Weakness

When I was eight years old, I stayed a few days with my cousins. They had a perfect tree for climbing, so we spent time in the tree. During my stay with them, I could feel something in my eye. The adults kept looking for it, but they didn’t see anything. I knew I wasn’t hallucinating. It was bothersome. It hurt. I returned home. My parents still couldn’t find anything even though my eye looked irritated, so my mom took me to the doctor. He searched my eye and found a piece of bark (a good size piece tucked way up under my eyelid). Thankfully he was able to remove it. It took my eye a little time to recover completely, but there was also immediate relief and no permanent damage.

Maybe you can relate. You’ve had a tiny sliver of wood or glass in your finger or foot. It hurts. It’s irritating. It’s hard to see it until it starts turning the surrounding tissue red. This is how I thought of Paul’s thorn in the flesh. He had some annoyance that was always present, but perhaps not too painful. After all, he travelled all over preaching the gospel. The thorn was enough to remind Paul that he was human and to keep him humble.

Let’s study Hebrews 12:7-10 together.

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. 10 For the sake of Christ, then I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

If you have time, back up and read from 2 Corinthians 11:16 or even go back to chapter 10 and read through our verses for the fuller context. Paul is responding to false apostles in Corinth who were opposing his apostolic authority. He reminds the Corinthian church that his authority was given to him by Jesus. Paul lists part of his pedigree in (11:22), but then he goes on to “boast” of his weaknesses (11:23-30). Who does that? In fact, weakness, much like today, was viewed as shameful not something to boast about, but Paul had a purpose and kept going.

In chapter 12, Paul continues by disclosing that Jesus gave him visions and revelations (12:1). In fact, in verse 7, Paul describes them as “the surpassing greatness of the revelations.” Paul was not allowed to share the details, but we know they were surpassingly great. This would certainly be reason to boast, but God would help Paul from becoming conceited (vs 7) – a thorn was given him.

“Thorn” - Much speculation has been made over what the thorn was, but I agree with the theologians who say God wanted it to be ambiguous, so it could be relevant to anyone. Maybe like me, you have not considered the word thorn. It simply suggested a rose bush thorn or something similar. However, the root word is indicative of a tent stake. Picture that. Not a little rose thorn or wood sliver in your finger, but a tent stake impaling your flesh. Paul’s thorn in the flesh was no small thing.

I know in my own life, it is not the little slivers I’ve gotten that have humbled me and driven me to depend on God. It is the cancer, the chronic pain and fatigue, and the nerve sensitivity. I’m willful. I’m prone to doing things on my own. I needed a tent stake to bring me to rest in the loving, sovereign care and plan of my Father.

Notice that Paul says he was given a thorn in the flesh. He doesn’t see the thorn as an infliction but as something God purposed for him for his good and God’s glory.

Paul describes his thorn as a “messenger of Satan to harass” him. Like we read in Job, God allow Satan to bring certain suffering or trials into our lives but remember in Job that Satan had to get God’s permission. God is still sovereign. We don’t always understand the hard things that God allows in our lives, but we can trust that God is still in control, and He is using the good and the suffering to conform us to the image of Jesus. Keep reading to see how.

The thorn is to “harass” Paul. We hear much about harassment of all sorts these days, so harass may conjure up some ideas in your mind. The Greek word for harass is to buffet. No, I am not talking about a huge table full of food. I’m referring to the verb buffet that means to batter or pummel. One commentary I read equated it to being beaten black and blue. Is your understanding of Paul’s harassing thorn changing from when you first read this verse?

Many of you have ongoing circumstances that are like Paul’s. Your suffering is not that of an irritating, little sliver. Your suffering resembles an impaling tent stake that leaves you battered, beaten, black and blue.

Paul understands where you are at. We read that he pleaded with the Lord [Jesus] three times for the thorn to be removed. This phrase “three times” is a Hebrew phrase meaning “over and over.” Paul followed what he told the Philippian church to do, “do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” (Philippians 4:6). Paul passionately and repeatedly asked God to remove the thorn.

As so often happens in our own suffering, God does not answer Paul the way Paul asked Him to. “But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness’” (vs 9). I want to break down this answer.

“My grace” – Grace is God’s unmerited favor towards us. This means we don’t deserve it. We haven’t and cannot earn it. Because of whom He is, God in love chooses to bless us with His favor, His grace. Sometimes we think God owes us healing or a job or whatever else we are pleading for, but Paul understands that God is showing him grace, favor he doesn’t deserve, even in his suffering.

“is” – God’s grace is right here, right now. It is extended to us all the time, in every moment. God doesn’t tell Paul to wait five minutes or to check back with Him in a month. God comforts Paul with the truth that His grace is, present tense, right now, actively working in Paul’s life. We tend to look for BIG grace moments, and we are blind to the everyday, every moment blessings of grace that are already there and continue. Did you wake up today? God’s grace. Do you have clothing, food, shelter? God’s grace. If you are in Christ, you have God’s Spirit indwelling you. God’s grace. The list is infinite.

“is sufficient” – The grace God gives us is always exactly what we need, when we need it, and how we need it, but we will never see the sufficiency of God’s grace if we don’t see ourselves as insufficient. Like Paul, we need to acknowledge our weakness. We need to confess that we need God, that we are wholly dependent on Him, and that we trust Him.

Charles Spurgeon who knew suffering intimately, wrote this about the sufficiency of God’s grace: “This sufficiency is declared without any limiting words, and therefore I understand the passage to mean that the grace of our Lord Jesus is sufficient to uphold thee, sufficient to strengthen thee, sufficient to comfort thee, sufficient to make thy trouble useful to thee, sufficient to enable thee to triumph over it, sufficient to bring thee out of it, sufficient to bring thee out of ten thousand like it, sufficient to bring thee home to heaven... O child of God, I wish it were possible to put into words this all-sufficiency, but it is not. Let me retract my speech: I am glad that it cannot be put into words, for if so it would be finite, but since we never can express it, glory be to God it is inexhaustible, and our demands upon it can never be too great. Here let me press upon you the pleasing duty of taking home the promise personally at this moment, for no believer here need be under any fear, since for him also, at this very instant, the grace of the Lord Jesus is sufficient.”

“for you” – God was speaking to Paul, but God’s grace is sufficient for you as well – whatever your thorn, whatever your suffering, whatever your circumstance.

“for my power is made perfect in weakness” – God doesn’t leave Paul’s thorn in his flesh to be cruel. God has a good purpose. God isn’t limited by this fallen world or by us and our weaknesses. His purpose prevails and is displayed perfectly in our weakness. Like Elijah on Mount Carmel who drowned the altar in water until it filled the trough, and God still consumed every last bit and drop with fire from heaven, God’s power is displayed in our weakness, and He is glorified.

God spoke to Paul, and Paul listened. He didn’t argue. There is no record of more pleading. Instead, Paul declares, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Paul was more than willing to be used by God for God’s glory not his own glory. He didn’t simply say he was content with the thorn in his flesh. He said he was content with weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. He trusted God’s bigger agenda. He knew that true strength came not from himself, but in being dependent on God.

Reflection

1. Is there something you would describe as a thorn in your flesh – an ongoing situation of suffering or a trial that God has not removed?

2. How have you responded to it? How does your study of today’s verses change your response going forward?

3. How has your response affected your view of God? What truths about God from today encourage you even if your thorn remains?

4. How can you show grace to someone who is living with a thorn and encourage them to rest in God’s power and grace?