WHAT’S YOUR THORN?
2 Corinthians 12:2-10
In today’s lesson from Second Corinthians, the apostle Paul continues his anguished letter to the Christians at Corinth, a community in turmoil. He finds it “necessary to boast” of the visions he has seen which God provided to defend his own calling to these people, which frustrates him immensely.
His boasting is of a time, 14 years previously, when Paul himself saw an amazing vision of Paradise, when he heard “things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat.” But, he tells the Corinthians, to help him maintain perspective, he was given “a thorn” in the flesh.” Three times Paul appealed to the Lord to remove the thorn. It didn’t happen. God said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.”
We don’t know what Paul’s thorn was. Many scholars throughout the years have speculated that is was something other than an actual “thorn.” Tertullian thought it was a headache. Another believed it was epilepsy. Still others believed it was recurrent malaria, lustful thoughts and bad eyes. John Knox decided it was dementia, John Calvin thought it was a “fleshly temptation” while Martin Luther said it was a “spiritual temptation.”
Whatever the thorn was, it was considered by Paul to be a weakness. It took away from his ability. It was the thing that made him imperfect as an otherwise perfect person. It could have been physical, it could have been spiritual, or it could have been both. Whatever the case, it was a thorn in his side. I like that word…it’s the old word used for splinter or stake.
Have you ever had a splinter? They are the most annoying things. It’s such a tiny little thing and yet you can’t seem to get it out, and every time you rub your hand against something you are sharply reminded that it’s there. Then, if you don’t remove it, it becomes infected, and swells.
Paul was experiencing that same irritation. What was once a simple little splinter had become a huge irritation. It may have been a physical burden pressing against his spiritual life, but who knows. Whatever it was, it was chafing him, it was under his skin, it was bothering him to no end. And no matter how much he picked at it, he could not get rid of it.
We don’t know what Paul’s thorn was because the Bible doesn’t tell us. The important thing is that Paul came to accept the problem, and then even be grateful for it: “Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ,” he insists; “for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.” Whenever I am weak, Paul says, I am strong. In our worlds, weakness is seen negatively, as being cowardly or sickly. It’s not a compliment to be called, “weak.” A couple of weeks ago, I was talking to my two grandsons, Cody, age 6 and Nick, age 9, about cutting teeth. Cody is getting his six year molars and I mentioned that sometimes teeth hurt trying to come through. When the boys asked me why, I gave them the illustration that babies cry when they are cutting teeth because it hurts. And immediately Nick said, “But Grandma, that’s because babies are weak.”
Indeed, babies are weak, as was the apostle Paul when enduring his own pain.
In the secular world, strength equals power. But Christ replaces this thinking with a whole new attitude: Weakness equals power. This is one of the many paradoxes of the Christian faith:
• That in lifting others up, we lift ourselves.
• That when experiencing sorrow, we discover joy.
• That when we are last, we are first.
• That when we die, we live.
”Whenever I am weak,” Paul says, “Then I am strong.” Whenever he is weak, he remembers that the greatest of all powers belong to God, not to human beings. The power to heal, the power to forgive, the power to renew, the power to inspire, the power to create, the power to love — all of these things come from God.
Paul explains this power in terms of grace: “My grace is sufficient for you.” And it’s not just grace: it’s sufficient grace. It’s enough. You wouldn’t want or need any more. Anything more than sufficient grace would be an embarrassment of riches. The bottom line: Sufficient grace is more than enough to transform weakness into strength, disability into power. It’s the grace of which Newton wrote, when he penned the lines,
Through many dangers, toil, and fears we have already come; ’Twas grace that brought us safe thus far, and grace will lead us home.
Paul also explains this power in terms of its perfection. “My power,” God says, “is made perfect in weakness” (v. 8). This perfect power is not the power of human perfection; it is the power of functional perfection. God’s power through our weakness allows us to function as God designed us to function.
Just as the glass that contains the liquid is perfect, or the net that holds the fish, or the hammer that pounds the nail, so is the power than energizes the Christian to be a child of God even in — especially in — suffering.
