And he said to me, My grace suffices thee; for [my] power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather boast in my weaknesses, that the power of the Christ may dwell upon me.
Paul had asked three times for one thing — the removal of the thorn — and what came back was not removal but a promise about the Giver Himself. The verse turns a refused request into a discovery: weakness is where Christ's power works.
Paul did not pray casually or half-heartedly. Still, he never got what he asked for. One writer reads the reply as an answer of a completely different kind:
Paul turned to prayer, as anyone would. It was intense prayer: he did not just ask, he begged. And he repeated it, begging the Lord three times. Yet his desire was not granted. Instead of having the thorn removed, he received the promise of abundant grace. That grace would turn the thorn into a help instead of a burden, a blessing instead of a hindrance. The Lord answered his prayer, but not in the way he expected. He gave him something better.
The promise is not grace in the abstract. Twice the Lord says "My," and that one word sets the size of the supply:
He prayed three times for it to be removed, and it stayed. But it became the occasion for a fresh promise of abundant inward grace, in those unforgettable words. It is not only grace, but MY grace, not only strength, but MY strength. You can only measure that grace and strength by the divine and eternal fullness of the One whose they are. Set beside that greatness, how small Paul was — and we are smaller still.
If the Lord could remove it and did not, the thorn must be doing something no removal could do. One writer weighs the two options against each other:
At first, Paul longed to be rid of the thorn in the flesh, whatever it was. But the thorn in the flesh was better than pride in the heart. It was far better to be afflicted than proud. It was better to have Christ's sympathy with him in his trial than the power of His hand taking him out of it.
The refusal, then, is not coldness. Another writer imagines the Lord's reasoning behind it:
Christ is not speaking about Paul's ability to meet the trial. He is speaking about His own heart with Paul in it, to brighten everything. He says, "You want the thorn removed, but I will leave it. It will make you lean on My arm… I want you to see how living My grace is, and I want you to rest your heart on it. I will leave the thorn just to make you feel what you have in Me."
"Made perfect in weakness" is not a paradox to admire but a working rule. Power shows itself only where the person adds nothing:
The thorn is not power in itself, but preparation for power. Suppose Paul was despised in his ministry: well, there never was such a work done before. Then there must be something here besides Paul; Christ must be here… Where is His strength made perfect? In a person who has no strength at all: then it must be Christ.
This explains why believers never graduate into self-sufficiency:
The Lord never gives us strength of our own; He makes us feel our dependence. I am made to feel my weakness when I see how my flesh would even twist the blessings that are mine in Christ.
Before the promise comes the phrase "He said to me." The comfort is not a doctrine held at second hand:
The first sentence of this verse is sometimes overlooked — "He said to me." Paul got it from Christ. You may tell me that Christ is enough, but I must hear it myself from Christ in heaven. That will settle my heart… Before, he begged the Lord to take the thorn away. Now a message from Christ has changed everything. The voice of Christ changes everything. There is no third party here; it is not He and us, but He and me.
Once Paul knows the reason, his attitude to the thorn flips:
This weakness keeps the flesh from boasting. It also becomes the occasion for Christ to display His grace and power. So from now on the Apostle boasts in the very weakness he had wanted removed. He can take pleasure in the very things that we by nature find so hateful — weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and distresses.
- Thorn. It stayed on purpose. Better an afflicted man than a proud one. Better Christ's sympathy in the trial than His hand removing it.
- Voice. Paul did not read that Christ is enough; he heard Christ say it to him. The voice of Christ changes everything, and each person must hear it for themselves.
- Mine. The promise is measured by the One who makes it: not grace, but My grace; not strength, but My strength.
- Weakness. Christ's strength is not perfected in our strength. The thorn is not power; it is the preparation for power.
- Boasting. The end is not resignation but gladness. The thing Paul begged to lose becomes the thing he boasts in, because it makes room for the power of Christ.
Wherefore I take pleasure in weaknesses, in insults, in necessities, in persecutions, in straits, for Christ for when I am weak, then I am powerful.
Paul names five kinds of trouble, and then says he is glad of them. Painful experience had taught him a paradox: when his own strength ran out, Christ's strength worked through him.
Paul had been taken up to the third heaven. What that visit did to him is not what we would expect.
Having been in the third heaven did not give the strength. In a sense it made the weakness necessary, and then the strength came in. We do not know how to be weak, and that is our weakness.
A thorn in the flesh came with that privilege. One writer weighs it against what Paul would have had without it.
At first, Paul longed to be rid of the thorn in the flesh, whatever it was. He begged the Lord three times that it might depart from him. But the thorn in the flesh was better than pride in the heart. It was better by far to be afflicted than puffed up — better to have Christ's sympathy with him in his trial than the power of His hand to deliver him out of it.
Where the ESV says Paul is content with weakness, older translations read that he takes pleasure in it. That is more than putting up with trouble.
This is far more than defeating mighty enemies by faith and patience. It is taking pleasure in what is most trying and overwhelming to nature, so that Christ's strength may be displayed. Where the flesh might rise up, it is put down. This way of dealing with us is the life of the Spirit. But Christ makes the bitter sweet. His power can make its home in us when we accept our nothingness and rejoice in it, if only it brings Him praise and glory.
The hardships on the list are not random. Each came for Christ's sake, and each did two things at once.
This weakness keeps the flesh from boasting. It becomes the occasion for the display of the grace and power of Christ. So from now on the Apostle boasts in the very weakness he had wanted taken away. So he can take pleasure in the very things that our natural selves hate — weaknesses, insults, needs, persecutions and distresses. All these things were for Christ's sake. They showed the weakness of the body, and they showed the power of Christ too. That is why the Apostle can say, "When I am weak, then I am strong."
One writer sets two reasons for welcoming trouble side by side.
The Apostle had learned to take pleasure in these various forms of adversity. In Romans 5 he tells us that he boasted in tribulations because he knew what they were designed to produce in Christian character. Here he takes pleasure in tribulations for a different reason. He had discovered that they were the way the power of Christ became active through him in service. The very weakness he was plunged into made him a fit channel for that power to flow out.
What he learned reversed everything he thought about his own usefulness.
It was a great revelation to him that his ability for service lay in his weakness... in his imagined strength he was weaker than water; but in his weakness he was invincible, for the power of Christ rested upon him... He says, as it were, to His servant: the weaker you are, the better for Me. It is only the weak I can use.
A life stripped of self-confidence sounds bleak. The record says otherwise.
You may say, "That must be a miserable experience." Well, Paul was not miserable; he was supremely happy... He was happy to have all his own strength reduced to nothing, so that instead he might prove the sufficiency of the Lord's grace and Christ's strength.
What Paul learned is not just for apostles. The rule also works in reverse.
We are never so strong as when we feel ourselves weak, even like "water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again." On the other hand, we are never so weak as when we imagine we are strong. Peter never showed more pitiful weakness than when he imagined he had unusual strength.
- Cause. Great privilege made the thorn necessary. Heaven's height called for lowness on earth, because "we do not know how to be weak."
- Exchange. God did not take the thorn away; He gave something better — Christ's sympathy in the trial instead of rescue out of it.
- Reach. The five words — weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, calamities — cover every kind of pressure, and each one is borne for Christ's sake.
- Result. Emptiness is not the end of usefulness but the condition of it. Christ uses only the weak, and in that weakness Paul was invincible.
- Rule. We are never so strong as when we feel weak. We are never so weak as when we think we are strong — as Peter found out.