​Colossians 2:8  See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.  9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10 and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. 11 In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self-ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
 

​2 Corinthians 12:6 Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth.  But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, 7 or because of these surpassingly great revelations.  Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh a messenger of Satan, to torment me.  8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. 11 Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
 
The Apostle Paul is letting us know here that he was once a very proud and boastful man well trained in all sorts of philosophy and Jewish traditions.  He thought everything that he had been rooted in would pave his way in life.  But he realized through Jesus Christ that all the philosophy and traditions that he was taught when he was younger was nothing but a thorn in his flesh that held him back from the truth.  Now Paul is speaking out about the real truth is in Jesus Christ.  It doesn’t matter what people teach you if they aren’t teaching you the truth it’s a waste of your time.  Don’t get caught up in the traditions and philosophical conversations that he once led or you’ll be deceived into believing something that isn't true.  The Apostle Paul is letting us know from the knowledge he received through philosophy it later became an insult to his integrity and true beliefs in Jesus Christ.  I believe he struggled with the fact that he had wasted so many years of his life in believing in something that he thought was true to later find it was false.
 
There are several different religions and beliefs today that don’t tell you the whole truth or they skip part of it because it’s too sensitive to their beliefs or the churches beliefs.  We need to read and examine for ourselves so we aren’t misled by false teachers and false indoctrinations.
I know when I was younger I was raised in a way that I thought you would got to heaven by doing good deeds and by living a good life.  I never understood about salvation.  I thought it was something that everyone had that went to church every Sunday.  As I got older and started studying the word myself. I understood there was much more to it than just going to church on Sunday and being a good citizen.
 
1 Timothy 6:20 Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge.
 
Acts 17:18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news ‘gospel’ about Jesus and the resurrection.
 
1 Corinthians 2:13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.
 
1 Corinthians 1:19 For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”
 
We need to be watchful and careful of what the universities teach our children in college as they embark on adulthood.  They’re so many colleges that will not stand up for Christian principles and beliefs that try to put a thorn into what we have taught our children.
 

2 Corinthians 12:7 Or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the lord to take it away from me.  But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.


I believe he was using a thorn in the flesh as a metaphor.
​

Numbers 33:55 ‘But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides.  They will give you trouble in the land where you live.
 
The Apostle Paul is letting us know that at three times he was tormented by Satan so that he cried out to the Lord to deliver him from the pain.
 
After Paul was transformed from Saul a fire-breathing Christian killer into Paul a soft-hearted Christian loving man that wanted to share the gospel. We witnessed beforehand the transformation of God changing a fierce killer into a gentleman that cared for the poor and needy.  We really saw the convictions of Paul and how he lived and spoke about the vicious Christian killer he used to be. 

I can’t help but wonder was the thorn in Paul’s flesh a reminder of the man that he used to be and the many Christians he killed when he was Saul and the beliefs that he was taught to hate anyone that opposed his beliefs growing up? 

Was Satan tormenting his mind of where he came from and how he was raised to hate Christians?  But now as a believer, he was living on the other side and seeing things from a whole new perspective.  His old beliefs and customs that he once treasured were now that thorn in his flesh that he fought against spiritually and every time he looked into the judgmental eyes of the Pharisees their personal insults towards him dug the thorn in deeper. 

I can’t imagine what Paul went through every time he went through a beating by the Jews that he loved.  He still mourned for them and their beliefs in not seeing that Jesus was the true Messiah. It had to be a strong spiritual battle for him to go through each time.  You had a man since he was a child being taught and trained for a certain position in his life.  And now he was dealing with the realization of what he had been preparing for his whole life was a farce. It was now about the Pharisees wanting to keep the power and trying to conceal the truth. The very traditions and customs were now a thorn in his flesh that wanted rid of him.  He wasn't even welcomed in his own country.
 
2 Corinthians 11:25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea. 26 I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers.

I believe here the Apostle Paul is letting us know that he's still emotionally attached to the Jews by calling them his fellow Jews.  I think their insults to him were just as powerful as physical blows to him.  He still loved them!

Paul was a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin and a Pharisee. He was born in Tarus of Cilica.  He studied under Gamaliel and was thoroughly trained in the law of his ancestors. He was the equivalent to a Ph.D in Law.   

Galatians 1:14 I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.

It was Paul's strong traditions of Judaism that nailed his Savior to the cross.  I believe this was also a thorn in his flesh that he had been apart of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.    


I really believe the rejection and insults along with the death threats that Paul went through with the Jews was the thorn in his flesh because they were his blood. They were part of his past and present.  He would always be a Jew whether he was accepted by them or not. No matter where he went, he would always be a Jew. And he was always in constant conflict with them. I think it was the greatest battle he faced and like he said a thorn in his flesh.  He now knew the truth the traditions he grew-up loving that were sculpted into him sacrificed the true Messiah.




​Proverbs 18:21 The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

​Acts23:6 Then Paul, knowing that some of them were Sadducees and the others Pharisees, called out in the Sanhedrin, “My brothers, I am a Pharisee, descended from Pharisees. I stand on trial because of the hope of the resurrection of the dead.”