Beyond Words

https://odb.org/MY/2022/10/18/beyond-words

2 Corinthians 12 is unique and special as Paul shares about his experience hearing inexpressible things, things no one is permitted to reveal. Revelations so great that instead of using them to boost himself, Paul chose to focus on his weaknesses so he remained humbled and reliant on Christ that in his weakness he finds strength in Christ. Thomas Aquinas also had a similar experience and chose not to finish his life long masterpiece after seeing things so great that his work seemed like just straw.

What John saw and wrote in Revelation is meant as a window to the future, to the end of times and a hope for us to hold on that one day we will be part of Revelation 22. Yet what it will actually look like and what an experience it will be is something probably Paul and Thomas had heard about and seen. It is most likely beyond what words could describe and probably something so special that this world has never ever seen or experienced or can even imagine. That is why Paul used the phrase inexpressible things. Something so great and magnificent that words cannot describe. Paul was indeed privileged to be revealed such things but he chose not to boast about it. He had heard things no man had ever heard and he kept those things to himself. He said it was not permitted to be revealed but it did motivate him to go through his life the way he did – through all the trials, tribulations, sufferings and persecution. He never ever gave up because he knew what lies ahead is far exceedingly greater than what he had to endure in his present sufferings as he wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:17.

Do we have to have a similar experience to Paul and Thomas to have the same motivation to strive ahead for Christ? No! We need not have the same experience or vision or revelation. If God had revealed that to Paul and Thomas as well as John in the Book of Revelation, it is sufficient for us to have faith in them as well as Christ that what indeed awaits us at the end of our race will far exceed our greatest expectations. When we reach the finish line, we will say it is a good thing we didn’t give up as what we had gone through in life is nothing compared to what we have now at the finish line and if given the chance again, we will do this again a hundred times! No trial or tribulation or suffering man can endure will be able to compare with the glory that awaits us in Christ Jesus. It’s probably like a tiger who had lived his whole life in captivity in a cage to then be released into a wilderness that is thousands of miles in all directions. What lies ahead for that tiger is just so beyond words to the tiger compared to his little cage that had been his home all these while. I know it is not a good picture but I’m trying to illustrate the point. It is just beyond words what lies ahead for us.

So dear brethren, don’t ever give up what God has given us in Christ. It is really like the farmer who found a precious pearl in a field and sold everything he had so he could buy that field to own that pearl. It is that special, that overwhelmingly special!