The Wonderful Gift of Weakness

THE WONDERFUL GIFT OF WEAKNESS

An Exposition of 2 Corinthians 12:1-10

By Pastor Brian Wilbur

Date: March 10, 2024

Series: Stand-Alone Sermons

Note: Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

THE SCRIPTURAL TEXT

Holy Scripture says:

¹ I must go on boasting. Though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. ² I 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. ³ And 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— ⁴ and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. ⁵ On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses— ⁶ though 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. ⁷ So 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. ⁸ Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. ⁹ But 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.¹⁰ For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:1-10)

NOTICE THE EMPHASIS ON WEAKNESS

Before walking through this passage, notice the repeated reference to weakness in the space of just these ten verses:

• “… on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses” (2 Cor. 12:5)

• “… my [the Lord’s] power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Cor. 12:9)

• “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses” (2 Cor. 12:9).

• “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses” (2 Cor. 12:10)

• “For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Cor. 12:10)

Thus in just ten verses, there are five references to weak, weakness, or weaknesses. While many people in the world are ashamed of their weaknesses, throwing pity parties because of their weaknesses, denying their weaknesses, and/or hiding their weaknesses, the apostle Paul not only acknowledges his weaknesses, but boasts gladly in his weaknesses. And the reason for this is because Paul came to understand the critical role that our weaknesses have in a vibrant walk with Christ. You also must come to understand the wonderful gift of weakness.

GOD-GIVEN PRIVILEGES PRESENT YOU WITH A GRAVE DANGER

So, let’s begin walking through verses 1-10 of Chapter 12. In terms of the big picture of verses 1-7a, we must reckon with the fact that God-given privileges present you with a grave danger.

Fourteen years before the writing of this letter, Paul had a dramatic experience with the Lord. He files it under the category “visions and revelations of the Lord” (v. 1). He refers to himself as “a man in Christ” (v. 2) who “was caught up to the third heaven” (v. 2), who “was caught up into paradise” (v. 3). The experience was so dramatic, overwhelming, and supernatural in character, that Paul cannot say whether it was an in-body or out-of-body experience (v. 2, 3). “God knows” (v. 2, 3) the logistics of what happened, and Paul doesn’t know. But Paul does know that this heavenly experience happened, and that he was transported to God’s heavenly dwelling place, and that he heard glorious, overwhelming, and unspeakably magnificent things – unutterable things that he cannot talk about.

Now if you had that sort of experience, you might be tempted to boast about it. Your friends may have visited the Grand Canyon or the Kennedy Space Center, but you visited heaven! Good on you, right? You must be extra special! Paul acknowledges that his experience could well be grist for the boast mill: “On behalf of this man I will boast” (v. 5). But even that way of putting it communicates to us that Paul has no intention of boasting about it. He deflects the emphasis off of himself, recognizing that though he experienced this heavenly vision, it was nothing that he did – it was sheer grace that the Lord gave such a heavenly experience to “this man” (v. 5).

So, Paul will not boast: “but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses” (v. 5). Of course, if Paul did boast about his heavenly vision, he wouldn’t be lying: “though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth” (v. 6). But the mere fact that something is true doesn’t make it worth sharing, and Paul doesn’t want to prop up his reputation by talking about his private experiences: “but I refrain from it [boasting], so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me.” (v. 6) Paul won’t seek to boost his public reputation by making much of his private spiritual experiences. Instead, he understands that his public reputation should be based on the testimony of the life that he lives in front of people – his words and deeds. Jesus taught us that a tree is known by its visible fruit, and Paul honors that principle here.

Now back to the main point: God-given privileges present you with a grave danger. This grave danger is implied in the first half of verse 7: “So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations” (v. 7). The grave danger is that the privileges you have received will lead you to become proud and conceited, and that you will think more highly of yourself than you ought to.

Please note that this grave danger doesn’t mean that there is anything wrong with the privileges in and of themselves. Paul’s privileged trip to God’s dwelling place was indeed a blessing from the Lord. All such privileges and blessings should be humbly and gratefully received. But this doesn’t change the fact that these privileges and blessings pose a real danger to your imperfect soul.

