,Composition, and Constitution
Origins.The Bible is not unique in offering an account of human origins.Interesting accounts are found in Sumerian (Enki and Ninmah, Hymn toE-engurra), Akkadian (Atrahasis Epic, Enuma Elish), and Egyptiantexts (Pyramid Texts, Instruction of Merikare). These texts provide ahelpful window into the biblical world and show the common concern toexplain the origin and role of humanity in the world.
Onedistinct feature of ancient Near Eastern texts is that they generallyspeak of human origins in a collective sense. Specialists refer tothis phenomenon as polygenesis. Such a collective creation betterserves the purpose of the gods, who have made the human race as alabor force. In the Bible, however, the book of Genesis describes anoriginal human pair who are the progenitors of the human race. Thisphenomenon is referred to as monogenesis. Humanity is not merelycreated to serve and do the work of the gods. Instead, it is aspecial creation of God, intended to bear his image.
Composition.The composition of humanity is described in Gen. 2:7: “The LordGod formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into hisnostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”Humanity is not distinct from animals in having the breath of life(1:30). Indeed, the description of the composition of humanity isalso quite, well, human. Genesis describes humans as made from thedust. Dust is not fertile, nor is it pliable. It refers to the earthand that which is dead. The wordplay between “man”(’adam) and the “ground” (’adamah) appears tobe a major focus of the text (2:7) and suggests that the majorconnection being established concerns the first humans as archetypes.
Constitution.Certain passages of Scripture have led interpreters to posit atrichotomous nature of humanity (i.e., mind, body, soul; cf. 2Cor.4:16; 5:1–9; 1Thess. 5:23). Likewise, even though theGreek language can bifurcate the soul (psychē) and the body(sōma), a kind of dualism should not be inferred from this (cf.Matt. 6:25; 27:50; Luke 10:27; 2Cor. 4:11). Either approach isforeign to the unified biblical mind-set. The only dualism in theanthropological perspective of the NT is in the nature of humanity inrelation to Christ’s new creative work.
Formand Function
Form:male and female.Just as God created man (’ish), he also created woman (’ishah)(Gen. 1:26–27). Although woman is initially created as a“suitable helper” (2:18), it should be noted that theunderlying Hebrew term (’ezer) is used almost exclusively inreference to God elsewhere. This suggests that “suitablehelper” does not indicate a difference of essence, value, orstatus.
TheBible describes woman as coming from the “side” of man,probably communicating something about their equality (Gen. 2:21–22).Thus, it should be understood that just as all humanity shares aconnection to the ground, so also a man shares an intimate connectionwith a woman. Although the phrase “one flesh” often istaken as a euphemism, it probably is a remarkably descriptivestatement of the archetypal nature of Adam and Eve (cf. 2:24).
Function:image of God.The distinction between humanity and the other animals created by Godis that humans are created in God’s image. The concept of theimage of God, however, is not unique to the biblical text (Gen.1:26–27; cf. Instruction of Merikare). Throughout the ancientNear East, kings were thought to actually be the image of a god. Inthe Christian understanding, only Christ is the image of God (2Cor.4:4), whereas humanity is created in the image of God. Although thismay imply a kingly role with regard to humanity’s function overthe rest of creation, the main parallel should be seen in how imagesare meant to represent a god’s presence.
Humanityin Pauline Thought
Paul’sconception of humanity is thoroughly eschatological insomuch as hisvision of Christ as the image of God is identified with Christ as“risen Lord.” Christ as the image of God is the finaldestiny of the humanity that is “in Christ” (1Cor.15:23–28; 44–49; Eph. 1:9–10). Because of theeffects of sin, creation has been subjected to futility (Rom.8:19–22), and humanity to death (Rom. 5:12–14; 1Cor.15:21–22). Yet Paul’s outburst of “new creation”(Gal. 6:15; cf. 2Cor. 5:17) indicates his understanding of thecosmological, and therefore anthropological, effects of being unitedwith Christ. Indeed, if God is making the “former things”into “new things” (2Cor. 5:17; cf. Isa. 65:17–19),this new creative act certainly impacts humanity. That reality isalready partially realized in the elimination of distinctions in thispresent “evil age” (Gal. 1:4), for in Christ “thereis neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there maleand female, for you are all one” (Gal. 3:28; cf. 1Cor.12:12–13; Gen. 17). Until the end, the Christian lives in thetension of already beginning to experience the act of new creationand not yet completely disinheriting the effects of sin (Rom.8:18–30; 2Cor. 12:5–10).
The word “messenger” in Hebrew is mal’ak,and in Greek angelos. In both cases the word can signify either humanmessengers or divine beings called “angels.” Angels aremessengers from God. In 2Cor. 12:7 Paul mentions a “messengerof Satan”; it is unclear whether this is an angel or a humanbeing. Prophets can also be considered messengers from God (Hag.1:13). In fact, the name of the prophet Malachi, author of the lastbook of the OT, means “my messenger.” Paul callsChristians “messengers [NIV: “representatives”] ofthe churches”(2Cor. 8:23). The word “evangelist” (Gk.euangelistēs) is built on two Greek terms, eu (“good”)and angellō (“to announce”), and thus refers to amessenger who brings good news. Thus, any Christian who bringsChrist’s gospel is a human angel, on a missionfrom God.
Paradise is a place of blessing associated with God’spresence. The word comes from an old Iranian root meaning a walledenclosure and came to refer to a garden setting. In the Bible theword “paradise” looks back to the garden of Eden whenlife was as God originally created it to be before it was marred bysin, and it looks ahead to how God will one day re-create it anew inthe new heaven and the new earth. Jesus told the thief on the cross,“Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise”(Luke 23:43). Paul had a taste of this when he “was caught upto paradise” (2Cor. 12:4). Jesus promises, “To theone who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree oflife, which is in the paradise of God” (Rev. 2:7).
An unspecified hardship suffered by the apostle Paul, whichhe refers to in 2Cor. 12:7. Paul calls this ailment “amessenger of Satan” sent to “torment me.” He alsosays that he had prayed three times for God to take it away from him,but to no avail (2Cor. 12:8).
Paulrecognized that this “thorn in the flesh” was sent fromGod to keep him from being conceited after he had received“surpassingly great revelations” (2Cor. 12:7). Thethorn was a positive thing in that it caused him to turn to God andspecifically to God’s grace as a source of power for his life.When Paul asked God to take the thorn away, God responded, “Mygrace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect inweakness,” and so Paul concludes, “I will boast all themore gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power mayrest on me” (2Cor. 12:8–9).
Itis not known specifically what this thorn in the flesh was. Someconjecture that it may have been an eyesight problem, since Paul saysin Gal. 4:15 that the Galatians loved him so much that they wouldhave torn out their eyes and given them to him, and in Gal. 6:11 hementions that he is writing with large letters. This uncertaintyconcerning the identity of Paul’s thorn in the flesh is not abad thing, since it allows the application of the principle ofdependence on God to various kinds of suffering and hardship.
A divine communication in the form of visual imagery, usuallyaccompanied by words, and often using symbols that requireexplanation and spur reflection about God’s otherwiseimperceptible presence and activity. Presumably, the recipient “sees”the vision as an event of inward perception, often within a dreamduring sleep or in a divinely induced state of ecstasy (Gen. 15; Dan.7:1; 10:1–9; 2Cor. 12:1–4). Characteristically,visions entail conversation with God or an angelic representative,often following a question-and-answer format (Dan. 7:15–28;Zech. 1:8–15, 18–21). The visionary is actually in thescene as direct observer and active participant (Dan. 8:1–2).
Propheticvisions are meant to be retold. For example, imagery is accompaniedby the authentication of divine commissioning (Isa. 6; Ezek.1:1–3:15; Rev. 10), leading to announcement of judgment (Jer.1:4–19). This close conjunction of image and word (1Sam.3:21) is reinforced by statements about a prophet “seeing”God’s word (e.g., Mic. 1:1 ESV, NRSV, NASB) and about propheticbooks as collections of visions (2Chron. 32:32; Nah. 1:1).Vision reports join oracles and other forms of prophetic speech asessential features of these works. Visions contribute to thecommunity’s spiritual well-being (Prov. 29:18; Ezek. 7:26), butnot always (Lam. 2:14; Ezek. 13; Zech. 13:4; Col. 2:18).
Visionsdrive the narrative surrounding Jesus’ birth (Matt. 1:18–2:23;Luke 1:1–2:20). The baptism of Jesus includes a visionaryelement, the Holy Spirit’s anointing of Jesus for his ministry,accompanied by the Father’s word (Matt. 3:16–17; Mark1:10–11; Luke 3:22; John 1:32–33). Jesus’transfiguration is comparable (Matt. 17:1–9; Mark 9:2–10;Luke 9:28–36). Visions mark key transition points in thenarrative of Acts (e.g., chaps. 9–11). The book of Revelationopens with a vision of the Son of Man (1:9–20) and isstructured around three vision cycles of judgment interspersed withvisions of heaven meant to bolster the readers’ faithfulness.
Secondary Matches
The following suggestions occured because
2 Corinthians 12:1-10
is mentioned in the definition.
Affliction is a condition of physical, mental, or spiritualdistress, or the cause of suffering. Afflictions may be a variety oftemporal, physical sufferings, such as infertility (Gen. 25:32;1 Sam. 1:11), injustice and toil (Gen. 31:42), slavery (Exod.1:12; 3:7, 17; 4:31; Deut. 26:6–7; Neh. 9:9), militaryoppression (Judg. 2:18; 10:18), loss (Ruth 1:21), displacement andmocking (2 Sam. 16:12), disease and disorders (Mark 3:10; 5:29,34; Luke 7:21; John 5:4; Acts 28:8), and famine (Acts 7:11).Affliction may be mental or spiritual, arising from the prospects oreffects of physical afflictions, feeling the futility of life(Eccles. 1:13), or concern for others in their afflictions (Isa.63:9; 2 Cor. 2:4).
Thereare several different causes and reasons for affliction, but there isno simple formula for determining the cause of one’safflictions, as Job reminds us. Clearly, Job is blameless (Job 1:1,8; 2:3), but his friends carry on wrongly in their assumptions thathis sins are to blame. The agents of affliction include God (2 Kings17:20; Nah. 1:12), Satan and/or demons (Job 1:12; Acts 5:16), otherpeople (Judg. 10:8; 2 Thess. 1:6), oneself (1 Kings 18:28),or the general condition of life (Job 5:7).
Thereasons for affliction also vary. One reason might be called “noreason,” in that “man is born to trouble as surely assparks fly upward” (Job 5:7). Troubles, afflictions, and sorrowjust happen. In retrospect, this is a condition of living in a cursedworld (Gen. 3). But this is a general consequence for the whole humanrace, not a punishment directed at a specific sin. The widespreadafflictions of the curse appear random. In various forms they preventus from turning to easy living as a refuge from broken relationshipsand therefore force us to look elsewhere. The intent is that we lookto God (see Hos. 5:15). Multiple specific reasons, however, may liebehind any particular affliction. They include punishment for sin(Deut. 29:22), often to induce repentance leading to restoration(Hos. 5:15; Zech. 10:9; 1 Cor. 11:30). Affliction may be dealtout by people as they sin against others (1 Sam. 1:7; 2 Sam.16:12; 2 Thess. 1:6). One’s own choices may have naturalconsequences (Prov. 11:24; 13:20; 19:9, 15; 22:3), or consequencescome due to a lack of leadership (Zech. 10:2). Some result from beingassociated with those going through afflictions (Num. 14:28–35;1 Kings 2:26), suffering afflictions due to following Christ(Matt. 13:21; John 15:18–20; Acts 20:23), or feeling empathyfor the afflicted (2 Cor. 2:4). Other afflictions are given astraining, prevention, or refining (Isa. 48:10; Rom. 5:3–5;2 Cor. 12:7; Heb. 12:5–13). Suffering affliction may alsobe substitutionary, on behalf of others (Isa. 53:4–7; and thesubstitutionary atonement of Christ generally).
Inresponse to others’ afflictions, we are called to sympathy,compassion, comfort, and justice. Appropriate responses to our ownafflictions range from patient endurance for the cause of Christ(James 5:11) to lamenting (the psalms and Christ’s example,Matt. 27:46).
Common and valuable for food, beans were cooked while green in the pods or after being dried. Dry beans were threshed and winnowed like cereals and other grains. Beans are mentioned twice in the NIV (2Sam. 17:28; Ezek. 4:9).
Colossians is a letter sent by Paul to a church in Colossaewhen he was in prison. The letter was Paul’s first directcontact with the church, which may have been started by one of hismissionary associates, Epaphras (Col. 1:7). Epaphras was fromColossae (4:12), a city of Asia Minor located in the Lycus Valley,known for its fertile soil and green pastures. Some commentatorssuggest that Epaphras also started churches in Hierapolis andLaodicea (4:13), neighboring cities in the valley that were situatedaround the Lycus River about ten miles apart. Colossae was a freecity located on the main Roman road that ran from Ephesus and Sardistoward the east, and it was populated by native Phrygians, as well asGreeks, Romans, and Jews. More than likely, the church was foundedduring Paul’s extended ministry in Ephesus, where persons fromthe region heard Paul’s gospel and from where Paul sentmissionary associates such as Epaphras into the surrounding cities(Acts 19). Tychicus, the letter carrier (Col. 4:7–8), was alsoone of Paul’s associates from the same region; he decided toaccompany Paul to Macedonia after the team left Ephesus (Acts 20:4).
Theclose association of these churches in Asia Minor and the time framewhen the letters were written may explain why Paul’s letter tothe Colossians is so similar in content to his letter to theEphesians. Paul was in prison (probably in Rome) when he sent both ofthese letters (Eph. 3:1; Col. 4:10, 18). The instructions regardingTychicus, the carrier for both letters, are identical, nearlyverbatim (Eph. 6:21–22; Col. 4:7–8). The letters sharethe same outline, following some of the same themes, especiallytoward the end, where Paul gives instructions regarding thehousehold. An affinity also exists between Colossians and Philemon, aletter sent to the patron of one of the house churches in Colossae.Most of the names mentioned by Paul appear in both letters: Timothy,Onesimus, Archippus, Epaphras, Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke(Col. 1:1; 4:9–17; Philem. 1, 10, 23–24). Paul was alsoin prison, along with Epaphras, at the time he sent his letter toPhilemon. All of this indicates that these letters were written aboutthe same time, from the same place, to the same region. Why did Paulsend three letters to the same region, especially since letterproduction was so expensive? Why not send one letter to the entireregion (like Galatians), to be read by all the house churches?Obviously, the problems of each church were so different that theyrequired a separate authoritative word from their apostle.
QuestionablePractices in Colossae
TheColossians were doing several things that Paul found troublesome, aswe learn from Col. 2. They were judging each other for not keepingcertain dietary regulations and holy days (2:16). Some were claimingsuperiority through personal worship experiences that involvedvisions of angels (2:18). Some subscribed to strict discipline of thehuman body, punishing themselves through various acts ofself-abasem*nt in order to curb fleshly appetites (2:23) and enhancetheir worship experiences (2:18). It seems that many of them weretrying to live by an expanded version of the divine command given inthe story of Adam, Eve, and the forbidden fruit: “Do nothandle! Do not taste! Do not touch!” (2:21). Paul recognizedthat all these claims and rules had the “appearance of wisdom”but in reality were nothing more than traditions based on“self-imposed” religion, and that such ascetic practiceswere useless in denying fleshly appetites (2:22–23). Where didthe Colossians get all these strange ideas that led to such bizarrebehavior?
Pauldescribed the false teaching as an imprisoning “through hollowand deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and theelemental spiritual forces” in opposition to the teachings ofChrist (2:8). Because the Colossian church was made up primarily ofGentile converts (1:27), many interpreters argue that the problemsresulted from the meshing of the gospel with local, pagan ways. ThePhrygians were known for their fascination with magical rituals, theability to manipulate the powers (earth, wind, fire, spirits, angels,often referred to as “elementary principles of the world”)for human purposes. Paul’s description of the false teaching asa “hollow and deceptive philosophy” based on the “humantradition” may also reveal the influence of Greek ideas andRoman ways in the church. The Greeks operated with a dualisticworldview of spirit versus flesh, leading some philosophers to arguethat punishing the body ensured purity of the soul. Furthermore, theRomans believed that the gods had given them power to rule the world,bringing fertility to the lands of conquered peoples. WorshipingCaesar brought economic rewards to devoted subjects of the empire. Inother words, all this talk in the Colossian letter about power andsovereignty, philosophy and self-discipline was Paul’s way ofdealing directly with the root of the problem: the syncretism ofpagan ways and the gospel according to Paul.
Someinterpreters believe that all these peculiar teachings derive notfrom pagan religions but rather from Judaism. After all, Paul’sreferences to observing the Sabbath, keeping commandments, andangelic worship point toward a Jewish context. Paul also affirmedthat his Gentile converts were “circumcised with a circumcisionnot performed by human hands” (2:11), perhaps revealing hisconcern that Jewish ways were creeping into his Gentile church. Heeven put the church on notice, identifying those among “thecircumcision” (Jews) who were trustworthy ministers of thegospel (he mentions only three, Barnabas, John Mark, and Jesus calledJustus [4:10–11]). The implication, of course, was to ignorethe rest of “the circumcision.” But if the troublemakersin Colossae were Jewish opponents of Paul, how does one explain allthe mystical and ascetic elements of this false teaching? Some arguethat the expression “worship of angels” was not anidolatrous practice of venerating angelic beings. Instead, the phraseshould be translated “angelic worship,” implying thatsome Colossians claimed to have been transported to heaven and joinedthe angels in worship of God. This may have been similar to theexperiences of an obscure form of Judaism: Jewish mystics who claimedto preserve esoteric revelations through out-of-body experiences ofheavenly visions and auditions (see Paul’s description in2 Cor. 12:1–7). Furthermore, the strict dietary code andsexual ethic of Jewish law were often interpreted by first-centurypagans as promoting an ascetic lifestyle. In other words, Paul wascountering a more cryptic branch of Judaism that flourished in aregion known for its affinity for the mysterious.
Outlineand Content
I.Introduction (1:1–14)
A.Greeting (1:1–2)
B.Thanksgiving (1:3–8)
C.Prayer (1:9–14)
II.The Person and Work of Christ (1:15–23)
III.Paul’s Role in Christ’s Mission to the Gentiles(1:24–2:5)
IV.False Teaching versus the Work of Christ (2:6–23)
V.Instructions on Life in Christ
A.In the church (3:1–17)
B.In the home (3:18–4:1)
VI.Generic Exhortations (4:2–6)
VII.Specific Instructions (4:7–9)
VIII.Final Greetings (4:10–17)
IX.Paul’s Signature (4:18)
Whateverthe source of the false teaching referred to in Colossians, Paulattempts to correct the misbehavior of his Gentile converts bybuilding an argument that the work of Christ is all-sufficient. Paulbegins the letter by describing the person and work of Christ incosmic terms (1:15–23). Next he recounts his role in themission of Christ to bring the riches of the kingdom to Gentiles(1:24–2:5). After reminding the Colossians of their receptionof the gospel, Paul juxtaposes the deceptive practices of the falseteaching with the evidence of the work of Christ in them (2:6–23).Then he gives a number of instructions on what life in Christ issupposed to look like: in the church (3:1–17) and in the home(3:18–4:1). He concludes the letter with generic exhortations(4:2–6), specific instructions (4:7–9), and greetings(4:10–17). Finally, Paul signs the letter, obviously written bya secretary, with the simple request: “Remember my chains”(4:18)—a curious signature that makes the argument of hisletter even more appealing.
ThePower and Peace of Christ’s Kingdom
Itis ironic that Paul chose to describe the work of Christ in suchgrandiose terms, picturing him as a mighty ruler over all creation,even while the apostle was in prison—an undeniable sign ofRoman sovereignty. In Col. 1, in some of the loftiest language Paulever used to describe Christ’s kingdom authority, the apostlereminds his converts that the Lord is “the image of theinvisible God, the firstborn over all creation” (v. 15),an obvious reference to Christ’s deity. Then Paul piles on theattributes, presenting Christ as the creator of all things, evenangelic creatures (v. 16), the sustainer of all things (v. 17),the head of the church, the eternal one, the guarantor of theresurrection (v. 18), the fullness of God (v. 19), thereconciler of all things—the one who made peace with theenemies of God through his blood on the cross (vv. 20–22).Despite Paul’s circ*mstances and what Rome may claim, theapostle holds fast to the irrepressible sovereignty of Christ’skingdom, displayed by Paul’s perseverance in the midst ofsuffering and the full assurance that every Colossian believer is“fully mature in Christ” (vv. 22–29). Indeed, allthe treasures of Christ’s kingdom—love, knowledge,wisdom, discipline—are to be found in the life of his converts(2:1–5), unless someone “deludes” them intothinking otherwise.
