A Thorn in the Flesh

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Today we conclude our series focused on the Apostle Paul's second letter to the Corinthians, and it kind of makes me sad. This letter has been chockfull of rich and evocative content. I don't want to see it come to an end! My only consolation is that at least today we focus on one of my favorite passages in all of Scripture.

As we've seen over the last several weeks, the reason why Paul wrote this letter is because he was worried. He was worried that the Christians in Corinth would be carried away by a group of false teachers who slipped in after Paul left the Greek city. They tried to win the Corinthians to their side by boasting in their spiritual accomplishments and achievements. They claimed to be everything that Paul was not. If Paul was an apostle, they were super apostles.

But Paul was wise enough to know that this was all a sham. And so with a bit of a twinkle in his eye, Paul delivers a fool’s speech that is just dripping with holy irony in order to reveal these false teachers for who they really are. He does this by flipping their boasting upside down. If they're going to boast in their accomplishments and achievements, if they're going to boast in their strength, well then Paul is going to boast in his weakness.

And here's why I would suggest that this is important for all of us. As a pastor, many people will come and speak to me, and they'll often say things like, “I don't know if I'll ever be much of a Christian. I just don't feel like I'm like other people. Everyone else around me seems to be connected to God, but I feel so empty by comparison. Part of me wonders if I will ever have the kind of faith that other people seem to have. I love God, I do, but I feel like I'm constantly disappointing him and letting him down. So maybe, I don't know, maybe I'm just not cut out for this. I hear what Christians are supposed to do, how they're supposed to live, but I just don't know if that'll ever be me. I never feel like I'm enough.” If that in any way describes you, then the good news for you is that you're doing far better than you might think.

The Christian life is marked by a number of apparent paradoxes, especially when it comes to strength. If you think that you are spiritually strong, you are very weak indeed. But if you acknowledge your weakness, you are on the way to true strength. And nowhere is that more clear than in the passage that is before us today from 2 Corinthians 12. Here Paul identifies one particular form of weakness in his own life, which he refers to as a thorn in the flesh. But that only begs the question, what is this thorn, and how did Paul cope with it? So during our time together, I'd like us to consider three things: 1) The nature of the thorn, 2) The source of the thorn, and 3) The lesson of the thorn. In other words, what is this thorn, where did it come from, and what does Paul learn from it?

¹I must go on boasting. Though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. ²I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. ³And I know that this man was caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows— ⁴and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. ⁵On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses— ⁶though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth; but I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. ⁷So 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. ⁸Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. ⁹But 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. ¹⁰For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

¹¹I have been a fool! You forced me to it, for I ought to have been commended by you. For I was not at all inferior to these super-apostles, even though I am nothing.

2 Corinthians 12:1-11

The Nature of the Thorn

The first question we will take up is the nature of the thorn. What was this thorn? But let me back up and begin by providing you with a little background and context in order to make sense of this passage. Part of what you need to understand is that these false teachers argued that they were superior to Paul because they claimed to have many dramatic spiritual experiences. They said they had visions and revelations of the Lord, and apparently they described these supernatural, ecstatic experiences in significant detail and used that as a means to try to gain a following and increase their power and their influence in Corinth.

That should serve as a little bit of a warning to us. If you meet someone (and I've met many people like this over the years) who has a tendency to go on and on about their private spiritual experiences in order to try to impress you — especially experiences that no one could verify — just watch out because that might be a form of spiritual manipulation.

Paul was wise to that, and so in order to protect the Christians in Corinth from being duped, Paul engages in his fool's speech, and he engages in self-deprecating humor. In verse two he says, “I know a man in Christ.” It's like when you're talking to someone and you say, “Yeah, well, I have this friend,” but you're not really talking about a friend; you're talking about yourself. And so Paul here, he's being modest. Perhaps he's being a little coy. “I know a man in Christ.” He's talking about himself, but he's taking this practice of boasting and inverting it. He's flipping it upside down.