What God-given privileges have we received?

In terms of the principle that God-given privileges present you with a grave danger, let’s think about how this principle might relate to our lives. For any one of us, the God-given privilege might be a heavenly vision such as Paul had. Or it might be success in some area of life – in school, in homesteading, in ministry, or in business. You have received a promotion, or you are prospering in a very tangible way. Or take wealth, for example. God gives wealth, and wealth is a good thing which God intends you to both enjoy gratefully and share generously. But what did the Lord tell the Israelites as they were about to experience the wealth of entering the Promised Land?

“Take care lest you forget the LORD your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (Deut. 8:11-14).

Cotton Mather, a pastor in colonial New England, made this statement: “Religion begat prosperity, and the daughter devoured the mother.” That this should be so is not inevitable, but it does often happen. We have some sense of our dependence upon God, and some sense of gratitude for His mercies. But when the blessings rain down, the prosperities abound, and the wealth multiplies, we often throw ourselves into the management and continued multiplication of our increase, and then our sense of God grows dim, and we become impressed with ourselves and finally draw the insane conclusion that we were the authors of our own prosperity. Good on us, right? The Deuteronomy 8 passage continues: “Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth” (Deut. 8:17-18).

The very same thing can play out in ministries and churches. We have humble beginnings, we don’t think of ourselves as better than anyone else, we keep things simple in terms of preaching and praying and loving people and having Bible Studies, and over time some real growth takes place, and then what started as simply some ordinary people gathering together around the Word because they love Jesus and are learning to love each other – well, it becomes a thing, a thing to manage, a thing to protect, a thing to control. What began in earnest, with hearts hungry for the Lord, turns into an occasion for professional management. Brokenhearted prayer turns into business principles.

Learning from the churches in Laodicea, Sardis, and Corinth

Remember that church down in Laodicea: their pride had become repugnant to the Lord, and yet those Laodiceans thought they were something special – they thought they were rich and prosperous and resourceful (Rev. 3:15-17). They had forgotten their own weakness. Their hearts were lifted up with conceit.

Remember that church over in Sardis: they thought they had vitality as a congregation, but Jesus said that they were tottering on death (Rev. 3:1-2). But what about the buildings, the budgets, the programs, the services, the ministries, the orthodox statement of faith, the respectable reputation? If what is happening isn’t vibrant faith working through sacrificial love, then it is worthless; if what is happening isn’t the sincere worship of the Father in spirit and truth, then it is worthless; if what is happening isn’t marked by humility, gentleness, patience, and kindness, then it is worthless. The only thing it takes to make what is happening here worthless, is our hearts being lifted up with conceit.

Remember the church in Corinth: they were in fact “enriched in him [Christ] in all speech and all knowledge” and they “[were] not lacking in any gift” (1 Corinthians 1:5, 7). But these God-given privileges presented them with a grave danger, and they were stumbling. They had become enamored with all the wrong things. It was easy for these residents of Corinth, as indeed it is easy for human beings in general, to get caught up in the lure of impressive outward appearances – appearances of strength and skill. They could get caught up in the power of personality, the power of eloquence, the power of skilled public speaking, the power of knowledge, the power of social advantage, the power of spectacular spiritual gifts. This attraction to outward show made them vulnerable to be taken for a ride by religious showmen, because these religious showmen would play all the power cards: they knew how to carry themselves, they knew how to weave an argument, they knew how to keep an audience captivated, they knew how to look important, and they knew how to sound religious. Poorly taught or immature Christians get easily duped by those power cards, and they get sucked in by the false teachers who play those cards.

