2 Corinthians 12:1-10 [NLTse]
This boasting will do no good, but I must go on. I will reluctantly tell about visions and revelations from the Lord. ² I was caught up to the third heaven fourteen years ago. Whether I was in my body or out of my body, I don’t know—only God knows. ³ Yes, only God knows whether I was in my body or outside my body. But I do know ⁴ that I was caught up to Paradise and heard things so astounding that they cannot be expressed in words, things no human is allowed to tell.
⁵ That experience is worth boasting about, but I’m not going to do it. I will boast only about my weaknesses. ⁶ If I wanted to boast, I would be no fool in doing so, because I would be telling the truth. But I won’t do it, because I don’t want anyone to give me credit beyond what they can see in my life or hear in my message, ⁷ even though I have received such wonderful revelations from God. So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud.
⁸ Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. ⁹ Each time He said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. ¹⁰ That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Sermon
Jim Croce was a ballad singer and songwriter who died recently. He was always singing stories about his girl falling for another guy or about other guys around his neighborhood who were tougher than him. One of his songs had this for a refrain:
You don’t tug on Superman’s cape. You don’t spit into the wind. You don’t pull the mask off that old Lone Ranger. And you don’t mess around with Jim. But by the end of the song someone tougher and meaner than Jim had come around, and now you didn’t mess around with Slim…

Weakness doesn’t sell in our culture. It doesn’t sell in any culture. It never has. Everybody wants to be strong. We sing songs about it. (Many of them love songs, that we could get the girl or get the guy if we were only “stronger”: More beautiful; more witty; a better dancer… We write movies about it, that everyone would look to us as a hero if we were only “stronger”: More powerful; able to out-think the bad guy; able to overcome our fears…

Since the very beginning human beings have been rebelling against our weakness. But the Lord God made us to be weak. We were to be His lords and ladies upon the earth. In our weakness His power would be able to be known and exercised all over the world! But we wanted to be “strong”.

Adam and Eve rebelled against God in the beginning because God had made them dependent upon Him. They – and all of us human beings – were to be weak vessels through which God’s wisdom, strength, miraculous powers, and knowledge of good and evil could freely flow through. But they wanted to be strong, independent! And that’s what the devil promised them. And that’s what they got!

We’re kind of like Betta fish in that way. Does anybody know what a Betta fish is? Here’s a picture of one. Betta fish males are beautiful, majestic-looking creatures. But they must keep isolated from other males or they will fight each other for dominance to the death! And since the beginning us human beings have not only been fighting against one another for dominance – like Jim and Slim –we’ve been consistently fighting against God. (Of course, human beings fighting God is like a Betta fish fighting a blue whale… But we never seem to learn.)

And we’ve brought about all-manner of troubles and pain upon ourselves in our rebellion against our weakness. In our striving to be “strong” we’ve developed eating disorders and insecurity complex’s and people have become bullies and warlords and tyrants and have sold their souls and sold themselves! But the truth is that there is always a Slim waiting to come along. Some Snow White is always going to grow up and become fairer than you. Another all-star is always going to rise up to replace your records on the board. There will always be someone more handsome, wealthier, more likeable, who gets more attention, who sees what you couldn’t see, who gets done what you could only muddle through…

We human beings were made weak and made to be weak. We desperately need to be content with that! We need to be able to live at peace with our weakness!

2 Corinthians 12 shows us that Paul was no different: Our Father gave Paul extraordinary visions and revelations, and such special blessings tempted Paul to pride; tempted him to say, “Look at me! Look what God’s done in my life! Aren’t I the best apostle! Aren’t I the greatest!” And Paul writes, “So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud.” (V. 7)

Many across the years have wondered about this “thorn” Paul was given. And I have my own ideas, but I’m not going to share them here because I think we need to talk about this whole category of “thorns” and “weaknesses” Paul is writing about. He says that he has come to boast about this “thorn” and these weaknesses. He says that he has come to take pleasure in them! So, what are they?

We don’t have to go far. At the end of v. 10 Paul lists them: He says, “I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” So, let’s look at these “insults”, “hardships”, “persecutions”, and “troubles”.
“Insults” speaks of those times when people think of clever ways of making our faith or our lifestyle or our words look stupid or weird or inconsistent. “Hardships” describe circumstances forced upon us, when things start going against us no matter how hard we try. “Hardships” can refer to any situation where we feel trapped, where we didn’t plan for what has happened, but here we are, and it’s hard… “Persecutions”, of course, are abuses or painful circumstances or acts of prejudice from people simply because of our Christian faith or our Christian morals and commitments. It’s when we are hurt or not treated fairly simply because of Christ. And this word for “troubles” carries the idea of pressures, when we’re feeling the weight of the world; circumstances that tend to overcome us with stress and tension…

(Notice that Paul’s not talking about sin here. These “weaknesses” are not a kind of behavior—like we might say ‘he has a weakness for lust’; or ‘she has a weakness for overeating’. Paul is not talking about the bad choices we can make. He is not saying, “The power of Christ is perfected in my bad choices.” He’s not saying, “I will all the more gladly boast of my bad choices.” Weaknesses here are circumstances and situations and experiences and wounds that make us look weak; things we would get rid of if we had the human strength.

