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. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 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. 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 12:7-10
This is my one departure from St Paul’s letter to the Philippians in this series on contentment but I think it’s impossible to consider Paul’s contentment without his ‘thorn in the flesh’. Paul wrote about it in 2 Corinthians, possibly while he was still at Philippi starting the new church. By the time he arrived in Rome, Paul would have had the 'thorn' for 4 or 5 years, at least. Of course, by this time, the thorn may have been divinely removed but I expect Paul would have mentioned in one of his letters if that had happened.
I’ve heard very many theories about what the Paul’s thorn could have been. The most common are some form of illness or disability, perhaps poor eyesight or problems with his hands so that he had to dictate his letters. I suspect it may have been the Jewish Christians who relentlessly followed him around, criticising his teaching and trying to persuade new Christians to reject it in favour of their own brand of Christianity. I think this accords with the thorn being given to keep Paul humble in spite of the great revelations he was privileged to receive.Whatever it was, however, Paul prayed repeatedly for the thorn’s removal until Jesus told him, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness’.
The thorn was ‘a messenger of Satan’: God did not remove it but it’s important to emphasise that God did not send it. In the story of Job, we read how God permitted the devil, or Satan, to afflict Job and how this turned out for Job’s benefit, but it's clear that God Himself did not harm Job. With this important distinction in mind, we should look afresh at a widely misunderstood passage in John 9. This is the passage in the English Standard Version that I usually quote.
‘As he passed by, [Jesus] saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.’
The question the disciples asked was very unusual. Frankly, it was a bit daft! ‘Who sinned, this man or his parents…?’ How could the man himself have sinned to be born blind? While I can see why the disciples may have thought that his parents may have done something to cause their son’s blindness, Jews never have believed in reincarnation.
Jesus’ answer, as it appears in most if not all English-language Bibles, suggests that the man was born blind for God’s glory: ‘It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him’. But there's a problem with that! Are we really to believe that God caused the man to be born blind so that Jesus could heal him?
It was reading Dr G Campbell Morgan (1865-1945) that first alerted me to the problem with this idea and how Jesus’ words have been mistranslated since the first English-language Gospels in the 14th Century. The problem is not in the translation of the words themselves but in the way they are punctuated and the addition of the conjunction 'but' because the original Greek had neither punctuation nor conjunctions. The words could just as accurately read like this:
‘It was not that this man sinned, or his parents. That the works of God might be displayed in him, we must work the works of him who sent me while it is day…’The difference is crucial: the ‘works of God’ are to be seen in the man’s healing, not in his blindness. It's important for God’s reputation: He may send judgement and discipline, and there are examples of both throughout Scripture, but He does not inflict people just so that his work of redemption can be seen. 'The reason the son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil' (1 John 3:8), not the works of God.
When there is no healing or relief in a situation, however, God can still be seen working, as St Paul affirms!
‘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. For when I am weak, then I am strong.’God's work of redemption is a work in progress; that's why bad things happen to good people and not every sick person we pray for is healed. Jesus may now be seated him at God's right hand in the heavenly places, 'far above all rule and authority and power and dominion' (Ephesians 1:20-22) but 'He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet' (1 Corinthians 15:25). And while that continues, Jesus' grace is sufficient for us, empowering us to be content with and rejoice in weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.
© Copyright Philip Evans 2014.
What is freely received should be freely shared and not sold for profit, so please feel free to copy these Reflections freely and without cost to others.Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations in these Reflections are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
