Firm in the faith; I will go. (6)

There is no relief if the thorn is not taken out.

Sliding from the window on cardboard.

Stepping on macka in my back yard.

The Problem vs.7

The thorn in the flesh: The apostle was pained with a thorn in the flesh, and buffeted with a messenger of Satan, v. 7. Many scholars believe that “We are much in the dark what this was, whether some great trouble or some great temptation. Some think it was an acute bodily pain or sickness; others think it was the indignities done him by the false apostles, and the opposition he met with from them, particularly on the account of his speech, which was contemptible. Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible: Complete and Unabridged in One Volume (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1994), 2291.

The word translated thorn means “a sharp stake used for torturing or impaling someone.” It was a physical affliction of some kind that brought pain and distress to Paul. Some Bible students think that Paul had an eye affliction; Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 674.

A thorn (skolops) was given him in the flesh. The word skolops, found only here in the New Testament, was used for anything pointed, e.g. a stake, the pointed end of a fish hook, a splinter or a thorn. The fact that Paul speaks of a thorn in the flesh suggests that the imagery is of a splinter or a thorn, rather than a stake, as some have argued. In the lxx skolops is used figuratively in Numbers 33:55 (‘But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those of them whom you let remain shall be as pricks [skolopes] in your eyes’), Ezekiel 28:24 (‘And for the house of Israel there shall be no more a brier [skolops] to prick or a thorn to hurt them among all their neighbours who have treated them with contempt’) and Hosea 2:8 (et, 5:6) (‘Therefore I will hedge up her way with thorns [skolopsin]; and I will build a wall against her, so that she cannot find her paths’). In each case skolops is used to denote something which frustrates and causes trouble in the lives of those afflicted. That Paul’s thorn was a trouble and frustration to him is clear from his thrice-repeated prayer for its removal (v. 8). Colin G. Kruse, 2 Corinthians: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 8, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1987), 198.

thorn in the flesh—(Nu 33:55; Ez 28:24). Alford thinks it to be the same bodily affliction as in Ga 4:13, 14. It certainly was something personal, affecting him individually, and not as an apostle: causing at once acute pain (as “thorn” implies) and shame (“buffet”: as slaves are buffeted, 1 Pe 2:20). messenger of Satan—who is permitted by God to afflict His saints, as Job (Job 2:7; Lu 13:16). to buffet me—In Greek, present: to buffet me even now continuously. After experiencing the state of the blissful angels, he is now exposed to the influence of an evil angel. The chastisement from hell follows soon upon the revelation from heaven. As his sight and hearing had been ravished with heavenly “revelations,” so his touch is pained with the “thorn in the flesh.” Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, vol. 2 (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), 319.

It was small

It was Painful

It impaired movement

It cannot be ignored

It was a physical impediment

Your thorn can be emotional

It can be mental

It can be spiritual

As new believers by now you would recognize that you are not saints you still have weaknesses; you still have struggles; you still have emotional issues that bother you. You still get sick, you still feel scared at times, sometimes feel embarrassed and ashamed and you wished things would be different but seem to be the same. But my friends things are not the same. things are better. You see you don’t face the challenges alone anymore and whilst the thorn used to be a shackle that enslaved in the world before; now it is a means of deliverance. it is a method or a device that God uses to keep us humble.

A deep sadness still rested upon the mind and heart of Paul because of his apprehensions concerning the Corinthian church. While at Philippi he commenced his second epistle to them; for they hung as a heavy weight upon his soul. The depression of spirits from which the apostle suffered was, however, attributable to a great degree to bodily infirmities, which made him very restless when not engaged in active service. But when working for the salvation of souls, he rose superior to physical debility. He felt that the disease under which he suffered was a terrible impediment to him in his great work and repeatedly besought the Lord to relieve him. Ellen Gould White, Sketches from the Life of Paul (Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1883), 175–176.

Three times Paul prayed to have this thorn remove but God said NO. What have you asked God to remove that He won’t move? Is it your blindness? Sometimes we pray with tears and God still says no. Sometimes we pray and fast and God still says no.

Well, God’s solution is better.

The Solution vs.9

God’s Grace: God did not see fit to answer his prayers in this respect, though he assured him that divine grace should be sufficient for him. Ellen Gould White, Sketches from the Life of Paul (Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1883), 176.

Our precious Saviour has invited us to join ourselves to Him and unite our weakness with His strength, our ignorance with His wisdom, and our unworthiness with His merit. Rigid precision in obeying the law would entitle no man to enter the kingdom of heaven. There must be a new birth, a new mind through the operation of the Spirit of God, which purifies the life and ennobles the character. This connection with God fits man for the glorious kingdom of heaven. No human invention can ever find a remedy for the sinning soul. Ellen Gould White, The Faith I Live By (Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1958), 96.

Just think about it for a moment what if you were the perfect Christian never made a mistake have seen the visions of the Lord always rightly dividing the word never felt tempted. That would be a proud self-sufficient Christian who would not need Jesus but people need the Lord.

The grace of God is declared to be sufficient for all the ills and trials against which human beings have to contend. Is it powerless then against bodily infirmity? Shall divine grace stand back, while Satan takes the field, holding the victim in the power of his evil attributes? O how precious is Jesus to the soul who trusts in Him. Ellen Gould White, This Day with God (Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1979), 177.

God knows what is for our best good. The peculiar discipline to which we are subject is discipline to bring out not the worst and most unlovely traits of character, but the meekness and loveliness of Christ, developing the precious graces of Christ. You need to learn in Christ’s school to become Christlike. God adapts His grace to the peculiarities of each one’s necessities. “My grace is sufficient for thee.” 2 Corinthians 12:9. As your burden grows heavier look up and by faith cling more firmly to the hand of Jesus, your mighty helper. As difficulties thicken about His people amid the perils of the last days, He sends His angels to walk all the way by our side, drawing us closer and still closer to the bleeding side of Jesus. And as the greater trials come, lesser trials are forgotten.… You must remain pure and true and firm, remembering your character is being imprinted upon the books of heaven.… There is no circumstance or place or difficulty or hardship, where we cannot live beautiful lives of Christian fidelity and approved conduct.… Victory is not found in shunning trials—getting rid of them—but in meeting them heroically, enduring them patiently. Everyone will meet with trials.… If you look to Jesus, if you believe in Him as your personal Saviour, you will be brought through every trial, and enduring these trials with patience, you will become stronger to endure the next test, the next trial. Ellen Gould White, Our High Calling (Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1961), 317.

The Transformation vs.9,10

Boast about my weakness.

Be content about my weaknesses

Christianity promises no exemption from sorrow. “We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). Faith is needed, strong, trusting faith, which believes that God will bring His children into no temptation greater than they are able to bear. What such faith has power to do is told by Paul in his letter to the Hebrews. Speaking of those who in the face of persecution and death had maintained an unshaken trust in God, he says: “Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: and others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented” (Hebrews 11:33–37). In this world these heroes of faith were counted unworthy of life; but in heaven they are enrolled as sons of God, worthy of the highest honor. “They shall walk with me in white,” Christ declares: “for they are worthy” (Revelation 3:4). In the courts of heaven there awaits them an “eternal weight of glory.” “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:1). “Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:17, 18). Ellen Gould White, In Heavenly Places (Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1967), 268.