Now these false teachers love to talk about their most recent spiritual experiences. And so Paul says, “Well, you know, there was something that happened to me, but it took place 14 years ago.” These false teachers like to go into great detail about what happened to them, what they experienced, and Paul says, “I can't really describe it.” And they were eager to share the words that they heard with others, but Paul says he's not allowed to talk about it. All he tells us is that he was caught up into what he calls the third heaven or paradise. Paul was lifted up by revelation, and he entered into ultimate spiritual reality. He enters into the place where God himself dwells. But in verse 3 he says, “Was it an out-of-body experience? I don't know.” In verse 4, he says that he heard things that cannot be told — things that no one is allowed to utter.

Just think about that. If ever anyone could take pride in their visions and revelations of the Lord, it was the Apostle Paul. But what he says is, look Corinthians, I'm not trying to wow you. I'm not trying to leave you starstruck by my spiritual experiences so that you're going to follow me and attach yourself to me. In fact, he says, who cares what happened to me in the past? All that matters is what opinion you form of me here and now based on what you see in me and what you hear from me. He's not trying to dupe anyone and to attract a following.

And so Paul concludes that if he's going to boast in anything, he's going to boast in his weakness. He proceeds to tell us not about a revelation of the Lord Jesus that lifted him up but instead of his most painful experience that laid him low. He's not going to share the details of a spiritual experience that sent him soaring. No, he's going to share with us a spiritual experience that brought him crashing down to the ground.

See, after all that Paul had seen and experienced, it would've been so easy for him to become conceited — to have an inflated ego. I mean, think about it. Who of us could say that we have seen the risen Jesus with our very own eyes as Paul did on the road to Damascus? Paul saw and experienced things that none of us could even dream of, not in a million years. And so in verse 7, Paul explains, to keep me from becoming too conceited, too elated, too puffed up (literally the word is “airborne”) because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in my flesh to prick my bubble before my head got too big and to pin my feet firmly on the ground.

But what was this thorn in the flesh? Well, as you can imagine, this thorn has been the source of endless speculation over the centuries. Was it a form of persecution? Was this thorn some kind of temptation? Was it a mental or physical or psychological ailment? People have often come up with all kinds of fanciful ideas of what this thorn might have been, but more often than not that's used as an attempt to legitimize some kind of personal agenda or to undermine Paul's authority as an apostle. Usually it goes like this. “Well, if Paul suffered from X, Y, or Z, if that was his thorn in the flesh, well then we don't really need to pay all that much attention to what he has to say on that particular topic. We can ignore him.”

So what was this thorn? Well, at the end of the day, we just don't know. We don't know what it was. And that was purposeful. That was deliberate on Paul's part. He doesn't tell us, and that's precisely what makes this thorn so valuable to us — to all of us. That's why it benefits us. See, if Paul explained that this thorn in the flesh was a particular disadvantage or disability that he suffered from, then the only people who would be able to benefit from it would be a small select group of people who suffered from the exact same thing. And everybody else would say, “Oh, well, you know, that's not really my concern. I don't really deal with that, so I don't need to concern myself with the thorn in the flesh.” But the undefined, open-ended nature of this metaphor is what brings value to all of us, because all of us can relate. The thorn in the flesh applies to us all.

The fact of the matter is that all of us have some kind of thorn that humbles us and lays us low. All of us suffer from some kind of recurring issue, something debilitating, something that drags us down and leaves us there, that won't let go or leave us alone. And so what is it for you? What would you consider to be your thorn in the flesh that pins you to the ground and keeps you there? It could be a physical limitation, chronic pain, perhaps an emotional struggle, a relational burden. Maybe it's spiritual doubt or confusion. Maybe your thorn is recurring temptation or some psychological struggle.

