Sufficient Grace for a God-Given Thorn
Introduction: The School of Weakness
We live in an age that worships at the altar of strength. Our heroes are the self-made, the invincible, the ones who have it all together. The world tells you to find your inner strength, to believe in yourself, to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps. The church, tragically, has often bought into this, peddling a sanitized gospel of victory, prosperity, and perpetual triumph. We want the resurrection without the crucifixion. We want the crown without the cross. We want the power without the weakness.
And into this flimsy, man-centered religion, the Apostle Paul drops a bomb. This passage is a direct assault on every form of triumphalism, both secular and religious. Paul has just finished describing, reluctantly, an experience that would make any of the so-called "super-apostles" in Corinth green with envy. He was caught up to the third heaven, to paradise itself, and heard things that cannot be uttered. If anyone had grounds for spiritual pride, it was Paul. If anyone could build a ministry on his resume of spiritual experiences, it was him.
But he refuses to do so. He understands something fundamental that our generation has forgotten: God's strength is not a supplement to our own. It is a substitute. God's power does not flow into our lives until our own has been drained away. And so, God, in His severe mercy, enrolls Paul, and every one of us, in the school of weakness. The central part of the curriculum is a thorn. This passage is not an outlier; it is the very heart of the Christian life. It teaches us that the prerequisite for experiencing the power of Christ is not our strength, but our weakness. It is the place where we give up, where we are at the end of our rope, that God's grace proves not only sufficient, but glorious.
The Text
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! Concerning this I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might leave me. 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 in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions and hardships, for the sake of Christ, for when I am weak, then I am strong.
(2 Corinthians 12:7-10 LSB)
The Purposeful Pain (v. 7)
Paul begins by explaining the origin and purpose of his affliction.
"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!" (2 Corinthians 12:7)
Notice the logic. The thorn was not a punishment for sin, but a preventative measure against it. The greatness of the spiritual gift, the trip to paradise, created the danger of a great sin: pride. Pride is the original sin, the native language of the fallen heart. It is the delusion that we are the source of our own strength, the authors of our own story. God loved Paul too much to let him be consumed by the cancer of pride. So the divine Physician prescribed a bitter medicine.
"There was given me," Paul says. Who gave it? God did. This is crucial. God is sovereign over this entire affair. But what did He give? "A thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me." This is a staggering thought. God, in His inscrutable wisdom, uses a demonic agent to accomplish a holy purpose. Satan, the adversary, intends the thorn for evil. He wants to buffet Paul, to beat him with his fist, to drive him to despair and make him curse God. But God has a higher purpose. He is using Satan as an unwitting tool, a dumb instrument, to achieve the exact opposite result: Paul's humility.
This reveals the absolute sovereignty of God. Satan is not a rival god, a co-equal power of darkness. He is a creature on a leash. God can and does use the malice of the devil to sanctify His saints. He turns the devil's battering ram into a divine chisel, chipping away the marble of Paul's pride to reveal the image of Christ.
What was the thorn? We are not told, and that is a mercy. If we knew it was poor eyesight, or malaria, or a nagging opponent, we would be tempted to say, "Well, my thorn is different." By leaving it unspecified, the Spirit makes it applicable to every believer's thorn. It is whatever God has given you that keeps you low, that reminds you of your utter dependence upon Him.
The Pleading Prayer (v. 8)
Paul's initial reaction to this God-given, satanic affliction is exactly what ours would be.
"Concerning this I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might leave me." (2 Corinthians 12:8 LSB)
This was not a casual, "if it be Your will" kind of prayer. The word is "pleaded." It was earnest, desperate, repeated prayer. Three times he begged the Lord for deliverance. This is the prayer of a man in pain. It is a good and right prayer. It is not wrong to ask God to remove our afflictions. Paul is not a stoic, pretending he doesn't feel the pain. He feels it acutely, and he takes it to the only one who can do anything about it. He takes it to the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is a pattern for us. When God gives us a thorn, our first duty is to go to Him in prayer. We are to cast our anxieties on Him, because He cares for us. We are to ask, seek, and knock. Paul models for us a dependent piety that does not grin and bear it, but rather cries out to God from the heart of the trial.
The Sufficient Answer (v. 9)
The Lord answers Paul's prayer. But the answer is not what he asked for. God's answer is not "yes," but it is not "no" either. It is something far better.
"And He has said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.'" (2 Corinthians 12:9a LSB)
The Lord does not remove the thorn. Instead, He gives a promise. "My grace is sufficient for you." The word "sufficient" means it is enough. It is exactly what is needed, with nothing lacking. The grace of God is not a one-time deposit, but a continuous, moment-by-moment supply for the need of the moment. God does not give us grace for tomorrow's trials today. He gives us today's grace for today's thorn.
Then the Lord gives the reason, the divine principle behind the promise: "for power is perfected in weakness." God's power does not just show up in spite of our weakness; it is made complete, it reaches its intended goal, in the context of our weakness. Think of it like a sail. A sail is just a flimsy piece of cloth. It has no power in itself. Its weakness, its emptiness, is what allows it to catch the wind. In the same way, our weakness, our emptiness, our acknowledged inability, is what makes us vessels for the power of Christ. When we are full of ourselves, there is no room for Him. God's power is perfected when we come to the end of our own.
The Joyful Boast (v. 9b-10)
This divine answer completely transforms Paul's perspective. It turns his world upside down, or rather, right side up.
"Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions and hardships, for the sake of Christ, for when I am weak, then I am strong." (2 Corinthians 12:9b-10 LSB)
His prayer for removal is transformed into a boast of acceptance. He doesn't just tolerate his weakness; he boasts in it. Why? Because he has learned that his weakness is the very thing that attracts the power of Christ. He sees his thorn not as a liability, but as the docking station for the grace and power of God. The word for "dwell" here is the word for pitching a tent. Paul is saying, "I will gladly live in the flimsy tent of my weakness, because that is where the glorious, shekinah power of Christ comes to tabernacle."
This leads to contentment. "Therefore I am well content." This is not resignation. It is a settled pleasure, a deep satisfaction. He is content with the whole catalog of suffering: weaknesses, insults, distresses, persecutions, hardships. He has learned the secret. He has cracked the code of the Christian life.
He concludes with the great Christian paradox: "for when I am weak, then I am strong." This is the central lesson from the school of weakness. True strength is not the absence of weakness, but the presence of Christ's power in the midst of it. When I finally admit I cannot, I find that He can. When I cease from my own striving, I am carried by His. When I am emptied of my self-sufficiency, I am filled with His all-sufficiency.
Conclusion: Your Thorn, His Grace
Every one of us has a thorn. God has custom-designed an affliction for each of His children to keep us humble and dependent. It may be a physical ailment, a difficult marriage, a rebellious child, a dead-end job, a besetting sin you cannot seem to conquer. It is the thing that makes you cry out to God for deliverance.
It is right to pray for that deliverance, as Paul did. But we must also listen for God's answer. And His answer to you is the same as His answer to Paul: "My grace is sufficient for you." He may not remove the thorn, because He is doing something far more important through it. He is killing your pride. He is teaching you to rely on Him alone. He is making your life a showcase for the power of Christ.
The path to true spiritual power is not found in conferences, books, or spiritual disciplines that promise to make you strong. The path to true spiritual power is the path of the cross. It is the path of embracing your weakness, confessing your inability, and boasting in the God whose grace is sufficient, and whose power is made perfect, not in your strength, but in your weakness. For when you are weak, then, and only then, are you truly strong.