The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Corinthians — Section 308

Ver. 1.-Visiotls and revelatioM. "I will come to viAiona and revelations of tho Lord." The apostle bad been dwelling on his personal experiences. He had· been compelled by the evil things that were said or him to refer to his 01vn life condnot and sufferings for Christ's S1Lke, in self-vindication. He would, however, not' have spoken one word about these things if the honour of Christ had not been bound up with his claim to apostleship. He had now said everything that needed to be said about himself· and it was every way pleasanter and heaJ.thier to turn away from his own doings and 11ufferings, and to fix his heart and his thoughts upon what God had done for him. Upon the Divine visions and revelations given to him he in great part rested hie apostolic claim. To him an apostle was, just what a prophet of the olden time had been, a man who had direct and personal commnnications with the Lord Jesus, and received instruc- tions immediately from him. For such instances in St. Paul's career, see Acts ix. 4-6; xvi. 9 ; xviii. 9; xxii. 18; xxiii. 11 ; xxvii. 28 ; Gal iL 2; and the scenes recorded in the chapter now before us. This claim to direct revelation the enemies of St. Paul denied, and laughed to scorn his pretensions as the indications of insanity. Dean Plumptre te1ls us that" in the Clementine Homilies-a kind of controversial romance representing the later views of the Ebionite or Juda.izing party, in which most recent critics have recognized a thinly veiled attempt to present the characteristic features of St. Paul under the pretence of an attack on Simon Magus, just as the writer of a political novel in modern t.imes m~ht draw the portraits of his rivals under fictitious names- we find strt>ss laid on the alleged claims of Simon to have bad communications from the Lord through visions and dreams and outward revelations; and this claim is contrasted '\\•ith that of Peter, who ·had personally followed Ohrist during his ministry on earth. What was said then, in the form of this elaborate attack, may well have been said before by the more malignant advocates of the same party. The charge of insanity was one easy to make, and of all charges, perhaps, the most difficult to refute by one who gloried in the facts which were alleged as its foundation-who did see visions and did • speak with tongues' in the ecstasy of adoring rapture." Compare the expression, "whether we be beside ourselves," in eh. v. 13. When the particular visions c11me to which reference is made in the passage before us cannot certainly be known. St. Paul only aids us by referring to the time as "about fourteen years ago." The suggestion we prefer is that they were grpted during the time of his fainting.afrer the stoning at Lystra, and were the Divine comfortings of that hour of sorest peril and distress (Acts xiv. 19). L VISIONS AND REVELATIOli'S ARB AGBNOIBS WHICH GoD HAS ALWAYS USED. They do not belong to any one age. We have no right to say that they are limited to ancfent times. There have always been the true and the counterfeit ; but the true shonlci !lot be miSBed or denied because the false ha'l"e been found out. There are good gold coins, or men would not trouble to make spurious sovereigns. Fanaticism deludes its victims into imaginary visions, but souls that are kin with God, and open to him, can receive communications from him. Illustrate from all ages, e.g. Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Samuel, David. Isaiah, Joseph (the husband of, Mary), aged Simeon, Zacharias, ete. So in the Christian age we fµid visions granted to Cornelius, Philip, Peter, and John, as well as Paul, and traces of pro.phets, such as. Agabns, and even of prophetesses. St. Paul's visions were probably of ttie nature of a trance; the mind being absorbed in contemplation may be prepared to receive Divine revealings. It is right to subject all claims to visions to careful scrutiny, and the• things communicated to men at such times must bo tested by their harmony with the written revelation ; but we need not refuse to recognize the truth that God has direct relations to souls now as certainly as in past ages. Both truth and duty may still b1 directly revealed. en, 11.1t. 1--21.) 'rHE SECOND El'IS'l'I,J~ 'l'O 'fHE COfllN'l'HIAN~. ::v,(l