But here's why this is so important. You can imagine that in Corinth, the “super apostles” no doubt would've said of Paul (and perhaps of the Corinthians themselves), “Well, if you were a real Christian, God wouldn't allow you to suffer. If your faith were strong enough, you would live the victorious life. You would just skate over these difficulties with ease. They wouldn't be a problem for you.” But no, it doesn't work that way. What Paul wants to make abundantly clear is that the Christian life is not lived by moving from strength to strength, but rather the Christian life is lived by moving through weakness to new strength.

Now you might think that whatever thorn is in your flesh is the evidence that God has abandoned you or that God doesn't care about you. But no, to the contrary, Paul shows that this thorn in your flesh may just be the evidence that Jesus is closer to you than ever before. So let me show you how.

The Source of the Thorn

First we considered the nature of the thorn, and Paul deliberately doesn't tell us so that we can all relate to it. But the second question is, what's the source? Where did this thorn come from? And that's not an easy question to answer, because listen to what Paul says. On the one hand, Paul describes the thorn as a messenger of Satan to harass him. And yet at the very same time, Paul says this thorn was given to him, presumably by God, to keep him from becoming too conceited. So how could both of these things be true at the very same time? The thorn is a messenger of Satan to harass him, but it is given to him by God himself to keep him from becoming too conceited. How do we wrap our minds around this?

Well, this verse forces us to contend with what theologians call God's providence. Providence means that God is always at work. God is always at work seeking to accomplish his good purposes in your life and in the world. The good Creator God only wants good things for us, and he's always at work seeking to accomplish his good purposes in your life and in the world around us. And therefore, not a single thing can happen to you outside of his loving fatherly care.

Consider the words of Jesus in Matthew 10. Jesus says, look at the sparrows flying around. To most people, sparrows are a nuisance. As far as birds go, they're a pest. And Jesus acknowledges, you could buy two sparrows for a penny. One sparrow is worth half a penny. Sparrows are worthless! And yet Jesus says, nevertheless, not even a sparrow falls to the ground apart from your Father. And if that is true of sparrows, how much more true is that of you and of me? We are of so much greater value than sparrows.

Jesus concludes that even the hairs on your head are all numbered. Even the hairs! I have no idea how many hairs are on my head. I know I'm losing my hair, but I have no idea how many hairs are on my head. Who knows how many hairs are on their head? God knows. God knows the number of hairs on your head. Nothing can happen to you, good or bad, apart from your Father.

Now that is hard to wrap our minds around, because we know that bad things happen to us, and so how could God allow bad things to happen to us? But listen, it has to be that way, because consider the alternative. If something happened to you that was outside of God's control, outside of God's will for you, then that thing, that person, that event is greater than God, because God can't control it.

Imagine if something happened to you and God turned to you and said, “Ah, I'm sorry. I wish I could help, but my hands are tied. I can't do anything. I'm sorry. You're on your own.” No, that is not the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible is absolutely sovereign, all powerful, and all loving. Nothing can happen apart from him. There's never a place or a time when God is not in charge. God is always 100% absolutely in charge, and yet he's never ever responsible for sin or evil. God is never the author of evil, but he must allow it. He must permit it, but only for a time and for a specific purpose.

Notice Paul refers to this thorn not as a messenger of God but as a messenger of Satan. It's truly not good. Who's the Satan? Satan in Hebrew means the accuser. Satan is our adversary. He attacks us. He accuses us. Why? Because he wants to undermine our faith. He accuses us of all of our failures and our shortcomings. He says, you're not good enough. You're never going to be good enough. Why would God ever love or accept you? You're too weak, you're too damaged, you're too broken. See, Satan's job is to try to get us to believe the lie that God really doesn't love us, that God doesn't care about us.

And so God doesn't want that. Our good Creator God doesn't want that for us. So this thorn is a messenger from Satan, but God allows it. God permits it for a time and for a specific purpose. But how does this work? The same thing is happening in Job 1, one of the most famous books in world literature about the reality of suffering. In chapter 1, you'll read that Satan was allowed to test Job but not to kill him. Satan is allowed to act, but only within certain boundaries that God sets. God sets the boundaries. He says, you can do this, but you can't do that.

