Joyfully Weak

2 Corinthians 12:7-9 ESV

7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 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 of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

We have all heard the saying that God works in mysterious ways. But what some of us may not know and what I didn’t know until I researched it is the origin of that particular saying.

In the year, 1774 an English poet and hymnwriter by the name of William Cowper wrote a poem, which was titled: Light Shining Out of Darkness, and in the first verse of that particular poem, Cowper wrote: “God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform; He plants his footsteps in the sea, And rides upon the storm.”

Now, what the poet writes here is essentially what we think of when we say that God works in mysterious ways. When we say that God works in mysterious ways, we mean that He works in ways that seem unusual or even, impossible.

And when we look at the words of Cowper’s poem, that is exactly what he is describing. As he says that God moves in a mysterious way, planting His footsteps in the sea, riding upon the storm. Walking upon the sea and riding storms are most certainly unusual things and indeed, impossible things for anyone to do.

But though these ways of God appear to be so mysterious to us, the reality is that they are not at all mysterious to God, for even in the most challenging and adverse trials, God is working and bringing His sovereign purposes to pass.

But because God is choosing to work through and use challenging and adverse trials, they seem to be mysterious ways to us. And it is indeed through these “mysterious” ways that it seems God is most glorified.

As we continue in our series of sermons from this passage in the twelfth chapter of second Corinthians, we see in our reading for today an excellent example of God working in a very “mysterious” way and He being supremely glorified through it. We will see also how God is praised because He works in this mysterious way. And most of all, we ourselves will reflect on how and why we must praise God in the midst of His “mysterious” works.

When we look at our reading for this morning, we see that we start off with the word, “so”. Now, this obviously calls us to look at what was written before the word “so”, so that we may understand what Paul is going to be building on here.

What comes before the word “so” is Paul declaring that he will never boast in himself but will only boast in the Lord. And any good that he performs, he recognizes comes solely from the Lord, thus it is ever proper for him to boast only in the Lord.

But this is never naturally accomplished by man, not even a born-again man, therefore, Paul begins this first verse with the word “so” in order to show how God accomplished this in Paul.

Verse seven, as a whole, tells us,

2 Corinthians 12:7 ESV

7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 

So, we immediately see the primary objective of that which is to follow when Paul begins this verse with the words, “to keep me from becoming conceited”. To be conceited means to be excessively proud, therefore, Paul says that the main purpose of that which he describes here is to keep him from becoming excessively proud.

And that which Paul says had the potential to make him excessively proud was “the surpassing greatness of revelations”.

While there were many revelations and visions that Paul received, several of which are recorded for us in the book of Acts, still, the revelation that he had received which he spoke of earlier in this chapter, in our first sermon of this series was probably the greatest revelation that he had received.

As we said in that sermon, this revelation is in reference to Paul being caught up to the third heaven where he heard and experienced things that he is unable to speak of.

Thus, it is obvious that the visions and revelations that he received, especially this primary one that he spoke of earlier in this chapter were of an awesome magnitude. And because they were of such an awesome magnitude, there was certainly the potential for Paul to become proud and conceited, as though God had given him these visions and revelations because of how great Paul is!

Now, obviously, this would be counterproductive. God revealed what He did to Paul so that God would be glorified. But if Paul walks away from these visions and revelations thinking that he should be glorified for receiving the privilege of experiencing them, then obviously, what was intended to happen would not then be happening.

Therefore, to keep this from happening, Paul says that he received something that would keep this conceit, this excessive pride from taking root within him and to consistently humble him in that there was given to him a thorn in the flesh.

Now, what this thorn is, is a matter of great speculation. There have been all kinds of theories throughout the centuries concerning what people believe this thorn may be.

But the reality is that we don’t know what it is. And if we were meant to know what it is, we would have been told what it is. But we are not told what it is, and the reason why we are not told what it is, is because what it is, is not important. What’s important is understanding the function that it served. Thus, speculation over “what the thorn is” is not only unnecessary, but it’s also unwise, for it takes away from the point that Paul is making here.

This thorn is described as “a messenger from Satan to harass me”. Therefore, Paul reveals to us that it was Satan and/or one of his minions who was faithful to supply this thorn in Paul.

But what we find extremely interesting is that though this thorn was from Satan, Paul acknowledges the sovereignty of God in the matter as he says that though the thorn was from Satan, God sovereignly worked through this thorn, as Paul says, “to keep me from becoming conceited”.

