“My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.” 2 Corinthians 12:9–10(NLT)
Paul learned that the thorn would not hamper his calling. He can make do with the grace he has already received, and the power of Christ will become more visible as it works through his weakness. We learn from the message given to Paul that God’s grace is not just the unmerited favor that saves us but a force, or better the provision that also sustains us throughout our lives.
The miracle is that this same divine power that accomplishes all that God wills dwells in a frail, persecuted, and abased apostle. And it also dwells in all those who call on Jesus as savior. The verb “perfected” (teleitai)means “brought to completion” or “is made fully present.” The present tense indicates that it is not yet a finished product but that it is still in process of being made perfect. This means that in us as well, that the marvelous grace of God is being made fully visible as we rely on it to do the will of God in the details of our lives.
In verse 10 Paul states, “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.“
His weakness becomes the vehicle by which God’s grace and Christ’s power is most fully manifested to himself and to others. Paul is not saying that weakness is power. Instead, he is saying that “the weaknesses that characterize his life as an apostle—of which the Corinthians are very much aware and from which he neither seeks nor expects relief—represent the effective working of the power of the crucified Christ in his ministry. It can be the same for us in our calling. That even in the face of the weakness that may seem to characterize our life as obedient children of God, we can still be representatives of the power of a crucified Christ to a lost and dying world by laying hold of God’s provision of grace.
Even though that thorn in the flesh, the angel from Satan, broadcasts Paul’s weakness both to himself and to others; but it does not mean that he is under Satan’s dominion and not a true apostle. On the contrary, it makes the power of Christ working in him more transparent. So cheer up, that weakness or persistent pain that God won’t remove and seems to be what you think disqualifies you from effective ministry, is not intended to do so, but to be the megaphone through which you reveal the grace of God.
Pastor Mark
2Cor. 5:7