The Lord knows how to balance our lives. If we have only blessings, we may become proud; so He permits us to have burdens as well. Paul’s great successes as an apostle, church planter, author, teacher and his experiences with various revelations could have ruined his ministry on earth; so God, in His goodness, permitted pain, problems and even “Satan to buffet” Paul in order to keep him from becoming proud.
The mystery of human suffering will not be solved completely in this life. Sometimes we suffer simply because we are human. Our bodies change as we grow older, and we are susceptible to the normal problems of life. The same body that can bring us pleasures can also bring us pains. The same family members and friends that delight us can also break our hearts. This is a part of the “human comedy,” and the only way to escape it is to be less than human. But nobody wants to take that route.
Sometimes we suffer because we are foolish and disobedient to the Lord. Our own rebellion may afflict us, or the Lord may see fit to chasten us in His love (Heb. 12:3).
In His grace, God forgives our sins; but in His righteousness, He also permits us to reap what we sow.
Suffering also is a tool God uses for building godly character (Rom. 5:1-5). Certainly Paul was a man of rich Christian character because he permitted God to mold and make him in the painful experiences of his life. When you walk along the shore of the ocean, you notice that the rocks are sharp in the quiet coves, but polished in those places where the waves beat against them. God can use the “waves and billows” of life to polish us, if we will let Him.
Grace: God Humbles Us (2 Cor. 12:7-8)
Paul’s thorn in the flesh was given to him to keep him from sinning. Exciting spiritual experiences—like going to heaven and back—have a way of inflating the human ego; and pride leads to a multitude of temptations to sin. Had Paul’s heart been filled with pride, those next fourteen years would have been filled with failure instead of success.
| LIFE APPLICATION – DEPEND ON CHRIST |
| God had used the “thorn” to teach Paul humility. Those who are strong in their own abilities or resources are tempted to do God’s work on their own, and that can lead to arrogance. Those who struggle with weaknesses tend to rely on Christ’s power. Only then can they become stronger than they could ever be on their own. Christ does not want his people to try to be weak, passive, or ineffective: Life provides enough hindrances and setbacks. Nor should they feign humility or timidity in order to gain his help. When obstacles come, they must depend on Christ. Only his power will make them effective for him and will help them do work that has lasting value. |
We do not know what Paul’s thorn in the flesh was. The word translated thorn means “a sharp stake used for torturing or impaling someone.” It was a physical affliction of some kind that brought pain and distress to Paul. Some Bible students think that Paul had an eye affliction (see Gal. 6:11); but we cannot know for sure. It is a good thing that we do not know, because no matter what our sufferings may be, we are able to apply the lessons Paul learned and get encouragement.
God permitted Satan to afflict Paul, just as He permitted Satan to afflict Job (see Job 1-2). While we do not fully understand the origin of evil in this universe, or all the purposes God had in mind when He permitted evil to come, we do know that God controls evil and can use it even for His own glory. Satan cannot work against a believer without the permission of God. Everything that the enemy did to Job and Paul was permitted by the will of God.
Satan was permitted to buffet Paul. The word means “to beat, to strike with the fist.” The tense of the verb indicates that this pain was either constant or recurring. When you stop to think that Paul had letters to write, trips to take, sermons to preach, churches to visit, and dangers to face as he ministered, you can understand that this was a serious matter. No wonder he prayed three times (as his Lord had done in the Garden [Mark 14:32-41]) that the affliction might be removed from him (2 Cor. 12:8).
When God permits suffering to come to our lives, there are several ways we can deal with it. Some people become bitter and blame God for robbing them of freedom and pleasure. Others just “give up” and fail to get any blessing out of the experience because they will not put any courage into the experience. Still others grit their teeth and put on a brave front, determined to “endure to the very end.” While this is a courageous response, it usually drains them of the strength needed for daily living; and after a time, they may collapse.