Jesus leads us on the lowly path of weakness. Religious celebrities choose the easy path that appeals to the fleshly desire for comfort, pleasure, and success. Of course, Jesus didn’t merely teach that the blessed way is the lowly path, but He lived it: He suffered many things, and was “rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes” (Mark 8:31), and He was crucified on Golgotha. And He says to anyone who would dare to follow Him: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” (Mark 8:34)

But the Corinthians struggled to understand the way of the cross. The apostle Paul embraced the way of the cross with his whole heart, and he labored in First Corinthians and in Second Corinthians to impress the way of the cross, the way of weakness and suffering, and the way of sacrificial love upon these Corinthian believers. Precisely because the Corinthians struggled to understand the way of the cross, they were susceptible to the slick false teachers who brokered in power, fame, and cash. These slick false teachers boasted according to the flesh, boasting in their credentials and abilities and successes. And the Corinthians were inclined to find the boasts of these false teachers impressive and alluring. Paul decided that in order to get through to the Corinthians, he would have to resort to boasting. Of course, boasting in one’s own achievements is not permitted: “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 10:17) So, Paul turns the whole concept of boasting on its head, and decides to do something surprising, attention-getting, and sobering: he boasts in his weaknesses. If you boast in your strengths, then you are praising yourself in front of other people, and this isn’t a proper course of action. But if you boast in your weaknesses, then you are setting the stage to praise the Lord who graciously and powerfully meets you in your weaknesses. If you are following in the footsteps of the flesh, then you want to be powerful apart from Christ, on your own terms, for your own glory. But if you are following in the footsteps of the apostle Paul, then you know that the only kind of power and strength worth having are the power and strength that come from Christ, on His terms, and for His glory. And His terms include that you humbly acknowledge your own weakness.

GOD GIVES PAINFUL COUNTERMEASURES TO PROTECT YOU FROM THE GRAVE DANGER (v. 7)

Even though God-given privileges present you with a grave danger, we need to understand that God gives painful countermeasures to protect you from that danger. Verse 7 makes this clear:

“So 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.” (v. 7)

Far too often, when it comes to our weaknesses and trials, we are very shallow in our outlook: we simply want to be outwardly comfortable, we want life to be easy, we don’t want to be inconvenienced. You want physical comfort, but God is pursuing your holiness, your sanctification, your spiritual well-being. And at the heart of the holy life is humility, lowliness of mind, child-like dependence on the Father.

Back in Deuteronomy 8, the people were warned to not let their hearts be lifted up and inflated with pride. In fact, their experience of having to trust God in the wilderness for forty years was designed to teach them humility:

“And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years. Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the LORD your God disciplines you.” (Deut. 8:2-5)

The Lord disciplines you: trains you, exercises you, instructs you, corrects you. The Lord’s training program is designed to make you a man or woman who humbly depends on His gracious, life-giving words. That is the whole point.

The Lord afflicted Paul with weakness in order to keep Paul in a humble frame of mind: the phrase “to keep me from becoming conceited” occurs at the beginning of verse 7 and again at the end of verse 7. The Lord’s motivation is your spiritual health. Don’t resent the medicine He prescribes in order to make you or keep you spiritually healthy.

Paul uses two phrases to describe the affliction that the Lord gave to him. The first phrase that Paul uses is: “a thorn was given me in the flesh”. Don’t skip over those words “given me” – this thorn in the flesh is a gift from the Lord! The Greek word that is translated “thorn” means “anything pointed, a stake, thorn”.[1] The Lord caused the equivalent of a sharp, pointy object to press into Paul’s flesh, Paul’s body. It was an acute physical ailment, a sharp bodily affliction, a painful malady.

The second phrase that Paul uses to describe his affliction is: “a messenger of Satan to harass me”. In this case, the physical affliction (the thorn in the flesh) was delivered to Paul through the agency of a Satanic messenger. The word “messenger” typically refers to angels, and so “a messenger of Satan” probably refers to a demon. Let this sink in: God gifted to Paul a severe physical affliction that was inflicted by a demon! God is sovereign over Satan and all his demons, and God uses them to accomplish His holy purposes. The demon wasn’t thinking, ‘I’m so glad to have this opportunity to promote Paul’s spiritual well-being.’ Demons don’t think like that. They only hate and despise. The demon wanted to ruin Paul. But God used the demon’s harassment for a beneficial purpose, namely, to keep Paul humble.

