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It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. 2 Corinthians 12:1-10 On Paul being caught up to the third heaven F. W. Krummacher. In the words of the apostle, in his Epistle to the Colossians, I call upon you, "If ye be risen with Christ, seek those things that are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God." "Set your affections on things above, and not on things on the earth." Yes, to such an exercise of the affections we have constant need to exhort one another. Perhaps we know too little of the glorious things above in order to love them heartily. First, let us consider the event itself; secondly, what the apostle saw in heaven. 1. Who is the man that speaks to us in our text? The more remarkable the things are which any one relates, the more important it is to know who our informant is, whether he deserves credit. Now, you are aware that the speaker on this occasion is no fanciful enthusiast, no mere sentimentalist. He is a man who in numerous passages of his Epistles zealously opposed religious delusions and a false spirituality, and strove to fix both himself and the Church on the written, firm, prophetic Word, and not on feelings, visions, and ecstasies. Indeed, we may say of him that a calm reflective understanding predominated in him more than in any other of the apostles. He was also a man of learning. It cannot be imagined for one moment that vainglory and self-exaltation prompted him to give the narrative contained in our text. Oh! in what a light do we, imperfect Christians, appear when placed by the side of this great apostle! We who are used to experience only some slight measure of answer to prayer and of spiritual elevation. Only think! for fourteen years he kept this matter to himself! How does this impress on it the stamp of truth! Let us now consider the statements of the apostle. He begins with saying, "It is not expedient for me, doubtless, to glory." Do not imagine (he means to say) that I wish to utter this for my own glory. "I knew a man in Christ," he goes on to say. Paul speaks of himself as of a third person. In looking back on a period of life long since passed, a person feels as if he was contemplating another and not himself. At such a distance a person judges of himself with more freedom, impartiality, and truth. Paul calls himself "a man in Christ." He enjoyed the great privilege to lose sight of his own personality, and only to view himself in the attire of his Surety. He had a special reason for calling himself on this occasion "a man in Christ." He wishes in doing so to meet the question how it came to pass that he was so highly honoured; it was because he was a man in Christ that before him the gates of paradise must fly open. He says, "I was caught up"; according to the word used in the original, I was forcibly carried away. He was caught up from the earth. But whither? To some blessed star, from whence, as Moses viewed the promised land, so he might view the land of glory glimmering in the distance? Oh no, his flight went further. He was in the very heart of this land. How often in the dark seasons of his life had he looked with sighs to this distant region! How often had he thought that he would willingly resign everything on earth that only a fleeting glance might be allowed him through the impenetrable veil which covers that land of immortal beauty! There he stood. The tumult of the world was hushed around him. Oh what a life in those serene fields of light and love! In those palmy groves of everlasting peace what forms, what visions, what tones of praise! 2. Was Paul then literally in heaven? Is there, in fact, a world of blessedness behind the clouds? Truly I think that Paul was not the first to inform us of that. He says, "He was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter." And his meaning appears to be simply this: what he had heard and seen during this visit to the other world was of such a peculiar kind that it was absolutely impossible to express it in human language. Oh yes, the apostle might have been cordially willing to have painted before our eyes an image of that blessed world, but whence could he take the colours for the painting? Would he have taken something from the light of the sun, from the blooming meadows of our earthly spring, from the groves and solemn stillness of our summer mornings? Alas! he would only have dipped his pencil in poor dull shades. All this the apostle felt, and he preferred being silent. He might have been willing to describe to us how the saints appeared. Oh, gladly would he have told us in what glory his Lord and Saviour there appeared to him. But what could he say? But there is still another circumstance which perhaps gives us a greater idea of the glory of what Paul heard and felt in the third heaven than even his silence — I mean the ardent longing of the apostle to return again to the blessedness that he had once enjoyed. But his wishes could not be taken into consideration. He was obliged to return to this dark earth and to the toilsome path of his apostleship. But after his return his renunciation of the world and its lusts was rendered complete. His conversation is henceforth in heaven. Paul knew that he could return to the blessedness he had beheld by no other path than death. Well, be it so, no hour was more longed for by him than that. What the apostle saw on this occasion we certainly cannot see in the same way, but we may still behold it in the mirror of an unimpeachable testimony. ( F. W. Krummacher. )

Benson Commentary 2 Corinthians 12:1 It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. 2 Corinthians 12:1 . After enumerating, in the former chapter, his almost incredible labours and sufferings for the gospel, the apostle, in this, proceeds to speak of some visions and revelations that had been made to him, as a further proof of his apostleship, and of the regard which ought to be paid to his doctrines, his advices, exhortations, or reproofs. It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory — Or boast of any thing I have done or suffered, as a minister of Christ, unless on so pressing an occasion. Yet, or nevertheless, as ??? must be here understood to signify, I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord — That he might not offend any one’s delicacy, he forbears to say that these visions and revelations were given to himself; although, doubtless, some of the Corinthians would inter, from his manner of speaking, that he himself had been favoured with them. Visions were things presented to a person in a supernatural manner, so as to be the objects of his sight while awake. Thus Zacharias, ( Luke 1:11 .) and Mary, ( Luke 1:26 ,) and Cornelius, ( Acts 10:3 ,) had visions of angels. Probably here the apostle means his seeing the Lord Jesus on different occasions, after his ascension; and especially those visions of Christ which he saw when he was caught up into the third heaven. And revelations of the Lord — These were discoveries of matters unknown, which Christ made to Paul by an internal impression on his mind; or by speech, such as the revelations mentioned Acts 13:2 ; 1 Timothy 4:1 . Perhaps also those which, he says, ( 2 Corinthians 12:4 ,) he heard in paradise. Of the former kind were all the inspirations of the Spirit bestowed on the apostles, and on those who in the first age, preached the gospel by revelation. 2 Corinthians 12:2 I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. 