Paul’srhetorical strategy of extolling the power of Christ’s kingdommakes perfect sense in light of the false teaching that was plaguingthe Colossian church. Apparently, the Colossians were persuaded tofeel inadequate about their faith, vulnerable to the imposition oflegalistic standards that ensured victory over fleshly indulgences.To counter his opponents, Paul unpacks the significance of theincarnation and the cross (2:9–15). Because Christ was God inflesh (in whom “all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodilyform” [v. 9]), his death on the cross was a cosmic eventthat defeated all the powers that oppose God. Using military imagery,Paul argues that Christ canceled every debt against humanity when henailed all “decrees” (even Caesar’s) to the cross.In that singular act of sacrifice, Christ disarmed the foes of God,humiliating them publicly by making a spectacle of them, triumphingover all powers (v. 15)—something that Caesar loved to doafter successful military campaigns. Therefore, if Christ’svictory over all powers has been secured through his death, and sincehe rules as the firstborn of the dead (resurrection) over allcreation, and since the Colossians are “fully mature in Christ”(1:28) because of their faith in him, then no pretense ofself-abasem*nt or angelic visions can diminish what Christ has doneand will continue to do in the lives of Paul’s converts inColossae. Christ is all they needed to overcome the powers.
InCol. 3, Paul tells how the Colossians draw upon the power of Christwhen they “set [their] minds on things above, not on earthlythings” (v. 2). The things on the earth are “sexualimmorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed” (v. 5).Paul believes that his converts died with Christ (“hidden withChrist in God” [v. 3]) and therefore had set aside allthese idolatrous practices when they put on the “new self,”being conformed to the image of Christ (vv. 8–10). This renewalwill be found in all believers, regardless of ethnicity (v. 11),and will result in peace for all. Indeed, Paul sees the “peaceof Christ” as the undeniable evidence of his reign exhibited inthe hearts of those who believe (vv. 12–15). And what wouldthat peace look like? Believers will be patient, forgiving oneanother with hearts full of compassion, kindness, humility,gentleness, and love resulting in unity (vv. 12–14). Theirworship of God will be characterized by songs of thankfulness andadmonition, receiving the word with wisdom (v. 16). In theirhomes husbands, wives, and children will model deference and love,and masters and slaves will seek justice and fairness, as if theywere serving Christ (3:18–4:1). The Colossians will be devotedto prayer, will treat outsiders fairly, and will be known for alwaysspeaking graceful words (4:2–6). In other words, where Caesar’sempire has promoted Roman peace by enforcing Roman law in provinces,cities, and households, Paul believes that the peace of Christ willrule the hearts of his subjects, establishing a kingdom of love andunity, in word and deed, in the home as well as the church. So, inhis final greetings, Paul talks about faithful slaves and belovedsiblings as sources of encouragement in the ever-expanding work ofthe kingdom of God (4:7–17), making his simple request,“Remember my chains” (4:18), sound more like an act ofdefiance than a pitiful plea.
Colossians is a letter sent by Paul to a church in Colossaewhen he was in prison. The letter was Paul’s first directcontact with the church, which may have been started by one of hismissionary associates, Epaphras (Col. 1:7). Epaphras was fromColossae (4:12), a city of Asia Minor located in the Lycus Valley,known for its fertile soil and green pastures. Some commentatorssuggest that Epaphras also started churches in Hierapolis andLaodicea (4:13), neighboring cities in the valley that were situatedaround the Lycus River about ten miles apart. Colossae was a freecity located on the main Roman road that ran from Ephesus and Sardistoward the east, and it was populated by native Phrygians, as well asGreeks, Romans, and Jews. More than likely, the church was foundedduring Paul’s extended ministry in Ephesus, where persons fromthe region heard Paul’s gospel and from where Paul sentmissionary associates such as Epaphras into the surrounding cities(Acts 19). Tychicus, the letter carrier (Col. 4:7–8), was alsoone of Paul’s associates from the same region; he decided toaccompany Paul to Macedonia after the team left Ephesus (Acts 20:4).
Theclose association of these churches in Asia Minor and the time framewhen the letters were written may explain why Paul’s letter tothe Colossians is so similar in content to his letter to theEphesians. Paul was in prison (probably in Rome) when he sent both ofthese letters (Eph. 3:1; Col. 4:10, 18). The instructions regardingTychicus, the carrier for both letters, are identical, nearlyverbatim (Eph. 6:21–22; Col. 4:7–8). The letters sharethe same outline, following some of the same themes, especiallytoward the end, where Paul gives instructions regarding thehousehold. An affinity also exists between Colossians and Philemon, aletter sent to the patron of one of the house churches in Colossae.Most of the names mentioned by Paul appear in both letters: Timothy,Onesimus, Archippus, Epaphras, Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke(Col. 1:1; 4:9–17; Philem. 1, 10, 23–24). Paul was alsoin prison, along with Epaphras, at the time he sent his letter toPhilemon. All of this indicates that these letters were written aboutthe same time, from the same place, to the same region. Why did Paulsend three letters to the same region, especially since letterproduction was so expensive? Why not send one letter to the entireregion (like Galatians), to be read by all the house churches?Obviously, the problems of each church were so different that theyrequired a separate authoritative word from their apostle.
QuestionablePractices in Colossae
TheColossians were doing several things that Paul found troublesome, aswe learn from Col. 2. They were judging each other for not keepingcertain dietary regulations and holy days (2:16). Some were claimingsuperiority through personal worship experiences that involvedvisions of angels (2:18). Some subscribed to strict discipline of thehuman body, punishing themselves through various acts ofself-abasem*nt in order to curb fleshly appetites (2:23) and enhancetheir worship experiences (2:18). It seems that many of them weretrying to live by an expanded version of the divine command given inthe story of Adam, Eve, and the forbidden fruit: “Do nothandle! Do not taste! Do not touch!” (2:21). Paul recognizedthat all these claims and rules had the “appearance of wisdom”but in reality were nothing more than traditions based on“self-imposed” religion, and that such ascetic practiceswere useless in denying fleshly appetites (2:22–23). Where didthe Colossians get all these strange ideas that led to such bizarrebehavior?
Pauldescribed the false teaching as an imprisoning “through hollowand deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and theelemental spiritual forces” in opposition to the teachings ofChrist (2:8). Because the Colossian church was made up primarily ofGentile converts (1:27), many interpreters argue that the problemsresulted from the meshing of the gospel with local, pagan ways. ThePhrygians were known for their fascination with magical rituals, theability to manipulate the powers (earth, wind, fire, spirits, angels,often referred to as “elementary principles of the world”)for human purposes. Paul’s description of the false teaching asa “hollow and deceptive philosophy” based on the “humantradition” may also reveal the influence of Greek ideas andRoman ways in the church. The Greeks operated with a dualisticworldview of spirit versus flesh, leading some philosophers to arguethat punishing the body ensured purity of the soul. Furthermore, theRomans believed that the gods had given them power to rule the world,bringing fertility to the lands of conquered peoples. WorshipingCaesar brought economic rewards to devoted subjects of the empire. Inother words, all this talk in the Colossian letter about power andsovereignty, philosophy and self-discipline was Paul’s way ofdealing directly with the root of the problem: the syncretism ofpagan ways and the gospel according to Paul.
Someinterpreters believe that all these peculiar teachings derive notfrom pagan religions but rather from Judaism. After all, Paul’sreferences to observing the Sabbath, keeping commandments, andangelic worship point toward a Jewish context. Paul also affirmedthat his Gentile converts were “circumcised with a circumcisionnot performed by human hands” (2:11), perhaps revealing hisconcern that Jewish ways were creeping into his Gentile church. Heeven put the church on notice, identifying those among “thecircumcision” (Jews) who were trustworthy ministers of thegospel (he mentions only three, Barnabas, John Mark, and Jesus calledJustus [4:10–11]). The implication, of course, was to ignorethe rest of “the circumcision.” But if the troublemakersin Colossae were Jewish opponents of Paul, how does one explain allthe mystical and ascetic elements of this false teaching? Some arguethat the expression “worship of angels” was not anidolatrous practice of venerating angelic beings. Instead, the phraseshould be translated “angelic worship,” implying thatsome Colossians claimed to have been transported to heaven and joinedthe angels in worship of God. This may have been similar to theexperiences of an obscure form of Judaism: Jewish mystics who claimedto preserve esoteric revelations through out-of-body experiences ofheavenly visions and auditions (see Paul’s description in2 Cor. 12:1–7). Furthermore, the strict dietary code andsexual ethic of Jewish law were often interpreted by first-centurypagans as promoting an ascetic lifestyle. In other words, Paul wascountering a more cryptic branch of Judaism that flourished in aregion known for its affinity for the mysterious.
Outlineand Content
I.Introduction (1:1–14)
A.Greeting (1:1–2)
B.Thanksgiving (1:3–8)
C.Prayer (1:9–14)
II.The Person and Work of Christ (1:15–23)
III.Paul’s Role in Christ’s Mission to the Gentiles(1:24–2:5)
IV.False Teaching versus the Work of Christ (2:6–23)
V.Instructions on Life in Christ
A.In the church (3:1–17)
B.In the home (3:18–4:1)
VI.Generic Exhortations (4:2–6)
VII.Specific Instructions (4:7–9)
VIII.Final Greetings (4:10–17)
IX.Paul’s Signature (4:18)
Whateverthe source of the false teaching referred to in Colossians, Paulattempts to correct the misbehavior of his Gentile converts bybuilding an argument that the work of Christ is all-sufficient. Paulbegins the letter by describing the person and work of Christ incosmic terms (1:15–23). Next he recounts his role in themission of Christ to bring the riches of the kingdom to Gentiles(1:24–2:5). After reminding the Colossians of their receptionof the gospel, Paul juxtaposes the deceptive practices of the falseteaching with the evidence of the work of Christ in them (2:6–23).Then he gives a number of instructions on what life in Christ issupposed to look like: in the church (3:1–17) and in the home(3:18–4:1). He concludes the letter with generic exhortations(4:2–6), specific instructions (4:7–9), and greetings(4:10–17). Finally, Paul signs the letter, obviously written bya secretary, with the simple request: “Remember my chains”(4:18)—a curious signature that makes the argument of hisletter even more appealing.
ThePower and Peace of Christ’s Kingdom
Itis ironic that Paul chose to describe the work of Christ in suchgrandiose terms, picturing him as a mighty ruler over all creation,even while the apostle was in prison—an undeniable sign ofRoman sovereignty. In Col. 1, in some of the loftiest language Paulever used to describe Christ’s kingdom authority, the apostlereminds his converts that the Lord is “the image of theinvisible God, the firstborn over all creation” (v. 15),an obvious reference to Christ’s deity. Then Paul piles on theattributes, presenting Christ as the creator of all things, evenangelic creatures (v. 16), the sustainer of all things (v. 17),the head of the church, the eternal one, the guarantor of theresurrection (v. 18), the fullness of God (v. 19), thereconciler of all things—the one who made peace with theenemies of God through his blood on the cross (vv. 20–22).Despite Paul’s circ*mstances and what Rome may claim, theapostle holds fast to the irrepressible sovereignty of Christ’skingdom, displayed by Paul’s perseverance in the midst ofsuffering and the full assurance that every Colossian believer is“fully mature in Christ” (vv. 22–29). Indeed, allthe treasures of Christ’s kingdom—love, knowledge,wisdom, discipline—are to be found in the life of his converts(2:1–5), unless someone “deludes” them intothinking otherwise.
Paul’srhetorical strategy of extolling the power of Christ’s kingdommakes perfect sense in light of the false teaching that was plaguingthe Colossian church. Apparently, the Colossians were persuaded tofeel inadequate about their faith, vulnerable to the imposition oflegalistic standards that ensured victory over fleshly indulgences.To counter his opponents, Paul unpacks the significance of theincarnation and the cross (2:9–15). Because Christ was God inflesh (in whom “all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodilyform” [v. 9]), his death on the cross was a cosmic eventthat defeated all the powers that oppose God. Using military imagery,Paul argues that Christ canceled every debt against humanity when henailed all “decrees” (even Caesar’s) to the cross.In that singular act of sacrifice, Christ disarmed the foes of God,humiliating them publicly by making a spectacle of them, triumphingover all powers (v. 15)—something that Caesar loved to doafter successful military campaigns. Therefore, if Christ’svictory over all powers has been secured through his death, and sincehe rules as the firstborn of the dead (resurrection) over allcreation, and since the Colossians are “fully mature in Christ”(1:28) because of their faith in him, then no pretense ofself-abasem*nt or angelic visions can diminish what Christ has doneand will continue to do in the lives of Paul’s converts inColossae. Christ is all they needed to overcome the powers.
InCol. 3, Paul tells how the Colossians draw upon the power of Christwhen they “set [their] minds on things above, not on earthlythings” (v. 2). The things on the earth are “sexualimmorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed” (v. 5).Paul believes that his converts died with Christ (“hidden withChrist in God” [v. 3]) and therefore had set aside allthese idolatrous practices when they put on the “new self,”being conformed to the image of Christ (vv. 8–10). This renewalwill be found in all believers, regardless of ethnicity (v. 11),and will result in peace for all. Indeed, Paul sees the “peaceof Christ” as the undeniable evidence of his reign exhibited inthe hearts of those who believe (vv. 12–15). And what wouldthat peace look like? Believers will be patient, forgiving oneanother with hearts full of compassion, kindness, humility,gentleness, and love resulting in unity (vv. 12–14). Theirworship of God will be characterized by songs of thankfulness andadmonition, receiving the word with wisdom (v. 16). In theirhomes husbands, wives, and children will model deference and love,and masters and slaves will seek justice and fairness, as if theywere serving Christ (3:18–4:1). The Colossians will be devotedto prayer, will treat outsiders fairly, and will be known for alwaysspeaking graceful words (4:2–6). In other words, where Caesar’sempire has promoted Roman peace by enforcing Roman law in provinces,cities, and households, Paul believes that the peace of Christ willrule the hearts of his subjects, establishing a kingdom of love andunity, in word and deed, in the home as well as the church. So, inhis final greetings, Paul talks about faithful slaves and belovedsiblings as sources of encouragement in the ever-expanding work ofthe kingdom of God (4:7–17), making his simple request,“Remember my chains” (4:18), sound more like an act ofdefiance than a pitiful plea.
A physical disorder characterized by repeated seizures, alsocalled the “falling sickness” and “sacred disease.”The seizures often were attributed to the divine or supernatural as aform of possession. Some trace the behavior of Saul (1Sam.16:14–16) and Ezekiel (Ezek. 3:26), as well as Paul’s“thorn in the flesh” (2Cor. 12:1–7), to thiscondition. Matthew’s presentation of Jesus’ exorcism ofthe demon-possessed youth employs the Greek term selēniazomai(lit., “moonstruck”; NIV: “seizures”), whichwas associated with epilepsy in the Greco-Roman world (Matt. 17:15;cf. Ps. 121:6).
Generally speaking, in Scripture the word “fool” is used to describe someone in a morally deprived state. It does not, as in contemporary American usage, refer to a person’s lack of intellectual ability or to one whose actions convey those of a buffoon. Terms for “fool” appear all through Scripture, but wisdom literature contains the highest concentration. Proverbs uses over half a dozen words to describe the fool. All of them indicate some kind of moral breach and fall on a scale from the most morally hardened to the naive.
Obstinacy, recalcitrance, and closed-mindedness characterize the morally dense fool. Such individuals have no use for advice from others because they are “wise in their own eyes” (Prov. 3:7; cf. 12:15; 16:2). Fools frequently scoff at correction and rebuke (9:7–8, 12; 13:1; 14:6; 15:12; 19:25; 20:1; 21:11, 24; 22:10; 24:9). They manifest arrogance (21:24). Fools do not learn from their own mistakes or those of others but instead often repeat them (26:11). One of the main problems is that fools “lack sense,” which ultimately implies that they lack character (see 6:32; 7:7; 9:4, 16; 10:13, 21; 11:12; 12:11; 15:21; 17:18; 24:30). Such a person consistently makes poor decisions and loses the appetite and passion necessary for acquiring wisdom.
According to the book of Proverbs, three qualities make up the essential nature of the fool. First, the fool is unwilling to learn by means of discipline (3:11–12; 17:10), or formal instruction (17:16), or a word of advice (12:15), or personal experience (26:11). Second, the fool lacks self-control. Both the speech (15:2) and the behavior (14:16) of fools demonstrate a lack of restraint. They take the path of least resistance to easy money (1:8–19) and easy sex (7:6–27). Third, the fool is the one who rejects the fear of the Lord (1:7).
All half a dozen terms used for “fool” indicate, to one degree or another, a moral breach. The one exception is peti, the word used to indicate the “simple” (e.g., Prov. 1:4; 19:25; 21:11). This word is at the other end of the moral spectrum from “fool” and refers to one who is young, vulnerable, and inexperienced. The simple are the gullible, impressionable persons. These individuals can be influenced for either good or ill, depending on whom they listen to. Both Woman Wisdom and Woman Folly make compelling calls to the simple (Prov. 9:6, 16). This simple youth will make moral mistakes along the way, but the peti has yet to harden into a full-fledged fool, one who is incorrigible and unteachable.
In the NT, the fool is the one who does not trust in God or in the power that God displays through the resurrection of Christ (Luke 24:25; Rom. 1:22; 1Cor. 15:36). Jesus makes references to the fool when he tells the stories of the wise and foolish builders (Matt. 7:24–27) and the wise and foolish maidens (Matt. 25:1–13). Paul uses the term “foolish” to rebuke the Galatians for their refusal to accept the gospel (Gal. 3:1). However, in his correspondence with the church in Corinth, Paul reverses the conventional understanding of folly and uses it as a rhetorical strategy to communicate his message. He speaks of the message of the cross as foolishness to the world (1Cor. 1:18). On another occasion, in order to argue against the arrogance of his opponents, Paul engages in “a little foolishness” (2Cor. 11:1) as he boasts about his ministry, which is riddled with failure (2Cor. 11–12).
Colossians is a letter sent by Paul to a church in Colossaewhen he was in prison. The letter was Paul’s first directcontact with the church, which may have been started by one of hismissionary associates, Epaphras (Col. 1:7). Epaphras was fromColossae (4:12), a city of Asia Minor located in the Lycus Valley,known for its fertile soil and green pastures. Some commentatorssuggest that Epaphras also started churches in Hierapolis andLaodicea (4:13), neighboring cities in the valley that were situatedaround the Lycus River about ten miles apart. Colossae was a freecity located on the main Roman road that ran from Ephesus and Sardistoward the east, and it was populated by native Phrygians, as well asGreeks, Romans, and Jews. More than likely, the church was foundedduring Paul’s extended ministry in Ephesus, where persons fromthe region heard Paul’s gospel and from where Paul sentmissionary associates such as Epaphras into the surrounding cities(Acts 19). Tychicus, the letter carrier (Col. 4:7–8), was alsoone of Paul’s associates from the same region; he decided toaccompany Paul to Macedonia after the team left Ephesus (Acts 20:4).
Theclose association of these churches in Asia Minor and the time framewhen the letters were written may explain why Paul’s letter tothe Colossians is so similar in content to his letter to theEphesians. Paul was in prison (probably in Rome) when he sent both ofthese letters (Eph. 3:1; Col. 4:10, 18). The instructions regardingTychicus, the carrier for both letters, are identical, nearlyverbatim (Eph. 6:21–22; Col. 4:7–8). The letters sharethe same outline, following some of the same themes, especiallytoward the end, where Paul gives instructions regarding thehousehold. An affinity also exists between Colossians and Philemon, aletter sent to the patron of one of the house churches in Colossae.Most of the names mentioned by Paul appear in both letters: Timothy,Onesimus, Archippus, Epaphras, Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke(Col. 1:1; 4:9–17; Philem. 1, 10, 23–24). Paul was alsoin prison, along with Epaphras, at the time he sent his letter toPhilemon. All of this indicates that these letters were written aboutthe same time, from the same place, to the same region. Why did Paulsend three letters to the same region, especially since letterproduction was so expensive? Why not send one letter to the entireregion (like Galatians), to be read by all the house churches?Obviously, the problems of each church were so different that theyrequired a separate authoritative word from their apostle.