Why would God allow this? This is very important. Here's the key: God only allows Satan enough rope to hang himself on. God sets the boundaries of what Satan can do and what he can't do, and God only allows Satan enough room to maneuver in order to accomplish the exact opposite of what our enemy intends.

When it comes to this thorn in the flesh, what does Satan want? Satan wants to discredit Paul. He wants to undermine his authority. He's telling Paul, “Think about it, Paul. You're a fraud. You're an imposter. What makes you an apostle? Why should God love you? Why should God care about you? Why should anybody listen to you?” And so Satan wants to use that thorn in the flesh to destroy Paul's faith so that he'll give up being an apostle and stop telling people the good news of Jesus.

But God takes that very same thorn, the thorn in the flesh, and turns it around. He uses that thorn to humble Paul, which keeps Paul close to Jesus, dependent upon Jesus rather than himself. So this thorn, rather than destroying Paul's faith, strengthens it. See, Satan only gets enough rope to hang himself on. God only allows Satan enough room to maneuver in order to accomplish the exact opposite of what Satan intended.

So here's the takeaway: God's will and God's ways are always going to be a mystery to us. Our life circumstances are always shifting. They're always fluctuating. They're always changing. We can't depend upon them. We never know what God is doing or why, but because of God's providence, we have to believe that whatever God allows, whatever God permits temporarily for a time, must ultimately and necessarily be for our good.

Therefore, we have to receive whatever comes our way — good or bad — as a sign of his goodness and love. And speaking personally, I can tell you that the moment when I felt lowest in my life is the moment when Jesus was closest. Suffering is inevitable, so when sickness, sorrow, suffering come into your life, instead of asking, “Why is God allowing this to happen to me?” what we should be asking is, “Why is God allowing this to happen to me?” Why is he? Because he would only allow this, he would only permit it if it is ultimately and necessarily for my good. So even if I can't see it right now, there must be a reason. The question I should ask myself is, “What is he trying to teach me right now?” And that's what Paul learned.

The Lesson of the Thorn

So let's turn from the nature of the thorn and the source of the thorn to the lesson of the thorn. What specifically was God trying to teach Paul through his thorn in the flesh? Well, we get this agonizing picture of Paul's near despair. He says that he pleads with the Lord in anguish, not once, not twice, but three times. “Please, Father, take this thorn away from me.” But God's answer is no, my grace is enough. “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” God doesn't take away the thorn. It is with him still, so that even Paul will learn to live his life by grace.

And this is the key to the Christian life. Grace is not just the beginning; it's the beginning, middle, and end. Grace is not just the way we start the race; it's the way we run it. It's the way that we finish it. We never move beyond it to something else. Most of us tend to think that we begin the Christian life by relying on God's grace — we rely on Jesus to start our relationship with God — but then it's up to us to maintain our relationship with God over time. So we begin by relying on grace, and then we end by relying on ourselves.

I'll speak personally for a moment. It's easy for me to think intellectually, in my head, that God loves me and accepts me by grace, but then deep down in my heart, when it comes to my actual experience, if I experience weakness, if I experience suffering, if my life isn't going well or according to plan, I feel weak. And then it's so easy to start thinking, oh, well, maybe God doesn't actually love me. Maybe he doesn't care. And I have to rely on myself, then, to fix it and to turn things around. I have to try harder. I have to do more. I have to obey. I have to perform. I have to be strong.

And if things are going smoothly — if I've got my health, if I've got my friends, if I'm succeeding, if I'm advancing, if things are moving according to my goals or my plans — well then I feel strong. But all of these things are leading me away from my foundation. They're leading me to trust more and more in myself and my own abilities rather than in Jesus and his grace. You see, that makes me truly vulnerable, because if you build your life on health, friends, success, or achievement, all of those things can be taken away in an instant. And if you build your life on these things and then you lose them, you lose yourself.