2 Corinthians 12:2-3 . I knew a man in Christ — That is, a Christian. He must undoubtedly have meant himself, or the whole article had been quite foreign to his purpose. Indeed, that he meant himself is plain from 2 Corinthians 12:6-7 . Fourteen years ago — So long, it seems, the apostle had concealed this extraordinary event; a circumstance which shows how little disposed he was to speak vauntingly of himself. Whether in the body — And by the intervention of its senses; or out of the body — And without any such intervention, the things which I saw and heard were communicated to me; I know not — It is equally possible with God to present distant things to the imagination in the body, as if the soul were absent from it, and present with them, as seems to have been the case with Ezekiel in the visions mentioned Ezekiel 11:24 , and Ezekiel 37:1 ; and with John in those recorded Revelation 17:3 ; Revelation 21:10 ; or, as the Spirit caught away Philip, ( Acts 8:39 ,) to transport both soul and body for what time he pleases to heaven; or to transport the soul only thither for a season, and in the mean time to preserve the body fit for its re-entrance. But since the apostle himself did not know whether his soul was in his body when he had these visions, &c. or whether one or both were actually in heaven; for us to inquire into that matter would be vain curiosity, and extreme folly. “It is of more importance to observe, that he supposed his spirit might be carried into the third heaven, and into paradise, without his body. For, from his making such a supposition, it is plain he believed his spirit could exist out of his body; and that, by the operation of God, it could be made to hear and see, without the intervention of his bodily organs.” Such a one caught up into the third heaven — The habitation of the divine glory, far above the aerial and the starry heavens. For, “in the language of the Jews, the first heaven is the region of the air, where the birds fly, which therefore are called the fowls of heaven. The second heaven is that part of space in which the stars are. This was called, by the Jews, the heaven of heavens. See 1 Kings 8:27 . The third heaven is the seat of God, and of the holy angels, into which Christ ascended after his resurrection, but which is not the object of men’s senses, as the other heavens are.” 2 Corinthians 12:3 And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) 2 Corinthians 12:4 How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. 2 Corinthians 12:4 . How that he was caught up into paradise — The seat of happy spirits, in their separate state between death and the resurrection. See note on Luke 23:43 . Most of the ancients, (except Origen,) as Clement of Alexandria, Justin Martyr, Ireneus, Tertullian, and, among the moderns, Bull, Whitby, Bengelius, were of opinion that the apostle had two different raptures; because, as Methodius very well argues, If one rapture only were spoken of, the repetition of whether in the body, &c., would have been needless, when speaking of his being caught up into paradise. And heard unspeakable words — Or things, words being frequently used by the Hebrews to denote matters: which it is not lawful — Or possible, as the word ???? properly signifies, and as the apostle doubtless means; for a man to utter — Men having no terms of speech fit to express such sublime ideas as the apostle was there taught to understand: nor, probably, would it be consistent with the schemes of Providence, which require that we should be conducted by faith rather than by sight, to suffer such circumstances as these to be revealed to the inhabitants of mortal flesh. It is justly observed by Dr. Macknight here, that since the things which he saw and heard in paradise could not, or might not, be expressed in human language, “it is plain that the purpose for which he was caught up was not to receive any revelation of the gospel doctrine, because that could have served no purpose, if the apostle could not communicate what he heard. But it was to encourage him in the difficult and dangerous work in which he was engaged. Accordingly, by taking him up into paradise, and showing him the glories of the invisible world, and making him a witness of the happiness which the righteous enjoy with Christ, even before their resurrection, his faith in the promises of the gospel must have been so exceedingly strengthened, and his hope so raised, as to enable him to bear with alacrity that heavy load of complicated evils to which he was exposed in the course of his ministry. Not to mention that this confirmation of the apostle’s faith is no small confirmation of ours also.” Some suppose that it was here the apostle was made acquainted with the mystery of the future state of the church, and received his orders to turn from the Jews, and go to the Gentiles. 2 Corinthians 12:5 Of such an one will I glory: yet of myself I will not glory, but in mine infirmities. 2 Corinthians 12:5-6 . Of such a one will I, or, I might, glory — As a person highly favoured of Christ; yet of myself — Considered as in myself; I will not glory — Willingly; but in my infirmities — See on 2 Corinthians 11:30 . Instead of boasting of his raptures into the third heaven and into paradise, he will boast of those very weaknesses for which his enemies ridiculed him, because, the more weak and contemptible he appeared in the eyes of the world, the more clearly was his success in preaching shown to be the effect of the divine power. For if I should desire — ?????? , will, or, resolve; to glory — Referring to, I might glory, ( 2 Corinthians 12:5 ,) of such a glorious revelation; I should not be a fool — That is, it could not justly be accounted folly to relate the naked truth. But now I forbear — I speak sparingly of these things; lest any one should think of me — Whose presence is so mean, and whose speech is so contemptible; above that which he seeth me to be, &c. — Above what my spirit and conduct and the constant exercise of my ministry would warrant. Macknight thinks he addresses the faction here by way of irony, and that the sense is, “I might with truth boast of the visions and revelations of the Lord with which I have been honoured, but I will not, for fear any of you should think me a greater person than my mean bodily appearance which he seeth, and my contemptible speech, which he heareth, warrant him to think me.” 2 Corinthians 12:6 For though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool; for I will say the truth: but now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be , or that he heareth of me. 2 Corinthians 12:7 And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. 2 Corinthians 12:7 . Lest I should be exalted above measure — Made to think highly of myself, and to put confidence in myself, and thereby should be exposed to the displeasure of him who resisteth the proud, 1 Peter 5:5 ; through the abundance — ???????? , the transcendency, of the revelations — That is, the number and the extraordinary nature of them; there was given to me — By the wise and gracious providence of God; a thorn in the flesh — A visitation more painful than any thorn sticking in the flesh. Let it be observed, says Whitby, 1st, That this thorn in the flesh was surely some infirmity in the flesh or body of St. Paul. So he himself informs us Galatians 4:14 , saying, My temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; (the original expressions, ??? ???????????? , ???? ?????????? , properly signify, you did not account me as nothing, nor spit upon or ridicule me; ) but received me, notwithstanding, as an angel, or messenger, of God. Whence we may observe, both that this thorn, or temptation, was in his flesh, or in his body, and that it was such as rendered him, in his preaching, obnoxious to great contempt, and made him despicable in the eyes of others. 2d, It is highly probable that this infirmity in the flesh happened to him after these visions and revelations of which he here speaks, for he says it befell him that he might not be exalted through the multitude of his revelations; and therefore must have been given him after he had that temptation to self exaltation. 