Certain people in the Corinthian church were boasting in their spiritual experiences. These people claimed they had received divine knowledge through visions and revelations and challenged Paul’s credentials as an Apostle. Paul wanted to show the church that if he had to he could resort to boasting to establish his credentials. In 2Corinthians 12:1-6 Paul refers to himself in the third person and speaks of an experience he had fourteen years earlier. Before his ministry with the Corinthians he had received a vision from the Lord; it was a moment of being caught up in heaven. In this vision Paul heard things and saw things he was not permitted to relate to anyone else. What gave Paul his credentials, as an Apostle was not his special visions but his calling from Christ. The confidence he had was not in an experience or what people thought of him. Paul’s confidence was in the calling and grace of Christ.

Theologian, Simon Kistemaker, wrote, “Pride slips surreptitiously into the human soul and rules in such a manner that a person often is unaware of its presence.” Just so Paul would not pride himself in his visions and revelations, Jesus gave him what most scholars conclude to be a physical ailment or hindrance. On three separate occasions Paul begged Jesus to take it away from him, but instead the Lord answered him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

It is our tendency to take pride in our abilities, status, experiences, possessions, or relationships. Paul understood his propensity toward human sinful conceit after being told by Jesus the reason for this thorn in the flesh. He saw that the purpose of his thorn was to remind him of his weaknesses so he would put confidence in only one thing – Christ’s power through His grace. In the distressing weakness inflicted at various times by his ailment, he would never lack sufficient grace to be more than a conqueror. Therefore, Paul strove to find delight in knowing his weaknesses because it drove him to depend on God’s grace in Christ. The grace of Christ in a humbled human heart produces great power and strength.

How about you? Are there weaknesses you yearn to do without? Are you buffeted through living with certain hardships and difficulties? Are you tormented by insults and persecutions? Perhaps, like Paul, you have begged God to take these away and He has not answered your prayers the way you have wanted. God’s will is not always to heal or take away a difficulty, but it is always His will to make humbled believers strong in the strength of His grace. The greater the Christian’s acknowledged weakness, the more evident Christ’s enabling strength. Jesus says to us what He said to Paul: “My grace is sufficient for you.” The grace of Christ is adequate for all of us. Ask God for faith to believe that in your weakness He can make you strong.

Pastor Griffith