Paul’s Vision and His Painful Problem

12 We can’t gain anything by bragging. But I have to do it anyway. I am going to tell you what I’ve seen. I want to talk about what the Lord has shown me.

2I know a believer in Christ who was taken up to the third heaven 14 years ago. I don’t know if his body was taken up or not. Only God knows. 3I don’t know if that man was in his body or out of it. Only God knows. But I do know that 4he was taken up to paradise. He heard things that couldn’t be put into words. They were things that people aren’t allowed to talk about.

5I will brag about a man like that. But I won’t brag about myself. I will brag only about how weak I am.

6Suppose I decide to brag. That would not make me a fool, because I would be telling the truth. But I don’t do it. Then no one will think more of me than he should because of what I do or say.

7I could have become proud of myself because of the amazing and wonderful things God has shown me. So I was given a problem that caused pain in my body. It is a messenger from Satan to make me suffer.