Your job, dear Christian, is to fix your eyes in the right place. Don’t become preoccupied with what Satan’s messengers are doing. Don’t become preoccupied with your physical afflictions. If you do either of those things, you are apt to become frustrated and eventually embittered. Instead, you need to fix your eyes on the Lord, who afflicts you in love. The Lord doesn’t afflict you as a power-play against you, but instead He afflicts you in order to keep your heart tethered to His heart. We need to take to heart that God’s faithfulness is on display when He afflicts us:

“It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes. The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces. Your hands have made and fashioned me; give me understanding that I may learn your commandments. Those who fear you shall see me and rejoice, because I have hoped in your word. I know, O LORD, that your rules are righteous, and in that in faithfulness you have afflicted me. Let your steadfast love comfort me according to your promise to your servant.” (Psalm 119:71-76)

At times you may be afflicted, and at times you may prosper. Paul learned to have joy in all circumstances:

“I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:12-13)

Whatever our circumstances may be at any particular time, we must remember the heart of the matter. The heart of the matter is: Am I drawing strength from the Lord (Philippians 4:13)? Am I learning and treasuring God’s words (Ps. 119:71-73)? Am I putting my hope in the Lord’s gracious word (Ps. 119:74)? Am I being comforted by the Lord’s steadfast love (Ps. 119:76)? But because we are fickle people – and we are fickle people! – we often need God-sent afflictions to keep us in the place of true blessing: and the place of true blessing is humbly depending on the Lord’s gracious words.

GOD SENDS PLENTIFUL GRACE WITH THE PAINFUL COUNTERMEASURES IN ORDER TO MAKE YOU STRONG IN HIM (v. 8-10)

So firstly, God-given privileges present you with a grave danger. But secondly, in faithfulness God sends painful countermeasures in order to protect you from that danger. And now thirdly, God sends plentiful grace with the painful countermeasures in order to make you strong in Him.

Let me pause for a moment and just reflect on how personally the Lord is engaged with our heart. He bestows privileges and blessings upon us, but doesn’t leave us to ourselves in those privileges and blessings, lest we become proud. And so it is that the Great Physician sends afflictions and trials in order to check our pride and keep us humble. But He doesn’t leave us to ourselves in those afflictions and trials, lest they lead us to despair. Instead, the Lord meets us in those afflictions and trials with all-sufficient grace.

In verse 8, Paul petitioned the Lord to remove the affliction: “Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.” (v. 8) When you are facing sharp afflictions, you are free to ask the Lord to remove them. He might remove them, or He might not remove them. In Paul’s case, the Lord answered clearly that the thorn would not be removed, because the Lord had something better in store for Paul. Take this to heart: the Lord often has something better in store for you than the removal of the affliction. We typically desire the removal of the affliction, but the Lord is after the bestowal of something better in the midst of the affliction. What is this something better? It is simply this: the something better is you experiencing more of Christ’s power.

Let’s trace the promise. Jesus begins by telling Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you” (v. 9). The Lord’s grace – the Lord’s lovingkindness – is able to satisfy you and sustain you in the midst of your affliction. The Lord is with you, to uphold you and comfort you. The Lord is your Shepherd, and He graciously provides you with everything you need (Psalm 23:1). Even so, this all-sufficient grace is more deeply grasped in the midst of the weakness. For after saying “My grace is sufficient for you,” Jesus continues, “for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (v. 9) Here’s the point: the power of Christ is more fully displayed in and through your life, when you are more keenly aware of your need for it. Listen, brothers and sisters: God made you to run on the power of Christ. It is utter insanity that any of us ever think that we can get on well enough without Him. And so, God graciously afflicts us, pricks us, and wounds us, in order to give us a reality check and take us deeper into Christ. God made you to live in the power of Christ. Think about it: the power of Christ runs the entire universe!

• “[He] upholds the universe by the word of his power.” (Hebrews 1:3)

• “[All] things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:16-17)

• He is the true light who “shines in the darkness” and “gives light to everyone” (John 1:5, 9). “[All] the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” are found in Christ (Colossians 2:3).

• He turns water into wine (John 2:1-11), walks on the sea (John 6:16-21), sends fish into the nets of the fishermen (Luke 5:1-11), rebukes “the wind and the raging waves” (Luke 8:24), and supplies living water to everyone who believes in Him (John 4:7-15, 7:37-39).