Herein do we see how good and evil simultaneously exist and how God can and does work through evil without being Himself the Author of sin and evil. It is the purpose of the devil to give Paul this thorn, and God allows the devil’s purpose to be carried out, but the purpose of God is ultimately served in that He used the purpose of the devil to keep Paul from becoming conceited, excessively proud.

We then see how Paul reacted to receiving this thorn in the flesh in verse eight, when he says:

2 Corinthians 12:8 ESV

8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 

What we should observe here is the great agony that Paul experienced because of this thorn when he says that what he does here, he does “three times”.

Now, we might think, “Three times?! That doesn’t sound like too many times! I’ve pleaded with God on many occasions about something more than three times!” But “three times” is likely not a literal numbering here. Rather, the number three represents completion. Therefore, this likely represents a complete, comprehensive, full request from Paul.

And what this request what this pleading consisted of, Paul says, is “that it should leave me”. Again, this reveals that though the messenger, the thorn in the flesh was “from Satan”, Paul still recognized that God was the One providentially behind the giving of the thorn and thus sought the Lord to remove it, knowing that only God can remove it.

But though Paul fully pleaded with the Lord concerning the desired removal of this thorn, we see the response of the Lord to this plea in the first part of verse nine, where we read:

2 Corinthians 12:9a ESV

9a But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

Paul fully pleaded with the Lord to remove his thorn in the flesh, but though this is what Paul pleaded for, the response that Paul received from the Lord was, “My grace is sufficient for you”.

The Lord says that His grace, His love for Paul and the favor that He extends towards Paul will abide with Paul. And so, no, the Lord would not remove the thorn in Paul’s flesh, and the reason why God would not remove it was for Paul’s good, that he may not become conceited, but nonetheless, God tells him, “My love and My favor will rest upon you and will continue with you, and for that reason, because I am with you, helping you, working in you, what I seek to accomplish in and through you will be effective.”

And God goes on to lovingly tell Paul that He will not remove the thorn and that His grace towards Paul will be sufficient, “for”, because “My power is made perfect in weakness.”

In his commentary on this particular part of this verse, Matthew Poole paraphrases that which God is communicating to Paul in saying that His power is made perfect in weakness, when he says that it is as though God is saying:

“Divine power, in upholding and supporting my people, is never so glorious as when they are under weaknesses in themselves. When they are sensible of the greatest impotency in themselves, then I delight most to exert and put forth my power in them and for them, my power then is most evident and conspicuous, and will be best acknowledged by my people.”

Thus, God tells Paul that His power, His working, His grace is most recognized, and indeed most appreciated when those whom He chooses to work through recognize their own neediness, their own weakness, their own inability. And how true is this proven over and over again.

And thus, having pleaded with the Lord and having heard the determination of the Lord in this matter, we see the response that Paul gives to God’s determination in the last part of our reading, at the end of verse nine, where we read Paul say:

2 Corinthians 12:9b ESV

9b Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Paul says that because God’s power is made perfect, is most recognized, is best magnified in weak vessels, he will “boast all the more gladly of (his) weaknesses.”

What Paul is saying here is that he will readily admit and own his weaknesses, not try to hide them, not try to act as though they don’t exist, but admit that he is a weak and feeble creature that needs to be empowered by Christ. And in so doing, the power of Christ will rest upon him.

When we consider what is said by Paul in our text for this morning with the overall context that is found in the passage that we have been studying this month we find what we can identify as a most wonderful paradox.

Webster defines a paradox as: “a statement that is seemingly contradictory or opposed to common sense and yet is perhaps true.” Thus, an example of a paradox might be, “Less is more” or “The only constant is change”, or one that I like to use quite a bit is, “The more you know, the more you know you don’t know.”

Here, the Lord does not say, “My strength is made perfect when My people are strong.” That’s what these “super-apostles” who had been in the presence of these Corinthians were saying. They were saying that they should be followed, praised, and adhered to because of their strengths. But as Paul says here, God’s power, God’s glory is best revealed when the weaknesses of His people are magnified.

Contrary to the opinion of those of this world and even the opinion of many of those in Christian circles, the reality is that we best serve our God-given purpose in this world to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, not when we are praised and magnified for our successes in this life, but rather, we best serve our purpose when our weaknesses are magnified so that the spotlight is upon Jesus and what He does in us, through us, and for us, weak, weak vessels.

Yes, beloved, seek not the pride of life, but embrace your weaknesses. Praise God that He wills to be glorified through them.

Amen?