Was Paul sinning when he prayed to be delivered from Satan’s buffeting? I don’t think so. It is certainly a normal thing for a Christian to ask God for deliverance from sickness and pain. God has not obligated Himself to heal every believer whenever he prays; but He has encouraged us to bring our burdens and needs to Him. Paul did not know whether this “thorn in the flesh” was a temporary testing from God, or a permanent experience he would have to learn to live with.
| LIFE APPLICATION – GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY |
| Three times Paul prayed for healing and did not receive it. He received, however, something far greater because he received greater grace from God, a stronger character, and an ability to empathize with others. God, according to his sovereign plan, doesn’t heal some believers of their physical ailments. We don’t know why some are spared and others aren’t. God chooses according to his divine purposes. Our task is to pray, to believe, and to trust. Paul is living proof that holy living and courageous faith do not ensure instant physical healing. When we pray for healing, we must trust our bodies to God’s care. We must recognize that nothing separates us from his love (Romans 8:35-39) and that our spiritual condition is always more important than our physical condition. |
There are those who want us to believe that an afflicted Christian is a disgrace to God. “If you are obeying the Lord and claiming all that you have in Christ,” they say, “then you will never be sick.” I have never found that teaching in the Bible. It is true that God promised the Jews special blessing and protection under the Old Covenant (Deut. 7:12) but He never promised the New Testament believers freedom from sickness or suffering. If Paul had access to “instant healing” because of his relationship to Christ, then why didn’t he make use of it for himself and for others, such as Epaphroditus? (Phil. 2:25ff)
What a contrast between Paul’s two experiences! Paul went from paradise to pain, from glory to suffering. He tasted the blessing of God in heaven and then felt the buffeting of Satan on earth. He went from ecstasy to agony, and yet the two experiences belong together. His one experience of glory prepared him for the constant experience of suffering, for he knew that God was able to meet his need. Paul had gone to heaven—but then he learned that heaven could come to him.
Grace: God Helps Us (2 Cor. 12:9-10)
Two messages were involved in this painful experience. The thorn in the flesh was Satan’s message to Paul, but God had another message for him, a message of grace. The tense of the verb in 2 Corinthians 12:9 is important: “And He [God] has once-for-all said to me.”
God gave Paul a message that stayed with him. The words Paul heard while in heaven, he was not permitted to share with us; but he did share the words God gave him on earth—and what an encouragement they are.
It was a message of grace. What is grace? It is God’s provision for our every need when we need it. It has well been said that God in His grace gives us what we do not deserve, and in His mercy He does not give us what we do deserve. Someone has made an acrostic of the word grace: God’s Riches Available at Christ’s Expense. “And of His [Christ’s] fullness have all we received, and grace for grace” (John 1:16).
It was a message of sufficient grace. There is never a shortage of grace. God is sufficient for our spiritual ministries (2 Cor. 3:4-6) and our material needs (2 Cor. 9:8) as well as our physical needs (2 Cor. 12:9). If God’s grace is sufficient to save us, surely it is sufficient to keep us and strengthen us in our times of suffering.
It was a message of strengthening grace. God permits us to become weak so that we might receive His strength. This is a continuous process: “My power is [being] made perfect in [your] weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9, NIV). Strength that knows itself to be strength is actually weakness, but weakness that knows itself to be weakness is actually strength.
In the Christian life, we get many of our blessings through transformation, not substitution. When Paul prayed three times for the removal of his pain, he was asking God for a substitution: “Give me health instead of sickness, deliverance instead of pain and weakness.” Sometimes God does meet the need by substitution; but other times He meets the need by transformation. He does not remove the affliction, but He gives us His grace so that the affliction works for us and not against us.
As Paul prayed about his problem, God gave him a deeper insight into what He was doing. Paul learned that his thorn in the flesh was a gift from God. What a strange gift! There was only one thing for Paul to do: accept the gift from God and allow God to accomplish His purposes. God wanted to keep Paul from being “exalted above measure,” and this was His way of accomplishing it.
When Paul accepted his affliction as the gift of God, this made it possible for God’s grace to go to work in his life. It was then that God spoke to Paul and gave him the assurance of His grace. Whenever you are going through suffering, spend extra time in the Word of God; and you can be sure God will speak to you. He always has a special message for His children when they are afflicted.
God did not give Paul any explanations; instead, He gave him a promise: “My grace is sufficient for you” We do not live an explanations; we live on promises. Our feelings change, but God’s promises never change. Promises generate faith, and faith strengthens hope.
Paul claimed God’s promise and drew on the grace that was offered to him; this turned seeming tragedy into triumph. God did not change the situation by removing the affliction; He changed it by adding a new ingredient: grace. Our God is “the God of all grace” (1 Peter 5:10), and His throne is a “throne of grace” (Heb. 4:16). The Word of God is “the word of His grace” (Acts 20:32), and the promise is that “He gives more grace” (James 4:6). No matter how we look at it, God is adequate for every need that we have.
