In the 1st chapter of II Corinthians Paul wrote about one of his greatest difficulties. He reports that he had been in a situation in Asia that was so terribly trying that he had despaired of life itself. Then he speaks of deliverance:
(That situation) was to make us to rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead; he delivered us from so deadly a peril, and he will deliver us; on him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.
II Corinthians 11:30, Etc.
Perhaps you have heard the story of the two brothers, one of whom lived in Rhode Island and the other in Texas.
The brother from Texas went to visit the brother in Rhode Island. The Rhode Island brother was a gentleman farmer. He put on his tweeds and he took the Texas brother to the top of a hill. There he pointed out the borders of his farm saying, “I own all the land to the creek, to the tree line, to the hills and to the highway.” Then the Rhode Island brother looked at the Texas brother who was dressed in old blue jeans and cowboy boots and he asked, “How big is your place?”
And the Texas brother said, “Well, I’ll put it like this. If we ate breakfast at my ranch house, which is at the center of my place, and then got in my old truck and drove until we were ready for lunch we would be about halfway to my front gate.”
And the brother from Rhode Island said, “Oh, I’m sorry; but don’t feel too badly, I once had a lemon of a truck like that.”
The Texas brother was boasting of size and wealth. But the Rhode Island brother thought he was boasting of weakness. That usually happens only in a joke. Very few people in the history of the world have boasted of weakness. St. Paul was one. Three times in the II Corinthians 11 and 12 he specifically says that he will boast only of weakness.
If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. II Cor. 11:30
I will not boast, except of my weaknesses. II Cor. 12:5
I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. II Cor. 12:9
There are two questions that I want to ask of these texts: First, what were Paul’s weaknesses? Secondly, how did God manifest his power through Paul’s weaknesses?
There is, of course, a third, attendant question which we hope to answer: How will God manifest God’s power through your weaknesses and mine?
Now, according to the passage that surrounds and connects the three passages that we read, Paul’s weaknesses can be put into three categories.
I
First, Paul suffered what we might call situational weaknesses. Some of you older folks will remember a serial called “The Perils of Pauline.” The movie always ended on a cliff hanger. Sometimes Pauline was left dangling from an airplane—and her hands were slipping. Sometimes she was left tied to a train track—and a steaming locomotive was grinding toward her. The Perils of Pauline were, no doubt, inspired by the perils of Paul. It cost Paul something to preach the gospel. In chapter 11 he describes his adventures:
Five times I have received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I have been beaten with rods; once I was stoned. Three times I have been shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brethren; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.
There are two observations to be made about his list. First, we ought to be encouraged by the length of it. Paul encountered not just one difficulty, but —-like us, Paul encountered a number of difficulties. Secondly, it is great to note that though it cannot be said that God protected Paul from situational difficulties, it must be noted that God delivered Paul through a great many of them.
In the 1st chapter of II Corinthians Paul wrote about one of his greatest difficulties. He reports that he had been in a situation in Asia that was so terribly trying that he had despaired of life itself. Then he speaks of deliverance:
(That situation) was to make us to rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead; he delivered us from so deadly a peril, and he will deliver us; on him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.
Paul then asked the Corinthians to join him in asking for deliverance in his present difficulty.
Do you think you have a situational weakness? Why not pray for deliverance? God may yet deliver you through your difficulty.
In this regard we need some of the courage of Robert Schuller who says:
When faced with a mountain of a problem, I will not give up until I have climbed over, found a way around, or tunneled underneath. If I cannot climb over, find a way around, or tunnel underneath, then, with God’s help, I will stay right where I am and turn that mountain of a problem into a gold mine!
II
Secondly, Paul suffered from what we might call “mental” weaknesses.
The weakness I speak of is anxiety. Paul suffered two kinds of anxiety.
On the one hand, he suffered anxiety because of the churches. He was afraid that the churches—especially the church at Corinth might reject him. Superlative apostles had come down from Jerusalem to court the Corinthians. These superlative apostles pointed out that, while Paul could write a strong and dandy letter, “his bodily presence was weak.”They pointed out, too, that Paul was “unskilled in preaching.” (II Cor. 11:6)
On the other hand Paul suffered anxiety on behalf of the churches.In 11:28,29 after listing his physical suffering (which we are saving for last) St. Paul writes:
And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure upon me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is not weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant?
