with Sufficient Grace

My Grace Is Sufficient For You Always

2.16.25 [2 Corinthians 12:7-10] River of Life (6th Sunday of Epiphany)

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who saves and sustains us in all situations. Amen. 

You think that’s bad? One time, I…

I don’t know how many times I have found myself in conversations like this. It really doesn’t matter what the topic of discussion is. It could be home or car repair. It could be a hunting or hiking trip, travel nightmares, old football injuries, or some brush with death. There’s something that happens when people discuss bad experiences that transforms the conversation from cathartic to competitive. Maybe it’s just guys who do this, but I suspect not. The topics are probably pretty different, but one-ups-manship isn’t gender exclusive. Everyone does it. Maybe you’ve got some great ones. Maybe you’ve got that one great bad story that nobody else seems to be able to top.

Until you hear Paul’s life’s story. For the Apostle Paul, it wasn’t just one experience. It was a series of them. He lays it out for us in this letter. Paul was a hard worker with a hard life. His missionary ministry meant that he was frequently imprisoned for preaching the Gospel. In chains, he was often stripped of his dignity & rights and then exposed to the elements. When he wasn’t imprisoned, Paul was constantly on the move. He worked hard and missed more than a few meals—whether because of imprisonment, a full schedule, or empty pockets. 

Everywhere he went, Paul was looking over his shoulder. The Jewish leaders hated him. The Roman officials had no patience for him. He was in danger in the city, the countryside, and even at sea, where he was shipwrecked three times and spent a day and a night on open water. 

When his enemies managed to catch up with him, they were merciless. He was severely flogged. He received 39 lashes from Jewish officials on 5 different occasions. He was beaten with rods by Roman officials on 3 different occasions. He was pelted with stones so pitilessly that his assailants were convinced that he was dead, so they dragged him outside the city. Any one of those experiences could have killed him. Think for a moment what Paul’s face must have looked like after those beatings. Imagine the scars he had on his back. Imagine the aches and pains that he must have felt every single morning. In fact, Paul was exposed to death again and again. 

The cherry on top of this sundae of suffering for Paul was the stress of ministry. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. Who is weak and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin and I do not inwardly burn? 

Paul was first and foremost a spiritual shepherd. He had a heart for his people. He worked with them diligently. He prayed for them fervently.

Being a shepherd is a tough gig. And Paul was a tough guy. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t have a breaking point. That’s what we learn in our text from 2 Corinthians 12. It’s a short reading, but it leaves most readers with more questions than answers. But the answer we do get is better than any of the questions we wish we had answers to. 

Paul speaks of a mysterious thorn in his flesh and a messenger of Satan to torment him. Right off the bat, we want to know exactly what this thorn in the flesh is. Was it his eyes? A speech impediment? Was it malaria? Migraines? Was it epilepsy? Psychosomatic hysteria? Tourettes? But we’re not told. The Holy Spirit honors HIPAA. 

And what’s with the messenger of Satan? Is the thorn in the flesh from this messenger? Is the thorn the messenger? Did the messenger show up to torment him after Paul was given the thorn in his flesh? 

I told you these verses leave us with more questions than answers. But the answer we are given is better than any of the answers we wish we had. Here’s what we can say about Paul’s thorn. It seems to be chronic. It seems to have been physically painful and debilitating. It seems that Paul felt for some time that it was diminishing his ministry and he was frustrated by that. Three times Paul 2 Cor. 12:8 pleaded with the Lord that it might depart from him. 

Paul didn’t feel the need to identify his thorn, perhaps because the Corinthians were already aware of it. Satan knew, too. So either Satan or one of his demons used this condition to pre y on Paul’s weaknesses—highlighting his insecurities or his guilt over his past sins. Much like Satan did to Job in the Old Testament, Paul was in his crosshairs. 

Yet, even after saying all that about Paul’s thorn in the flesh, it’s hard not to want to connect the dots and arrive at some specific diagnosis. 