3d, It is certain it was some infirmity of the flesh, which naturally tended to obstruct the efficacy of his preaching, by rendering it less acceptable to his hearers, and made him subject to reproach and contempt in the discharge of his ministry. This is extremely evident from Galatians 4:14 , above cited, which Theodoret thus paraphrases; “Though I brought with me great ignominy in my body, you did not reject me;” and also from Christ’s answer to him, that his power was perfected in Paul’s weakness: that is, the greater is thy infirmity in preaching the gospel, the greater is my power in rendering it efficacious. In the same sense Macknight understands the apostle, observing, “I have followed Whitby and others in thinking that the thorn in the apostle’s flesh was some bodily weakness occasioned by his rapture, and which, affecting his looks, and gesture, and speech, rendered his manner of preaching less acceptable, and perhaps exposed the apostle himself to ridicule. Thus we find the revelations made to Daniel occasioned in him a change of countenance, ( Daniel 7:28 ,) and sickness, Daniel 8:27 .” The messenger of Satan to buffet me — These words, being here put by way of apposition, must signify the same thing with the thorn in the flesh, and he must mean that he was buffeted by Satan, when, by the false apostles and ministers of Satan, ( 2 Corinthians 11:13 ; 2 Corinthians 11:15 ,) he was contemned and made the subject of their scorn, for this infirmity in his flesh. But it must be observed, that the original words here may be properly rendered, There was given me a thorn in the flesh, that the angel, or messenger, of Satan might buffet me. “Since, then, he calls the false apostles ministers of Satan, it is not to be wondered that he here styles them, or the chief of them, who thus reviled and contemned him for this infirmity, and laboured to take off the affections of the Corinthians from him, an angel of Satan buffeting him.” — Whitby. Lest I should be exalted, &c. — This clause is wanting in some MSS., and in the Vulgate version, being omitted, doubtless, because it occurs in the beginning of the verse. But the repetition of it here is not improper, as it is intended to draw the reader’s attention. The following observations of Baxter are worthy of every reader’s particular attention: “1st, Even the holiest Christians, after their most heavenly acquaintance, [their most intimate communion with God, and largest communications of light and grace from him,] are not out of danger of pride, or of being too much exalted. 2d, This spiritual pride is so dangerous a sin, that it is a mercy to be saved from it, even by bodily pain. 3d, God will hurt the bodies to save the souls, even of his dearest children. 4th, Satan, that intendeth hurt, is oft God’s instrument to do us good. 5th, Bodily pains are oft the messengers of Satan, and yet of God.” 2 Corinthians 12:8 For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. 2 Corinthians 12:8-11 . For this thing I besought the Lord thrice — All kinds of affliction had befallen the apostle, yet none of these did he deprecate. But here he speaks of his thorn in the flesh, as above all the rest one that macerated him with weakness, and by the pain and ignominy of it, prevented his being lifted up more, or at least not less, than the most vehement headache could have done, which many of the ancients say he laboured under. That the Lord to whom the apostle prayed was Christ, is evident from 2 Corinthians 12:9 . It is supposed by some, that in praying thrice he imitated his Master’s example in the garden. But perhaps his meaning is only that he prayed often and earnestly. That it might depart from me — Hence we see that it is lawful to pray for the removal of bodily pain, weakness, or any peculiar trial; yea, to be frequent and fervent in prayer for it. But he said to me — In answer to my third, or often-repeated request; My grace is sufficient for thee — Namely, to support thee under these trials, though I permit them to continue. How tender a repulse! Probably Christ appeared to his apostle and spake to him. At any rate, it was another revelation of the Lord, which his subject led him to mention, though his modesty did not allow him to insist on it directly. “This example of prayer rejected ought to be well attended to by all good men, because it shows that they neither should be discouraged when their most earnest prayers seem to be disregarded, nor discontented when they are rejected; because in both cases their good is designed and effectually promoted.” My strength is made perfect in weakness — That is, is more illustriously displayed in the weakness of the instrument by which I work. Therefore will I glory in my infirmities — Rather than my revelations; that the power of Christ may rest upon me — Greek, ?????????? , may pitch its tent over me, or cover me all over like a tent, and abide on me continually. We ought most willingly to accept whatever tends to this end, however contrary to flesh and blood. Therefore I take pleasure — ?????? , I am well pleased with, or take complacency in, infirmities — Of the flesh, bodily weaknesses of whatever kind. In reproaches — Suffered on that account; in necessities — The various wants which I suffer in the execution of my office; in persecutions, in distresses — To which I am exposed; for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak — Deeply sensible of my weakness; then am I strong — Through the power of Christ resting on me; and my ministry is then most successful, the Lord working with me in a peculiar manner. I am become a fool in glorying — As I have done above, but consider where the blame lies; ye have compelled me — To do it, even against my will. For I ought to have been commended by you — Or vindicated, when my character, as an apostle, was attacked by the false teachers. For in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles — As ye well know: he means Peter, James, and John, whom he calls pillars, Galatians 2:9 . Though I be nothing — In the account of some, or of myself, without the aids of divine grace; not would I assume to myself any glory from what grace hath made me. 2 Corinthians 12:9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 2 Corinthians 12:10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong. 2 Corinthians 12:11 I am become a fool in glorying; ye have compelled me: for I ought to have been commended of you: for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing. 2 Corinthians 12:12 Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds. 2 Corinthians 12:12-13 . Truly the signs of an apostle — The signs whereby a person was known to be an apostle, were his performing great and evident miracles openly in the view of the world, especially his healing diseases, his casting out devils, and his speaking foreign languages. But the greatest of all the signs was his conveying spiritual gifts to them who believed; a power which none possessed but the apostles. All these signs St. Paul having exhibited at Corinth, and in particular having communicated the spiritual gifts to many of the Corinthians, he, on account thereof, called them, in his former letter, the seal of his apostleship, 1 Corinthians 9:2 . In all patience — Under my various sufferings, and in the midst of the unreasonable opposition I have met with. By mentioning his patience, the apostle brought to the remembrance of the Corinthians the hardships which he had endured while he executed his office among them, and supported himself by his own labour; as also the persecutions which he had suffered before he first visited them, namely, in the Lesser Asia and in Macedonia, of which they had undoubtedly received information from himself or others. Perhaps likewise, as Locke supposes, there is here an oblique reproof to the false teachers, for the luxury and ease with which they were living among the Corinthians. In signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds — The effects of divine and supernatural power. See on Romans 15:19 . “The appeal which the apostle here, and 1 Corinthians 4:7 , made to the whole church of the Corinthians, (in which there was a great faction which called his apostleship in question,) concerning the miracles which he had wrought in their presence, and the spiritual gifts which he had conferred on many of them, is a strong proof of the reality of these miracles and gifts.” — Macknight. For what is it — What is the spiritual gift or privilege; wherein ye were inferior to other churches — Planted by the other apostles? Except that I was not burdensome to you — In respect of maintenance, as the other apostles have been to the churches which they planted. Forgive me this wrong — As if he had said, If it be a wrong, I know you will easily pardon it. 2 Corinthians 12:13 For what is it wherein ye were inferior to other churches, except it be that I myself was not burdensome to you? forgive me this wrong. 