QuestionablePractices in Colossae
TheColossians were doing several things that Paul found troublesome, aswe learn from Col. 2. They were judging each other for not keepingcertain dietary regulations and holy days (2:16). Some were claimingsuperiority through personal worship experiences that involvedvisions of angels (2:18). Some subscribed to strict discipline of thehuman body, punishing themselves through various acts ofself-abasem*nt in order to curb fleshly appetites (2:23) and enhancetheir worship experiences (2:18). It seems that many of them weretrying to live by an expanded version of the divine command given inthe story of Adam, Eve, and the forbidden fruit: “Do nothandle! Do not taste! Do not touch!” (2:21). Paul recognizedthat all these claims and rules had the “appearance of wisdom”but in reality were nothing more than traditions based on“self-imposed” religion, and that such ascetic practiceswere useless in denying fleshly appetites (2:22–23). Where didthe Colossians get all these strange ideas that led to such bizarrebehavior?
Pauldescribed the false teaching as an imprisoning “through hollowand deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and theelemental spiritual forces” in opposition to the teachings ofChrist (2:8). Because the Colossian church was made up primarily ofGentile converts (1:27), many interpreters argue that the problemsresulted from the meshing of the gospel with local, pagan ways. ThePhrygians were known for their fascination with magical rituals, theability to manipulate the powers (earth, wind, fire, spirits, angels,often referred to as “elementary principles of the world”)for human purposes. Paul’s description of the false teaching asa “hollow and deceptive philosophy” based on the “humantradition” may also reveal the influence of Greek ideas andRoman ways in the church. The Greeks operated with a dualisticworldview of spirit versus flesh, leading some philosophers to arguethat punishing the body ensured purity of the soul. Furthermore, theRomans believed that the gods had given them power to rule the world,bringing fertility to the lands of conquered peoples. WorshipingCaesar brought economic rewards to devoted subjects of the empire. Inother words, all this talk in the Colossian letter about power andsovereignty, philosophy and self-discipline was Paul’s way ofdealing directly with the root of the problem: the syncretism ofpagan ways and the gospel according to Paul.
Someinterpreters believe that all these peculiar teachings derive notfrom pagan religions but rather from Judaism. After all, Paul’sreferences to observing the Sabbath, keeping commandments, andangelic worship point toward a Jewish context. Paul also affirmedthat his Gentile converts were “circumcised with a circumcisionnot performed by human hands” (2:11), perhaps revealing hisconcern that Jewish ways were creeping into his Gentile church. Heeven put the church on notice, identifying those among “thecircumcision” (Jews) who were trustworthy ministers of thegospel (he mentions only three, Barnabas, John Mark, and Jesus calledJustus [4:10–11]). The implication, of course, was to ignorethe rest of “the circumcision.” But if the troublemakersin Colossae were Jewish opponents of Paul, how does one explain allthe mystical and ascetic elements of this false teaching? Some arguethat the expression “worship of angels” was not anidolatrous practice of venerating angelic beings. Instead, the phraseshould be translated “angelic worship,” implying thatsome Colossians claimed to have been transported to heaven and joinedthe angels in worship of God. This may have been similar to theexperiences of an obscure form of Judaism: Jewish mystics who claimedto preserve esoteric revelations through out-of-body experiences ofheavenly visions and auditions (see Paul’s description in2 Cor. 12:1–7). Furthermore, the strict dietary code andsexual ethic of Jewish law were often interpreted by first-centurypagans as promoting an ascetic lifestyle. In other words, Paul wascountering a more cryptic branch of Judaism that flourished in aregion known for its affinity for the mysterious.
Outlineand Content
I.Introduction (1:1–14)
A.Greeting (1:1–2)
B.Thanksgiving (1:3–8)
C.Prayer (1:9–14)
II.The Person and Work of Christ (1:15–23)
III.Paul’s Role in Christ’s Mission to the Gentiles(1:24–2:5)
IV.False Teaching versus the Work of Christ (2:6–23)
V.Instructions on Life in Christ
A.In the church (3:1–17)
B.In the home (3:18–4:1)
VI.Generic Exhortations (4:2–6)
VII.Specific Instructions (4:7–9)
VIII.Final Greetings (4:10–17)
IX.Paul’s Signature (4:18)
Whateverthe source of the false teaching referred to in Colossians, Paulattempts to correct the misbehavior of his Gentile converts bybuilding an argument that the work of Christ is all-sufficient. Paulbegins the letter by describing the person and work of Christ incosmic terms (1:15–23). Next he recounts his role in themission of Christ to bring the riches of the kingdom to Gentiles(1:24–2:5). After reminding the Colossians of their receptionof the gospel, Paul juxtaposes the deceptive practices of the falseteaching with the evidence of the work of Christ in them (2:6–23).Then he gives a number of instructions on what life in Christ issupposed to look like: in the church (3:1–17) and in the home(3:18–4:1). He concludes the letter with generic exhortations(4:2–6), specific instructions (4:7–9), and greetings(4:10–17). Finally, Paul signs the letter, obviously written bya secretary, with the simple request: “Remember my chains”(4:18)—a curious signature that makes the argument of hisletter even more appealing.
ThePower and Peace of Christ’s Kingdom
Itis ironic that Paul chose to describe the work of Christ in suchgrandiose terms, picturing him as a mighty ruler over all creation,even while the apostle was in prison—an undeniable sign ofRoman sovereignty. In Col. 1, in some of the loftiest language Paulever used to describe Christ’s kingdom authority, the apostlereminds his converts that the Lord is “the image of theinvisible God, the firstborn over all creation” (v. 15),an obvious reference to Christ’s deity. Then Paul piles on theattributes, presenting Christ as the creator of all things, evenangelic creatures (v. 16), the sustainer of all things (v. 17),the head of the church, the eternal one, the guarantor of theresurrection (v. 18), the fullness of God (v. 19), thereconciler of all things—the one who made peace with theenemies of God through his blood on the cross (vv. 20–22).Despite Paul’s circ*mstances and what Rome may claim, theapostle holds fast to the irrepressible sovereignty of Christ’skingdom, displayed by Paul’s perseverance in the midst ofsuffering and the full assurance that every Colossian believer is“fully mature in Christ” (vv. 22–29). Indeed, allthe treasures of Christ’s kingdom—love, knowledge,wisdom, discipline—are to be found in the life of his converts(2:1–5), unless someone “deludes” them intothinking otherwise.
Paul’srhetorical strategy of extolling the power of Christ’s kingdommakes perfect sense in light of the false teaching that was plaguingthe Colossian church. Apparently, the Colossians were persuaded tofeel inadequate about their faith, vulnerable to the imposition oflegalistic standards that ensured victory over fleshly indulgences.To counter his opponents, Paul unpacks the significance of theincarnation and the cross (2:9–15). Because Christ was God inflesh (in whom “all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodilyform” [v. 9]), his death on the cross was a cosmic eventthat defeated all the powers that oppose God. Using military imagery,Paul argues that Christ canceled every debt against humanity when henailed all “decrees” (even Caesar’s) to the cross.In that singular act of sacrifice, Christ disarmed the foes of God,humiliating them publicly by making a spectacle of them, triumphingover all powers (v. 15)—something that Caesar loved to doafter successful military campaigns. Therefore, if Christ’svictory over all powers has been secured through his death, and sincehe rules as the firstborn of the dead (resurrection) over allcreation, and since the Colossians are “fully mature in Christ”(1:28) because of their faith in him, then no pretense ofself-abasem*nt or angelic visions can diminish what Christ has doneand will continue to do in the lives of Paul’s converts inColossae. Christ is all they needed to overcome the powers.
InCol. 3, Paul tells how the Colossians draw upon the power of Christwhen they “set [their] minds on things above, not on earthlythings” (v. 2). The things on the earth are “sexualimmorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed” (v. 5).Paul believes that his converts died with Christ (“hidden withChrist in God” [v. 3]) and therefore had set aside allthese idolatrous practices when they put on the “new self,”being conformed to the image of Christ (vv. 8–10). This renewalwill be found in all believers, regardless of ethnicity (v. 11),and will result in peace for all. Indeed, Paul sees the “peaceof Christ” as the undeniable evidence of his reign exhibited inthe hearts of those who believe (vv. 12–15). And what wouldthat peace look like? Believers will be patient, forgiving oneanother with hearts full of compassion, kindness, humility,gentleness, and love resulting in unity (vv. 12–14). Theirworship of God will be characterized by songs of thankfulness andadmonition, receiving the word with wisdom (v. 16). In theirhomes husbands, wives, and children will model deference and love,and masters and slaves will seek justice and fairness, as if theywere serving Christ (3:18–4:1). The Colossians will be devotedto prayer, will treat outsiders fairly, and will be known for alwaysspeaking graceful words (4:2–6). In other words, where Caesar’sempire has promoted Roman peace by enforcing Roman law in provinces,cities, and households, Paul believes that the peace of Christ willrule the hearts of his subjects, establishing a kingdom of love andunity, in word and deed, in the home as well as the church. So, inhis final greetings, Paul talks about faithful slaves and belovedsiblings as sources of encouragement in the ever-expanding work ofthe kingdom of God (4:7–17), making his simple request,“Remember my chains” (4:18), sound more like an act ofdefiance than a pitiful plea.
Common and valuable for food, beans were cooked while green in the pods or after being dried. Dry beans were threshed and winnowed like cereals and other grains. Beans are mentioned twice in the NIV (2Sam. 17:28; Ezek. 4:9).
A Pharisee commissioned by Jesus Christ to preach the gospelto Gentiles. His Jewish name was “Saul” (Acts 9:4; 13:9),but he preferred using his Roman name, especially when he signed hisletters. Actually, “Paul” was his last name. Romancitizens had three names; the last name was the family name, calledthe “cognomen.” We do not know Paul’s first andmiddle Roman name, but his last name is derived from the Latin Paulus(Sergius Paulus, the proconsul of Cyprus, had the same family name[13:7]). Most people were known and called by their last name becausegroup identity was more important in the first-century Mediterraneanworld than individual recognition. For example, when speakingpublicly, Paul did not use his favorite self-designations, “apostleto the Gentiles” or “slave of Christ Jesus”;instead, he identified himself as a Jew, a citizen of Tarsus, astudent of Gamaliel (21:39; 22:3). His social identity was embeddedin his ethnicity, his nativity, his religion. However, even thosecategories cannot adequately describe Paul. He was a Jew but also aRoman citizen. Tarsus was his home (11:25–26), but he claimedthat he was brought up in Jerusalem. He spoke Aramaic but wrote Greekletters. He was once a Pharisee but then preached a circumcision-freegospel to Gentiles. In many respects, Paul is an enigma. Who was he?What did he believe? Why did he think he had to leave his previouslife in Judaism to become the apostle to the Gentiles? Why is he oneof the major contributors to the NT even though he was not a followerof the historical Jesus?
Paul’sLife
Paulas a converted Pharisee.Paul spent the first half of his life as a Pharisee. The Phariseeswere a Jewish sect that emphasized obedience to the law of God as themeans of maintaining holiness. Practically all Jews believed thatthey should obey the law, but what made the Pharisees unique wastheir emphasis on applying all commandments, even those intended onlyfor Levites and priests, to all Jews. For example, priests wererequired to keep certain rituals of hand washing before they ate(Lev. 22:1–9; cf. Exod 30:19–21; 40:31–32). So thePharisees extended these requirements to all Israel in order to showGod how serious they were about obeying the law (Mark 7:3–4).Obedience was crucial to God’s blessing; disobedience broughtGod’s curse. Therefore, the Pharisees established manytraditions, going beyond the letter of the law, to ensure compliance.To what extent the Jewish people followed the example of thePharisees is debated, but certainly it appeared to the people that noone was more zealous for God and his law than the Pharisees—azeal that would compel them to join in the stoning of obviousoffenders (Lev. 24:14; Acts 7:58). As a Pharisee, Paul’s zealfor the law led him to persecute Jewish Christians, not only inJerusalem but also outside Israel, in places such as Damascus (Acts8:3; 9:1–3; 22:4–5; Gal. 1:13–14; Phil. 3:6).Neither Paul nor Luke explains what the Pharisees found objectionableabout this Jewish movement known as “the Way.” In fact,Paul’s teacher, Gamaliel, advised the Sanhedrin to ignoremembers of the Way and not make trouble for them (Acts5:34–39)—advice obviously not taken by Paul. Perhaps itwas Jesus’ reputation as a lawbreaker or the fact that he haddied a cursed death according to the law that convinced Paul toimprison Jesus’ disciples (Deut. 21:23). Whatever the reason,Paul saw his role as persecutor of the church as the ultimate proofof his blamelessness under the law (Phil. 3:6).
AfterChrist appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus, everything changed:his life, his mission, his worldview (Acts 9:3–30). Paul leftPharisaism and immediately began preaching the gospel (Gal. 1:11–17).Those whom he persecuted were now friends. His zeal for the law wasreplaced by his zeal for Christ. It was a radical reversal. The rumorspread quickly: “The man who formerly persecuted us is nowpreaching the faith he once tried to destroy” (Gal. 1:23). Whythe sudden change? Some think that it is what Paul saw—theglorified Messiah—that changed his perspective. Theresurrection of Christ turned the curse of the cross into a blessing,death into life, shame into honor. The appearance of Christ(Christophany) was a revelation, an apocalypse, an end-of-the-worldevent for Paul. Old things passed away; everything became new (2Cor.5:17). What was divided under the old age of the law—Jews andGentiles, male and female, slave and free—was united in Christ.Other scholars emphasize it is what Paul heard during theChristophany that changed the course of his life. Paul interpretedChrist’s charge, “Go, preach to the Gentiles,” as aprophetic calling, perhaps even fulfilling Isaiah’s end-timevision of salvation of the whole world (Isa. 49:1–7; Gal.1:15–16). Thus, Paul’s westward push to take the gospelto the coastlands (Spain) was by divine design (Rom. 15:15–24).God commissioned Saul the Pharisee of the Jews to become Paul theapostle to the Gentiles because “the culmination of the ageshas come” (1Cor. 10:11).
Paul’sministry.By our best estimates, Paul spent about thirty years preaching thegospel of Jesus Christ (AD 34–67)—a ministry that can bedivided roughly into three decades. The first decade of his ministry(AD 34–46) has been called the “silent years,” aswe have few details from Acts or the Pauline Epistles about hisactivities. For example, we know that he preached in Damascus for awhile and spent some time in Arabia (a total of three years [Gal.1:17–18]). He made a quick trip to Jerusalem to meet Peter andJames the brother of Jesus. Then he returned home to Tarsus,evidently preaching there for several years, until Barnabas broughthim to Antioch in Syria to help with the ministry of this mixedcongregation of Jews and Gentiles (Acts 9:26–30; 11:25–26).In the second decade of his ministry (AD 46–59), Paul spentmost of his life on the road, an itinerant ministry of preaching thegospel and planting churches from Cyprus to Corinth. For most of thethird decade (AD 59–67), Paul ministered the gospel fromprison, spending over two years imprisoned in Caesarea, another twoto three years in a Roman prison (Acts ends here), released for abrief time (two years?) before his final arrest and imprisonment inRome, where, according to church tradition, he was executed.
Duringhis itinerant ministry, Paul traveled Roman roads that led him tofree cities (Ephesus, Thessalonica, Athens) and Roman colonies(Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, Derbe, Troas, Philippi, Corinth).Founding churches in urban centers afforded Paul more opportunitiesfor ministry and for his work of making and repairing tents.Traveling within the borders of the Roman Empire also provided abetter chance of protection as a citizen. At first, Paul and Barnabascovered familiar territory: Cyprus (Barnabas’s home region) andAnatolia (Paul’s home region). Then, with successive journeysPaul and other missionary companions branched out to Asia Minor,Macedonia, and Achaia. Some of the towns that Paul visited were smalland provincial (Derbe, Lystra); others were major cities of greateconomic and intellectual commerce (Ephesus, Corinth, Athens). In themidst of such cultural diversity, Paul found receptive ears among avariety of ethnic groups: Gauls, Phrygians and Lycaonians, Greeks,Romans, and Jews. Previously, Paul’s Gentile converts hadworshiped many gods (local, ethnic, and imperial), offered sacrificesat many shrines and temples, and joined in all the religiousfestivals (often involving immoral and ungodly practices). Afterbelieving the gospel, Paul’s predominantly Gentile churchesturned from their idolatrous ways to serve “the living and trueGod” (1Thess. 1:9). Their exclusive devotion to one Godquickly led to economic and political problems, for both Paul’sconverts and the cities of their residence. No more offerings forpatron gods, no more support for local synagogues or the imperialcult—Paul’s converts were often persecuted for theirnewly found faith by local religious guilds (idol makers!) and civicleaders courting Roman favor (Acts 17:6–9; 19:23–41;Phil. 1:27–30; 1Thess. 2:14–16). Indeed, Paul oftenwas run out of town as a troublemaker who preached a message thatthreatened both the Jewish and the Roman ways of life (Acts 16:19–24;Phil. 3:17–4:1). It is no wonder that Paul’s activitieseventually landed him in a Roman prison. It was only a matter of timebefore his reputation as a “lawbreaker” caught up withhim (Acts 21:21). But that did not stop Paul. Whether as a prisoneror a free man, Paul proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ until theday he died.
Paul’sGospel
Thesources of Paul’s gospel.Paul ministered his entire life without the benefit of literaryGospels. Most scholars think that the earliest Gospel, Mark, waswritten about the time that Paul was martyred. Since Paul was not adisciple of Jesus and probably never heard him speak or witnessed hisearthly ministry, how did Paul know what to preach? Where did Paulget his gospel? Paul mentioned four sources. First, he received oraltraditions about Jesus from other Christians (1Cor. 15:1–7).For him, hearing what happened during the Lord’s Supper fromthose who followed Jesus was the same as receiving it from the Lord(1Cor. 11:23). Second, the Hebrew Scriptures were a majorsource of Paul’s gospel (Acts 17:2). Illumined by the HolySpirit, Paul saw the gospel proclaimed in the law (Rom. 10:6–8)and predicted by the prophets (15:12). Third, in addition to theChristophany on the road to Damascus, Paul experienced revelations ofChrist as epiphanies of the gospel (Acts 18:9–10; 26:18). Thisgave Paul the authority to claim that he received his gospelpreeminently from Christ (Gal. 1:1, 16; 2:2). Fourth, Paul saw lifeexperiences as a resource for the gospel (2Cor. 12:7–10).As Paul made sense of what happened to him, he shared these insightswith his converts as proof that “Christ is speaking through me”(2Cor. 13:3–4). Indeed, Paul’s ways of doing thegospel were to be taught in all the churches as gospel truth (1Cor.4:17), because as far as Paul was concerned, the gospel of JesusChrist was the gospel according to Paul.
Thedeath and resurrection of Jesus Christ.The center of Paul’s gospel was the death and resurrection ofJesus. The essence of what he preached was “Jesus Christ andhim crucified” (1Cor. 2:2). Furthermore, the resurrectionof Christ was indispensable to the gospel that Paul proclaimed.Without the resurrection, Paul argued, faith in Christ would be vainbecause believers would still be dead in their sins with no hope oflife after death—the resurrection of their bodies (1Cor.15:13–19). Exploring the center, Paul used several metaphorsdrawn from everyday life to explain the significance of Christ’swork on the cross. Paul used legal terms such as“justification”/“righteousness,” “law,”and “condemnation” when he explained how sinners arejustified by faith in Christ. Paul described the implications ofChrist’s death in religious terms, using words such as“sacrifice,” “sin,”“propitiation”/“expiation” (NIV: “sacrificeof atonement”), and “temple,” which would makesense to both Jews and Gentiles. He also borrowed words from theworld of commerce, such as “redemption,” “purchase,”and “slave,” especially when he emphasized the obedienceof Christ, of Paul, of all believers. He even used military terms todescribe how God turned enemies into friends through the cross: the“reconciliation” that came through the “victory”of Christ’s death when he “disarmed” the “powers.”
Paulalso relied heavily on Jewish theology as he sorted out the work ofGod in Christ Jesus. Paul was a monotheist but attributed divinestatus to Jesus (Phil. 2:6). Paul believed that Israel was God’schosen people but maintained that his Gentile converts were theelect, calling them the “Israel of God” (Gal. 6:16). Paulaffirmed the law was holy but argued that holiness came only throughthe indwelling Spirit (Rom. 7:12; 1Thess. 4:7–8). Paulbelieved that the Messiah’s appearance would bring about theend of the world but looked forward to Christ’s parousia(“appearance”) at the end of time. In other words, theperson and work of Christ formed the lens through which Paulinterpreted the Bible and made sense of the world. Indeed, Paul’sgospel was built on a foundation of Jewish doctrine, Jesus tradition,and religious experience.
