PREVIOUSLY, WE EXPLORED the idea of humblebragging and its presence in Colossae. Apparently, some people in Colossae, possibly Jews, were pressuring the Gentile believers to follow certain practices and religious rules, or risk being looked down upon or rejected. Paul portrays these people as taking pride in their spirituality, going on and on about their practices, their spiritual insight, perhaps even their visions of angels.

As they speak of lofty things, they might give the appearance of being humble, but they’re not. Their words might point to the greatness of God but their true desire is to have other people admire their own greatness. Paul essentially tells the Colossians not to listen to them, and as we’ll see, he has still more to say.

Before we do that, however, I want to hold Paul himself up as a counterexample to such false humility. In 2 Corinthians 12, he speaks of his own experience of a remarkable spiritual vision in a way that clearly shows the danger of spiritual conceit. He tells the Corinthians this story because people have come to Corinth promoting themselves as better and more worthy apostles than Paul. They were probably boasting of their own accomplishments, producing letters of reference written by prominent people, and questioning why Paul himself had no such letters. And apparently, they hinted that someone who suffers as much as Paul does might not have the blessing of God. I suspect that we would fall for the same argument today, especially if we hold the unspoken belief that everything should come up roses for the truly faithful.

What does Paul say in his defense? How does he answer their boasting? He takes up his own boasting — but in a way that turns the game on its head. If his critics say that he suffers too much to be a true apostle, he answers that they don’t know the half of it, and describes his suffering in even greater detail.

And in a manner that’s relevant to what was happening in Colossae, he boasts also of a striking spiritual vision he had in the past, and what he learned from it. Here’s the passage at length, as translated in the Common English Bible:

It is necessary to brag, not that it does any good. I’ll move on to visions and revelations from the Lord. I know a man in Christ who was caught up into the third heaven fourteen years ago. I don’t know whether it was in the body or out of the body. God knows. I know that this man was caught up into paradise and that he heard unspeakable words that were things no one is allowed to repeat. I don’t know whether it was in the body or apart from the body. God knows. I’ll brag about this man, but I won’t brag about myself, except to brag about my weaknesses. If I did want to brag, I wouldn’t make a fool of myself because I’d tell the truth. I’m holding back from bragging so that no one will give me any more credit than what anyone sees or hears about me. I was given a thorn in my body because of the outstanding revelations I’ve received so that I wouldn’t be conceited. It’s a messenger from Satan sent to torment me so that I wouldn’t be conceited. I pleaded with the Lord three times for it to leave me alone. He said to me, “My grace is enough for you, because power is made perfect in weakness.” So I’ll gladly spend my time bragging about my weaknesses so that Christ’s power can rest on me. Therefore, I’m all right with weaknesses, insults, disasters, harassments, and stressful situations for the sake of Christ, because when I’m weak, then I’m strong. (2 Cor 12:1-10, CEB)

It’s an odd passage. Paul begins by speaking about himself in the third person, as if describing something that happened to someone else. The experience itself was ineffable. He doesn’t even know if it was an actual physical experience; he says twice that only God knows if he was in his body or apart from it.

Adding to the mystery, he speaks of having a “thorn” in his body or flesh which he characterizes as a “messenger from Satan.” Nobody knows what this thorn was, nor is it clear that the Corinthians themselves would have understood the reference.

But just as it’s unnecessary to know what Paul means by the “worship of angels” in our passage from Colossians, so too is it unnecessary here to know the exact nature of Paul’s thorn. He tells us all we need to know about it: he prayed repeatedly for God to take it away, and God’s answer was no, telling him, “My grace is enough for you, because power is made perfect in weakness.”

This is upside-down and backwards from the way the world thinks. The false apostles may brag about their exploits and flaunt their résumés. If they’ve suffered any failures, they’re likely to hide them. They’ll talk about how God answered their prayers the way they wanted, making them victorious over challenges.

But Paul brags about all the things he suffers for the sake of Christ and the gospel, because he takes seriously how God answered his pleas. There can be no question that God has done wondrous things through Paul, and I imagine Paul as a formerly proud person whose life was turned inside-out on the Damascus road. The temptation to pride and conceit is still there, however, and his thorn — whatever it is — is a tangible reminder that it is God’s power, not his own, that works in and through him to accomplish God’s purposes (see Phil 2:13).

This is true humility, not the braggadocio of the false apostles in Corinth, not the pretense of humility of the false teachers in Colossae. And as we’ll see, Paul has one more charge to bring against those false teachers.