“For Power is Made
Perfect in Weakness”
Brief Exegesis on 2
Corinthians 12, 7-10
St. Paul preached the Gospel
in Corinth for eighteen months (50-52 A.D.), and founded a flourishing church
there.[1] He left for Jerusalem and
returned via Antioch to visit the churches founded in Asia Minor and Greece.
While he was away from Corinth some "intruders”, some other self-appointed
preachers, had come there and were upsetting the Christians. They evidently were
belittling Paul and boasting of their own superior qualifications. In this
letter, which Paul sent to the Corinthians from Ephesus or Macedonia (about 57
A.D.), he felt forced to prove that he was a true Apostle: who suffered much
for Christ and his Gospel and who also had been given the privilege of special
visions and revelations. He devoted chapters 10-12: 6 to this subject.[2]
In Cor. 12:7-10, as if to make atonement for speaking so boastfully
about himself, he went on now to describe some weakness he had which troubled
him very much. He prayed fervently to have it removed, but was told by the Lord
that he would get the grace necessary to bear with it. He concluded that he is
content with weakness and sufferings because the power and strength of Christ,
working through a weak instrument, will be all the more visible and convincing.
Displaying admirable humility,
St Paul now referred to the weakness God allowed him to experience to ensure
his supernatural gifts did not make him proud and independent of God. He was
given a “thorn in the flesh” to humble him. The Fathers of the Church and
commentators of the past have put forward many suggestions to clarify the
meaning of “thorns in the flesh”, and so far no clear-cut meaning has emerged.[3] The earliest reference is
found in Tertullian who mentions that it was said that Paul’s malady was
earache or headache (physical ailment)[4] with reference to Gal.
4:13. Others, like St John Chrysostom and St Augustine, are of the view that he
is referring to the pain which continual persecution caused him. Others
suggests that it was psychological illness or the torment of sexual temptation.
Paul regarded his thorn in the flesh as a messenger that came from Satan to
frustrate him (cf. Job 2:1-10). Nevertheless God had permitted it and would use
it to bring good out of evil (Rom. 8:28).[5]
St. Paul pleaded God three
times to take this "thorn" away, but the heavenly answer he received
is very revealing: God's grace is enough to enable him to cope with this difficulty—which
serves to reveal God's power. And so it is that he boasts of and is content
with his weaknesses and the persecution he suffers: in these circumstances he
is stronger than ever, thanks to God's supernatural aid, the grace of God.
The three occasions on which
Paul besought the Lord for deliverance were most probably suggest urgency or
three separate and severe assaults of this messenger of Satan. Paul’s specific
request was granted but something much better is bestowed, namely, grace which
is perpetually sufficient, good for his life.[6] To this answer, in which
the will of God is revealed, Paul submits. He welcomes it, “most gladly”, with
full existential eagerness.[7]
“My grace is sufficient for
you, for power is made perfect in weakness.”[8] This is the summit of the
epistle, the lofty peak from which the whole is viewed in true proportion. From
this vantage-point the entire range of Paul’s apostleship is seen in focus—his
calling, his conversion, his weakness, his trials, and his labors, his conquest
and his exaltation—all fall into place.[9] All is grace (1 Cor. 15:
10); the glory belongs to God alone (10:17).
Now, in the last verse, the
apostle summed up all that had gone before by explaining that, because the
divine power is made perfect in human weakness, he is well pleased with
weaknesses, insults and afflictions of every kind. Human weakness provides the
opportunity for divine power.[10]
[1] Cf. Acts 18:12
[2] Michael J. Taylor
S.J., Paul: His Letter, Message and
Heritage, (Makati City: St Paul’s, 2007), 103-104.
[3] Dr. Sebastian Kizhakkeyil,
The Pauline Epistles: Exegetical Study,
(Bandara, Mumbai: St Paul Press Training School, 2008), 141.
[4] Tertullian, De Pudic, xiii, 16
[5] Sydney H. T. Page,
"Satan: God's Servant," Journal of the Evangelical Theological
Society 50:3 (September 2007):449-65.
[6] Paul’s Second
Epistle to the Corinthians, 449.
[7] Paul’s Second
Epistle to the Corinthians, 451.
[8] NAB, 2 Cor. 12:9
[9] Paul’s Second
Epistle to the Corinthians, 451.
No comments:
Post a Comment