Tuesday 13th June
Read 2 Corinthians 12:2-4
“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. 3And 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 and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell.” (NIVUK)
Although Paul describes himself in the third person as simply a ‘man in Christ’, what occurred to him was not part of the normal Christian experience. This experience, as reluctant as he is to even allude to it, was rare. It happened 14 years ago and there seems to be nothing more recent with which to compare it. The experience was vivid. Paul remembers where he was but does not know precisely how he got there*. The experience was also intensely personal. For one charged by God to present the gospel to the nations, Paul is clear that this vision was not for public consumption. Ironically, it is precisely this kind of vision that many in the Corinthian church seemed to have craved.
I suspect even this personal revelation, containing things for Paul’s ears only, was not unique to Paul. John perhaps experienced a similar thing on Patmos amidst his suffering (cf Revelation 10:1-7). The purpose of this vision (and John’s?), ineffable and inexpressible as it was, seems designed to build him up and strengthen him for the sufferings that ‘God knows’ lie ahead. The implicit rebuke in Paul’s description of this experience is that those who are truly spiritual would not flaunt such experiences over others. Humility and discretion are the marks of those who are truly spiritual. How restrained are we?
*For those who believe that there is no ‘intermediate state’ between death and our appearing in God’s presence in resurrection bodies, that there is no ‘unclothed’ state, it is interesting that Paul sees no bar to the ‘unclothed’ state here.