Away of life.For Paul, the gospel was more than a set of beliefs; it was a way oflife. To believe in Christ Jesus not only entailed accepting hissacrificial death as atonement for sin but also meant followingChrist by taking up his cross—a life of sacrifice. Paulbelieved that he experienced the cross of Christ every time heendured hardship, every time he was persecuted, every time hesuffered loss (Phil. 3:7–11). And it was in the crucified lifethat Paul found resurrection power (3:12–21). The gospel wasthe divine paradigm for living. What happened to Christ is whathappened to Paul, and what happened to Paul is what would happen toall his converts. “Follow my example,” he wrote, “asI follow the example of Christ” (1Cor. 11:1). In fact,Paul believed that all Christians were constantly being conformed tothe image of God’s Son (Rom. 8:29). He was convinced that Godwould finish what he had started: the perfecting of his convertsuntil the day of Christ’s return and the resurrection of everybeliever (Phil. 1:6; 3:21). The only thing that his converts neededto imitate Christ was the indwelling power of his Spirit (the HolySpirit), the example of Paul’s life, and a letter every now andthen from their apostle.
Paul’sLetters
Paulsent letters to churches and individuals to inform his converts ofhis situation, offer encouragement, answer questions, and addressproblems that developed while he was away. There are thirteen lettersof Paul in the New Testament. Nine were written to churches or groupsof churches (Romans; 1 and 2Corinthians; Galatians; Ephesians;Philippians; Colossions; 1 and 2Thessalonians) and four toindividuals (1 and 2Timothy; Titus; Philemon).
Paulthe apostle.In most of his letters, Paul was on the defense: defending hisapostleship, defending his itinerary, defending his gospel.Evidently, Paul’s opponents questioned whether Paul deserved tobe called “apostle,” since he had not followed thehistorical Jesus and used to persecute the church (1Cor.15:8–9). According to Acts, when the first Christians decidedto replace Judas Iscariot as one of the twelve apostles, theyestablished the following criterion: the candidate must have been afollower of Jesus from his baptism to his ascension (Acts 1:21–22).Two men were qualified; one was chosen by divine lot, implying thatthere could be only twelve. Did the early church’s decision torecognize only twelve apostles define apostleship once and for all?Paul did not think so. He recognized the significance of the Twelve,but he believed that there were other apostles as well: Bar-na-bas,James the brother of Jesus, and himself (1Cor. 15:5–9;Gal. 2:8–9). Paul knew that there were false apostles causingtrouble in the churches (2Cor. 11:13), some even carrying“letters of recommendation” (2Cor. 3:1). But onlythose who had seen the resurrected Christ and were commissioned byhim to preach the gospel were legitimate apostles (1Cor.9:1–2). The signs of apostleship were evident when thecommission was fulfilled: planting churches and dispensing the Spirit(2Cor. 3:2; 12:12; Gal. 3:5). Of all people, Paul’sconverts should have never questioned the authority of their apostle.They were the proof of his apostleship.
AlthoughPaul never mentioned this, the fact that he sent letters is evidenceof his apostleship. Paul believed that the obedience of Gentileconverts was his responsibility, a confirmation of his calling (Rom.15:18–19). So he sent letters to make sure that they werekeeping the traditions that he had taught them (1Cor. 11:2).Sometimes, all that his readers needed was a little encouragement tokeep up the good work (most of 1Thessalonians and 2Timothyare exhortations to keep doing what they were doing) or a moredetailed explanation of what they already knew (Ephesians,Philippians, 1Timothy, Titus). Many times, Paul sent letters tocorrect major problems within his churches. For example, some of theGalatians were submitting to the law and being circumcised (Gal.4:21; 5:2–7). Some of the Colossians were involved in strangepractices of asceticism and angel worship (Col. 2:16–23). Someof the Thessalonians had quit working for a living (2Thess.3:6–15). And, worst of all, the Corinthians were plagued withall kinds of problems: factions, lawsuits, incest, prostitutes,idolatry. Some of the Corinthians were also espousing falsetheological ideas, such as denying the resurrection (1Cor.15:12). Other churches had problems sorting out Paul’s theologyas well. For example, the Thessalonians were confused about lifeafter death, end times, and the return of Christ (1Thess.4:13–18; 2Thess. 2:1–12), and the Romans needed,among other things, instruction about the role of Israel in the lastdays (Rom. 9:1–11:32). The fact that Paul felt obliged to sendhis lengthiest letter, loaded with some of his most sophisticatedtheological arguments, to the church in Rome, which he did not startand had not visited, says much about the way Paul saw the authorityof his apostleship. Because he was the apostle to the Gentiles, Pauloperated as if he were the mentor of all churches with Gentilemembers.
Churchunity.Paul believed in the unity of the church. Indeed, he used severalmetaphors to help his readers see why it was important that one Lordand one faith should form one church. He described the church as atemple (1Cor. 3:16–17), a family (Eph. 2:19), and abody—his favorite metaphor (1Cor. 12:12–27). Hewarned of desecrating the temple with divisive teaching and immoralbehavior (1Cor. 3:1–6:20). He rebuked his children whenthey refused to obey him as their father (1Cor. 3:14–21)or mother (Gal. 4:19–20). And, more than any other analogy,Paul likened the church to a human body that could be maimed byprejudice and threatened by sickness (1Cor. 11:17–34). Tohim, a dismembered body was an unholy body; a segregated church meantthat Christ was divided (1Cor. 1:10–13). The ethnic,religious, social, political, geographical, and economic differencesevident in one of the most diverse collections of people in thefirst-century Mediterranean world made Paul’s vision of aunified church appear like an impossible dream. Yet the apostle tothe Gentiles believed that the unity of the body of Christ wasindispensable not only to his mission but also to the gospel of JesusChrist (Eph. 4:1–6). So he collected a relief offering amonghis Gentile converts to help poor Jewish Christians in Jerusalem(Rom. 15:26–27). He taught masters to treat their slaves likesiblings (Philem. 16). And he solicited Romans to fund his missiontrip to Spain (Rom. 15:24). As far as Paul was concerned, the gospelbrought down every wall that divides humanity because all people needsalvation in Christ (Eph. 2:14–18).
Conclusion
Paulwas a tentmaker, a missionary, a writer, a preacher, a teacher, atheologian, an evangelist, a mentor, a prophet, a miracle worker, aprisoner, and a martyr. His life story reads like the tale of threedifferent men: a devout Pharisee, a tireless traveler, an ambitiouswriter. He knew the Scriptures better than did most people. He sawmore of the world than did most merchants. He wrote some of thelongest letters known at that time. To his converts, he was afaithful friend. To his opponents, he was an irrepressibletroublemaker. But, according to Paul, he was nothing more or lessthan the man whom God had called through Jesus Christ to take thegospel to the ends of the earth.
A Pharisee commissioned by Jesus Christ to preach the gospelto Gentiles. His Jewish name was “Saul” (Acts 9:4; 13:9),but he preferred using his Roman name, especially when he signed hisletters. Actually, “Paul” was his last name. Romancitizens had three names; the last name was the family name, calledthe “cognomen.” We do not know Paul’s first andmiddle Roman name, but his last name is derived from the Latin Paulus(Sergius Paulus, the proconsul of Cyprus, had the same family name[13:7]). Most people were known and called by their last name becausegroup identity was more important in the first-century Mediterraneanworld than individual recognition. For example, when speakingpublicly, Paul did not use his favorite self-designations, “apostleto the Gentiles” or “slave of Christ Jesus”;instead, he identified himself as a Jew, a citizen of Tarsus, astudent of Gamaliel (21:39; 22:3). His social identity was embeddedin his ethnicity, his nativity, his religion. However, even thosecategories cannot adequately describe Paul. He was a Jew but also aRoman citizen. Tarsus was his home (11:25–26), but he claimedthat he was brought up in Jerusalem. He spoke Aramaic but wrote Greekletters. He was once a Pharisee but then preached a circumcision-freegospel to Gentiles. In many respects, Paul is an enigma. Who was he?What did he believe? Why did he think he had to leave his previouslife in Judaism to become the apostle to the Gentiles? Why is he oneof the major contributors to the NT even though he was not a followerof the historical Jesus?
Paul’sLife
Paulas a converted Pharisee.Paul spent the first half of his life as a Pharisee. The Phariseeswere a Jewish sect that emphasized obedience to the law of God as themeans of maintaining holiness. Practically all Jews believed thatthey should obey the law, but what made the Pharisees unique wastheir emphasis on applying all commandments, even those intended onlyfor Levites and priests, to all Jews. For example, priests wererequired to keep certain rituals of hand washing before they ate(Lev. 22:1–9; cf. Exod 30:19–21; 40:31–32). So thePharisees extended these requirements to all Israel in order to showGod how serious they were about obeying the law (Mark 7:3–4).Obedience was crucial to God’s blessing; disobedience broughtGod’s curse. Therefore, the Pharisees established manytraditions, going beyond the letter of the law, to ensure compliance.To what extent the Jewish people followed the example of thePharisees is debated, but certainly it appeared to the people that noone was more zealous for God and his law than the Pharisees—azeal that would compel them to join in the stoning of obviousoffenders (Lev. 24:14; Acts 7:58). As a Pharisee, Paul’s zealfor the law led him to persecute Jewish Christians, not only inJerusalem but also outside Israel, in places such as Damascus (Acts8:3; 9:1–3; 22:4–5; Gal. 1:13–14; Phil. 3:6).Neither Paul nor Luke explains what the Pharisees found objectionableabout this Jewish movement known as “the Way.” In fact,Paul’s teacher, Gamaliel, advised the Sanhedrin to ignoremembers of the Way and not make trouble for them (Acts5:34–39)—advice obviously not taken by Paul. Perhaps itwas Jesus’ reputation as a lawbreaker or the fact that he haddied a cursed death according to the law that convinced Paul toimprison Jesus’ disciples (Deut. 21:23). Whatever the reason,Paul saw his role as persecutor of the church as the ultimate proofof his blamelessness under the law (Phil. 3:6).
AfterChrist appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus, everything changed:his life, his mission, his worldview (Acts 9:3–30). Paul leftPharisaism and immediately began preaching the gospel (Gal. 1:11–17).Those whom he persecuted were now friends. His zeal for the law wasreplaced by his zeal for Christ. It was a radical reversal. The rumorspread quickly: “The man who formerly persecuted us is nowpreaching the faith he once tried to destroy” (Gal. 1:23). Whythe sudden change? Some think that it is what Paul saw—theglorified Messiah—that changed his perspective. Theresurrection of Christ turned the curse of the cross into a blessing,death into life, shame into honor. The appearance of Christ(Christophany) was a revelation, an apocalypse, an end-of-the-worldevent for Paul. Old things passed away; everything became new (2Cor.5:17). What was divided under the old age of the law—Jews andGentiles, male and female, slave and free—was united in Christ.Other scholars emphasize it is what Paul heard during theChristophany that changed the course of his life. Paul interpretedChrist’s charge, “Go, preach to the Gentiles,” as aprophetic calling, perhaps even fulfilling Isaiah’s end-timevision of salvation of the whole world (Isa. 49:1–7; Gal.1:15–16). Thus, Paul’s westward push to take the gospelto the coastlands (Spain) was by divine design (Rom. 15:15–24).God commissioned Saul the Pharisee of the Jews to become Paul theapostle to the Gentiles because “the culmination of the ageshas come” (1Cor. 10:11).
Paul’sministry.By our best estimates, Paul spent about thirty years preaching thegospel of Jesus Christ (AD 34–67)—a ministry that can bedivided roughly into three decades. The first decade of his ministry(AD 34–46) has been called the “silent years,” aswe have few details from Acts or the Pauline Epistles about hisactivities. For example, we know that he preached in Damascus for awhile and spent some time in Arabia (a total of three years [Gal.1:17–18]). He made a quick trip to Jerusalem to meet Peter andJames the brother of Jesus. Then he returned home to Tarsus,evidently preaching there for several years, until Barnabas broughthim to Antioch in Syria to help with the ministry of this mixedcongregation of Jews and Gentiles (Acts 9:26–30; 11:25–26).In the second decade of his ministry (AD 46–59), Paul spentmost of his life on the road, an itinerant ministry of preaching thegospel and planting churches from Cyprus to Corinth. For most of thethird decade (AD 59–67), Paul ministered the gospel fromprison, spending over two years imprisoned in Caesarea, another twoto three years in a Roman prison (Acts ends here), released for abrief time (two years?) before his final arrest and imprisonment inRome, where, according to church tradition, he was executed.
Duringhis itinerant ministry, Paul traveled Roman roads that led him tofree cities (Ephesus, Thessalonica, Athens) and Roman colonies(Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, Derbe, Troas, Philippi, Corinth).Founding churches in urban centers afforded Paul more opportunitiesfor ministry and for his work of making and repairing tents.Traveling within the borders of the Roman Empire also provided abetter chance of protection as a citizen. At first, Paul and Barnabascovered familiar territory: Cyprus (Barnabas’s home region) andAnatolia (Paul’s home region). Then, with successive journeysPaul and other missionary companions branched out to Asia Minor,Macedonia, and Achaia. Some of the towns that Paul visited were smalland provincial (Derbe, Lystra); others were major cities of greateconomic and intellectual commerce (Ephesus, Corinth, Athens). In themidst of such cultural diversity, Paul found receptive ears among avariety of ethnic groups: Gauls, Phrygians and Lycaonians, Greeks,Romans, and Jews. Previously, Paul’s Gentile converts hadworshiped many gods (local, ethnic, and imperial), offered sacrificesat many shrines and temples, and joined in all the religiousfestivals (often involving immoral and ungodly practices). Afterbelieving the gospel, Paul’s predominantly Gentile churchesturned from their idolatrous ways to serve “the living and trueGod” (1Thess. 1:9). Their exclusive devotion to one Godquickly led to economic and political problems, for both Paul’sconverts and the cities of their residence. No more offerings forpatron gods, no more support for local synagogues or the imperialcult—Paul’s converts were often persecuted for theirnewly found faith by local religious guilds (idol makers!) and civicleaders courting Roman favor (Acts 17:6–9; 19:23–41;Phil. 1:27–30; 1Thess. 2:14–16). Indeed, Paul oftenwas run out of town as a troublemaker who preached a message thatthreatened both the Jewish and the Roman ways of life (Acts 16:19–24;Phil. 3:17–4:1). It is no wonder that Paul’s activitieseventually landed him in a Roman prison. It was only a matter of timebefore his reputation as a “lawbreaker” caught up withhim (Acts 21:21). But that did not stop Paul. Whether as a prisoneror a free man, Paul proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ until theday he died.
Paul’sGospel
Thesources of Paul’s gospel.Paul ministered his entire life without the benefit of literaryGospels. Most scholars think that the earliest Gospel, Mark, waswritten about the time that Paul was martyred. Since Paul was not adisciple of Jesus and probably never heard him speak or witnessed hisearthly ministry, how did Paul know what to preach? Where did Paulget his gospel? Paul mentioned four sources. First, he received oraltraditions about Jesus from other Christians (1Cor. 15:1–7).For him, hearing what happened during the Lord’s Supper fromthose who followed Jesus was the same as receiving it from the Lord(1Cor. 11:23). Second, the Hebrew Scriptures were a majorsource of Paul’s gospel (Acts 17:2). Illumined by the HolySpirit, Paul saw the gospel proclaimed in the law (Rom. 10:6–8)and predicted by the prophets (15:12). Third, in addition to theChristophany on the road to Damascus, Paul experienced revelations ofChrist as epiphanies of the gospel (Acts 18:9–10; 26:18). Thisgave Paul the authority to claim that he received his gospelpreeminently from Christ (Gal. 1:1, 16; 2:2). Fourth, Paul saw lifeexperiences as a resource for the gospel (2Cor. 12:7–10).As Paul made sense of what happened to him, he shared these insightswith his converts as proof that “Christ is speaking through me”(2Cor. 13:3–4). Indeed, Paul’s ways of doing thegospel were to be taught in all the churches as gospel truth (1Cor.4:17), because as far as Paul was concerned, the gospel of JesusChrist was the gospel according to Paul.
Thedeath and resurrection of Jesus Christ.The center of Paul’s gospel was the death and resurrection ofJesus. The essence of what he preached was “Jesus Christ andhim crucified” (1Cor. 2:2). Furthermore, the resurrectionof Christ was indispensable to the gospel that Paul proclaimed.Without the resurrection, Paul argued, faith in Christ would be vainbecause believers would still be dead in their sins with no hope oflife after death—the resurrection of their bodies (1Cor.15:13–19). Exploring the center, Paul used several metaphorsdrawn from everyday life to explain the significance of Christ’swork on the cross. Paul used legal terms such as“justification”/“righteousness,” “law,”and “condemnation” when he explained how sinners arejustified by faith in Christ. Paul described the implications ofChrist’s death in religious terms, using words such as“sacrifice,” “sin,”“propitiation”/“expiation” (NIV: “sacrificeof atonement”), and “temple,” which would makesense to both Jews and Gentiles. He also borrowed words from theworld of commerce, such as “redemption,” “purchase,”and “slave,” especially when he emphasized the obedienceof Christ, of Paul, of all believers. He even used military terms todescribe how God turned enemies into friends through the cross: the“reconciliation” that came through the “victory”of Christ’s death when he “disarmed” the “powers.”
Paulalso relied heavily on Jewish theology as he sorted out the work ofGod in Christ Jesus. Paul was a monotheist but attributed divinestatus to Jesus (Phil. 2:6). Paul believed that Israel was God’schosen people but maintained that his Gentile converts were theelect, calling them the “Israel of God” (Gal. 6:16). Paulaffirmed the law was holy but argued that holiness came only throughthe indwelling Spirit (Rom. 7:12; 1Thess. 4:7–8). Paulbelieved that the Messiah’s appearance would bring about theend of the world but looked forward to Christ’s parousia(“appearance”) at the end of time. In other words, theperson and work of Christ formed the lens through which Paulinterpreted the Bible and made sense of the world. Indeed, Paul’sgospel was built on a foundation of Jewish doctrine, Jesus tradition,and religious experience.
Away of life.For Paul, the gospel was more than a set of beliefs; it was a way oflife. To believe in Christ Jesus not only entailed accepting hissacrificial death as atonement for sin but also meant followingChrist by taking up his cross—a life of sacrifice. Paulbelieved that he experienced the cross of Christ every time heendured hardship, every time he was persecuted, every time hesuffered loss (Phil. 3:7–11). And it was in the crucified lifethat Paul found resurrection power (3:12–21). The gospel wasthe divine paradigm for living. What happened to Christ is whathappened to Paul, and what happened to Paul is what would happen toall his converts. “Follow my example,” he wrote, “asI follow the example of Christ” (1Cor. 11:1). In fact,Paul believed that all Christians were constantly being conformed tothe image of God’s Son (Rom. 8:29). He was convinced that Godwould finish what he had started: the perfecting of his convertsuntil the day of Christ’s return and the resurrection of everybeliever (Phil. 1:6; 3:21). The only thing that his converts neededto imitate Christ was the indwelling power of his Spirit (the HolySpirit), the example of Paul’s life, and a letter every now andthen from their apostle.
Paul’sLetters
Paulsent letters to churches and individuals to inform his converts ofhis situation, offer encouragement, answer questions, and addressproblems that developed while he was away. There are thirteen lettersof Paul in the New Testament. Nine were written to churches or groupsof churches (Romans; 1 and 2Corinthians; Galatians; Ephesians;Philippians; Colossions; 1 and 2Thessalonians) and four toindividuals (1 and 2Timothy; Titus; Philemon).
Paulthe apostle.In most of his letters, Paul was on the defense: defending hisapostleship, defending his itinerary, defending his gospel.Evidently, Paul’s opponents questioned whether Paul deserved tobe called “apostle,” since he had not followed thehistorical Jesus and used to persecute the church (1Cor.15:8–9). According to Acts, when the first Christians decidedto replace Judas Iscariot as one of the twelve apostles, theyestablished the following criterion: the candidate must have been afollower of Jesus from his baptism to his ascension (Acts 1:21–22).Two men were qualified; one was chosen by divine lot, implying thatthere could be only twelve. Did the early church’s decision torecognize only twelve apostles define apostleship once and for all?Paul did not think so. He recognized the significance of the Twelve,but he believed that there were other apostles as well: Bar-na-bas,James the brother of Jesus, and himself (1Cor. 15:5–9;Gal. 2:8–9). Paul knew that there were false apostles causingtrouble in the churches (2Cor. 11:13), some even carrying“letters of recommendation” (2Cor. 3:1). But onlythose who had seen the resurrected Christ and were commissioned byhim to preach the gospel were legitimate apostles (1Cor.9:1–2). The signs of apostleship were evident when thecommission was fulfilled: planting churches and dispensing the Spirit(2Cor. 3:2; 12:12; Gal. 3:5). Of all people, Paul’sconverts should have never questioned the authority of their apostle.They were the proof of his apostleship.