2 Corinthians 12:14 Behold, the third time I am ready to come to you; and I will not be burdensome to you: for I seek not yours, but you: for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children. 2 Corinthians 12:14-15 . Behold, the third time I am ready — That is, resolved; to come to you — Having purposed it twice before, and been disappointed, 1 Corinthians 16:5 ; 2 Corinthians 1:15-16 . And I will not be burdensome to you — More than formerly; for I seek not yours, but you — Not your money or goods, but the salvation of your souls. For children ought not — That is, it is not according to the course of nature for children to lay up temporal things for the parents, who commonly die before them; but the parents for the children — I therefore, your spiritual father, do not desire to partake of your temporal things, but to bestow my spiritual treasures upon you. And I will very gladly spend — My time, strength, and all I have; and be spent for you — Hazard, nay, and lose my life for your salvation, John 10:11 ; Php 2:17 ; 1 Thessalonians 2:8 . Though the more abundantly I love you, &c. — How unkind soever your returns may be, and though my love should be requited with neglect, or even with contempt. 2 Corinthians 12:15 And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved. 2 Corinthians 12:16 But be it so, I did not burden you: nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile. 2 Corinthians 12:16-18 . Be it so, &c. — But some may object; though I did not burden you — Though I did not take any thing of you myself; yet being crafty, I caught you with guile — I did secretly by my messengers what I would not do openly or in person. I answer this lying accusation by appealing to plain fact. Did I make a gain of you by any of my messengers? — You know the contrary. It should be carefully observed that St. Paul does not allow, but absolutely denies, that he had caught them with guile. So that the common plea for guile, which has been drawn from this text, is utterly without foundation. I desired Titus — To go to you; and with him I sent a brother — Who that brother was, is not known. He may have been one of the apostle’s companions in travel, who was with him in Ephesus when he wrote his first epistle to the Corinthians. Or he may have been one of the Ephesian brethren, whose zeal for the gospel moved him to accompany Titus to Corinth, when he carried the former letter. Did Titus make a gain of you? — Did he draw any money from you, either on account of his own maintenance, or on pretence that he would persuade me to receive it for mine? Walked we not in the same spirit, &c. — Did we not all agree in mind and practice? 2 Corinthians 12:17 Did I make a gain of you by any of them whom I sent unto you? 2 Corinthians 12:18 I desired Titus, and with him I sent a brother. Did Titus make a gain of you? walked we not in the same spirit? walked we not in the same steps? 2 Corinthians 12:19 Again, think ye that we excuse ourselves unto you? we speak before God in Christ: but we do all things, dearly beloved, for your edifying. 2 Corinthians 12:19-21 . Again, think ye that we excuse ourselves — That I say all this to insinuate myself into your esteem for any secular ends? We speak before God in Christ — As if he had said, I have a higher end in view, namely, the glory of God, in whose presence I speak it; for we do all things for your edifying — Your edification is the end I have in view, in this and all other things that I do concerning you. For I fear — And have I not reason so to do? lest when I come — With a heart full of Christian tenderness, and with all imaginable readiness to do every thing in my power to comfort and refresh your spirits; I shall not find you such as I would — Namely, truly reformed persons; and that I should be found unto you — By inflicting necessary censures and punishments upon you; such as ye would not — I should be. I fear I shall have some work before me of a very unpleasant kind, and which I would desire, if possible, by this admonition to prevent. Lest there should be debates — ????? , contentions; envyings — Or emulations, as ????? also signifies; wraths — For injuries received; strifes — Arising from a clashing either of opinions or secular interests; backbitings — Speaking evil of the absent; whisperings — Insinuations uttered secretly against others; swellings — Vain boastings, by which proud and ambitious men endeavour to make themselves look big in the eyes of their fellows; tumults — Factions, disorderly parties raised against me, and your proper authorized ministers; lest when I come my God will humble me — By showing me your church, which I planted, corrupted with many vices; and I shall bewail — Shall mourn over; many who have sinned, and have not repented — Notwithstanding my many admonitions. The incestuous person was not of this number; for he had repented, 2 Corinthians 2:7-8 . Those of whom the apostle speaks, were probably such as had not refrained from partaking in the idolatrous sacrifices of the heathen, and from the lewd practices connected with idolatry, to which, by their former customs and habits, they were still addicted. Of the uncleanness, &c., which they have committed — By uncleanness, Estius thinks the apostle meant those sins of the flesh, which are against nature; by fornication — The conjunction of male and female out of marriage; lasciviousness — He says, consists in lustful looks, touches, motions, and other things of that kind. But by lasciviousness, Bengelius understands sodomy, bestiality, and other vices contrary to nature. But, says Macknight, “although some of the faction at Corinth may have been guilty of uncleanness, fornication, and lasciviousness, in the ordinary sense of these words, fancying, through the prejudices of their education, that these things were no sins, I scarcely think that any of them, after their conversion, would continue in the commission of the unnatural crimes mentioned by Estius and Bengelius.” One thing is evident: in the absence of the apostle, the exercise of a proper Christian discipline must have been awfully neglected in this church, otherwise such scandalous sinners would have been excluded from it. 2 Corinthians 12:20 For I fear, lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not: lest there be debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults: 2 Corinthians 12:21 And lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed. Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Expositor's Bible Commentary 2 Corinthians 12:1 It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. 