And I know such a man, (whether in [the] body or out of the body I know not, God knows;)
For the second time Paul says he cannot explain how it happened; only God knows that. What he does name is where he was taken — paradise, which raises the question of where paradise is and who else may reach it.
Paul will not say "I was caught up." One writer explains why he keeps his own name out of it.
The words "in Christ" matter, because they take him out of himself. In himself he will not boast, but of such a man he will boast. It really was Paul, but he will not admit that it was himself, because he cannot tell whether he was in the body or out of the body. He did not have the ordinary awareness of the senses. He perceives these things now, but at the time he did not know how he knew or saw any of it.
Another writer notices which word Paul uses, and when.
The moment he speaks of something that lifts him up, it is no longer "I," it is "a man in Christ" — which is true of every Christian.
One writer takes the repeated "I do not know" as deliberate. It turns our attention away from how it happened.
He does not know whether it was in the body. He does not know whether it was out of the body. He says this twice, and surely for a reason. He does not want us to dwell on the circumstances, or on the exact part a miracle played in it. We tend to pull back from the miraculous, since we do not expect miracles, but he leaves the question open. He likely thought little of himself, drawn out of himself by the power of what was given to him.
Paul's uncertainty settles something larger. If a person could not be conscious apart from the body, his question would make no sense.
The third heaven is the very highest blessedness a creature can enter — paradise. In Luke 23:43 a redeemed soul, apart from the body, is received there after the Saviour's death. Here in 2 Corinthians a living believer is taken up to paradise, and the apostle could not tell whether he went in the body or out of the body. We ought to be very thankful for this, since many today deny eternal judgment and laugh at the idea of any consciousness out of the body. If they were right, how could Paul say he did not know whether he was "in the body, or out of the body"?
One writer treats the third heaven and paradise as one place, and counts the heavens up to it.
The third heaven speaks of the dwelling place of God. There are the atmospheric heavens, then the starry heavens, and then the third heavens, where the throne of God is. The Apostle speaks of the third heavens as paradise. That shows how blessed a place it is: a scene of joy, beauty and glory — a garden of delights, where no shadow of death will ever come.
Another writer rejects a popular view that puts paradise below the earth.
Some writers believe that Paradise is in the heart of the earth and has two compartments, one for believers and the other for unbelievers. This idea has no foundation in Scripture. 2 Corinthians 12:2 and 4 identifies Paradise with "the third heaven" — the immediate dwelling place of God, while Revelation 2:7 speaks of it as "the Paradise OF GOD," where the tree of life is.
Commentators differ on how far this reaches. One draws a firm line between standing and experience.
Every Christian is a man in Christ, but not every Christian is "caught up into paradise." The first is the true standing of every Christian; the second is a possible experience for a Christian. None of us have been caught up as Paul was. That was something special to him alone.
Another sees the wording chosen so that the sphere Paul entered belongs to all who are in Christ, even though only one man saw it.
Paul certainly had the wonderful experience he describes so vividly. But he puts it in a way meant to show any "man in Christ" that in substance this is his privilege too, as it was Paul's own in actual fact by a miracle. And the man whose work it was to make known God's purposes about Christ and His own for heaven was allowed to hear these things, so that all who are in Christ might know their portion through such a chosen witness.
- Hidden. Paul reports the highest moment of his life as happening to "a man in Christ," never to himself — he will not boast in himself.
- Twice. The repeated "I do not know" is deliberate — it pulls our attention off how it happened and onto what he was given.
- Known. What Paul cannot answer, God can; the very question assumes a person can be conscious apart from the body.
- Paradise. The third heaven is God's dwelling place, and paradise is the same scene — not a compartment below the earth.
- Shared. Commentators differ on whether being caught up was Paul's alone, or a witness to what belongs to everyone in Christ.
that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable things said which it is not allowed to man to utter.
Forced to boast, Paul describes a man carried into paradise who came back with nothing he could repeat. Three questions follow: where is paradise, why could the words not be told, and why does the man who heard them make nothing of himself?
Two verses earlier Paul mentions the third heaven. Here the word is paradise. Are they the same place?
The apostle identifies being caught up to "the third heaven" with being caught up into "Paradise." It is the highest view of heaven that Scripture shows us, and it leaves no room for an idle dream. Some imagine that a soul must first go to some lower holding place, because it is not yet fit to share the inheritance of the saints in light. But Colossians 1:12 teaches that God has already given this fitness by grace to all believers here.
Commentators differ. Another writer keeps the third heaven and paradise apart, and explains what the word paradise itself means.
Paradise is a Greek word, used of an enclosed garden or pleasure park. In the New Testament it describes the present place of believers who are out of the body (Luke 23:43; 2 Corinthians 12:4). It also describes their future place of bliss, where the tree of life will stand (Revelation 2:7). Paul clearly distinguishes it from the third heaven. He was caught up to, or as far as, the third heaven where God dwells. He was caught up into paradise, where believers out of the body now are. There he heard what he could not pass on to people on earth.
Older versions read "not lawful for a man to utter." One writer says the issue is not permission but ability.
Then he heard "words not possible for a man to utter." "Possible" is the word, rather than "lawful." He means this: as soon as he came back to the awareness of being in the body, he found he had no way to communicate. No words could express the greatness of what he had seen. And so it is — the deeper a thing is in our souls, the greater the difficulty we find in speaking of it. We cannot convey to another the sense, the impression, of what we have received for ourselves.
Set this beside Moses on the mountain.
Note the contrast between Moses' long stay on the mountain and Paul's brief stay in the third heaven, whether in the body or out of it. God commanded Moses to give the people what he heard and saw. Paul heard "unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter." The gospel will in the end put us in touch with wonders that no one can reveal to us while we are in our mortal bodies. Our language has no words to express them.
He brought back no message. He brought back strength.
Paul did not receive a revelation in the third heavens to pass it on to others. On the contrary, he went there to hear mysteries which it is not lawful for a man to utter. He went there to experience the presence of God, and to draw his strength from it. When the eye of faith enters God's presence, it finds communion there, and strength to walk before Him in every circumstance.
Who was this man? Paul answers with a description, not a name.
Notice how he speaks of himself here. His own name, whether Saul or Paul, drops out. He is simply "a man in Christ" — a description that applies to every true believer. Such a person has a new life, drawn from a new source — not Adam but Christ. In the power of that life he stands before God in a new place, Christ's own place.
So why keep quiet about it? The danger was never in heaven. It came later, back on earth.
Once he was back in the awareness of his human life on earth, the apostle's flesh would have used the favour he had enjoyed to exalt him in his own eyes. It would say, "None have been in the third heaven but you, Paul." To be near God in the glory, out of the body, does not puff a man up. All is Christ, and Christ is all; self is forgotten. To have been there is another matter. The presence of God makes us feel our nothingness. The flesh can take advantage of our having been in it once we are no longer there. To have taken him up to a fourth heaven, so to speak, would only have increased the danger.
- Place. Paradise is the highest scene Scripture shows, and where believers go at death.
- Privilege. Paul names the man only as "a man in Christ" — a standing every believer already holds.
- Limit. He could not repeat what he heard: back in the body, no human language could carry it.
- Purpose. The visit gave him no message to deliver — it gave him God's presence to draw strength from.
- Protection. In God's presence self is forgotten. The danger comes afterwards, back on earth.