5On behalf of such a man I will boast; but on my own behalf I will not boast, except in regard to my weaknesses. 6For if I do wish to boast I will not be foolish, for I will be speaking the truth; but I refrain from this, so that no one will credit me with more than he sees in me or hears from me.
Visions he had seen prevented Paul from actual boasting in the flesh. The act of boasting, at its core, is an attempt to make oneself out to be without equal. But after being exposed to the “third heaven,” to Paradise, and hearing “inexpressible words,” how could anyone possibly consider himself to be without equal? What Paul saw could only be described in otherworldly terms. What he heard was so far beyond him that he could not even remotely communicate it because of his earthly, human limitations. Indeed, such an experience would remedy any hint of real boasting or its underlying self-pride and arrogance.
The experience was so powerful for Paul that he could only refer to himself in the third person, as though it had happened to someone else. To write of himself as that man who experienced getting caught up would be tantamount to boasting, in the sense that he could say, “I may be humbled by the experience, but at least I was the one who got caught up, and therefore I am superior to all other humans who didn’t get caught up.” But Paul would not allow himself even that small bit of self-flattery or self-promotion. His faux boasting simply could not go that far, hence the third-person references. His boasting would be limited to the things others would not boast in, namely, his sufferings for Christ.
The great irony is that on the basis of a human, fleshly way of thinking, Paul would indeed have had much to boast about. He could easily have regaled the Corinthians with the miracles he had performed during his earlier mission tours (see Acts 13:11, 14:3, etc.), the great number of people who had come to faith, and the multitude of churches he had planted. But those would just be stories, and to tell them to the Corinthians would only be an attempt to pad his résumé. He would be boasting in his accomplishments, not his weakness.
No, Paul would rather let his credentials come from his current life and words—what the Corinthians could see and hear for themselves—not from second-hand stories. What a contrast today with those whose reputations come from stories of past exploits, so far removed from present experience that credibility is stretched and boasting is inflated. Indeed, many such stories are impossible to verify and easily subject to embellishment. The apostle Paul would have none of that.
Lord, help me be authentic in the moment continuously.
0 Comments