But God doesn’t tell us. And that’s for our benefit. Because if we were given a diagnosis, we would either pity Paul or downplay his thorn. Remember how quickly we compete with people over bad stories? How would it serve us if our suffering looked like small potatoes to Paul’s? How would it benefit us if we felt like we could one-up him? 

The truth is that at different times in our lives, we are tormented by things we think are not only unnecessary but just plain bad for us. Perhaps it is something physical. Some chronic disease. A terminal diagnosis. Maybe it's frequent or perpetual financial instability. Maybe it’s some inner addiction. Perhaps it’s a falling out in some relationship that we had no control over. Maybe it’s dealing with the aftermath of our own sinful choices and how that affects the people we love the most. Maybe it’s a failure you can’t shake. Maybe it’s a reputation you can’t outrun. Tormenting thorns come in thousands of varieties. 

That’s what this text is for. Paul’s real struggle here is one we know all too well. We all want to be comfortable. We all want to be capable. We all want to have things under our control. But when we are these things, we often become blind to our conceit. And God would rather have us uncomfortable, incapable, and feeling like we are falling apart than to have us be conceited and confident in our own abilities and righteousness. That is God’s great answer to us. At times, he allows what we perceive as bad to perform something wonderfully good. 

God’s answer to Paul is succinct and stirring. 2 Cor. 12:9 My grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness.

The grace of God is not to be mistaken for a spiritually clean slate. It is not just a matter of God auditing who you were and what you’ve done and erasing your debts or wiping your spiritual permanent record clean. The grace of God is not just a great start. On the cross, Jesus paid for all your sins. Not just the ones you committed in ignorance or in a moment of weakness. Jesus died for the sins you once proudly crowed about. Jesus died for the sins you promised you would never ever do again in a million years. God’s grace is sufficient for all our sins. But God’s grace remains sufficient all our days. 

The grace of God is sufficient for our struggles against our own sinful nature after we have been made alive spiritually. The grace of God, the Father’s unconditional, undeserved, unreserved love for us gives us certainty in who we are. We are his own children. We know that because he calls us that in the waters of Baptism. We know that because his Son is not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters. His love for us is not based on our performance, but on his promises. 

We don’t keep his laws simply to keep him off our back. We know that obedience is the best way of showing love to the one who loved us first. The grace of God empowers us to say to no to ungodliness and to worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives even in a world that has no interest or tolerance for that kind of thing. 

The grace of God, his unconditional, undeserved, unreserved love, is not just the cause of our redemption and regeneration. The grace of God renews us—our minds and our strength. God’s grace is not just sufficient to deal with our sin. God’s grace is powerful enough to sustain us through our struggles. By God’s grace we know that all trouble are not punishments for our past misdeeds. Some are God’s works. They are intended for our benefit, for our development, as an avenue for revealing God’s wisdom and power. We endure hardship as discipline. Only loved children are disciplined by their Father. Even so, Christ’s power rests on us when we are weak. 

In his grace, God has gifted us his ear. No matter what we are dealing with, no matter how many times we have brought a certain trouble to his table, he is patient and compassionate. Paul did not only pray three times because that’s the maximum number of times you can submit a prayer request before God gets irritated. He stopped praying for God to take his thorn away because God gave him a direct response. 2 Cor. 12:9 My grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weaknesses. For Paul to plead further would have been to pray against the revealed will of God.

We are far more fortunate. We can continue to plead and we have this powerful promise. We are recipients of the same grace that sustained Paul in his weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, & difficulties.

And that is a powerful witness—even when we are weak. Because you know how people are. When someone starts sounding like Louie Armstrong: Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen… We can respond: Nobody knows but Jesus! And his family.   

Think of the powerful stories we can share. Like Paul, we can boast in our weaknesses. Troubles might diminish our strength, but they do something good. They deepen our dependence on God’s love, wisdom, and power. Then we learn well what Paul powerfully shares: God’s grace is sufficient for us all, all the time. Amen.