AlthoughPaul never mentioned this, the fact that he sent letters is evidenceof his apostleship. Paul believed that the obedience of Gentileconverts was his responsibility, a confirmation of his calling (Rom.15:18–19). So he sent letters to make sure that they werekeeping the traditions that he had taught them (1Cor. 11:2).Sometimes, all that his readers needed was a little encouragement tokeep up the good work (most of 1Thessalonians and 2Timothyare exhortations to keep doing what they were doing) or a moredetailed explanation of what they already knew (Ephesians,Philippians, 1Timothy, Titus). Many times, Paul sent letters tocorrect major problems within his churches. For example, some of theGalatians were submitting to the law and being circumcised (Gal.4:21; 5:2–7). Some of the Colossians were involved in strangepractices of asceticism and angel worship (Col. 2:16–23). Someof the Thessalonians had quit working for a living (2Thess.3:6–15). And, worst of all, the Corinthians were plagued withall kinds of problems: factions, lawsuits, incest, prostitutes,idolatry. Some of the Corinthians were also espousing falsetheological ideas, such as denying the resurrection (1Cor.15:12). Other churches had problems sorting out Paul’s theologyas well. For example, the Thessalonians were confused about lifeafter death, end times, and the return of Christ (1Thess.4:13–18; 2Thess. 2:1–12), and the Romans needed,among other things, instruction about the role of Israel in the lastdays (Rom. 9:1–11:32). The fact that Paul felt obliged to sendhis lengthiest letter, loaded with some of his most sophisticatedtheological arguments, to the church in Rome, which he did not startand had not visited, says much about the way Paul saw the authorityof his apostleship. Because he was the apostle to the Gentiles, Pauloperated as if he were the mentor of all churches with Gentilemembers.
Churchunity.Paul believed in the unity of the church. Indeed, he used severalmetaphors to help his readers see why it was important that one Lordand one faith should form one church. He described the church as atemple (1Cor. 3:16–17), a family (Eph. 2:19), and abody—his favorite metaphor (1Cor. 12:12–27). Hewarned of desecrating the temple with divisive teaching and immoralbehavior (1Cor. 3:1–6:20). He rebuked his children whenthey refused to obey him as their father (1Cor. 3:14–21)or mother (Gal. 4:19–20). And, more than any other analogy,Paul likened the church to a human body that could be maimed byprejudice and threatened by sickness (1Cor. 11:17–34). Tohim, a dismembered body was an unholy body; a segregated church meantthat Christ was divided (1Cor. 1:10–13). The ethnic,religious, social, political, geographical, and economic differencesevident in one of the most diverse collections of people in thefirst-century Mediterranean world made Paul’s vision of aunified church appear like an impossible dream. Yet the apostle tothe Gentiles believed that the unity of the body of Christ wasindispensable not only to his mission but also to the gospel of JesusChrist (Eph. 4:1–6). So he collected a relief offering amonghis Gentile converts to help poor Jewish Christians in Jerusalem(Rom. 15:26–27). He taught masters to treat their slaves likesiblings (Philem. 16). And he solicited Romans to fund his missiontrip to Spain (Rom. 15:24). As far as Paul was concerned, the gospelbrought down every wall that divides humanity because all people needsalvation in Christ (Eph. 2:14–18).
Conclusion
Paulwas a tentmaker, a missionary, a writer, a preacher, a teacher, atheologian, an evangelist, a mentor, a prophet, a miracle worker, aprisoner, and a martyr. His life story reads like the tale of threedifferent men: a devout Pharisee, a tireless traveler, an ambitiouswriter. He knew the Scriptures better than did most people. He sawmore of the world than did most merchants. He wrote some of thelongest letters known at that time. To his converts, he was afaithful friend. To his opponents, he was an irrepressibletroublemaker. But, according to Paul, he was nothing more or lessthan the man whom God had called through Jesus Christ to take thegospel to the ends of the earth.
Common and valuable for food, beans were cooked while green in the pods or after being dried. Dry beans were threshed and winnowed like cereals and other grains. Beans are mentioned twice in the NIV (2Sam. 17:28; Ezek. 4:9).
Common and valuable for food, beans were cooked while green in the pods or after being dried. Dry beans were threshed and winnowed like cereals and other grains. Beans are mentioned twice in the NIV (2Sam. 17:28; Ezek. 4:9).
Part of the Corinthian correspondence, along with1 Corinthians. These two letters are part of a larger body ofcorrespondence written by the apostle Paul to the Corinthian church.Paul visited Corinth on his second missionary journey (Acts 18:1–18)for a year and a half before leaving for Syria. This period can bedated quite precisely, since Acts mentions a court hearing beforeGallio, proconsul of Achaia, who served in AD 51–52. It wasseveral years later, during Paul’s third missionary journey,that the Corinthian correspondence was written.
Context
Whilein Ephesus, Paul heard of immorality in the church at Corinth andresponded with a letter (1 Cor. 5:9). This letter is lost buthas been designated by scholars as “Corinthians A”to distinguish it from the two canonical letters. About this time,three men from Corinth brought a financial gift to Paul (1 Cor.16:17) along with a list of questions, which Paul answers in anotherletter (see 1 Cor. 7:1). This letter, known to us as1 Corinthians, is designated by scholars as “Corinthians B,”since it is actually the second letter written by Paul to the church.Some time later, Paul heard that his letter had not solved many ofthe problems at Corinth, so he made a visit. This went very poorly(see 2 Cor. 2:1), and Paul sent a sorrowful letter (2 Cor.2:3–4, 9; 7:8, 12), designated by scholars as “Corinthians C.”This letter is also lost, though some think that it may be preservedin 2 Cor. 10–13. When Paul heard later that the Corinthianchurch had repented and wished to reconcile with him, he wasoverjoyed and wrote yet again. This letter, which scholars call“Corinthians D,” is known to us as 2 Corinthians.The sharp change in tone of chapters 10–13 perhaps represents afifth letter (designated “Corinthians E”) reflectingongoing friction with a strong minority faction within the church, orthese chapters may reflect Paul addressing one unrepentant divisionin the course of the “D” letter.
Purpose
Falseteachers in the church at Corinth had attacked Paul’s teachingand authority. Their charges can be seen in 2 Corinthians: Paulwas fickle (1:17, 18, 23), proud and boastful (3:1; 5:12), worldly(10:2), unimpressive in appearance and speech (10:10; 11:6), confusedand foolish (5:13; 11:16–19), dishonest (12:16–19), and“not a true apostle” (11:5; 12:11–12). Paul writesto defend his ministry and authority.
Themes
Paulgives a wonderful description of his apostolic ministry. He is acaptive in Christ’s triumphal procession, spreading the aromaof the gospel wherever he goes. This aroma is the smell of death tosome, but life to others (2:16). He needs no letter ofrecommendation, as the church at Corinth is his letter, written onhuman hearts. The gospel is unlike the fading glory in Moses’face (see Exod. 34:33); in fact, relationship with God during the oldcovenant was accomplished only through a veil, which still covershearts when Moses is read. Rather, Christians bask in the unveiledglory of the Lord and are transformed into the Lord’s imagewith ever greater glory (3:18), carrying in their bodies the death ofJesus, so that the life of Jesus may be revealed in them (4:10).
Theearthly consequence of this ministry is pain and suffering. Paul isconstantly struggling, yet never defeated (4:8–9). But thespiritual reward is great: an eternal home with the Lord in heaven,with the Spirit given to him during this life as a deposit of what isto come (5:5).
Beginningwith chapter 10, Paul’s tone changes sharply, becoming muchmore aggressive as he defends his apostolic authority. His gentlenature in person, which may have been mistaken by some of theCorinthians for weakness, is really Christlikeness in Paul. He fightsnot as the world does, but rather on the spiritual level, withweapons that can demolish all arguments (10:4). He hopes that he willnot have to unleash his power when he comes to see them, though hewill if necessary (10:6).
Paul’sopponents in Corinth have been exercising false authority beyondtheir rightful limits. They commend themselves and boast of theirworks. Paul promises to remain within the sphere assigned him by God,and he assures them that his sphere includes their church (10:13).
Inchapter 11 Paul begins speaking “as a fool.” Hisopponents apparently have referred to him as a fool, so he allowshimself some latitude to do this. If he were a fool, he would boastof his accomplishments as an apostle. His opponents boast aboutthemselves; Paul has more to boast about. He also is a Hebrew, adescendant of Abraham, and a servant of Christ; in fact, he is more.He has worked harder; he has been imprisoned more, beaten more,stoned, and shipwrecked; he has gone without food and water; he hasbeen cold and naked. He has had visions and revelations, and he hasbeen caught up in heaven and heard things that he may not repeat. Yethe would rather boast of his weakness, for his worldly weaknessallows him to be strong in Christ. Paul should have been commended bythe Corinthians, yet he has been reduced to having to defend himselfboastfully.
DuringPaul’s next visit, he will continue his habit of supportinghimself, so as not to be a burden on the Corinthians (see Acts 18:3).He has not asked them to support him (though it was his right [see1 Cor. 9]), yet they have accused him of trickery (12:16; seealso 1:12). He hopes that he will not be forced to deal harshly withthem, but they demand proof that Christ speaks through him (13:3). Hewould rather use the authority that God has given him to build themup, not tear them down (13:10).
Outline
I.Greeting (1:1–11)
II.Paul Defends His Ministry (1:12–7:16)
A.Paul explains his conduct (1:12–2:13)
B.Paul describes his ministry (2:14–7:1)
C.Reconciliation with the Corinthians (7:2–16)
III.The Collection for Jerusalem (8:1–9:15)
A.Generosity encouraged (8:1–15)
B.Titus’s credentials (8:16–9:5)
C.Results of giving generously (9:6–15)
IV.Paul Defends His Authority (10:1–13:10)
A.Paul gives them warning (10:1–18)
B.Paul speaks ironically as a “fool” (11:1–12:13)
C.Paul’s planned visit (12:14–13:10)
V.Conclusion (13:11–14)
The present abode of God and the final dwelling place of the righteous. The ancient Jews distinguished three different heavens. The first heaven was the atmospheric heavens of the clouds and where the birds fly (Gen. 1:20). The second heaven was the celestial heavens of the sun, the moon, and the stars. The third heaven was the present home of God and the angels. Paul builds on this understanding of a third heaven in 2Cor. 12:2–4, where he describes himself as a man who “was caught up to the third heaven” or “paradise,” where he “heard inexpressible things.” This idea of multiple heavens also shows itself in how the Jews normally spoke of “heavens” in the plural (Gen. 1:1), while most other ancient cultures spoke of “heaven” in the singular.
The Abode of God
One of the challenges in understanding “heaven” as the present dwelling place of God involves God’s omnipresence. In one sense, God is present everywhere. David asks in Ps. 139:7, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?” He answers that regardless of whether he goes as high up as anyone can go (“up to the heavens”), as low down as anyone can go (“in the depths), as far east as anyone can go (“the wings of the dawn”), or as far west as anyone can go (“the far side of the sea”), God is still there (Ps. 139:8–9).
Although God is present everywhere, God is also present in a special way in “heaven.” During Jesus’ earthly ministry, the Father is sometimes described as speaking in “a voice from heaven” (Matt. 3:17). Similarly, Jesus instructs us to address our prayers to “Our Father in heaven” (6:9). Even the specific request in the Lord’s Prayer that “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (6:10) reminds us that heaven is a place already under God’s full jurisdiction, where his will is presently being done completely and perfectly. Jesus also warns of the dangers of despising “one of these little ones,” because “their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven” (18:10). Jesus “came down from heaven” (John 6:51) for his earthly ministry, and after his death and resurrection, he ascended back “into heaven,” from where he “will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11).
At times, “heaven” becomes virtually a synonym for God himself. In the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15, the son confesses to his father, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you” (v.21). This son’s sin against “heaven” has nothing to do with environmental issues such as air pollution, and everything to do with his relationship with God. Note also Matthew’s expression “the kingdom of heaven” versus “the kingdom of God” used elsewhere.
The Final Dwelling Place for Believers
Given this strong connection between heaven and God’s presence, there is a natural connection in Scripture between heaven and the ultimate hope of believers. Believers are promised a reward in heaven (“Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven” [Matt. 5:12]), and even now believers can “store up for [themselves] treasures in heaven” (6:20). Even in this present life, “our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil. 3:20), and our hope at death is to “depart and be with Christ, which is better by far” (1:23). Since Christ is currently in heaven, deceased believers are already present with Christ in heaven awaiting his return, when “God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him” (1Thess. 4:14).
However, this picture of heaven is more complicated. It is true that heaven is sometimes used in Scripture to refer to the present abode of all departed believers who have left this present life and entered the intermediate state between death and the bodily resurrection (2Cor. 5:4). It is this hope in a bodily resurrection that sets Christianity apart from other religions. Ultimately, the Christian hope is not that people will receive new physical bodies and float around some ethereal “heaven” like astronauts in outer space for all eternity. Instead, God has created human beings with physical bodies to inhabit a physical world, and our future hope is one of new resurrection bodies inhabiting new heavens and a new earth (Isa. 65:17; 66:22; 2Pet. 3:13). Just as there will be a certain continuity between the bodies of believers in this present life and their new resurrection bodies (we will know one another), there will also be a certain continuity between this present earth and the new earth to come. Yet, at the same time, everything will also be changed and made new and perfect, as God has designed it to be (Rom. 8:18–21).
The clearest description of this new reality is found in Rev. 21–22, where John describes how he “saw ‘a new heaven and a new earth,’ for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away” (21:1). Here is “the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband” (21:2), when “God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (21:3–4). Even better than all the descriptions of such things as streets of “gold, as pure as transparent glass” (21:21) is that God himself will come and dwell in the midst of his people. As Paul has phrased it, “Now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face” (1Cor. 13:12). The day will come when we will see God as he is, in all his glory (1John3:2).
Two other ideas complete our picture of life in these new heavens and new earth. Heaven will be a place of continued activity and service. Notice Jesus’ blessing in Matt. 25:21: “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things.” The other principle is that there will be different degrees of reward. Although our ultimate reward is simply being with God himself, Paul also reminds us that if what believers do with their lives “survives, the builder will receive a reward,” and if what they do “is burned up, the builder will suffer loss” (1Cor. 3:14–15 NRSV). Our choices make a difference for time and eternity (cf. Rev. 14:13). See also Heavens, New.
The Bible has much to say about suffering. While in the OTsuffering is regularly an indication of divine displeasure (Lev.26:16–36; Deut. 28:20–68; Ps. 44:10–12; Isa. 1:25;cf. Heb. 10:26–31), in the NT it becomes the means by whichblessing comes to humanity.
TheBible often shows that sinfulness results in suffering (Gen. 2:17;6:5–7; Exod. 32:33; 2Sam. 12:13–18; Rom. 1:18;1Cor. 11:27–30). Job’s friends mistakenly assumethat he has suffered because of disobedience (Job 4:7–9; 8:3–4,20; 11:6). Job passionately defends himself (12:4; 23:10), and in thefinal chapter of the book God commends Job and condemns his friendsfor their accusations (42:7–8; cf. 1:1, 22; 2:10). The writermakes clear that suffering is not necessarily evidence of sinfulness.Like Job’s friends, Jesus’ disciples assume thatblindness is an indication of sinfulness (John 9:1–2). Jesusrejects this simplistic notion of retributive suffering (John 9:3,6–7; cf. Luke 13:1–5).
Theprayers of suffering people are expressed in the sixteen communal andthirty-seven individual laments in the book of Psalms. Within thelaments the writers describe their problems, express feelings, makerequests, ask questions (“How long, Lord?” [13:1]; “Whyhave you forsaken me?” [22:1]), and lodge complaints againstGod (“My eyes fail, looking for my God [69:3]), enemies (“Youhave made us an object of derision to our neighbors, and our enemiesmock us” [80:6]), and even themselves (“I am a worm andnot a man” [22:6]).
TheNT writers reveal that Jesus’ suffering was prophesied in theOT (Mark 9:12; 14:21; Luke 18:31–32; 24:46; Acts 3:18; 17:3;26:22–23; 1Pet. 1:11; referring to OT texts such as Ps.22; Isa. 52:13–53:12; Zech. 13:7). The Lord Jesus is presentedas the answer to human suffering: (1)Through the incarnation,God’s Son personally experienced human suffering (Phil. 2:6–8;Heb. 2:9; 5:8). (2)Through his suffering, Christ paid the pricefor sin (Rom. 4:25; 3:25–26), so that believers are set freefrom sin (Rom. 6:6, 18, 22) and helped in temptation (Heb. 2:18).(3)Christ Jesus intercedes for his suffering followers (Rom.8:34–35). (4)Christ is the example in suffering (1Pet.2:21; 4:1; cf. Phil. 3:10; 2Cor. 1:5; 4:10; 1Pet. 4:13),and though he died once for sins (Heb. 10:12), he continues to sufferas his church suffers (Acts 9:4–5). (5)Christ provideshope of resurrection (Rom. 6:5; 1Cor. 15:20–26; Phil.3:10–11) and a future life without suffering or death (Rev.21:4).
Thereare many NT examples of suffering believers (John 15:20–21;Acts 4:3; 5:18; 7:57–60; 8:1–3; 12:1–5; 14:19;16:22–24; 18:17; 2Cor. 6:4–5, 8–10; Heb.10:32; 1Pet. 5:9; Rev. 2:10). Suffering is part of God’splan for his people (Acts 9:16; 1Thess. 3:2–4) and ispart of what it means to be a follower of Christ Jesus (Acts 14:22;Rom. 8:17; Phil. 1:29; 1Pet. 2:21; 4:12).
TheNT writers repeatedly mention the benefits of suffering, for it hasbecome part of God’s work of redemption. The suffering ofbelievers accompanies the proclamation and advancement of the gospel(Acts 5:41–42; 9:15–16; 2Cor. 4:10–11;6:2–10; Phil. 1:12, 27–29; 1Thess. 2:14–16;2Tim. 1:8; 4:5) and results in salvation (Matt. 10:22; 2Cor.1:6; 1Thess. 2:16; 2Tim. 2:10; Heb. 10:39), faith (Heb.10:32–34, 38–39; 1Pet. 1:7), the kingdom of God(Acts 14:22), resurrection from the dead (Phil. 3:10–11), andthe crown of life (Rev. 2:10). It is an essential part of thedevelopment toward Christian maturity (Rom. 5:3–4; 2Cor.4:11; Heb. 12:4; James 1:3–4; 1Pet. 1:7; 4:1).
Sufferingis associated with knowing Christ (Phil. 3:10); daily inward renewal(2Cor. 4:16); purity, understanding, patience, kindness,sincere love, truthful speech, the power of God (2Cor. 4:4–10);comfort and endurance (2Cor. 1:6); obedience (Heb. 5:8);blessing (1Pet. 3:14; 4:14); glory (Rom. 8:17; 2Cor.4:17); and joy (Matt. 5:12; Acts 5:41; 2Cor. 6:10; 12:10; James1:2; 1Pet. 1:6; 4:13). Other positive results of Christiansuffering include perseverance (Rom. 5:3; James 1:3), character andhope (Rom. 5:4), strength (2Cor. 12:10), and maturity andcompleteness (James 1:4). Present suffering is light and momentarywhen compared to future glory (Matt. 5:10–12; Acts 14:22; Rom.8:18; 2Cor. 4:17; Heb. 10:34–36; 1Pet. 1:5–7;4:12–13).
Throughoutthe Bible, believers are instructed to help those who suffer. The OTlaw provides principles for assisting the poor, the disadvantaged,and the oppressed (Exod. 20:10; 21:2; 23:11; Lev. 19:13, 34; 25:10,35; Deut. 14:28–29; 15:1–2; 24:19–21). Jesusregularly taught his followers to help the poor (Matt. 5:42; 6:3;19:21; 25:34–36; Luke 4:18; 12:33; 14:13, 21). It is believers’responsibility to show mercy (Matt. 5:7; 9:13), be generous (Rom.12:8; 2Cor. 8:7; 1Tim. 6:18), mourn with mourners (Rom.12:15), carry other’s burdens (Gal. 6:1–2), and visitprisoners (Matt. 25:36, 43). See also Servant of the Lord.
Common and valuable for food, beans were cooked while green in the pods or after being dried. Dry beans were threshed and winnowed like cereals and other grains. Beans are mentioned twice in the NIV (2Sam. 17:28; Ezek. 4:9).
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1. His Grace IS Sufficient
Illustration
J. Oswald Sanders
When he was a young married man, Prebendary Webb-Peploe, a noted British preacher, took his little family to the seaside for a holiday. One of his little children was drowned. He returned to the city devastated with grief. In his distress he knelt at the desk in his study and poured out his grief before God. He pleaded with God to make His grace sufficient for him in his deep need. But no comfort came. The sense of desolation was still as acute as ever.