I know what Paul is talking about. I too have been anxious about the welfare of the churches and individuals in my charge. It is hard for a pastor to sleep at night when he or she is worrying about the marriage of a friend breaking down, or a fight in the church, or a recent death in the congregation.
And I am sure that you, too, have had your share of sleepless nights. Parents worry about children. Children worry about parents. Friends worry about friends. We all worry about ourselves.
The question is—can God help? The New Testament declares that he can. In Philippians 4, St. Paul is preaching to himself and well as to others when he writes:
Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which passes understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians was written after II Corinthians. Paul was anxious, but he was not anxious forever. He discovered the peace that passes understanding and we can too! Jesus Christ is the key to freedom from anxiety and the key to lasting mental health. God can keep our hearts—our emotions, and our minds in Christ Jesus.
III
Thirdly, and this is the big one—–Paul obviously suffered a physical weakness.
In II Cor. 12:7 Paul mentions that he has received “a thorn in the flesh.” Many scholars have guessed at just what this thorn in the flesh might have been.
Noting that Paul also called it “a messenger of Satan,” some have suggested that Paul had a sexual problem. Personally, I don’t see how the Apostle who wrote that he was “blameless” (Philippians 3:6) as to righteousness required by the law, can be classed with Jim Bakker or Jimmy Swaggart. It is more likely that Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” was a physical handicap or a recurring illness.
For instance, some have suggested that Paul was ugly. This would account for the fact he admitted “(that) his bodily presence (was) weak.” (II Corinthians 10:10) Church tradition suggest that Paul was nothing special to look at.
Others have suggested that Paul’s eyesight was bad. There is some evidence for this in the New Testament. Paul—-who usually dictated his letters through an amanuensis or secretary put a postscript on his letter to the Galatians to mark its authenticity. The original is lost to us, but the words survive. He writes: “See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand.” Maybe Paul wrote large so that he himself could see what he was writing?
Then there is the matter of a recurring illness. Perhaps Paul’s physical weakness was epilepsy. If so, he shared the affliction with Julius Caesar, Oliver Cromwell and Napoleon.
Or perhaps it was an “Asian fever” which like malaria, returned often to torment its victim with killing temperatures, chills, cramps and headaches that one sufferer compared to “having a hot iron rod pounded into (his) head.”
There are other possibilities. We need not name them. We need only note how much Paul suffered, and how much he despised his suffering. Three times Paul asked God to take this thorn in the flesh away from him. God had delivered Paul from certain death in a situational weakness. Certainly the God who cast the sun and moon into space, and hung the stars in their places, and raised Jesus Christ from the dead could have delivered Paul from his suffering! But God didn’t do it. Instead, he answered Paul’s request in the negative. Three times, God spoke to Paul, perhaps through a prophet, perhaps in his heart, saying, “Paul—my grace is sufficient for you..my strength is made perfect in weakness.”
How was God’s grace sufficient?
First, Paul was comforted. In II Corinthians 1 Paul writes that “the God of all comfort” had “comforted him in every affliction,” that he, in turn, might comfort others.
Secondly, God never required anything of Paul that Paul was not able to do…..with God’s help!
There is no physical problem that can handicap us from accomplishing what God would have us accomplish.
Let me illustrate.
At the age of 87 E. Stanley Jones, the United Methodist missionary and evangelist who sold 30 million books and preached before millions more, suffered a crippling stroke. He was paralyzed so that he could no longer hold a pencil with his right hand. His speech was unclear. What did he do? He said, “I can no longer preach a sermon—-so I will be a sermon!” Then he learned how to write with his left hand, and to speak from one side of his mouth, and he wrote the most important book of his life—it was called The Divine Yes! In this book he affirmed that Jesus Christ is the “divine yes” to all the promises of God in spite of anything that might happen to any of us!
God’s grace is sufficient—for Paul, for E. Stanley Jones, and, if we will claim it, for you and for me.
And that leads us to a final observation. Not only did God give Paul grace sufficient to accomplish his mission, God perfected his own strength in Paul’s weakness.
You see—-God cannot do his best work until we reach the absolute limit of our own abilities. Dr. Bob Pierce, the founder of World Vision, called this sphere of human limitations and weaknesses “God room.” He said:
“It is only when we reach our limits that God has most room to work.” It is when we truly discover that, that we, like Paul, begin to say, “I will all the more gladly therefore boast of my weaknesses that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
Many of us have offered God our strength—-are we now ready to offer him our weaknesses?
Finis
Worth Green, Th.M., D.Min.
Everydaycounselor©
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