2 Corinthians 12:7 Commentary and Bible Study

Then Paul says something that shakes us: ‘And lest I should be exalted above measure.’ Lest I should become puffed up with pride, immeasurable pride, pride above anything that you could imagine. Is it possible that the saintly Paul, who abases himself and accepts such rigours and works so humbly, who pleads rather than commands, and who is so close to the Lord; is it possible that he of all people could be puffed up with insufferable pride? Yes, it is. It must be because Almighty God has to take steps to prevent it. If it could happen to the apostle Paul, how much more will it happen for you and me? Pride, the great enemy of every believer!‘Lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations.’ The revelations: Paul’s instrumentality as a channel of the inspired word as well as this personal vision. There are no revelations, authoritative revelations today, the Scripture is complete. But for Paul as an inspired channel, there was a price to pay, a very big price.‘There was given to me a thorn.’ In the Greek, a stake ‘in the flesh’, which might tend to suggest that it was in the body, an illness, though that might not be the case. A common interpretation in the Church of Rome is that this means that Paul’s thorn in the flesh was impure thoughts, and they take the word flesh to refer to such temptations – fleshly, carnal temptations. That is preposterous and does not fit the passage at all, but it is typical Rome. But it might have been a terrible illness or a bodily affliction, or it could have been the mental and spiritual affliction coming from persecutions and pressures. ‘The messenger of Satan.’ It was not given by Satan; it was given by God. God put this provision in place, Satan took advantage of it. God put it there, Satan harassed the apostle through it. It became the messenger of Satan. There is an interpretation which says that ‘messenger’, being the word for angel, the angel of Satan, indicates a demon that attacks him. But that is over-literalistic. No, the messenger of Satan simply means that Satan took advantage with his cruel suggestions and temptations. But the thorn was given of God.‘To buffet me’, to punch me. The word translated buffet is the humiliating punch like a cuff round the face with the back of the hand that somebody might inflict to demean a person, a child perhaps or a teenager, in a way intended to hurt and humiliate. The devil is not given capacity to kill or to maim or to disable, but by his taking advantage of our thorn, whatever it might be, he can humiliate. And yet it was a provision of God so that the apostle should not be puffed up, and he repeats it, ‘exalted above measure’.There are many suggestions. Specific illnesses have been suggested by the commentators, perhaps the favourite among them is a chronic inflammatory eye infection which leads perhaps to blindness and causes great swelling and pain. Malarial fever is another idea. Others reckon he means lack of equipment, lack of adequate help and support, lack of means in various places, so that he was obliged to work with his own hands and often went without. A less physical thorn, is the constant opposition of nationalistic Jews and persecution.