Through his tears, he looked up at the familiar text on the wall above the mantelpiece, but now with a new interest. The text was: “My grace IS sufficient for thee” (2 Corinthians 12:9). For the first time he noticed that the IS was printed in large letters. Light dawned. “Lord, here have I been asking you to make your grace sufficient for me in my loss, and all the time you have been telling me that it IS sufficient. I now appropriate for myself your sufficient grace.” His act of faith was immediately rewarded. Although the sense of loss was no less, the compensating comfort of God flooded his heart and he had peace.
2. I Give Up!
Illustration
James Kegel
Another person has just arrived at the portals of heaven. A voice asks,
"What is the password? Speak it and you may enter."
"Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved?"
"No," replies the voice.
"The just shall live by faith?"
"No."
"There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus?"
"Those sayings are true," the voice answered, "But they are not the password for which I listen."
"Well, then, I give up," replied the person.
"That's it! Come right in."
The Kingdom of God is a free gift given to those who know they cannot make it on their own and must rely upon God's grace. God's surprise comforts us when it looks as though evil will triumph.
3. Bless That Weak Message
Illustration
Charles Haddon Spurgeon, known as "the prince of preachers," felt he delivered his sermon so poorly one Sunday that he was ashamed of himself. As he walked away from his church, the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London, he wondered how any good could come from that message. When he arrived home, he dropped to his knees and prayed, "Lord God, You can do something with nothing. Bless that poor sermon."
In the months that followed, 41 people said that they had decided to trust Christ as Saviour because of that "weak" message. The following Sunday, to make up for his previous "failure," Spurgeon had prepared a "great" sermon but no one responded.
Spurgeon's experience underscores two important lessons for all who serve the Lord. First, we need the blessing of God on our efforts. Solomon said in Psalm 127:1, "Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it." And second, our weakness is an occasion for the working of God's power. The apostle Paul said, "I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Cor. 12:10).
4. Jimmy Carter's Effectiveness
Illustration
Katherine fa*gerburg
Talk show host John Calloway interviewed the editor of The Christian Century. Calloway asked James Wall, "What do you think made Jimmy Carter so effective as an international negotiator?" Wall replied, "Carter has the prestige and experience of the presidency without the political baggage. Furthermore, he is able to draw on his personal, deeply held religious belief that in talking with another person, one must be sensitive to the other's perspective."
Calloway responded, "You are really saying that it is the one without power who really has power."
That is closer to what Christ taught, that power is sometimes manifested in weakness, in giving oneself to others. Authentic greatness is redefined to mean serving instead of being served, using the power of love rather than seeking power and control. In the kingdom of God, we do not attain prominence by getting our bids in first, or by elbowing our way to the front. Prominence comes as we serve others with humility.
5. Our Burdens
Illustration
King Duncan
St. Paul writes in II Corinthians 12:9, "And God said unto me, 'My grace is sufficient for thee . . .'" What a hard thing that is for us to accept.
We are like the old man riding down the road on a donkey while he carried a 200 pound sack of wheat on his shoulder. Someone asked him why he didn't take the weight off of his shoulders and strap it to the donkey. "Oh, no!" he protested. "I couldn't ask the donkey to carry all that weight."
Many of us are carrying burdens today that we do not have to carry. Only our lack of faith, trust, and confidence that God really is alive and able to relieve us of our burdens keeps us in bondage. How frustrated Christ must be with our lack of faith.
6. Temptations of Daily People
Illustration
Douglas R. A. Hare
This passage (4:1—11) is often appointed by lectionaries for the first Sunday of Lent. The presumption is that the narrative is of direct relevance for Christians as they enter a period of penitence. Ordinary Christians are unlikely to perceive it so, and with good cause. The story does not correspond with our experience; we do not hold conversations with a visible devil, nor are we whisked from place to place as Jesus is in the story. Moreover, the temptations that Jesus faces are peculiar to him; they seem very remote from those we face day by day. This passage may in fact prompt some to doubt the validity of Hebrews 4:15: "For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin." What did Jesus know of the temptations that are faced daily by the recovering alcoholic and substance abuser? the lonely divorcee? the struggling business owner? the teenager who covets peer acceptance above all?
There is, however, a common denominator that links all of these with the temptation as ascribed to Jesus. The basic, underlying temptation that Jesus shared with us is the temptation to treat God as less than God. We may not be tempted to turn stones into bread (we are more apt to turn butter into guns, but we are constantly tempted to mistrust God's readiness to empower us to face our trials. None of us is likely to put God to the test by leaping from a cliff, but we are frequently tempted to question God's helpfulness when things go awry; we forget the sure promise, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" (II Corinthians 12:9). Pagan idolatry is no more a temptation for us than it was for Jesus, but compromise with the ways of the world is a continuing seduction. It is indeed difficult for us to worship and serve God only. We should be continually grateful that we have a great high priest who, tempted as we are, was able to resist all such temptations by laying hold of Scripture and firmly acknowledging that only God is God.
7. We’re Not Paradise People
Illustration
King Duncan
Humorist Garrison Keillor in his delightful descriptions of the people in his fictional hometown of Lake Wobegon tells how difficult it will be for some of us to deal with that kind of perfection. He writes, "My people aren't paradise people. We've lived in Minnesota all our lives and it took a lot out of us. My people aren't sure if we'll even like paradise: not sure that perfection is all it's cracked up to be. My people will arrive in heaven and stand just inside the gate, shuffling around. `It's a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be,' we'll think. We'll say, `No, thank you, we can't stay for eternity, we'll just sit and have a few minutes of bliss with you and then we have to get back.'
"We were brought up to work, not complain, accept that life is hard, and make the best of what little we have, so when we come to the grandeur and grace of an eternal flower garden ringed by mountains beside a pale blue coral sea under the continuous sun, we naturally say, `Oh, no thanks, it's too much, really, I don't care for it, just give me some ice, please.'"
All of us will be a little like that. Heaven will be far more wonderful than we can ever imagine.
8. How The Mighty Have Fallen!
Illustration
Richard A. Jensen
"How the mighty have fallen." King David of old once spoke those words concerning the death of King Saul. "How the mighty have fallen." These words have transcended the Bible and become the language of popular culture. A newspaper report a few years ago on some pastors who had fallen from grace used this biblical passage as its headline. The article was about two well-known television preachers -- Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker -- whose sins had been publicly exposed. "How the mighty have fallen" the newspaper headline gloated! Jimmy Swaggart is an interesting case in point.
Newsweek magazine once carried an article that featured this highly talented preacher. The article quoted one man as saying that Jimmy Swaggart was one of the most entertaining people on television in any field. The man didn't believe what Swaggart preached but he was dazzled by his entertainment and communication skills. "How the mighty have fallen!" Swaggart's sin seemed to be his fascination with p*rnography. One who knew him well over the years said: "His weakness for p*rnography finally beat him. He's fasted and prayed many times to overcome this weakness." Swaggart's weakness for p*rnography often led him to Louisiana brothels. It doesn't appear to be the case that Swaggart had sex with these women. He just asked them to pose for him in some suggestive ways. One night as he was leaving a brothel, however, someone who was out to expose him took some pictures. The pictures undid him. Scandal raged. Swaggart faced his congregation with tears running down his cheeks and remorse in his heart.
The response to Swaggart's fall was highly judgmental. People judged Swaggart harshly because he had been so judgmental in his preaching. In his judgments he came down on all sorts and varieties of people, including Christian people. Of the ministry of Jim Bakker, for example, Swaggart had said: "He's a cancer on the body of Christ that needs to be excised." Swaggart's preaching was judgmental indeed.
Swaggart was also judged harshly because of the peculiar nature of his message. Swaggart's message went beyond the proclamation of Jesus Christ to be a message fundamentally about the holiness work of the Holy Spirit. He proclaimed over and over again that through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives we can overcome all sin. Thus he judged sinners. He invited sinners to be filled with the Holy Spirit in order to overcome all sin. Victory over sin would belong to all those who did business with the Holy Spirit.
What are we to think of this promise in light of Swaggart's own dark side? It's no wonder that some people relished the chance to defrock Swaggart in public. The mighty had fallen indeed. Hopefully he learned something from his trials. A hint of wisdom is evident in some of the things he says. For example, he said reflecting on his experiences: "I have seen that the gospel is perfect but its messengers are not." Jimmy Swaggart could now identify with Peter, who began his ministry with these words: "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." Ministry always begins in confession!"
9. Devil's Fall
Illustration
Michael P. Green
In his classic work Paradise Lost, John Milton describes the fall of Satan from heaven with his host of rebel angels. He depicts this as a great war lasting three days. The first two days of the cataclysm are waged solely between Satan and his demons and the unfallen angels under the Archangel Michael. On the third day, the Father sends the Son in glorious power to do singlehanded combat with all the demonic host. The following is a brief excerpt from the scene:
“Stand still in bright array, ye Saints; here stand,
Ye angels armed; this day from battle rest.…
Therefore to me their doom he hath assigned,
That they may have their wish, to try with me
In battle which the stronger proves.…”
So spake the Son, and into terror changed
His countenance, too severe to be beheld,
And full of wrath bent on his enemies.…
They, astonished, all resistance lost,
All courage; down their idle weapons dropt.…
And of the wonted vigour left them drained,
Exhausted, spiritless, afflicted, fallen.
Yet half his strength he put not forth.…
10. Bragging
Illustration
King Duncan
Bragging or boasting is endemic to human nature. We boast about our children and our grandchildren. We boast about our work. We boast about our athletic accomplishments. We boast about the places we’ve been and the things we’ve done. On this July 4, we boast about the land of our birth.
An American was staying in London. He was introduced to a man from Edinburgh, Scotland. The Scotchman asked him, “An’ what country do you belong tae?”
“The greatest country in the world!” replied the American.
“Mon! So dae I,” replied Scotsman, “but you donna speak like a Scotsman.”
It’s really quite human to brag about your school, about your team, about your family, about your country. However, St. Paul said on one occasion that there’s only one thing worth really boasting about and that is the cross on which Jesus Christ died. Paul writes, “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”
11. God's Pearls
Illustration
Staff
Think about the oyster. It takes a grain of sand and turns it into a beautiful pearl. Too often we are just the opposite. Wetake pearls and turn them into grains of sand. Or at least we see them that way.
God said to Paul, "My strength is made perfectin your weakness." We are all as grains of sand from which God gradually and beautifully shapes us into pearls of white. Yet each pearl is formed in its own unique way, with its own flaws, its own ridges, its own character. As Christians, we must learn to see every person as a potential pearl. Some take longer than others to form; but just as a chicken never returns to the shapeofan egg, once formed, one of God's pearls never returnsto sand.
12. God's Kind of Happiness, Today
Illustration
The Best Gift
George Matheson was a great preacher and hymn writer who lost his sight at an early age. He thought of that infirmity as his thorn in the flesh, as his personal cross. For several years, he prayed that his blindness would be removed. Like most of us, I suppose, he believed that personal happiness would come to him only after the handicap was gone. But then, one day God sent him a new insight: The creative use of his handicap could actually become his personal means of achieving happiness!
So, Matheson went on to write: "My God, I have never thanked Thee for my thorn. I have thanked Thee for my roses, but not once for my thorn. I have been looking forward to a world where I shall get compensation for my cross, but I have never thought of the cross itself as a present glory. Teach me the glory of my cross. Teach me the value of my thorn. Show me that I have climbed to Thee by the path of pain. Show me that my tears have made my rainbow."
Congratulations, George Matheson! Congratulations on finding God's kind of happiness -- the kind of happiness that is not only a future hope, but also a very present reality. So may it be for us all.
The point I want to make here is this: God's kind of happiness, as defined in the Beatitudes of our Lord, represents a radical reversal of almost everything we have ever been taught about the meaning of happiness! Look at the Beatitudes again and contrast them with what we have been taught. "Happy are those who know they are spiritually poor." We have always been taught to define happiness in terms of wealth. "Happy are those who mourn." We have been taught that happiness means never experiencing anything that causes us grief. "Happy are those who are humble." We have been taught that happiness is defined in terms of aggression and the competitive spirit. "Happy are those whose greatest desire is to do what God requires." We have been taught that happiness lies in the desire to conform to the values of our own society.
"Happy are those who are merciful to others." We have been taught that the quality of mercy is a sign of weakness. "Happy are the pure in heart." Tell that one to the guys and gals at work! "Happy are those who work for peace." We have been taught that happiness is defined in terms of preparedness for war. "Happy are those who are persecuted because they do what God requires." We have tended to call such people fools or fanatics! "Happy are you when people insult you...and tell all kinds of evil lies against you because you are my followers." We tend to say, "Don't get mad, get even!" We say it again: God's kind of happiness reverses almost everything we have been taught about happiness. But if one of us has to be wrong -- either us or God -- you can be sure that it isn't God.
13. What Is a Christian Leader?
Illustration
Cal Thomas found himself called a "Christian leader" by a leading Christian magazine and he wondered what that meant. More speaking engagements? Perhaps an appearance on a Christian talk show?
"It would certainly give me the right to start putting Scripture references under my signed name in books I have written. I would surely sign more Bibles, which I find a curious practice since I didn't write that Book."
Thomas wonders if we have reversed things. God's strength is made perfect in weakness. "In a church I once attended, there was a man of tremendous faith. His wife is an alcoholic, His daughter has psychological problems. He was often poor in health. Yet, week after week, he never complained. He always smiled and asked me how I was doing. He faithfully brought to church a young blind man who had no transportation. He always sat with the blind man, helping him sing the hymns by saying the words into his ear. That man was a 'Christian leader' if ever there was one."
14. The Heavyweight Championship of the Universe
Illustration
Peter Kreeft
Calvary is judo. The enemy’s own power is used to defeat him. Satan’s craftily orchestrated plot, rolled along according to play by his agents Judas, Pilate, Herod, and Caiaphas, culminating in the death of God. And this very event, Satan’s conclusion, was God’s premise. Satan’s end was God’s means. It saved the world. Christians celebrate the greatest evil and the greatest tragedy of all time as Good Friday. In the symbolic language of Revelation, the meek little lamb (arnion) defeats the great and terrible Beast (therion) in the last battle, the fight for the heavyweight championship of the universe, by shedding his own blood. Satan’s bloody plan became the means of his own despoilment. God won Satan’s captives - us - back to himself by freely dying in our place.
It is, of course, the most familiar, the most often-told story in the world. Yet it is also the strangest, and it has never lost its strangeness, its awe, and will not even in eternity, where angels tremble to gaze at things we yawn at. And however strange, it is the only key that fits the lock of our tortured lives and needs.
15. Strong Enough to Be Gentle
Illustration
According to Bill Farmer's newspaper column, J. Upton Dickson was a fun-loving fellow who said he was writing a book entitled Cower Power. He also founded a group of submissive people. It was called DOORMATS. That stands for "Dependent Organization of Really Meek And Timid Souls if there are no objections." Their motto was: "The meek shall inherit the earth if that's okay with everybody." They symbol was the yellow traffic light.
Mr. Dickson sounds like he'd be a lot of fun, doesn't he? What is disturbing about all of this, though, is that many people assume that the ridiculous ideas behind DOORMATS and Cower Power represent the quality of meekness set forth in Matthew 5:5. Many, even in the church, think that to be meek is to be weak. But the opposite is true. What the Bible is talking about is a powerful virtue. The slogan "strong enough to be gentle" comes close to defining it. True meekness is best seen in Christ. He was submissive, never resisting or disputing the will of God. His absolute trust in the Father enabled Him to show compassion, courage, and self-sacrifice even in the most hostile situation.
Now let's apply this to ourselves. When we are meek, we will bear insults without lashing out in proud resentment or retaliation. We'll thank God in every circ*mstance, while using every circ*mstance, good or bad, as an occasion to submit to Him. Meekness would be weakness if it meant yielding to sin. But because it stems from goodness and godliness, it is a great strength.
16. Devil Descriptions
Illustration
Merrill F. Unger
Possible Biblical references to Satan:
- Genesis 3:1-14 · He was disguised under the Edenic serpent
- Genesis 3:15 · He is the serpent's seed
- 1 Chronicles 21:1· Satan standsagainst Israel
- Job 1:7-2:10 · He accused and afflicted Job
- Isaiah 14:12 · He was Lucifer, son of the morning before the fall (This verse is erroneously ascribed to Satan. Itactually refers to the king of Babylon, see v. 3)
- Ezekiel 28:14 · He was the anointed cherub that covers (This verse also iserroneously ascribed to Satan. Itactually refers to the king of Tyre, see v. 1)
- Zecheriah 3:1-9 · He is Satan, the Adversary of unbelieving Israel
- Matthew 4:3 · He is the tempter
- Matthew 4:4; Luke 4:10-11 · He perverts the Word of God
- Matthew 12:22-29 · He works in demon possession
- Matthew 12:24; Acts 10:38 · He is the prince of the demons
- Matthew 13:19 · Snatches away the Word
- Matthew 13:38 · "the evil one"
- Matthew 13:38-39 · He sows tares
- Matthew 13:39 · He is "the enemy"
- Matthew 25:41 · He is a fallen angel
- Matthew 25:41; Rev 20:10 · His ultimate fate is Gehenna
- Luke 4:13 · He is the devil, the slanderer
- Luke 10:18 · He fell from a sinless high estate
- Luke 13:16 · He blinds people physically and spiritually
- Luke 22:31 · He viewed Simon Peter as a target
- John 3:8, 10 · His children are unsaved people
- John 8:44 · He was branded "a liar" and "the father of lies" by Jesus
- John 8:44 · He is a murderer
- John 12:31; 14:30 · He is the prince of this world
- John 13:2,27 · He caused Judas to betray Christ
- Acts 5:3 · Educes Ananias to lie
- 2 Corinthians 4:4 · He blinds people spiritually
- Ephesians 2:2 · He indwells the unsaved
- Ephesians 6:10-20 · He is routed by Spirit-directed prayer
- Ephesians 6:11-12 · He heads a celestial hierarchy of evil
- 1 Thessalonians 2:18 · He hinders God's will in believers
- 2 Thessalonians 2:9 · He works diabolic miracles
- 1 Timothy 4:1-6 · He instigates false doctrine
- 1 Peter 5:8 · He seeks to harm believers
- 1 Peter 5:8-9 · He is overcome by faith
- Revelation 2:9 · He has a synagogue of legalists who deny God's grace in Christ
- Revelation 12:9 · He is the deceiver
- Revelation 12:9; 20:2 · He is the dragon, that old serpent
- Revelation 20:1-3 · He will be bound during the millennium
17. Satan's Strategy Session
Illustration
Michael P. Green
The story is told of a time when Satan held a strategy session for subverting those who were close to salvation. “What shall we do?” asked Satan. A daring demon stood and shouted, “I have it! I know what we can do! We can tell men that there is no life after death, that they die like animals.” Satan’s face fell as he answered, “It will never work. Man is not ignorant; even atheists admit of times when they sense a tomorrow after death.”
Another demon spoke, “Here’s the solution! Let’s say there is no God or if there ever was, he is dead—because even if he started the universe, he has left it now.” Satan replied in dismay, “That won’t work either; most of them know there is a God, even though they don’t seek him.”
Other ideas were presented, but none brought hope to Satan and his underlings. Finally, as they were about to give up, one demon leaped in glee, “I have it! A sure solution!” The other demons crowded around to hear the plan. “Go tell them that God is real and the Bible is God’s Word.” A gasp came from the audience as the demon continued, “And tell them that Jesus is God’s Son and frees men from sin.” The other demons were horror-stricken, thinking that their associate had gone bananas, until, with a smile, he added, “Then tell them that this is not the best time to choose Christ. Help them make excuses for delaying their decision. Tell them there is no hurry!” The demons danced in delight, realizing a workable plan had been discovered.
18. REMEMBER YOUR BAPTISM
Illustration
John H. Krahn
On January 26, 1905, in Pretoria, South Africa, Captain M. F. Wells found a diamond weighing one and one-quarter pounds. Two years later, the diamond was purchased and presented to King Edward VII of the United Kingdom. In 1908, a diamond cutter from Amsterdam cut from that diamond the Star of Africa, the largest cut diamond in the world, containing seventy-four facets with a weight of 530 carats. Today, the diamond is still set in the British Royal Scepter. Can you imagine the value of such a jewel?
Then there is the Hope Diamond: the largest blue diamond in the world. It weighs in at 44.4 carats. Found in India during the seventeenth century, it has been displayed, since 1958, at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. At that time it was worth between $700,000 and $1,500,000.
But diamonds are not the most precious of gems. Since 1955 rubies have been the world’s most precious gem, attaining a price of up to $30,000 per carat. Can you imagine what the Burmese Ruby, weighing 1,184 carats, would be worth? To have in our possession one of these jewels would be to have one of the most beautiful and most valued jewels in the world. Imagine how it would feel wearing the Hope Diamond set into a ring. Well, most of us already possess a jewel of even greater value.
