Suffering And Weakness

I just turned in my big semester paper on Thursday. What a relief! I had to laugh at the irony of my topic: sharing in the weaknesses of Christ. I found myself getting so frustrated that my computer kept dying and losing what I had written. And I felt bad that I had to ask for an extension. But how appropriate for me to be reminded of weakness in small ways as I was writing this paper!.

I had always thought it a little odd how Paul boasts about his weaknesses in 2 Corinthians 11-12. It seemed to me as if he were boasting from spiritual pride. But the more I studied these passages, I realized that he really was speaking out of humility. In fact, the Corinthians reviled any sign of weakness, desiring a strong, commanding hero as a leader. They despised the fact that Paul experienced sickness, never charged them a fee for his preaching, and actually worked hard with his hands. They rejected his authority because he never talked about his spiritual visions or other qualifications. Moreover, he wasn’t a trained speaker like his critics.

You might think that Paul would defend himself by pointing to his strengths. But he does the opposite. He actually insists on his weakness as being essential to his qualifications as an apostle! He rejoices in his sickness, numerous near-death experiences, emotional anxieties, and even his embarrassing moments of escape from Damascus in a basket (2 Cor. 11)! He talks about his thorn in the flesh that God gave him to keep him from becoming conceited (2 Cor. 12:7), and says that he will boast all the more gladly about this. Why?

It turns out that Paul sees his sufferings as an extension of Christ’s sufferings. It is precisely in weakness that God’s power is most clearly manifested. Wow! This puts a whole new perspective on weakness, doesn’t it?