“...even because of the extraordinary character of the revelations. Therefore, so that I would not become arrogant, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to trouble me—so that I would not become arrogant.” —2 Corinthians 12:7 NET
Paul's Thorn has been speculated about in every theological circle that I've come across, however, not many theologians seem to do what I thought theologians did, which is the let scripture interpret scripture.
A lot of people say that no one knows what Paul's Thorn was, but when I read the verse, I see pretty plainly what it is. Paul's Thorn = A Messenger of Satan = A person or group of people--not sickness and disease. I have no idea what makes everyone think that it was some type of sickness or disease, when we, in most cultures anyway, have the same kind of idiom. We all have people in our lives who are "pains in the neck" or know someone who is a "pain in the @##". So, I can see someone in Paul's life who's always coming up against him when he's talking about these high and mighty revelations. We all have people in our lives who tend to keep us from thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought to, and some are better (or worse) at it than others.
The phrase "Thorn in the flesh" is not unique to this passage of scripture. Because Paul read books commonly known as part of the Old Testament. If you did a quick search you would find other phrases like “thorns in your sides,” —Numbers 33:55 KJV; “thorns in your eyes” —Joshua 23:13 KJV; “thorns in your sides” —Judges 2:3 KJV
Two other things to notice about 2Cor 12:7 is that Paul is writing in his letter to the Corinthians that HE believes that this thorn was 1.) given to him 2.)for a certain purpose. To sum up point number 1, this "thorn in the flesh" wasn't given to him by God. A "thorn in the flesh" is not a good gift. Every perfect give comes from the "father of lights" James 1:17. “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:” —James 1:13 KJV
As for what the purpose was, that is simply Paul's opinion of why he has a thorn in the flesh. Whenever something happens to us, we try to assign some cause to it, but none of those should be connected to God unless, it is indeed a good or perfect gift.
The only person trying to stop people from hearing good news is Satan.