Because, if we were “strong,” we would return the insult with such an effective put down that our opponent would wither and everyone would admire our wit and cleverness. If we were “strong,” we would take charge of these hardships and turn everything around so that it was all going our way again, the way we want it to. If we were “strong,” we would stand up to and face down the persecution so quickly and so decisively that no one would ever mess with us again! If we were “strong,” we would use our resources to get out from under all the stress, we would master the situation and get back on top of it all!
But we don’t tend to have this kind of human strength. And even when we do, Christ shows us not to use our strength the way the world does. Jesus tells us not to return evil for evil. Paul said back in 1 Corinthians 4:12–13, “We bless those who curse us. We are patient with those who abuse us. We appeal gently when evil things are said about us.” And then he added, “Yet we are treated like the world’s garbage, like everybody’s trash—right up to the present moment.” Because this kind of response to abuse looks weak! [At least it looks that way to those who thrive on pride and who strive after strength.])
Paul calls his “thorn” a “messenger of Satan” (v. 7) given to harass him. So, clearly, some “thorns” and weaknesses come from the devil. Satan afflicts the children of God through his demons and evil crew. His aim is to destroy us and kill us and to make us miserable.

But it is not that simple. The devil is not the only one at work here. God is at work, too. These “thorns” and weaknesses are not just the work of Satan to destroy. They are the work of God to save.

We know this because Paul describes the purpose for the “thorn” being to keep him from pride. Paul’s revelations in Paradise made him vulnerable to pride and a sense of superiority. So God uses the hostile intentions of Satan for Paul’s holiness. Satan wanted to make Paul miserable and turn him away from the faith and the ministry and the value of the visions he had seen. But God wanted to make Paul humble and turn him away from thinking himself so great. So God appointed the “thorn” of Satan to the work of Paul’s salvation.
Another reason we know the “thorn” is God’s work and not just Satan’s is that when Paul prays in verse 8 that God would take the thorn away, the Lord says, “No, because My power is made perfect in this weakness.” In other words, Jesus is saying, “I have a purpose in what is happening to you, Paul. This is not ultimately Satan’s destroying work. It is ultimately My saving and sanctifying work.”

For Paul and for us, the source of our weaknesses may sometimes be Satan and his destructive designs for us; but always our weaknesses are designed by God for our good. This is why the truth of God’s sovereign grace is so precious in the midst of hardship and troubles: Because God is in control of Satan. Satan does nothing to God’s children that God does not design with infinite skill and love for our good!

But what is the purpose of such weaknesses? Is there a goal or an aim for why the weaknesses come? Why insults, hardships, persecutions, calamities, and troubles? Why can’t I find a job? Why am I trapped in this awful marriage? Why does my dad have cancer? Why can’t I have children? Why do I have no friends? Why is nothing working in my life?

First, know that Satan wants to beat you up and harass you. So know that it is okay to pray for relief. That’s what Paul did until he got word from the Lord. Pain is not a good thing in itself. God does not delight in our suffering. But Satan does, so he must be resisted.

Second, God’s purpose over and through Satan’s troubling us is our Christ-likeness and humility. Paul was in danger of pride and a sense of superiority, and God took steps to keep him humble. This is a crazy-strange thing in our self-centered age, but God thinks humility is more important than comfort; God thinks humility is more important than freedom from pain. He will give us a mountain top experience in the Garden of Eden itself, and then bring us through every kind of trial and anguish, as needed, to keep us from thinking we have “arrived” and no longer need to totally rely on His grace.

But, ultimately, God’s purpose in our “thorns” and weaknesses is to glorify the grace and power of Jesus. In v. 9 Jesus says, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” God made us weak to make you and me a showcase for Jesus’ power. And yet, not the way the world would demand it: Not by getting rid of all our weaknesses; but by giving us strength to endure and even rejoice in tribulation.

Of course, we must let God be God here: That is, if He wills to show the perfection of His Son’s power in our weakness instead of by our escape from weakness, then He knows best and we must trust Him. Hebrews 11 is a good guide here. It says that by faith some escaped the sword (v. 34) and by faith some were killed by the sword (v. 37). By faith some shut the mouths of lions (v. 33), and by faith others were sawn in two (v. 37). By faith some were mighty in war, and by faith others suffered defeat and imprisonment.
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The deepest need that you and I have in weakness and adversity – that empowers us to turn the other cheek, pray for our enemies, and do good to those who hate us – our deepest need is not quick relief, but the bedrock-confidence that what is happening to us in these weak times is part of the greatest purpose God has in the universe: Drawing everyone and everything’s attention to the grace and power at work in Jesus Christ: The grace and power that took Jesus to the cross; the grace and power that kept Him there until God’s work of love was done. That’s what God is building into our lives. That’s why we can take pleasure in our weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that we suffer for Christ. For when we are weak – and we let ourselves be weak trusting in the grace and power of Jesus – then we are unconquerably strong!