But God does not give us His grace simply that we might “endure” our sufferings. Even unconverted people can manifest great endurance. God’s grace should enable us to rise above our circumstances and feelings and cause our afflictions to work for us in accomplishing positive good. God wants to build our character so that we are more like our Saviour. God’s grace enabled Paul not only to accept his afflictions, but to glory in them. His suffering was not a tyrant that controlled him, but a servant that worked for him.
What benefits did Paul receive because of his suffering? For one thing, he experienced the power of Christ in his life. God transformed Paul’s weakness into strength. The word translated rest means “to spread a tent over.” Paul saw his body as a frail tent (2 Cor. 5:1ff), but the glory of God had come into that tent and transformed it into a holy tabernacle.
Something else happened to Paul: he was able to glory in his infirmities. This does not mean that he preferred pain to health, but rather that he knew how to turn his infirmities into assets. What made the difference? The grace of God and the glory of God. He “took pleasure” in these trials and problems, not because he was psychologically unbalanced and enjoyed pain, but because he was suffering for the sake of Jesus Christ. He was glorifying God by the way he accepted and handled the difficult experiences of life.
| LIFE APPLICATION – THE TAPESTRY OF LIFE |
| What God allowed Paul to experience was for “Christ’s good” (12:10). This means that the kingdom over which Christ rules was served by the circumstances the apostle encountered. Even though daily hardships and failure are not easily graphed on a chart of personal achievement, they are by no means wasted. Consider the underside of a handmade tapestry. The elaborate coordinated threads on the exterior side of the fabric, woven with precision and creativity, produce a work of art intended by the weaver. The side that will not be seen, however, is a tangled mess of thread, yarn, and knots. How similar to life! Christ uses what appears to be random circumstances with no meaning—simply knots and tangles—and makes something beautiful out of them. We must not draw undue attention to ourselves, even in our suffering. He can produce spiritual renewal out of great difficulty and conflict. |
“It is a greater thing to pray for pain’s conversion than its removal,” wrote P.T. Forsyth, and this is true. Paul won the victory, not by substitution, but by transformation. He discovered the sufficiency of the grace of God. From Paul’s experience, we may learn several practical lessons.
- The spiritual is far more important to the dedicated believer than the physical. This is not to suggest that we ignore the physical, because our bodies are the temples of the Spirit of God. But it does mean that we try not to make our bodies an end in themselves. They are God’s tools for accomplishing His work in this world. What God does in developing our Christian character is far more valuable than physical healing without character.
- God knows flow to balance burdens and blessings, suffering and glory. Life is something like a prescription: the individual ingredients might hurt us, but when properly blended, they help us.
- Not all sickness is caused by sin. The argument of Job’s comforters was that Job had sinned, and that was why he was suffering. But their argument was wrong in Job’s case, as well as in Paul’s case. There are times when God permits Satan to afflict us so that God might accomplish a great purpose in our lives.
- There is something worse than sickness, and that is sin; and the worst sin of all is pride. The healthy person who is rebelling against God is in worse shape than the suffering person who is submitting to God and enjoying God’s grace. It is a paradox—and an evidence of the sovereignty of God—that God used Satan, the proudest of all beings, to help keep Paul humble.
- Physical affliction need not be a barrier to effective Christian service. Today’s saints are too prone to pamper themselves and use every little ache or pain as an excuse to stay home from church or refuse to accept opportunities for service. Paul did not permit his thorn in the flesh to become a stumbling block. In fact, he let God turn that thorn into a stepping-stone.
- We can always rest in God’s Word. He always has a message of encouragement for us in times of trial and suffering.
The great French mystic, Madame Guyon, once wrote to a suffering friend, “Ah, if you knew what power there is in an accepted sorrow!”
Paul knew about that power, because he trusted the will of God and depended on the grace of God. That same power can be ours today.
Message Audio/Video and Outline: https://upwards.church/watch-now/leander-campus-videos
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Read Along Daily Bible Reading: YouVersion (https://www.bible.com/organizations/370f8a6e-16bc-464f-8c43-0b7623fd2952)
Sources:
Bruce B. Barton et al., Life Application Bible Commentary – 1 & 2 Corinthians, (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale, 1999), WORDsearch CROSS e-book, Under: “2 CORINTHIANS 12”.
Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary – New Testament, Volume 1, (Colorado Springs, CO: Victor, 2001), WORDsearch CROSS e-book, 674-676.
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