3 Chapter 26 STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS. 2 Corinthians 11:30-33 ; 2 Corinthians 12:1-10 (R.V) THE difficulties of exposition in this passage are partly connected with its form, partly with its substance: it will be convenient to dispose of the formal side first. The thirteenth verse of the eleventh chapter-"If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things that concern my weakness"-seems to serve two purposes. On the one hand, it is a natural and effective climax to all that precedes; it defines the principle on which Paul has acted in the "glorying" of 2 Corinthians 11:23-29 . It is not of exploits that he is proud, but of perils and sufferings; not of what he has achieved, but of what he has endured, for Christ’s sake; in a word, not of strength, but of weakness. On the other hand, this same thirtieth verse indubitably points forward; it defines the principle on which Paul will always act where boasting is in view; and it is expressly resumed in 2 Corinthians 12:5 and 2 Corinthians 12:9 . For this reason, it seems better to treat it as a text than as a peroration; it is the key to the interpretation of what follows, put into our hands by the Apostle himself. In the full consciousness of its dangers and inconveniences, he means to go a little further in this foolish boasting; but he takes security, as far as possible, against its moral perils, by choosing as the ground of boasting things which in the common judgment of men would only bring him shame. At this point we are startled by a sudden appeal to God, the solemnity and fullness of which strike us, on a first reading, as almost painfully gratuitous. "The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, He who is blessed for ever, knoweth that I lie not." What is the explanation of this extraordinary earnestness? There is a similar passage in Galatians 1:19 -"Now touching the things which I write unto you, behold, before God, I lie not" - where Lightfoot says the strength of the Apostle’s language is to be explained by the unscrupulous calumnies cast upon him by his enemies. This may be the clue to his vehemence here; and in point of fact it falls in with by far the most ingenious explanation that has been given of the two subjects introduced in this paragraph. The explanation I refer to is that of Heinrici. He supposes that Paul’s escape from Damascus, and his visions and revelations, had been turned to account against him by his rivals. They had used the escape to accuse him of ignominious cowardice: the indignity of it is obvious enough. His visions and revelations were as capable of misconstruction: it was easy to call them mere illusions, signs of a disordered brain; it was not too much for malice to hint that his call to apostleship rested on nothing better than one of these ecstatic hallucinations. It is because things so dear to him are attacked-his reputation for personal courage, which is the mainstay of all the virtues; his actual vision of Christ, and divinely Authorized mission-that he makes the vehement appeal that startles us at first. He calls God to witness that in regard to both these subjects he is going to tell the exact truth: the truth will be his sufficient defense. Ingenious as it is, I do not think this theory can be maintained. There is no hint in the passage that Paul is defending himself; he is glorying, and glorying in the things that concern his weakness. It seems more probable that, when he dictated the strong words of 2 Corinthians 11:31 , the outline of all he was going to say was in his mind; and as the main part of it-all about the visions and revelations-was absolutely uncontrollable by any witness but his own, he felt moved to attest it thus in advance. The names and attributes of God fall in well with this. As the visions and revelations were specially connected with Christ, and were counted by the Apostle among the things for which he had the deepest reason to praise God, it is but the reflection of this state of mind when he appeals to "the God and Father of the Lord Jesus, He who is blessed for evermore." This is not a random adjuration, but an appeal which takes shape involuntarily in a grateful and pious heart, on which the memory of a signal grace and honor still rests. Of course the verses about Damascus stand rather out of relation to it. But it is a violence which nothing can justify to strike them out of the text on this ground, and along with them part or the whole of 2 Corinthians 12:1 in 2 Corinthians 12:1-21 . For many reasons unknown to us the danger in Damascus, and the escape from it, may have had a peculiar interest for the Apostle; haec persequutio, says Calvin, erat quasi primum tirocinium Pauli; it was his "matriculation in the school of persecution." He may have intended, as Meyer thinks, to make it the beginning of a new catalogue of sufferings for Christ’s sake, all of which were to be covered by the appeal to God, and have abruptly repented, and gone off on another subject; but whether or not, to expunge the lines is pure willfulness. The Apostle glories in what he endured at Damascus-in the imminent peril and in the undignified escape alike-as in things belonging to his weakness. Another might choose to hide such things, but they are precisely what he tells. In Christ’s service scorn is glory, ignominy is honor; and it is the mark of loyalty when men rejoice that they are counted worthy to suffer, shame for the Name. When we go on to 2 Corinthians 12:1-21 ., and the second of the two subjects with which boasting is to be associated, we meet in the first verse with serious textual difficulties. Our Authorized Version gives the rendering: "It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord." This follows the Textus Receptus: ????????? ?? ?? ???????? ??? ????????? ??? ?.?.?. , only omitting the ??? (for I will come). The MSS. are almost chaotic, but the most authoritative editors-Tregelles, Tischendorf in his last edition, and Westcott and Hort - agree in reading ????????? ??? ?? ???????? ??? ????????? ?? ?.?.? . This is the text which our Revisers render: "I must needs glory, though it is not expedient; but I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord." Practically, the difference is not so great after all. According to the best authorities, Paul repeats that he is being forced to speak as he does; the consciousness of the disadvantages attendant on this course does not leave him, it is rather deepened, as he approaches the highest and most sacred of all subjects-visions and revelations he has received from Christ. Of these two words, revelations is the wider in import: visions were only one of the ways in which revelations could be made. Paul, of course, is not going to boast directly of the visions and revelations themselves. All through the experiences to which he alludes under this name he was to himself as a third person; he was purely passive; and to claim credit, to glory as if he had done or originated anything, would be transparently absurd. But there are "things of his weakness" associated with, if not dependent on, these high experiences; and it is in them, after due explanation, that he purposes to exult. He begins abruptly. "I know a man in Christ, fourteen years ago (whether in the body, I know not; or whether out of the body I know not; God knoweth), such a one caught up even to the third heaven." A man in Christ means a Christian man, a man in his character as a Christian. To St. Paul’s consciousness the wonderful experience he is about to describe was not natural, still less pathological, but unequivocally religious. It did not befall him as a man simply, still less as an epileptic patient; it was an unmistakably Christian experience. He only existed for himself, during it, as "a man in Christ." "I know such a man," he says, "fourteen years ago caught up even to the third heaven." The date of this "rapture" (the same word is used in Acts 8:39 1 Thessalonians 4:17 Revelation 12:5 : all significant examples) would be about A.D. 44. This forbids us to connect it in any way with Paul’s conversion, which must have been twenty years earlier than this letter; and indeed there is no reason for identifying it with anything else we know of-the Apostle. At the date in question, as far as can be made out from the Book of Acts, he must have been in Tarsus or in Antioch. The rapture itself is described as perfectly incomprehensible. He may have been carried up bodily to the heavenly places; his spirit may have been carried up, while his body remained unconscious upon earth: he can express