In his Large Catechism, Martin Luther makes this concluding statement about Holy Baptism: "No greater jewel can adorn our body or soul than Baptism: For through it, perfect holiness and salvation become accessible to us, which are otherwise beyond the reach of man’s life and energy." I am sure if any of us owned one of the great gems of the world, we would not easily forget about it. Rather we would feel good about it, share its beauty by wearing it, be careful to protect it, and treasure it. Yet our beautiful adornment of Baptism is often forgotten. Weeks go by without us even considering our jewel of Baptism.
Saint Paul reminds us in Romans that through Baptism we were buried with Christ in his death. Baptism joins us to Christ and through it we receive the forgiveness that his death affords. Paul says, "We were buried therefore with him by Baptism into death,... so that as Christ has been raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life."
All of us from time to time have felt that we needed a change; some have even dreamed of a new life, a new beginning. New life, our new beginning, not only happens on the day we are baptized but can extend to every day. As we daily remember our Baptism, we welcome the benefits of Baptism. Benefits that come from a powerful God who offers help and peace to children who call upon his name. Benefits of renewed joy snatched from sorrow, renewed strength formed out of weakness and the ability to forgive someone you would naturally want to hate.
Because we believe and are baptized, we also remember that our eternal future is certain - however uncertain our earthly life might be. We are family. And when we die, we know that God the Father has already made provisions for a great reunion party in heaven. A new life in heaven is ours as we join the forever family of God.
19. All That God Intends
Illustration
James Packer
Does omnipotence mean that God can literally do anything? No, that is not the meaning. There are many things God cannot do. Godcannot do what is self-contradictory or nonsensical, like squaring the circle. Nor (and this is vital) can Godact out of character. God has a perfect moral character, and it is not in him to deny it. Godcannot be capricious, unloving, random, unjust, or inconsistent. Just as Godcannot pardon sin without atonement, because that would not be right, so Godcannot fail to be faithful and just in forgiving sins that are confessed in faith and in keeping all the other promises Godhas made. Moral instability, vacillation, and unreliability are marks of weakness, not of strength: but God's omnipotence is supreme strength, making is impossible that he should lapse into imperfection of this sort.
The positive way to say itis this: though there are things which a holy, rational God is incapable of intending, all that he intends to do he does. "Whatever the Lord pleases he does" (Ps. 135:6). As when he planned tomake the world, "he spoke, and it came to be" (Ps. 33:9), so it is with everything that he wills. With people "there's many a slip twixt cup and lip," but not with God.
20. The Lure of the Easy Way - Sermon Starter
Illustration
Brett Blair
I like the story of the young man, eager to make it to the top, who went to a well-known millionaire businessman and asked him the first reason for his success. The businessman answered without hesitation, "Hard work." After a lengthy pause the young man asked, "What is the SECOND reason?"
We want to deal this morning with the lure of the easy way. Jesus and His disciples were at Caesarea Philippi. Their ministry to this point had been a stunning success. Crowds pressed in on them everywhere they went. People eagerly reached out to touch this attractive young teacher from Nazareth. The disciples themselves were caught up in the excitement of it all. Jesus asked them, "Who do you say I am?" and Simon Peter answered enthusiastically, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!" It was one of the most dramatic moments in the disciples' pilgrimage with Jesus.
Then Jesus changed the subject. He began to tell them that the crowds would soon turn against Him; He would be crucified, on the third day he would be raised. The disciples didn't know what to make of all this. Simon Peter took Jesus aside: "Forbid it, Lord, that these things should happen to you." Jesus' response to Simon Peter is as harsh as any words in the New Testament: "Get behind me Satan! You are not on the side of God but of man."
Perhaps Jesus called Simon Peter ‘Satan' because of Jesus' experience in the wilderness immediately after His baptism by John. In today's parlance, it was there that Satan revealed to Jesus the way to make a million dollars in three easy steps turn stones to bread, leap off the pinnacle of the temple, "Bow down and worship me!" I see Satan not as a red caped figure with a pitchfork but dressed in a $400 suit and offering in a glib and polished tongue instant success, instant glamour, instant gratification. We can see Satan almost anywhere today. Jesus encountered him this time in Simon Peter: "Forbid it, Lord, that you should have to suffer and die."
If there is any doubt that Jesus is resisting the lure of the easy way, listen to the words that follow: "If any man would be my disciple, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me."
We are the devotees of the easy way even though everyone in this room knows two important truths.
1. The Path to Personal Success Is that of Self-Denial.
2. Self-Denial Is Essential to the Salvation of the World.
21. In the Know
Illustration
Michael Horton
One of the earliest and most potent threats to early Christianity came from the heretical group known as the Gnostics. Blending elements of Christianity, Greek philosophy, and oriental mysticism, the Gnostics denied the orthodox view of God, man, and the world, and Christ. The apostle John included them in the camp of the Antichrist.
The Gnostics were so called because of their view of revelation. The word gnosis is the Greek word for "knowledge." In many cases the Gnostic heretics did not make a frontal assault against the apostles or against the apostolic teaching of Scripture. In fact, many of them insisted that they were genuine, Bible-believing Christians. It wasn't that they rejected the Bible; they just claimed an additional source of knowledge or insight that was superior to or at least beyond the knowledge of Scripture. The "Gnostikoi" were "those in the know." Their knowledge was not derived from intellectual comprehension of the Scripture or by empirical research, but was mystical, direct, and immediate. God "revealed" private, intuitive insights to them that carried nothing less than divine authority.
Here is a typical Gnostic statement: "We cannot communicate with God mentally, for He is a Spirit. But we can reach Him with our Spirit, and it is through our Spirit that we come to know God….This is one reason God put teachers (those who are really called to teach) in the church to renew our minds. Many times those who teach do so with only a natural knowledge that they have gained from the Bible and other sources. But I am referring here to one of the ministry gifts. Those who are called and anointed by the Spirit to teach. God has given us His Word, and we can feed upon that Word. This will renew our minds. But He also puts teachers in the church to renew our minds and to bring us the revelation of the knowledge of God's Word." (Kenneth E. Hagin, Man on Three Dimensions (Tulsa, Okla.: Faith Library, 1985), 1:8,13.)
Notice that this quotation does not include a direct assault on the Bible. The Bible is recognized as God's word. But in order to understand the Bible we need something beyond our natural mental ability. We need the Spirit-anointed teachers to "bring us the revelation of the knowledge of God's Word." This is a typically Gnostic statement, but the quote is not from Valentinus or any of the other early Gnostics. It is from the pen of a modern missionary of Gnosticism, Kenneth E. Hagin. It is from Hagin's Man on Three Dimensions. Hagin's theology echoes the tripartite epistemology of early Gnosticism (man as having three separate entities: body, soul, and spirit).
Robert Tilton also claims a direct pipeline to divine revelation: "God showed me a vision that almost took my breath away. I was sucked into the Spirit . . ., caught away . . . and I found myself standing in the very presence of Almighty God. It just echoed into my being. And he said these words to me. . . exactly these words . . ."Many of my ministers pray for my people, but I want you to pray the Prayer of Agreement with them" . . . I have never seen the presence of God so powerful. This same anointing flooded my Spirit-man . . . It's inside of me now, and I have supernatural faith to agree with you. From that day forth, as I have been faithful to that heavenly vision, I've seen every kind of miracle imaginable happen when I pray the Prayer of Agreement with God's people." (Robert Tilton, newsletter from Robert Tilton Ministries, Word of Faith World Outreach Center, Box 819000, Dallas, TX75381.
It seems that in Robert Tilton the church is blessed with a twentieth-century apostle whose visions of revelation exceed that of the apostle John and whose miracle powers surpass that of the apostle Paul. If we are to believe Tilton's astonishing claims, there is no reason we should not include his writings in the next edition of the New Testament.
Paul Crouch of the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), has revelatory dreams and has warmly embraced the neo-Gnostic dogma. His network has become a prime distribution center for the growing movement. Kenneth Copeland also receives phrases from God in "his spirit."
22. Harder With Time
Illustration
Philip Yancey
In an essay on prayer, C.S. Lewis suggested that God treats new Christians with a special kind of tenderness, much as a parent dotes on a newborn. He quotes an experienced Christian:
"I have seen many striking answers to prayer and more than one that I thought miraculous. But they usually come at the beginning before conversion, or soon after it. As the Christian life proceeds, they tend to be rarer. The refusals, too, are not only more frequent; they become more unmistakable, more emphatic."
At first glance, such a suggestion seems to have it all backward. Shouldn't faith become easier, not harder, as a Christian progresses? But, as Lewis points out, the New Testament gives two strong examples of unanswered prayers: Jesus pled three times for God to "Take this cup from me" and Paul begged God to cure the "thorn in my flesh."
Lewis asks, "Does God then forsake just those who serve Him best? Well, He who served Him best of all said, near His tortured death, 'Why hast thou forsaken me?' When God becomes man, that Man, of all others, is least comforted by God, at His greatest need. There is a mystery here which, even if I had the power, I might not have the courage to explore. Meanwhile, little people like you and me, if our prayers are sometimes granted, beyond all hope and probability, had better not draw hasty conclusions to our own advantage. If we were stronger, we might be less tenderly treated. If we were braver, we might be sent, with far less help, to defend far more desperate posts in the great battle."
23. Demosthenes on the Podium
Illustration
Jay Oswald Sanders
When Demosthenes, the famed Greek orator, first spoke in public, he was hissed off the platform. His voice was harsh and weak and his appearance unimpressive. He determined that his fellow citizens would yet appreciate his words, so he practiced day and night. He shaved half his head so no one would want to invite him to social events. To overcome a stammer, he recited with pebbles in his mouth and yelled against the thunders of the Aegean Sea so his voice would get louder. He stood beneath a suspended sword to train himself not to favor a shoulder that kept hitching. He practiced facial expressions in front of a mirror. It's not surprising that when he next appeared in public he moved the Greek nation.
He and another orator spoke on a matter of national concern. When his companion concluded his speech, the crowd said, "What marvelous oratory!" But when Demosthenes finished, they cried with one voice, "Let us go and fight!"
Note: The legend is basically true though details are hard to verify. Clickhere for more information.
24. Wait on the Lord
Illustration
James Packer
Grace is God drawing sinners closer and closer to him. How does God in grace prosecute this purpose? Not by shielding us from assault by the work, the flesh, and the devil, nor by protecting us from burdensome and frustrating circ*mstance, not yet by shielding us from troubles created by our own temperament and psychology, but rather by exposing us to all these things, so as to overwhelm us with a sense of our own inadequacy, and to drive us to cling to him more closely.
This is the ultimate reason, from our standpoint, why God fills our lives with troubles and perplexities of one sort and another it is to ensure that we shall learn to hold him fast. The reason why the Bible spends so much of its time reiterating that God is a strong rock, a firm defense, and a sure refuge and help for the weak is that God spends so much of his time showing us that we are weak, both mentally and morally, and dare not trust ourselves to find or follow the right road. When we walk along a clear road feeling fine, and someone takes our arm to help us, likely we would impatiently shake him off; but when we are caught in rough country in the dark, with a storm brewing and our strength spent, and someone takes our arm to help us, we would thankfully lean on him. And God wants us to feel that our way through life is rough and perplexing, so that we may learn to lean on him thankfully. Therefore he takes steps to drive us out of self-confidence to trust in himself, to in the classic scriptural phrase for the secret of the godly man's life "wait on the Lord."
25. Settling for Less
Illustration
Maxie Dunnam
Charles Schultz, the artist who provides us with the Peanuts cartoons, is one of my favorite theologians. That ought to tell you something about the kind of seminary president I am. In one of his cartoon series, he has Snoopy, that hound of heaven, saying of Woodstock, that would-be bird of paradise; "Someday, Woodstock is going to be a great eagle." Then in the next frame he says, "He is going to soar thousands of feet above the ground." Woodstock takes off into the air and as Snoopy looks on he sees the bird upside down whirling around crazily. So he has second thoughts. In the third frame Snoopy says, "Well, maybe hundreds of feet above the ground…" But hardly had the words gotten out of his mouth when Woodstock plummets to the ground and lies there, on his back looking dazed, and Snoopy has to conclude, "Maybe he will be one of those eagles who just walks around."
Isn't it amazing – how quickly we settle for less than is promised, and for far less than is possible?
26. Carry Someone with You
Illustration
King Duncan
There was a tribe of Indians who lived a long time ago in the state of Mississippi. They lived next to a very swift and dangerous river. The current was so strong that if somebody happened to fall in or stumbled into it they could be swept away downstream.
One day the tribe was attacked by a hostile group of settlers. They found themselves with their backs against the river. They were greatly outnumbered and their only chance for escape was to cross the rushing river. They huddled together and those who were strong picked up the weak and put them on their shoulders; the little children, the sick, the old and the infirm, those who were ill or wounded were carried on the backs of those who were strongest. They waded out into the river, and to their surprise they discovered that the weight on their shoulders carrying the least and the lowest helped them to keep their footing and to make it safely across the river.
Jesus is trying to teach the disciples an object lesson about greatness, about servanthood, about leadership. He is saying to them and to us, "Have you lost the childlike joy and love and faith that once were yours?" He is also saying to them and to us, "If you want to walk on secure ground in this world it helps to carry someone with you."
27. Eagles Who Just Walk Around
Illustration
Maxie Dunnam
In Charles Schultz's "Peanuts" cartoon, Snoopy, the hound of heaven, says of Woodstock, the would-be bird of paradise, "Someday Woodstock is going to be a great eagle. He is going to soar thousands of feet above the ground."
Woodstock then takes off into the air. He's upside down and whirling around. "Well, maybe a hundred feet above the ground."
But then Woodstock falls to the ground looking dazed and snoopy says, "Maybe he'll just be one of those eagles who walks around."
Isn't it amazing how quickly we settle for less than is promised and is possible? The psalmist had a thrilling view of our place as human beings in God's creation. "When I look at the heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and stars which though hast ordained, what is man that though aren't mindful of him? Though hast made him a little lower than angels and crowned him with glory and honor."
When we know who we are, we can never be happy as eagles who just walk around.
28. Parable of the Tree Brace
Illustration
"Why are you putting that big stick next to that little tree?" said Richard.
"Someone ran over the curb with their car and knocked it down. So I'm bracing it to make it grow straight." said the father.
"Gosh, if it's that weak," said the boy, "how can it ever grow to be a beautiful tree?'
"Watch and see," said the father. "If it is guided and fed long enough it can become a tall, strong and beautiful shade tree for it is the right kind of tree."
Human beings are like trees in many ways. In the early years of growth with proper support and good care they may grow in ways that God intends and may come to the fullness of strength and beauty.
Blows that would otherwise destroy them are withstood because of the protective care; and the nourishment that is furnished at church, the school and the home all furnish important care for their members who are thus able to withstand trials that destroy lives which are denied these blessings.
Sound thinking citizens accept the responsibility of supporting those institutions which both inspire, direct and correct daily living and supply sources for human health and happiness.
29. I Choose You
Illustration
Victoria Brooks
There's an old, word-of-mouth story, which is probably aprochryphal, about Abraham Lincoln visitinga slave auction. Observing the proceedings from the rear of the crowd, his attention was caught by a strong, defiant, young slave girl with sharp, angry eyes.
Something in her manner pierced him; the sheer intensity of her gaze spoke to him of the anguish of her captivity and her longing for freedom. When it was her turn to step to the auction block, he and several others bid. With each rise in price, her hostility grew. Finally, Lincoln won, paid the money, and had her brought to him.
She came, rigid with resistance, arms tied behind her back, leg chains dragging.
“Untie her,” Lincoln said.
“Oh no, sir!” her auctioneer responded, pulling her forward with a jerk. “She be a wild one! Ain’t no end o’ trouble in her. Ya best git her home afore ya be takin’ her chains off.” With that, he secured her to the horse rail, turned, and left.
Lincoln stood quietly for a moment, looking at the young woman. “What is your name?” he asked.
She did not respond.
“What are you called?” he repeated.
Steeling herself for the inevitable blow, she set her jaw, stared at the ground, and said nothing.
Taking the bill of sale from his pocket, Lincoln read it carefully, then marked the bottom with his signature. Slowly he stooped, undid the clasp of her ankle irons, and untied the rope that had cut into her wrists.
“You’re free to go, Sara-Jane,” he said, handing her the document. “You are free to choose your own life now.”
Reaching again into his pocket, he drew out a card and several coins. “If you have any trouble,” he said, “call on me at this address and I will help you.”
As the reality of what she had heard seeped slowly through her brain and into her muscles, the young woman grew weak and unable to sustain her rage. Minutes ticked by as anger gave way to confusion, and confusion to disbelief. Like someone in the grip of a personal earthquake, shockwaves of agonizing hope rippled through the muscles of her face. As she fought for control, her jaw clenched, then settled again; her muscular shoulders convulsed, then were still. Finally, a large, work-callused hand rose to take the papers and the money. Instantly, she turned and ran.
Lincoln watched as she disappeared down the rutted road.
Taking the reins of his horse, he began to mount when he saw her suddenly stop. Some distance away, she stood totally still. More minutes passed. Then, slowly, deliberately, she made her way back. Standing in front of him, she handed him the money.
“I choose you,” she said, looking up for the first time into Lincoln’s gaunt, craggy face. “You say I choose my own life now,” she continued haltingly, “ ... that I work for who I want. You give me papers to show that I be free.” The deep sinkholes of her oval face were wet with emotion. “If that be true . . . if I be free . . . then I choose you.”
30. The Strength of the Tea
Illustration
Michael P. Green
Consider the difference between a strong and a weak cup of tea. The same ingredients—water and tea—are used for both. The difference is that the strong cup of tea results from the tea leaves’ immersion in the water longer, allowing the water more time to get into the tea and the tea into the water. The longer the steeping process, the stronger the cup of tea.
In the same way, the length of time we spend in God’s Word determines how deeply we get into it and it gets into us. Just like the tea, the longer we are in the Word, the “stronger” we become.
31. Heaven Is a Process
Illustration
Keith Wagner
Most people I know believe that heaven is some far, distant place. When folks describe heaven they generally speak of some favorite place, like Myrtle Beach, Hawaii, the Smoky Mountains or a cabin in Canada. The book of the Revelation to John talks about a place where there are "streets of gold, walls with precious stones and pearl gates." Our images of heaven tend to be some form of paradise where everything is beautiful and wonderful.
But here in the gospel of Matthew Jesus does not describe "heaven" as a place. He is speaking in parables and in each parable he refers to heaven as an activity. Heaven is not a destination but a journey. For Jesus, heaven has to do with planting seeds, discovering treasure, selling everything you have and being caught up in a huge net. In other words heaven is not a place where we end up but a movementwe participate in.
32. Satan's Success
Illustration
Michael P. Green
There is a fable that Satan’s agents were failing in their various attempts to draw into sin a holy man who lived as a hermit in the desert of northern Africa. Every attempt had met with failure; so Satan, angered with the incompetence of his subordinates, became personally involved in the case. He said, “The reason you have failed is that your methods are too crude for one such as this. Watch this.”
He then approached the holy man with great care and whispered softly in his ear, “Your brother has just been made Bishop of Alexandria.” Instantly the holy man’s face showed that Satan had been successful: a great scowl formed over his mouth and his eyes tightened up.
“Envy,” said Satan, “is often our best weapon against those who seek holiness.”
33. Death
Illustration
Jack Key
A businessman was permitted to have one wish come true. After some thought he wished for a newspaper dated two years in the future. Miraculously the paper was put in his hand. Turning to the stock reports, he made careful notes on stocks that had shown unusual growth. He would certainly make a fortune! Then out of curiosity he looked through the paper and found his own name in the obituary column. He had suffered a heart attack, and his funeral arrangements were spelled out in detail there before him.
We are tempted at times to believe that if we could only look into the future, things would be different. What is around the corner? God is, and he has promised that his presence will be constantly with us and that his grace will be sufficient for every time of need. Our times are in his hands.
34. Christianity Involves a Struggle
Illustration
Edward F. Markquart
There was this amateur naturalist who saw a cocoon. This amateur naturalist saw a butterfly struggling to get out of that cocoon. The butterfly was struggling to get out of the cocoon and was just about ready to break out of that cocoon. The amateur naturalist was closely watching as this miracle unfolded. Then, the amateur naturalist did a very dumb thing. He took out his pocket knife and he slit the cocoon so that the butterfly did not have to struggle. The butterfly came out and flew around but it was a very weak butterfly because the butterfly never had to struggle in its own birth.
Many parents make the same mistake in parenting, where the parents cut the cocoon and make it easier for the children to grow up, protecting their children from difficult struggles, and thereby the children never develop the inner strength that is learned through struggle.
