2 Corinthians 12:5

Of such an one will I glory; yet of myself I will not glory but in mine infirmities.

What a disagreeable task the apostle found this matter of glorying to which the attitude of the Corinthians had driven him is here again apparent: I must needs glory, though, indeed, it is not expedient. Not of his own free will, not because he delights in it, does he recount his sufferings and experiences in the work of the Lord, but because of the enmity of the false teachers and the gullibility of the disciples at Corinth. He is fully aware of the fact that there is no personal advantage for him in this boasting of the things he endured and the things which the Lord made known to him, but he now intends to mention some visions and revelations of the Lord which the Lord vouchsafed to him. See Acts 2:17; Acts 10:10; Revelation 1:10; Revelation 4:1; Acts 9:3.

One vision, of which Paul now tells, stands out from the rest on account of its extraordinary character: I know a man in Christ fourteen years ago. He is sure of the facts which he here relates, since he himself was the Christian to whom the Lord vouchsafed this revelation, his humility not permitting him to name himself in connection with such a wonderful vision. The time had been impressed upon his memory so emphatically that he will not forget the date. It seems that he had the vision before entering upon his ministry proper, perhaps during his sojourn at Tarsus, Acts 9:30; Acts 11:25, the intention of the Lord being to give this new instrument of His mercy such evidence of His grace and power, by means of a foretaste of the bliss of heaven, that he would not despair in the midst of the manifold tribulations to which he was to be subjected. It was an extraordinary, miraculous experience; for Paul twice declares that he does not know whether he was in the body or out of the body; he was not able to say whether he was taken up into heaven bodily and saw all the glories with the eyes of his body, or whether only his spirit, temporarily freed from the confines of the mortal body, had seen the heavenly bliss. Many a time the apostle may have puzzled over the miraculous experience, but he was not able to come to a conclusion, and therefore left the matter to God.

The vision itself was unlike any other which he had had: That he was caught up to paradise and heard unspeakable words which no human lips can utter. The Bible often speaks of heaven in the plural, as in the Lord's Prayer (in the Greek text), but just what distinction and degrees are to be observed we cannot tell from the various passages. Paul was undoubtedly transported to the third heaven, to paradise, to the place where the redeemed souls were living in the most intimate communion with God, where they saw their Savior face to face. Paul had had a taste of that bliss and glory in this vision. And he had heard words which were unutterable for any mere human tongue, or which he that had heard them would forever retain as a blessed secret; the substance of the divine communication upon that memorable occasion had been so exalted that it would have been profaned by repetition in human language.

A mere glimpse of the bliss of heaven it had been, but Paul was undoubtedly justified in saying: On account of that person will I glory, but on my own behalf I will not boast except in my weaknesses. Only such incidents will the apostle mention in a vein of boasting in which his own person was not actively engaged, which were bestowed upon him by the mercy of God alone, when he was lifted out of his own individuality and could view himself almost as a third person. Of himself, in his normal state, he has only one testimony to give, namely, that of his weakness, of his sufferings. And even here the glory is, in the last analysis, only God's; for sufferings and tribulations can be subjects of boasting only inasmuch as they are borne with Christian fortitude given by God.