no opinion about this; the truth is only known to God. It is idle to exploit a passage like this in the interest of apostolic psychology; Paul is only taking elaborate pains to tell us that of the mode of his rapture he was absolutely ignorant. It is fairer to infer that the event was unique in his experience, and that when it happened he was alone; had such things recurred, or had there been spectators, he could not have been in doubt as to whether he was caught up "in the body" or "out of the body." The mere fact that the date is given individualizes the event in his life; and it is going beyond the facts altogether to generalize it, and take it as the type of such an experience as accompanied his conversion, or of the visions in Acts 16:9 ; Acts 22:17 f., Acts 18:9 . It was one, solitary, incomparable experience, including in it a complex of visions and revelations granted by Christ: it was this, at all events, to the Apostle; and if we do not believe what he tells us about it, we can have no knowledge of it at all. "Caught up even to the third heaven." The Jews usually counted seven heavens; sometimes, perhaps because of the dual form of the Hebrew word for heaven, two; but the distinctions between the various heavens were as fanciful as the numbers were arbitrary. It adds nothing, even to the imagination, to speak of an aerial, a sidereal, and a spiritual heaven, and to suppose that these are meant by Paul; we can only think vaguely of the "man in Christ" rising through one celestial region after another till he came even to the third. The word chosen to define the distance ( ??? ) suggests that an impression of vast spaces traversed remained on the Apostle’s mind; and that the third heaven, on which his sentence pauses, and which is a resting-place for his memory, was also a station, so to speak, in his rapture. This is the only supposition which does justice to the resumption in 2 Corinthians 12:3 of the deliberate and circumstantial language of 2 Corinthians 12:2 . "And I know such a man-whether in the body or apart from the body (I know not) God knoweth-how that he was caught up into Paradise, and heard unspeakable words that it is not lawful for a man to utter." This is a resumption, not a repetition. Paul is not elaborately telling the same story over again, but he is carrying it on, with the same full circumstance, the same grave asseveration, from the point at which he halted. The rapture had a second stage, under the same incomprehensible conditions, and in it the Christian man passed out and up from the third heaven into Paradise. Many of the Jews believed in a Paradise beneath the earth, the abode of the souls of the good while they awaited their perfecting at the Resurrection; { Luke 16:23 , Luke 23:43 } but obviously this cannot be the idea here. We must think rather of what the Apocalypse calls "the Paradise of God," { Revelation 2:7 } where the tree of life grows, and where those who overcome have their reward. It is an abode of unimaginable blessedness, "far above all heavens," to use the Apostle’s own words elsewhere. { Ephesians 4:10 } What visions he had, or what revelations, during that pause in the third heaven, Paul does not say; and at this supreme point of his rapture, m Paradise, the words he heard were words unspeakable, which it is not lawful for man to utter. Mortal ears might hear, but mortal lips might not repeat, sounds so mysterious and divine: it was not for man ( ??????? is qualitative) to utter them. But why, we may ask, if this rapture has its meaning and value solely for the Apostle, should he refer to it here at all? Why should he make such solemn statements about an experience, the historical conditions of which, as he is careful to assure us, are incomprehensible, while its spiritual content is a secret? Is not such an experience literally nothing to us? No, unless Paul himself is nothing; for this experience was evidently a great thing to him. It was the most sacred privilege and honor he had ever known; it was among his strongest sources of inspiration; it had a powerful tendency to generate spiritual pride; and it had its accompaniment, and its counter-weight, in his sharpest trial. The world knows little of its greatest men; perhaps we very rarely know what are the great things in the lives even of the people who are round about us. Paul had kept silence about this sublime experience for fourteen years, and no man had ever guessed it; it had been a secret between the Lord and His disciple; and they only, who were in the secret, could rightly interpret all that depended upon it. There is a kind of profanity in forcing the heart to show itself too far, in compelling a man to speak about, even though he does not divulge, the things that it is not lawful to utter. The Corinthians had put this profane compulsion on the Apostle; but though he yields to it, it is in a way which keeps clear of the profanity. He tells what he dare tell in the third person, and then goes on: "On behalf of such a one will I glory, but on behalf of myself will I not glory, save in my infirmities." Removere debemus ?? ago a rebus magnis (Bengel): there are things too great to allow the intrusion of self. Paul does not choose to identify the poor Apostle whom the Corinthians and their misleading teachers used so badly with the man in Christ who had such inconceivable honor put on him by the Lord; if he does boast on behalf of such a one, and magnify his sublime experiences, at all events he does not transfer his prerogatives to himself; he does not say, "I am that incomparably honored man; reverence in me a special favorite of Christ." On the contrary, where his own interest has to be forwarded, he will glory in nothing but his weaknesses. The one thing about which he is anxious is that men should not think too highly of him, nor go in their appreciation beyond what their experience of him as a man and a teacher justifies ( 2 Corinthians 12:6 ). He might, indeed, boast, reasonably enough; for the truth would suffice, without any foolish exaggeration; but he forbears, for the reason just stated. We are familiar with the danger of thinking too highly of ourselves; it is as real a danger, though probably a less considered one, to be too highly thought of by others. Paul dreaded it; so does every wise man. To be highly thought of, where the character is sincere and unpretentious, may be a protection, and even an inspiration: but to have a reputation, morally, that one does not deserve-to be counted good in respects in which one is really bad-is to have a frightful difficulty added to penitence and amendment. It puts one in a radically false position; it generates and fosters hypocrisy; it explains a vast mass of spiritual ineffectiveness. The man who is insincere enough to be puffed up by it is not far from judgment. But to return to the text. Paul wishes to be humble; he is content that men should take him as they find him, infirmities and all. He has that about him, too, and not unconnected with these high experiences, the very purpose of which is to keep him humble. If the text is correct, he expresses himself with some embarrassment. "And by reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelations-wherefore, that I should not be exalted overmuch, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, that I should not be exalted overmuch." The repetition of the last word shows where the emphasis lies: Paul has a deep and constant sense of the danger of spiritual pride, and he knows that he would fall into it unless a strong counter-pressure were kept up upon him. I do not feel called on to add another to the numberless disquisitions on Paul’s thorn in the flesh. The resources of imagination having been exhausted, people are returning to the obvious. The thorn in the flesh was something painful, which affected the Apostle’s body; it was something in its nature purely physical, not a solicitation to any kind of sin, such as sensuality