“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials…that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” (James 1: 2 & 4 NKJV abbreviated)
“Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.” (2 Corinthians 2:14 NKJV)
“As it is written: ‘For your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” (Romans 8:36-37 NKJV).
Before diving into 1 Corinthians 12:10 let me remind you of my current Bible based working definition of the “Grace” that the Lord told Paul was “sufficient” for overcoming his “thorn”:
“Grace is the Holy Spirit’s resurrection power (by grace I am saved through faith) working within me to manifest the Lord’s unmerited favor, imparting… …salvation to my spirit (my spirit is born again, I am a new creation – a brand new species of being that never existed before, I now possess the mind of Christ); …deliverance to my soul (my mind is being saved as I renew it with the Word of God’s Grace); …health, healing, and life to my body (my body is continually being quickened (enlivened), healed, and disciplined); …provision for all of my material needs and wants (the curse of poverty has been broken and the promise of the Blessing of Abraham is mine)… Grace has given me the power to destroy the works of the devil. This Grace is received and activated through faith in the finished work (death, burial, resurrection, and ascension) of Jesus Christ.”
I have learned that in my life I experience the full manifestation of the grace that I possess in Christ when I live according to Paul’s directive to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” This means that I exert every ounce of strength and determination that I have to release the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit, resting in the finished work of Jesus, to renew and deliver my soul; quicken (enliven), discipline, and heal my body; and run Satan and all demonic influence and oppression from my life. I do this best when I look past my weaknesses to the strength of Jesus in my life.
Here we go…
…12:10: Paul must have been an advocate of what is called “intentional living.” Throughout his writings I read of him making choices to live, speak, and act in ways that he knows are pleasing to the Lord. I see Paul’s intentionality in verse 10 when he states, “Therefore I take…” He chose to look at his weaknesses in a positive light knowing that through them Christ would rise up and supply His strength making him strong. “For when I am weak, then I am strong.” Paul is not teaching me to take pleasure in my weaknesses as an encouragement to stay in them. He is showing me that through Christ I am stronger than whatever I am facing. This is reinforced in other teachings of Paul when he said that I am an “overcomer,” “more than a conqueror, ” and “always triumph in Christ.” James also taught this type of intentional living. He matched what Paul is teaching here when he told me to “count it all joy” in trials because going through them victoriously brings me to a point in which I “lack nothing.”
I think a quick word study is needed in order to accurately interpret, and apply, the lesson being taught by Paul in this passage. As I mentioned earlier, the use of the word “infirmities” in the King James, and New King James, renderings of this passage have created a long standing misunderstanding of what Paul is saying. While my preferred version overall is the New King James, after comparing with other translations, and doing a word study of the Greek word used here (astheneia), it has become obvious that using the word “infirmity,” rather than the more commonly used word “weakness,” was a poor choice in this passage. According to Vines Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, “astheneia” primary definition is “lit., ‘want of strength’ (a, negative, sthenos, ‘strength’), ‘weakness,’ indicating inability to produce results…” Compare the following renderings of verse 10…
“That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (NIV)
“That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (NLT)
“That is why, for the sake of Christ, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (BSB)
“Therefore I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in distresses, in persecutions, in difficulties, in behalf of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong.” (NASB)
“So I am well pleased with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, and with difficulties, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak [in human strength]. then I am strong [truly able, truly powerful, truly drawing from God’s strength].” (Amp)
When reading 2 Corinthians 12:1-10 with the consistent word usage of “weakness” it is obvious that Paul is not referring to any physical ailment, sickness, or disease in this passage. He is actually referring to the “sufferings of Christ” that he started this letter with in 2 Corinthians 1:3-5: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ.”
Let me wrap this up with Eric’s expanded paraphrase of 2 Corinthians 12:1-10:
“Based on my extensive experience, and abundance of visions and revelations from the Lord, I have the right to boast. However, I’m no fool. I choose to humble myself before the Lord. If I ever do boast it will be in what the Lord does in and through me; which can be seen most clearly in my weaknesses. Satan hates what the Lord has shown me, and what He accomplishes through my weaknesses, so he has assigned a demon to me. That demon is a pain in my butt as he is trying to steal the Word from me, kill me, and destroy my ministry. He is doing everything in his power to keep me from being exalted by the Lord into a place of impact and influence in, and through the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. I begged the Lord three times to get this demon out of my life to which He responded, ‘Use My grace; it is sufficient for you to overcome this demon; and it is the strongest in the midst of your weakness.’ That is why I choose to boast in my weakness. His strength rests securely in my weaknesses. I actually find pleasure in knowing that when I am weak, and am being attacked in every area of my life, through Christ I am strong!”
That’s what I have learned from…
…Eric’s Life Lesson # 79: “Time to turn over the apple cart.” Part 14: It’s my thorn in the flesh. (I’ve got tweezers you can borrow) conclusion