• He casts out demons, heals the sick, opens the eyes of the blind, and raises the dead.

• He had authority to lay down his life for His people, and He did so; and He has authority to take up his life again after He died, and He did so (John 10:18).

• “He disarmed the rulers and authorities” (Colossians 2:15) and is now seated “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come” (Ephesians 1:21). All things are under the feet of our exalted King (Ephesians 1:22), and one day He will judge the entire world according to the Father’s perfect standard of righteousness (Acts 17:31).

• Though His power and authority are infinite and cosmic in their scope, the Savior leverages His sovereign authority and almighty power for the good of His people: He has authority to forgive sins, to bring us into fellowship with the Father, to help us when we are experiencing temptation, to “rescue [us] from every evil deed and bring [us] safely into his heavenly kingdom” (2 Timothy 4:18). He says to the apostle Paul and to every one of His followers, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Cor. 12:9)

And yet, this all-powerful Christ turned worldly power on its head by becoming Man: though He existed in the form of God, He did not consider His equality with God something to be used for His own advantage, but He made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant. He was among us as One who served. He was among us as One who was not ashamed to identify with and receive and show kindness to the lowly, to those of low rank, to outsiders, and to those who were unclean. His sufferings were great, and He laid down His life on a cross on a hill outside of Jerusalem. And He invites us to meet Him in the place where He makes His power known – at the cross, and in weakness.

Do you want to experience this power of Christ? Just as God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble, so He opposes those who fancy themselves strong on their own, but bestows His power on the weak who lean on Him. You will not prove the unlimited gracious power of Christ while you are cruising along in the physical, material, and social comforts of your best life now. Too many people pay lip service to the grace of Christ, while they live like the rest of the world and are strangers to the power of Christ. Those who would be well-acquainted with the power of Christ must get well-acquainted with their weaknesses. You shouldn’t manufacture weaknesses or make them up, but you should be ready to acknowledge your weaknesses as they become apparent, and you should learn to see those weaknesses as an opportunity for the power of Christ to be displayed in your life. If we would heartily embrace and live according to this perspective, our practical experience of the power of Christ in the day to day would skyrocket, because “[Christ’s power is made perfect in weakness.” If we adopt Paul’s mindset and receive Christ’s promise, then we will find Christ’s power sustaining us, transforming us, promoting faith in us though outward circumstances be grim, and building love in us through there is every natural reason for it not to grow among us.

How Paul responded to the Lord’s promise

Paul responded to the Lord’s promise with faith and gladness:

“Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.” (v. 9-10)

Notice that Paul takes the promise that the Lord gave him regarding the thorn in the flesh, and Paul applies it to all of his weaknesses. The promise of Jesus in verse 9 is not an isolated promise for occasional weaknesses, but instead has broad application to all kinds of weaknesses. Paul mentions five categories of affliction in verse 10:

• “weaknesses”: when we experience frailties and infirmities in body or soul;

• “insults”: this would include when people treat us harshly;

• “hardships”: when outside pressures bear down upon us;

• “persecutions”: when the work seeks to punish or penalize us because of our faith in Jesus;

• and “calamities”: when difficulties hem us in.

Just consider the full range of afflictions that Paul captures in these five words. Insults and persecutions relate to other people treating us badly, whether in general or because of our faith in Jesus. Hardships and calamities deal with very difficult outward circumstances pressing against us, stressing us, making life difficult. And weaknesses refer to our personal infirmities within our own body or soul. You can put your affliction – whether it is physical or financial or relational or something else – into one of these five categories.

