What was Paul's thorn in the flesh?
Hi.
Welcome to Little Lessons.
Today's question is about Paul's thorn in the flesh.
What was it?
Paul wrote about his thorn in the flesh in the 12th chapter of the second letter to the
Corinthians.
Christians have debated over what that thorn in the flesh was for a long time.
Some think that it was some kind of a disease.
Some even pinpoint it as an eye disease because of a couple of things that Paul said in his
letter to the Galatians.
Why is it important that we figure this out?
Well I can think of one reason.
That is because if you are seeking the Lord or need a physical or emotional or mental
healing and you're looking to the Lord for that, and you hear that Paul prayed three
times to be healed of his thorn in the flesh and God said no, I'm not going to heal you,
well that's not going to encourage your faith, to be healed.
Because you'll think to yourself, well Paul, the great Apostle Paul, he wanted to be healed
and he asked the Lord three times and the Lord said no to him, so who am I?
I'm nothing close to the Apostle Paul.
Why would I ever expect that God would hear my prayer and heal me?
I'm going to submit to you that it becomes very clear that Paul's thorn in the flesh
was not a disease.
He tells us specifically what it was.
Once you're at the end of this little lesson, you'll see it too because it's very, very
plain.
Let's go to 2 Corinthians chapter 13, verse number 2.
Paul is kind of defending himself here, trying not to boast before the Corinthians and appear
humble, as he was a humble man.
He doesn't like talking about his credentials but he's trying to persuade them that they
ought to be listening to him and not these other guys that they are listening to.
He says, "I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago, whether in the body, I do not know, or
out of the body, I do not know.
God knows," he says.
"Such a man was caught up into the third heaven."
Now most commentators believe that Paul was humbly speaking of himself here, that he himself
was, doesn't know whether he was still in his body or was right in his body, taken up
to the third heaven.
What is the third heaven?
I don't know.
Some people say there's three heavens, the atmospheric heaven, the stellar heaven, where
the stars are and then heaven where God lives.
Maybe that's it.
Verse number 3, "And I know how such a man, whether in the body or apart from the body,
I do not know.
God knows, was caught up into paradise and heard inexpressible words, which a man is
not permitted to speak."
This was an outstanding spiritual experience and Paul couldn't even reveal things that
he heard when he was caught up into the third heaven.
He says in verse 12, "On behalf of such a man, I will boast, but on my own behalf, I
will not boast except in regard to my weaknesses."
Now, jump down to verse number 7, here's the part about the thorn in the flesh.
"Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from
exulting myself," you know being lifted up in pride because of this experience he had
and the revelations that he had, "There was given to me a thorn in the flesh."
Now, some commentators say, oh you see.
A thorn in the flesh, so it was a problem in his flesh.
What could ... It had to be a sickness or a disease.
Now wait a second.
That's a leap of logic that you shouldn't be taking, okay?
I've known people in my lifetime who I would consider to be thorns in my side, thorns in
my flesh, but they were not a disease, okay?
It's a biblical expression.
You can find it in the Old Testament even.
God said to Israel if you don't get all those Canaanites, if you don't destroy them all,
they'll become thorns in your sides.
That's exactly what happened, okay?
It doesn't prove that Paul had a disease or illness because he said, used the word flesh,
saying thorn in the flesh.
All right.
May I also add, Paul never said anything about a disease or a sickness here.
The closest he came is thorn in the flesh.
Let's keep reading.
Here's where he defines and tells us, reveals, exactly what the thorn in the flesh was.
He says a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan.
A messenger of Satan.
Now that doesn't sound like a disease, does it?
A messenger or Satan, or an illness.
It sounds like a person, an entity of some sort, a demon or something.
Well, lo and behold, you just have to dive a little bit into the Greek here and find
that the word translated messenger here in the New American Standard Bible, in the Greek
is the world aggelos, A-G-G-E-L-O-S.
It sounds a lot like angel, doesn't it?
City of Los Angeles, the city of the lost angels.
Sure enough, the word aggelos is found about 190 in the New Testament.
Of those 190 some odd times, about 180 some, it's translated angel.
In fact, I'll give you the facts exactly because I wrote it down here in my notes.
Aggelos is translated angel, angels or angelic or angel's, one of those was possessive, 163,
no 169 times.
It's translated messenger or messengers 7 times.
That's it.
Obviously the word can be rightly translated angel or angels.
That's how it is most often translated.
Paul said here's what my thorn in the flesh was, a messenger, an angel of Satan, to torment
me or to buffet me, one translation says.
To keep me from exalting myself.
Concerning this, I implored the Lord three times that it, it might leave me.
He said, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness."
Obviously God did not deliver him from this angel of Satan that was buffeting him.
There are various theories as to what that angel of Satan was actually doing.
Some folks believe that was the angel that was stirring up problems wherever Paul went
to preach the gospel.
I don't know.
Paul doesn't say.
We can only speculate.
My simple point is that Paul never says that the thorn in the flesh was a sickness or a
disease.
Paul never says he prayed to be healed and Paul never says that God said, "No, I'm not
going to heal you."
The thorn in the flesh was an angel of Satan.
Paul did pray three times that the Lord would deliver him from this, and God essentially
did say no, but he didn't say exactly no.
He said "My grace is sufficient for you."
Good's going to come out of this.
Power is perfected in weakness.
Okay?
All right.
Much more, this is a fascinating passage by the way, in 2 Corinthians, worthy of study
on another level, the whole power in weakness thing, but that's all for today's Little Lesson.
Thanks for joining me.