or pride, else he would not have ceased to pray for its removal; it was something terribly humbling, if not humiliating-an affection which might well have excited the contempt and loathing of those Who beheld it; { Galatians 4:14 , which probably refers to this subject} it had begun after, if not in consequence of, the rapture just described, and stood in a spiritual, if not a physical, relation to it; it was, if not chronic or periodic, at least recurrent; the Apostle knew that it would never leave him. What known malady, incident to human nature, fulfils all these conditions, it is not possible with perfect certainty to say. A considerable mass of competent opinion supports the idea that it must have been liability to epileptic seizures. Such an infirmity Paul might have suffered under in common with men so great as Julius Caesar and the first Napoleon, as Mahomet, King Alfred, and Peter the Great. But it does not quite satisfy the conditions. Epileptic attacks, if they occur with any frequency at all, invariably cause mental deterioration. Now, Paul distinctly suggests that the thorn was a very steady companion; and as his mind, in spite of it, grew year after year in the apprehension of the Christian revelation, so that his last thoughts are always his largest and best, the epileptic hypothesis has its difficulties like every other. Is it likely that a man who suffered pretty constantly from nervous convulsions of this kind wrote the Second Epistle to the Corinthians after fourteen years of them, or the Epistles to the Romans, Philippians, Colossians, and Ephesians later still? There is, of course, no religious interest in affirming or denying any physical explanation of the matter whatever; but with our present data I do not think a certain explanation is within our reach. The Apostle himself is not interested in it as a physical affection. He speaks of it because of its spiritual significance, and because of the wonderful spiritual experiences he has had in connection with it. It was given him, he says: but by whom? When we think of the purpose-to save him from spiritual pride-we instinctively answer, "God." And that, it can hardly be doubted, would have been the Apostle’s own answer. Yet he does not hesitate to call it in the same breath a messenger of Satan. The name is dictated by the inborn, ineradicable shrinking of the soul from pain; that agonizing, humiliating, annihilating thing, we feel at the bottom of our hearts, is not really of God, even when it does His work. In His perfect world pain shall be no more. It does not need science, but experience, to put these things together, and to understand at once the evil and the good of suffering. Paul, at first, like all men, found the evil overpowering. The pain, the weakness, the degradation of his malady, were intolerable. He could not understand that only a pressure so pitiless and humbling could preserve him from spiritual pride and a spiritual fall. We are all slow to learn anything like this. We think we can take warning, that a word will be enough, that at most the memory of a single pang will suffice to keep us safe. But pains remain with us, and the pressure is continuous and unrelieved, because the need of constraint and of discipline is ceaseless. The crooked branch will not bend in a new curve if it is only tied to it for half an hour. The sinful bias in our natures to pride, to sensuality, to falsehood, or whatever else-will not be cured by one sharp lesson. The commonest experience in human life is that the man whom sickness and pain have humbled for the moment, the very moment their constraint is lifted, resumes his old habit. He does not think so, but it is really the thorn that has been keeping him right; and when its sharpness is blunted, the edge is taken from his conscience too. Paul besought the Lord, that is Christ, thrice, that this thing might depart from him. The Lord, we may be sure, had full sympathy with that prayer. He Himself had had His agony, and prayed the Father thrice that if it were possible the cup of pain might pass from Him. He prayed, indeed, in express submission to the Father’s will; the voice of nature was not allowed in Him to urge an unconditional peremptory request. Perhaps in Paul on this occasion-certainly often in most men-it is nature, the flesh and not the spirit, which prompts the prayer. But God is all the while guarding the spirit’s interest as the higher, and this explains the many real answers to prayer which seem to be refusals. A refusal is an answer, if it is so given that God and the soul thenceforth understand one another. It was thus that Paul was answered by Christ: "He hath said to me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for [My] strength is made perfect in weakness." The first point to notice in this answer is the tense of the verb: "He hath said." The A.V with "He said" misses the point. The sentence is present as well as past; it is Christ’s continuous, as well as final, answer to Paul’s prayer. The Apostle has been made to understand that the thorn must remain in his flesh, but along with this he has received the assurance of art abiding love and help from the Lord. We remember, even by contrast, the stern answer made to Moses when he prayed that he might be permitted to cross Jordan and see the goodly land-"Let it suffice thee: speak no more unto Me of this matter." Paul also could no more ask for the removal of the thorn: it was the Lord’s will that he should submit to it for high spiritual ends, and to pray against it would now have been a kind of impiety. But it is no longer an unrelieved pain and humiliation; the Apostle is supported under it by that grace of Christ which finds in the need and abjectness of men the opportunity of showing in all perfection its own condescending strength. The collocation of "grace" and "strength" in the ninth verse is characteristic of the New Testament, and very significant. There are many to whom "grace" is a holy word with no particular meaning; "the grace of God," or "the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ," is only a vague benignity, which may fairly enough be spoken of as a "smile." But grace, in the New Testament, is force: it is a heavenly strength bestowed on men for timely succor; it finds its opportunity in our extremity; when our weakness makes us incapable of doing anything, it gets full scope to work. This is the meaning of the last words-"strength is made perfect in weakness." The truth is quite general; it is an application of it to the case in hand if we translate as in the A.V (with some MSS.): "My strength is made perfect in [thy] weakness." It is enough, the Lord tells Paul, that he has this heavenly strength unceasingly bestowed upon him; the weakness which he has found so hard to bear-that distressing malady which humbled him and took his vigor away-is but the foil to it: it serves to magnify it, and to set it off; with that Paul should be content. And he is content. That answer to his thrice-repeated prayer works a revolution in his heart; he looks at all that had troubled him-at all that he had deprecated-with new eyes. "Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities-that is, glory rather than bemoan them or pray for their removal-that the power of Christ may spread its tabernacle over me." This compensation far outweighed the trial. He has ceased to speak now of the visions and revelations, perhaps he has ceased already to think of them; he is conscious only of the weakness and suffering from which he is never to escape, and of the grace of Christ which hovers over him, and out of weakness and suffering makes him strong. His very infirmities redound to the glory of the Lord, and so he chooses them, rather than his rapture into Paradise, as matter for boasting. "For this cause I am well content, on Christ’s behalf, in infirmities, in insults, in necessities, in persecutions and distresses; for when I am weak, then am I strong." With