Once Paul understands the Lord’s design for all these afflictions, he doesn’t just tolerate them. He boasts gladly in them (v. 9)! And the word translated “content” in verse 10 literally means “to think well of, to be well-pleased.”[2] Paul is saying: [I think well of] weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities” or [I am well-pleased with] weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.” And why? Not because he hates himself. Not because he likes suffering in and of itself. Not because he welcomes opportunities to throw pity parties or sound off a series of complaints. None of that! Paul heartily and gladly embraces his weaknesses for a singular reason: he wants more of Christ! “[That] the power of Christ may rest upon me.” Knowing Christ is, after all, Paul’s central ambition: “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” (Philippians 3:10-11). It is in the context of weaknesses and sufferings where Paul experiences more of Christ’s gracious power, and thus comes to know Christ better. And therein is found the strength that we are meant to have all along: “For when I am weak, then I am strong.” The man who trusts in himself fails to receive Christ’s power, and that man is truly weak. But the man who is honest about his weakness and turns to the Lord for help, actually receives Christ’s power, and that man is truly strong.

TWO POINTS OF APPLICATION

Now as we finish our time here in this passage, I would like you to reflect on how this message applies to your life and to your relationships with other people.

Apply the message to your own life

First, consider how this message applies to your life. Do you despise or resent in yourself that which the Lord intends for your good? Think of any difficulty or trial, and ask yourself: what is your attitude toward that difficulty or trial today? Too often we want to complain about our weaknesses. Too often we want to hide our weaknesses: we want to put on a mask and clothe ourselves in the appearance of strength, thus deflecting attention from our weaknesses. Too often we are busy attempting to compensate for our weaknesses, or to fix or manage them in our own strength. And yet, as we are doing those things, we are missing the power that Christ wants to bestow upon us, if we would turn to Him in the midst of our afflictions. We want to be able to say: I really am weak, but Christ is my strength, and He is the One who makes me strong. The only explanation for my life, the only thing that keeps me going and keeps me growing, is Christ. That should be our testimony. But that won’t be our testimony if we are running from the very thing that God intends to take us deeper into the power of Christ.

Apply the message to your relationships

Second, consider how this message applies to your relationships with other people, especially your fellow believers. Do you despise or resent in others that which the Lord intends for their good? How easy it is to look down on those with weaknesses. We are tempted to say to those who are suffering many things: What’s wrong with you? I thought God loved you and had a wonderful plan for your life – why are you suffering so much? Sometimes we react that way to people. We assume that their litany of problems is proof that God doesn’t love them or that they don’t have enough faith. But you should consider the very serious possibility that the exact opposite is the case – that these weaknesses and insults and hardships and calamities and difficulties and trials are bearing down on them because the Father loves them deeply! And what are we going to do – are we going to speak and act in ways that are contrary to the Father’s love for them? Are we going to say unhelpful things like: ‘Let me cast out that weakness, brother’; ‘let me fix it’; ‘I have a plan for your problem’; ‘just have enough faith, sister’. And when we say those kinds of things, we are at cross-purposes with the Lord’s work in and through His people.

Receive the wonderful gift of weakness!

I titled this sermon, “The Wonderful Gift of Weakness.” I encourage all of us to receive these weaknesses, afflictions, and trials as a gift to us. In the first instance, the gift of weaknesses is designed to draw us closer to Christ, that we would be more reliant upon Him, more drawn to His Word, more earnest in prayer, more desperate for His almighty hand to move in and through our lives. And second, the gift of weaknesses is designed to draw us together – not to get us pointing fingers, not to be critical of each other, not to be looking down on each other, not to be judging each other. God’s will is for us to associate with the lowly, to have compassion on the weak (and every one of us is weak!), to mourn with those who mourn, to grieve with those who suffer. And so, God’s plan is for our weaknesses and sufferings to bring us together and take us a church family more deeply into the power of Christ. Together, by God’s grace, we can be a community of believers that is not impressed with itself – we don’t proclaim ourselves, we don’t market ourselves, we don’t position ourselves for worldly influence. But instead, as a community of humble believers embracing the wonderful gift of weakness, we learn to treasure Christ – to praise Him who is our strength, and to follow Him together on the path of suffering. And His light shines through these weak vessels – these jars of clay – to make His glory known in this present world!

ENDNOTES

[1] See Strong’s Concordance via Bible Hub entry for “4647. skolops”. Available online: https://biblehub.com/greek/4647.htm

[2] See Strong’s Concordance via Bible Hub entry for “2106. eudokeó”. Available online: https://biblehub.com/greek/2106.htm