But the truth is that God loves us far too much to let us build a life on something that will not last. God will allow a thorn to come into your life, into my life, so that we might learn to rely not on ourselves but on Jesus — not just at the beginning of the Christian life, but all the way through it to the end, because then you are building your life on something that no one and no thing can ever take away. You're building your life on a firm foundation. So if you think that you are spiritually strong, you are very weak indeed. But if you acknowledge your weakness, then you are on your way to true strength.

Let me give you an analogy. Let's say that you're suffering from a debilitating and potentially deadly disease, though it's curable. The only problem is that, at least at first, there are no outward visible symptoms. And based on that, you might say, well, I feel strong. I'm fit. I'm as healthy as can be. And if you think that, well then you're never going to get checked out. You're never going to go see the doctor. You'll never get the treatment that you need. But if you recognize that you are weak, if you recognize that you're vulnerable, if you recognize that you're not invincible, well then that might be the thing that leads you to get checked out and then begin your treatment. Because you recognize, well, there might actually be something wrong with me.

See, if you think that you're spiritually strong, you're very weak indeed. But if you acknowledge your weakness, you are on the way to true strength. Grace is not simply the way that you begin the Christian life; it's the way that you grow. You never move past it to something else. The way in which you mature is not by becoming more and more independent of God but actually by becoming more and more dependent upon him. And Jesus' strength is not added to your strength, as if you just need a little topping off. No, Jesus' strength replaces yours. You learn to rely on Jesus rather than yourself for your strength, not just at the beginning but all the way through.

The question is, how do we know that? How do we know that that is actually true? And the answer is because that is the very way of the gospel. Jesus didn't come to us in power; he came to us in vulnerability. Jesus didn't come to us in strength; he came to us in weakness. And there was also an agonizing moment when Jesus, too, went to his Father in prayer and pleaded with him in anguish, not once, not twice, but three times. “Father, please remove this cup from me.” And the Father's answer was no. No, my grace is enough. “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” My power is unleashed through apparent weakness.

And so the Father permitted the cup. He allowed it. He allowed Jesus to drink the cup, but only to give Satan just enough room to accomplish the exact opposite of what the enemy intended. Because what did Satan want? Obviously Satan wanted to discredit Jesus as the Son of God, as the Messiah. He wanted to break Jesus down. He wanted to destroy Jesus. He wanted to undermine Jesus' trust in the Father, to cause him to turn back on God. And God gave Satan just enough rope to hang himself on.

Because Jesus was afflicted not with a mere thorn in the flesh but with a whole crown of thorns pressed into his brow. Jesus was afflicted not with a mere thorn in the flesh but with a spear pierced into his side. And when it all happened, Jesus refused to back down, even up until his dying breath, when he says, “It is finished,” and then, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”

See, Satan thought he had Jesus right where he wanted him. He was going to humiliate Jesus. He was going to discredit him. Who would follow a mutilated savior? God let Satan do his worst. But then God transformed the cross. Satan intended the cross to be a vehicle of death and destruction, but God, in his providence, overruled it and transformed it into the instrument of life and salvation for us. And therefore it's not just a slogan. This is the very shape of the gospel. “My power is made perfect in weakness.”

And so if you want God's strength to come into your life, you have to acknowledge your weakness. If you want to experience God's power, you have to acknowledge your vulnerability. What does it take to become a Christian? What does it take to live the Christian life? All you need is need. All you need is nothing. So come to him empty, and he will fill you. Stop pretending that you're strong, and start relying on the one who actually is. “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

Let me pray for us.

Father, we pray that you would meet each of us at our point of need as we acknowledge our own thorn in the flesh. Help us to see that yes, it is a messenger of Satan to harass us, and yet you have allowed it. You have permitted it for a time and for a reason, not to destroy our faith but to strengthen it. And therefore, help us evermore today as we come to this table to rely on you rather than ourselves. For we are weak, but you are strong. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Sermons

Power in Weakness: A Thorn in the Flesh

The Nature of the Thorn

The Source of the Thorn

The Lesson of the Thorn