So it is with Christianity. Christianity always involves struggle, whereby a person becomes a strong disciple. It is only through struggles that a person becomes strong spiritually or strong emotionally.
35. What's the Saying?
Illustration
Staff
The answers are below but see if you can guess the saying behind each piece of conventional wisdom:
- Fix something right away or it will get worse.
- An overabundance of culinary help is detrimental to the pot's contents.
- Just because something is shiny, doesn't mean it's a precious metal.
- That which pleases the eye doesn't go beyond the epidermis.
- The capital of Italy was constructed over a long period of time.
- There comes a time when your canine friend is through matriculating.
- If you're going to give advice to others, be sure you follow it yourself.
- Just because you aren't punctual doesn't mean you should quit.
- If you never try to do anything, you'll never get anything done.
- It doesn't take long for a person without good sense to be separated from his financial assets!
Answers:
- A stitch in time saves nine.
- Too many cooks spoil the broth.
- All that glitters is not gold.
- Beauty is only skin deep.
- Rome wasn't built in a day.
- You can't teach an old dog new tricks.
- Practice what you preach.
- Better late than never.
- Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
- A fool and his money are soon parted.
36. God Can
Illustration
Larry Powell
Catherine Marshall tells in one of her books about how devastated she was when, following a routine physical examination, she was informed that she had tuberculosis. She was not mentally prepared for that. No one ever is. She was ordered to bed 24 hours a day indefinitely. Fifteen months later, she had gained 15 pounds. After a year and a half in bed, there was no noticeable progress. It was at this point that tormenting thoughts began inundating her mind. Had she committed some unforgivable sin at sometime in her life? Had she wronged someone and needed to make things right with them? Was there something about her life so offensive to God that her prayers were being short-circuited? What could she do? She apologized to her husband for everything she could think to apologize for. She wrote acquaintances and purged her conscience. She prayed to God and asked what else she could do. What else could she do? Finally, one day she conceded defeat. She had run out of ideas. She had fought and struggled, and worried until there was nothing left. Standing by her bedroom window, she prayed. The prayer, recorded in her diary, was: "From this moment I promise that I'll try to do whatever you tell me for the rest of my life, insofar as you'll make it clear to me what your wishes are. I'm weak and many times I'll probably renege on this. But Lord, you'll have to help me with that too." That was the moment of surrender. She got out of the way. Within six weeks, her condition improved until she was taking walks, working in the garden, making jelly, and eventually resumed her "normal life."
Catherine Marshall's story may be summarized in these words: God can, if we will let him.
37. Value of the Bible
Illustration
Staff
An unknown writer said: This Book is the mind of God, the state of man, the way of salvation, the doom of sinners, and the happiness of believers. Its doctrines are holy, its precepts are binding; its histories are true, and its decisions are immutable. Read it to be wise, believe it to be safe, practice it to be holy. It contains light to direct you, food to support you, and comfort to cheer you. It is the traveler's map, the pilgrim's staff, the pilot's compass, the soldier's sword, and the Christian's character.
Here paradise is restored, heaven opened, and the gates of hell disclosed. Christ is its grand subject, our good its design, and the glory of God its end. It should fill the memory, rule the heart, and guide the feet. Read it slowly, frequently, prayerfully. It is a mine of wealth, a paradise of glory, and a river of pleasure. Follow its precepts and it will lead you to Calvary, to the empty tomb, to a resurrected life in Christ; yes, to glory itself, for eternity.
38. Proclamation Appointing a National Fast Day
Illustration
William H. Seward
Washington, D.C. March 30, 1863
Senator James Harlan of Iowa, whose daughter later married President Lincoln's son Robert, introduced this Resolution in the Senate on March 2, 1863. The Resolution asked President Lincoln to proclaim a national day of prayer and fasting. The Resolution was adopted on March 3, and signed by Lincoln on March 30, one month before the fast day was observed.
By the President of the United States of America.
A Proclamation.
Whereas, the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the Supreme Authority and just Government of Almighty God, in all the affairs of men and of nations, has, by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set apart a day for National prayer and humiliation.
And whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.
And, insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisem*nts in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment, inflicted upon us, for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole People? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!
It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.
Now, therefore, in compliance with the request, and fully concurring in the views of the Senate, I do, by this my proclamation, designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th. day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer. And I do hereby request all the People to abstain, on that day, from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at their several places of public worship and their respective homes, in keeping the day holy to the Lord, and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion.
All this being done, in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the Divine teachings, that the united cry of the Nation will be heard on high, and answered with blessings, no less than the pardon of our national sins, and the restoration of our now divided and suffering Country, to its former happy condition of unity and peace.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this thirtieth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty seventh.
By the President: Abraham Lincoln
William H. Seward, Secretary of State.
39. The Hollowness of Hypocrisy
Illustration
Michael P. Green
In any great forest you will find many huge trees. They tower above other trees and appear to be the very picture of strength and maturity. However, loggers will sometimes not even bother to cut down these huge trees. At first one wonders, “Why leave them? After all, a tree that big must contain twice or thrice the amount of lumber as a smaller tree.”
The reason is simple. Huge trees are often rotten on the inside. They are the hollow trees that children’s picture books show raccoons living in. And they are the trees that are often blown over in a strong windstorm because, while they appear to be the picture of strength, in fact their hollowness makes them weak.
This is the essence of hypocrisy—appearing strong on the outside but hollow and rotten on the inside.
40. I Kept an Open Door
Illustration
Rabbi Aaron Leib of Primishlan
A Jewish story goes: I went up to Heaven in a dream and stood at the Gates of Paradise in order to observe the procedure of the Heavenly Tribunal. I watched as a learned Rabbi approached and wished to enter. "Day and night," he said, "I studied the Holy Torah."
"Wait," said the Angel. "We will investigate whether your study was for its own sake or whether it was a matter of profession and for the sake of honors.
A Righteous Person [a Zaddik] next approached. "I fasted much," he said, "I underwent many ritual cleansings; I studied the Zohar the mystical commentary on the Torah day and night."
"Wait," said the Angel, "until we have completed our investigation to learn whether you motives were pure."
Then a tavern-keeper drew near. "I kept an open door and fed without charge every poor man who came into my inn," he said.
The Heavenly Portals were opened to him.
41. Satan Is No Myth
Illustration
J. O. Sanders
J. O. Sanders offers this interesting description of the counterfeit nature of Satan:
- Satan has his own trinity the devil, the beast, and the false prophet (Revelation 16:13).
- He has his own church, "a synagogue of Satan" (Revelation 2:9).
- He has his own ministers, "ministers of Satan" (2 Corinthians 11:4-5).
- He has formulated his own system of theology "doctrines of demons" (1 Timothy 4:1).
- He has established his own sacrificial system; "The Gentiles...sacrifice to demons" (1 Corinthians 10:20).
- He has his own communion service, "the cup of demons...and the table of demons" (1 Corinthians 10:21).
- His ministers proclaim his own gospel, "a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you" (Galatians 1:7-8).
- He has his own throne (Revelation 13:2) and his own worshipers (Revelation 13:4).
- So he has developed a thorough imitation of Christianity, viewed as a system of religion.
- In his role as the imitator of God, he inspires false christs, self-constituted messiahs (Matthew 24:4-5).
- He employs false teachers who are specialists in his "theology," to bring in "destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them" (2 Peter 2:1). They are adept at mixing truth and error in such proportions as to make error palatable. They carry on their teaching surreptitiously and often anonymously.
- He sends out false prophets. "And many false prophets will arise, and will mislead many" (Matthew 24:11).
- He introduces false brethren into the church, who "had sneaked in to spy out our liberty...in order to bring us into bondage" (Galatians 2:4).
- He sponsors false apostles who imitate the true (2 Corinthians 11:13).
42. THE CHRISTMAS MESSAGE: I LOVE YOU
Illustration
John H. Krahn
Little in life can match the beauty of Christmas Eve - the holy night of celebration. Beauty in abundance surrounds us for a few fleeting hours. Each of us treasures these moments, savoring every tradition. Somehow we love our children a little bit more this night. Our wife, how lovely she looks; our hearts feel special love for her, for him. If we had the power to stop time’s endless march - suspend it momentarily - most of us would do it Christmas Eve. For this is the night when peace pervades our hearts, as hands extend to greet friends and arms reach out to embrace family. How wonderfully good we all feel. We love and are loved. We forgive and are forgiven. We give only to receive in return.
Years ago, many years ago, there was a Christmas much unlike our own. The world didn’t stop for the first Christmas - hardly anyone even noticed. The scent of fresh baked bread and chocolate chip cookies were not the smells of the first Christmas. Straw replaced tinsel and garland. Live animals replaced Handgeschnitzed Holzfigurn and Hummels. A virgin laboring at birth, a carpenter lending an unsteady hand. Animals annoyed at intruders. Angels preparing themselves to startle shepherds. God’s wayward creation about to be invaded by the cosmic Christ. Coming into the humblest surroundings to a no-place city called Bethlehem. This was the first Christmas. How strange ... how wonderfully and beautifully strange.
The first Christmas can only be described as unusual and surprising that the God of a million heavens and a million earths should grace a manger in Bethlehem. Swaddling cloths upon the back of a King, of a God - on the back of the one, true, and only God. Where was the finery one might expect? Nowhere, for it was to the poor he came, to those who were troubled, those who were not completely self-sufficient, those who knew they were not good enough to make heaven by themselves. He came for all humankind, not only that first holy night but for every night of every year and into the present - here, right now.
The Lord Jesus Christ is present with us. He speaks to us once again the message of Christmas as he says to each of us, "I love you. I want to be close to you every day of your lives. Please be wise and invite me in. There is no one who is so perfect that he cannot welcome a fuller participation of my indwelling. There are some who have yet to welcome my powerful presence and, unfortunately, we are only occasional guests of one another and may be strangers in eternity. And to you I say, come, do not live another day without my abundant presence." Now may my Father bless and keep each one of you, and may your voices and lives continuously sing the angelic chorus, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."
43. When I Say I Am a Christian
Illustration
James W. Moore
In 1988, the poet Carol Wimmer, became concerned about the self-righteous, judgmental spirit she was seeing in some people because she felt strongly that being judgmental is a perversion of the Christian faith. So, she wrote a poem about this. It's called "When I say I am a Christian" and it reads like this:
"When I say, ‘I am a Christian,' I'm not shouting, ‘I've been saved!' I'm
whispering, ‘I get lost!' That's why I chose this way.
When I say ‘I am a Christian,' I don't speak with human pride. I'm
confessing that I stumble – needing God to be my guide.
When I say ‘I am a Christian,' I'm not trying to be strong. I'm professing
that I'm weak and pray for strength to carry on.
When I say ‘I am a Christian,' I'm not bragging of success. I'm admitting
that I've failed and cannot ever pay the debt.
When I say, ‘I am a Christian,' I don't think I know it all. I submit to
my confusion asking humbly to be taught.
When I say ‘I am a Christian,' I'm not claiming to be perfect. My flaws
are far too visible, but God believes I'm worth it.
When I say, ‘I am a Christian,' I still feel the sting of pain. I have my
share of heartache which is why I seek His name.
When I say, ‘I am a Christian,' I do not wish to judge. I have no
authority – I only know I'm loved."
44. The First and Last Things
Illustration
Brett Blair
H.G. Wells had thereputation as the apostle of scientific materialism and the deadly foe of organized faith. So it's surprising that in one of his most successful but least known novelsMr. Britling Sees It Through, he made a rather startlingly confession, or at least it appears to be a confession. It is generally thought that the characterMr. Britling is a surrogate for Wells. The characterexpresses asimple but clear faith, leaving no doubt as to the meaning. At first, his religious views are passionate, but notstrictly orthodox. Mr. Britling makes this confession, giving us a window into Wells' on beliefs:
"Religion is the first thing and the last thing, and until a man has found God and been found by God, he begins at no beginning, he works to no end. He may have his friendships, his partial loyalties, his scraps of honour. But all these things fall into place and life falls into place only with God. Only with God. God, who fights through men against Blind Force and Night and Non-Existence; who is the end, who is the meaning. He is the only King. . . . It was as if he had been groping all this time in the darkness, thinking himself alone amidst rocks and pitfalls and pitiless things, and suddenly a hand, a firmstrong hand, had touched his own. And a voice within him bade him be of good courage. . . . God was beside him and within him and about him."
Note: Wells, through the Britling Character,draws more a picture of a finite God rather than an Omnipotent Being, saying, "After all, the real God of the Christians is Christ, not God Almighty; a poor mocked and wounded God nailed on a cross of matter…. Some day He will triumph…. But it is not fair to say that He causes all things now. It is not fair to make out a case against him. You have been misled. It is a theologian’s folly. God is not absolute; God is finite…. A finite God who struggles in his great and comprehensive way as we struggle in our weak and silly way—who is with us..." Go Here for more.
45. The One I Loved the Most
Illustration
Donald J. Shelby
Journalist Bill Ritter tells of a TV interview that once caught his attention. The person being interviewed was a heroic mother who had single-handedly raised a large family. In spite of all the frustrations, disappointments and obstacles, she had persevered and every one of her children had made remarkable achievements, not only in their schooling but also in their vocation. It was an inspiring story worth celebrating, for it revealed the heights and depths of human greatness. During the interview, the mother was asked her secret by the reporter who said, 'I suppose you loved all your children equally, making sure that all got the same treatment?'
"The mother replied, 'I loved them. I loved them all, each one of them, but not equally. I loved the one the most that was down until he was up. I loved the one the most that was weak until she was strong. I loved the one the most that was hurt until he was healed. I loved the one the most that was lost until she was found."'
46. Truth Tellers
Illustration
Steven Molin
For generations, the Quakers refused to follow the legal system’s requirement that witnesses in court must place their hand upon a bible and “swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” They were criticized, and ridiculed and in some cases, incarcerated for their refusal to take an oath. But because they gained the reputation of being honest people, they are, in some courts, no longer required to swear on the bible. They are known as truth-tellers.
Perhaps the old joke that we have told for generations is not just funny but also true. Lena says to her husband “Ole, why don’t you tell me you love me anymore?” And Ole replies “I told you fifty years ago that I loved you, and if that ever changes, I’ll let you know.” Even Ole was a truth-teller.
47. A Matter of Excess
Illustration
Larry Powell
Before commentingdirectly about Mark 6:30-44, allow me to direct your attention to two Old Testament stories.
1. The first story is found in 2 Kings 4:1-7 and concerns the widow of a prophet whose creditors were about to foreclose her outstanding debt. Additionally, her two sons were to be carried away as slaves. Beside herself, the widow cried out to Elisha for help. Elisha asked her if she had anything in the house of value which might be sold to provide money toward the debt. "Only a partially filled jar of oil," she answered. Elisha surprisingly instructed her to go throughout the community collecting jars to be filled with her oil. We are probably safe to assume that if she did not feel rather foolish, there is a good chance her sons did. Here she went, gathering empty jars to hold the little bit of oil which did not nearly fill the jar it was in. When it was all said and done however, there was more oil than jars to put it in, enough money was available to pay the creditor, and the excess was sufficient for the widow and her boys to live on.
2. The other story is also found in 2 Kings and again deals with excess. A man brought Elisha twenty loaves of barley bread and was instructed by the prophet to feed a rather sizeable gathering. The man asked, "How can I feed 100 men with only twenty loaves of bread?" To make a long story short, let’s read the conclusion of the account: "Then he set it before them and they ate and had some left over" (2 Kings 4:42-44).
The account in Mark 6:30-44 bears striking similarities to the incidents mentioned above, especially the latter. For this reason, the feeding of the 5,000 is understood by many to be Jesus’ confirmation that his ministry was in the prophetic tradition of Elisha and under the authority of God. That is one way to interpret the miracle.
Another explanation was offered years ago by the distinguished Christian, Albert Schweitzer, who believed that the feeding of the 5,000 was an "eschatological sacrament" which was in fact a foretaste, or preview, of the greater feast to be held in the approaching Kingdom of God.
Of course, the simplest explanation is that Jesus was addressing a specific need at a specific time, and that that is the whole of it. However, let us not overlook the emphasis that Mark places upon the miracles of Christ as signs of his authority. We would perhaps be well within the mark to accept all three possibilities as legitimate.
I particularly like the quantity measure in the Elisha stories, the feeding of the 5,000 and other incidents throughout the Scriptures. The provisions were not merely sufficient for the immediate need, but always resulted in excess. Surely that must suggest something to us of the mind of God. His grace and love are more than sufficient for our needs.
48. God Renews Our Strength
Illustration
King Duncan
In times of need, Jesus promises his disciples, you will receive strength from beyond. Rabbi Harold Kushner reflects on this strength. "I have seen weak people become strong," he writes, "timid people become brave, selfish people become generous. I have seen people care for their elderly parents, for brain damaged children, for wives in wheelchairs, for years, even decades, and I have asked myself, where do people get the strength to keep doing that for so long? Where do they get the resources of love and loyalty to keep going? The only answer I come up with is when we are weary and out of strength, we turn to God and God renews our strength, so we can run and not grow weary, so that we can walk and not feel faint."
49. The Christmas Touch
Illustration
Robert L. Crouch
Let me tell about a man who in my book wasa "light for revelation" as Simeonputit.When he was alive his parents called him Billy Frank. His wife calledhim Bill. His face was drawn by the gravitational pull of years. The wrinkles on his brow betrayed a life of hard work and stress. His legs wereweak. So, too, his arms. His hands trembled involuntarily. His voice, once strong, grewtired. He grew old gracefully. For most of his 82 years, this man touched the world by holding before it the Christ of Christmas.
Jesus knows the trembling hands that hold on to him with unflinching tenacity. He recognizes his faithful follower’s tender touch. He understands that the cause for which he came into our fallen world is the cause to which this frail fellow hadcommitted his life. Since embracing the Savior as a teenager, Billcarried in his heart a concern for all kinds of people in all kinds of places. The races of the world have been equally important to him. Ever since graduating from Wheaton College, this North Carolinianwalked his talk around the block and across the seas. William Franklin Graham wasa living example of what it means to embrace others with the love of God. In Billy Graham we saw alight. A light for all humanity to see the revelation of God in Christ.
50. Something by Tolstoy
Illustration
Staff
It's very human to begin looking for something and then forget what you're looking for. Tennessee Williams tells a story of someone who forgot. It's the story of Jacob Brodzky, a shy Russian Jew whose father owned a bookstore. The older Brodzky wanted his son to go to college. The boy, on the other hand, desired nothing but to marry Lila, his childhood sweetheart a French girl as effusive, vital, and ambitious as he was contemplative and retiring. A couple of months after young Brodzky went to college, his father fell ill and died. The son returned home, buried his father, and married his love. Then the couple moved into the apartment above the bookstore, and Brodzky took over its management. The life of books fit him perfectly, but it cramped her. She wanted more adventure and she found it, she thought, when she met an agent who praised her beautiful singing voice and enticed her to tour Europe with a vaudeville company. Brodzky was devastated. At their parting, he reached into his pocket and handed her the key to the front door of the bookstore.
"You had better keep this," he told her, "because you will want it someday. Your love is not so much less than mine that you can get away from it. You will come back sometime, and I will be waiting."
She kissed him and left. To escape the pain he felt, Brodzky withdrew deep into his bookstore and took to reading as someone else might have taken to drink. He spoke little, did little, and could most times be found at the large desk near the rear of the shop, immersed in his books while he waited for his love to return.
Nearly 15 years after they parted, at Christmastime, she did return. But when Brodzky rose from the reading desk that had been his place of escape for all that time, he did not take the love of his life for more than an ordinary customer. "Do you want a book?" he asked. That he didn't recognize her startled her. But she gained possession of herself and replied, "I want a book, but I've forgotten the name of it."
Then she told him a story of childhood sweethearts. A story of a newly married couple who lived in an apartment above a bookstore. A story of a young, ambitious wife who left to seek a career, who enjoyed great success but could never relinquish the key her husband gave her when they parted. She told him the story she thought would bring him to himself. But his face showed no recognition. Gradually she realized that he had lost touch with his heart's desire, that he no longer knew the purpose of his waiting and grieving, that now all he remembered was the waiting and grieving itself. "You remember it; you must remember it the story of Lila and Jacob?"
After a long, bewildered pause, he said, "There is something familiar about the story, I think I have read it somewhere. It comes to me that it is something by Tolstoy." Dropping the key, she fled the shop. And Brodzky returned to his desk, to his reading, unaware that the love he waited for had come and gone.
This Tennessee Williams's 1931 story "Something by Tolstoy" reminds me how easy it is to miss love when it comes. Either something so distracts us or we have so completely lost who we are and what we care about that we cannot recognize our heart's desire.
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