Power Perfected

2^nd Corinthians 12:7-10 says, “Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself! 8 Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. 9 And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 10 Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong”

This passage is such a beautiful contrast that defines the Christian life. I just got back today from a church camp at which this was the theme for a single night. We were told it was okay to be weak, for God works in those weaknesses. I am currently writing on this subject with the purpose of explaining the contrast logically so that it may make sense and seem to you and I as a realistic goal to chase after.

The italicized portion of the passage is what we are going to be looking at the most, and is the summary of the whole section. Here, we are talking about two different types of strength. The strength that Paul says he lacks is the humanistic and worldly strength, which says that you must stand up for yourself. You must make yourself look stronger than you really are and more active than normal. He says that he doesn’t have this type of strength because he understands that this strength fades. When Christ comes back, it doesn’t matter how many world records we have or songs that we have written. God will come back only seeking those who belong to Him.

However, Paul says he has a certain type of strength but what does he mean by that? John 15 gives us a picture of vine connected to the branches, and verse 5 says, “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” We Christians are the branches that abide in Christ and rely on Him to produce fruit through us. As the campers this past week learned, we are to have both dependence and discipline when it comes to faith. We are to step in faith and do as God asks us to do, but we must remember and rely on Him to work through us. Proverbs 21:31 sums it up with, “The horse is prepared for the day of battle, But victory belongs to the LORD.”

This strength is reliance in Christ, for what we do for Him, which is really Him working through us, lasts forever. Only the things of Christ will last past the destruction of earth. We will be giving God glory forever in Heaven and we are called to do so even here on earth. Paul knew that the worldly sense of strength was fleeting and doomed to end, but he understood that if He relied on Christ, than the things he did would support the King of Kings.

But why does he have to be weak? We sing a song at my church called Shipwreck by Starfield. The chorus says, “I am just a beggar here at Your door; I am just a Shipwreck here on Your shore; I come empty handed and ready to see Your life in me changing who I’ve been to who I need to be.” When we see ourselves as “capable” to accomplish God’s will through the world’s sense of strength, there is friction. God doesn’t need a strong and stuck up person to do His will, but He works through the humble. Psalms 51:17 says that God desires and will cast out a broken and contrite heart. If we come humbly to the cross in full repentance of our sin, then Christ will work through us.

I don’t mean to say that Christ only works through the humble, but to say that is a character quality that God demonstrates, and those who chase after God and fear Him should become like Him in such a way as to be humble. Think about Paul in the sense of being a trampoline. What sense would it make for a trampoline, if possible, to think, “I want to see how high I can jump”? Instead, the reason it was made was to help others be able to jump higher. Now, God is in way “in need” of us. This is to say that if we were nonexistence or disobedient, God would still be able to work out His plan with no complications. However, it is a blessing for us to be able to be apart of God is doing. It is when we are working for God, while He works through us, that we experience true Joy, because we know that there is something more to this life; that is Christ’s glory.

I am to live weak so that I can understand that I am neither worthy nor capable of obeying God’s will, and that I am in complete need of Christ to work in and through me for the sake of Gospel. The whole fact that God would not remove the thorn in Paul’s flesh (Imagery that may mean some sense of sin, whether that’d be pride or something else) was to simply remind Paul that he was indeed human and could not do anything alone. If Paul gained too much confidence in himself, his ministry would completely die or be in vain, for Christ would no longer be working through him. He has a thorn in the flesh to level out his balance of discipline with dependence.

We are to rely on Christ alone for the spreading of the Gospel, but we are to take simple steps in faith as well. – Forsake All