God’s power doesn’t work in people full of themselves; it works only in those who have emptied themselves, or in whom suffering has emptied them of all pretending they have personal strength. Then, only then, are we given perfect power.
Paul concludes by noting the necessity of faith to access both sufficient grace and perfect power. “Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me” (v. 9 NIV).
Paul’s faith is embedded in the word “therefore.” He is ready to act on what he knows. He accepts the major and minor foundations (sufficient grace and perfect power) and embraces the resolution: therefore.
His “therefore,” like ours whenever we are tested and tried, is his expression of faith.
• “Therefore” I will not complain.
• “Therefore” I will not whine.
• “Therefore” I will accept God’s direction for my life.
• “Therefore” I will trust that God will show me the way.
• “Therefore” I will walk by faith and not by sight.
• “Therefore” I will redeem my suffering.
• “Therefore” I will rejoice, not lament.
When we can get ourselves to a triumphant “Therefore,” then God has accomplished in us what God wanted to do all along.
Suffering hurts. No doubt. If someone like the apostle Paul suffered so much that he repeatedly asked God to give him a break, we can be sure it was serious.
But God says, “Although I will not give you the victory by lifting you out of suffering, I will give you victory by giving you sufficient grace and perfect power in your suffering.” That’s why we can say, as Paul did, “Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10).
There are many reasons why God shouldn’t have called you to be a minister for him. But don’t worry ... You’re in good company.
• Moses stuttered.
• Timothy had ulcers.
• Hosea’s wife was a prostitute.
• Amos’ only training was in the school of fig-tree pruning.
• Jacob was a liar.
• David had an affair.
• Solomon was too rich … Jesus was too poor.
• Abraham was too old … David was too young.
• Peter was afraid of death … Lazarus was dead.
• John was self-righteous.
• Naomi was a widow.
• Paul was a murderer … So was Moses. So was David.
• Jonah ran from God.
• Miriam was a gossip.
It’s always hard for us to see the strength in our weaknesses. It’s difficult for us to know that God is still at work in us even when we are taken down. But it’s important that we trust God…trust that what He is doing in our lives is for our own good. It’s not God’s intention to make us happy, it’s his purpose to make us holy. And we will have weaknesses that make us holy.
All too often we get depressed about our weaknesses, we feel guilty, or angry, or we lose our faith. But we must…must rejoice in our weaknesses. I have always considered my own thorn to be my struggle with being overweight since I was 5 years old. But the ridicule I have suffered because of my size has made me a more compassionate person. My own addiction to food has made me more sympathetic and able to understand other addictions. Most of all, my thorn has brought me to my knees in prayer countless times, when God has then said, “My grace is sufficient for you for power is made perfect in weakness.”
What is your thorn? What person, or situation, or illness is rubbing against you? Listen to me. Those hardships are there in your life because God is working in your life, not to make you miserable, not to tear you away from God, but to help you grow closer to Him. To help you experience the power of His grace in your weaknesses. These trials, these sufferings, are a part of His plan for you. His good, and wise, and perfect plan.
Whatever you may think of it, from God’s perspective, it is the ideal plan for your life, because it’s exactly what He knows that you need. And if you will submit to God; if you will stop resisting His will, and just trust and obey Him in the midst of that situation, then He will use it to bless you; to bring you peace, and joy, and contentment. He will help you climb that mountain. And through it, you will not only come to know Jesus more deeply, but you will become more holy. That is what we need to be striving for in our weaknesses--God’s Strength.
Please pray with me:
Thank you, Father, for your grace. Teach us how to accept the imperfections and suffering you have allowed us to have so that we will not be too conceited. Show us your glory so that we may claim your strength and your power. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
BENEDICTION: Ephesians 3:16-21
Sources: “Why God shouldn’t have called you,” Praise4thee.com. Greg’s Preview. Yahoo! Movies, Movies.yahoo.com.