this noble word Paul concludes his enforced "glorying." He was not happy in it; it was not like him; and it is a triumph of the Spirit of Christ in him that he gives it such a noble turn, and comes out of it so well. There is a tinge of irony in the first passage { 2 Corinthians 11:21 } in which he speaks of weakness, and fears that in comparison with his high-handed rivals at Corinth he will only have this to boast about; but as he enters into his reel experience, and tells us what he had borne for Christ, and what he had learned in pain and prayer about the laws of the spiritual life, all irony passes away; the pure heroic heart opens before us to its depths. The practical lessons of the last paragraphs are as obvious as they are important. That the greatest spiritual experiences are incommunicable; that even the best men are in danger of elation and pride; that the tendency of these sins is immensely strong, and can only be restrained by constant pressure; that pain, though one day to be abolished, is a means of discipline actually used by God; that it may be a plain duty to accept some suffering, or sickness, even a humbling and distressing one, as God’s will for our good, and not to pray more for its removal; that God’s grace is given to those who so accept His will, as a real reinforcement of their strength, nay, as a substitute, and far more, for the strength which they have not; that weakness, therefore, and helplessness, as foils to the present help of God, may actually be occasions of glorying to the Christian, -all these, and many more, are gathered up in this passionate Apologia of Paul. 2 Corinthians 12:11 I am become a fool in glorying; ye have compelled me: for I ought to have been commended of you: for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing. Chapter 27 NOT YOURS, BUT YOU. 2 Corinthians 12:11-21 (R.V) EXPOSITORS differ widely in characterising the three or four brief paragraphs into which this passage may be divided: -1 2 Corinthians 12:11-13 ; -2 2 Corinthians 12:14-15 , and 2 Corinthians 12:16-18 ; -3 2 Corinthians 12:19-21 . What is clear is, that we feel in it the ground-swell of the storm that has raged through the last two chapters, and that it is not till the beginning of 2 Corinthians 13:1-14 . that the Apostle finally escapes from this, and takes up an authoritative and decisive attitude to the Corinthians. When he does reach Corinth, it will not be to explain and justify his own conduct, either against rivals or those whom rivals have misled, but to take prompt and vigorous action against disorders in the life of the Church. (1) A review of what he has just written leads to a burst of indignant remonstrance. "I have become foolish." The emphasis is on the verb, not on the adjective; it is the painful fact that the eleventh chapter of Second Corinthians is a thing that no wise man would have written if he had been left to himself and his wisdom. Paul, who was a wise man, felt this, and it stung him. He resented the compulsion which was put upon him by the ingratitude and faithlessness of the Corinthians. The situation ought to have been exactly reversed. When he was defamed by strangers, then they, who knew him, instead of hearkening to the calumniators, ought to have stood up in his defense. But they basely left him to defend himself, to plead his own cause, to become a fool by "glorying." This kind of compulsion should never be put upon a good man, especially a man to whom, under God, we ourselves have been deeply indebted. The services he has rendered constitute a claim on our loyalty, and it is a duty of affection to guard his character against disparagement and malice. Paul, in his deep consciousness of being wronged, presses home the charge against the Corinthians. They had every reason, he tells them, to act as his advocates. When he was among them, he was in nothing inferior to the "superlative" Apostles-this is his last flout at the Judaist interlopers-nothing though he was. The signs that prove a man to be an apostle were wrought among them (the passive expression keeps his agency in the background) in all patience, by signs and wonders and mighty deeds. Their suspicions of him, their willingness to listen to insinuations against him, after such an experience, were unpardonable. He can only think of one "sign of the apostle" which was not wrought among them by his means, of one point in which he had made them inferior to the other Churches: he had not burdened them with his support. They were the spoilt children of the apostolic family; and he begs them, with bitter irony, to forgive him this wrong. If they had only been converted by a man who stood upon his rights! "The signs of an apostle" are frequently, referred to in Paul’s Epistles, and are of various kinds. By far the most important, and the most frequently insisted on, is success in evangelistic work. He who converts men and founds Churches has the supreme and final attestation of apostleship, as Paul conceives it. It is to this he appeals in 1 Corinthians 9:2 & 2 Corinthians 3:1-3 . In the passage before us Calvin makes "patience" a sign - primum signum nominat patientiam . Patience is certainly a characteristic Christian virtue, and it is magnificently exercised in the apostolic life; but it is not peculiarly apostolic. Patience in the passage before us, "every kind of patience," rather brings before our minds the conditions under which Paul did his apostolic work. Discouragements of every description, bad health, suspicion, dislike, contempt, moral apathy and moral license-the weight of all these pressed upon him heavily, but he bore up under them, and did not suffer them to break his spirit or to arrest his labors. His endurance was a match for them all, and the power of Christ that was in him broke forth in spite of them in apostolic signs. There were conversions, in the first place; but there were also what he calls here "signs [in a narrower sense], and wonders, and mighty deeds." This is an express claim, like that made in Acts 15:12 , Romans 15:19 , to have wrought what we call miracles. The three words represent miracles under three different aspects: they are "signs" ( ?????? ), as addressed to man’s intelligence, and conveying a spiritual meaning; they are "wonders" ( ?????? ), as giving a shock to feeling, and moving nature in those depths which sleep through common experience, and they are "mighty works" or "powers" ( ???????? ), as arguing in him who works them a more than human efficiencyd. But no doubt the main character they bore in the Apostle’s mind was that of ????????? , or gifts of grace, which God ministered to the Church by His Spirit. It is natural for an unbeliever to misunderstand even New Testament miracles, because he wishes to conceive them, as it were, in vacuo, or in relation to the laws of nature; in the New Testament itself they are conceived in relation to the Holy Ghost. Even Jesus is said in the Gospels to have cast out devils by the Spirit of God; and when Paul wrought "signs and wonders and powers," it was in carrying out his apostolic work graced by the same Spirit. What things he had done in Corinth we have no means of knowing, but the Corinthians knew; and they knew that these things had no arbitrary or accidental character, but were the tokens of a Christian and an apostle. (2) In the second paragraph Paul turns abruptly ( ???? ) ("behold!") from the past to the future. "This is the third time I am ready to come to you, and I will not burden you." The first clause has the same ambiguity in Greek as in English; it is impossible to tell from the words alone whether he had been already twice, or only once, in Corinth. Other considerations decide, I think, that he had been twice; but of course these cannot affect the construction of this verse: for the third time he is in a state of readiness-this is all the words will yield. But when he makes the new visit, whether it be his third or only his second, on