Intro: In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul talks about an experience God put him through. Known as his "thorn in the flesh," scholars and teachers have tried to explain this passage for centuries. Sadly, it seems most have misinterpreted it and spread false views to generations of Christians. They use this passage to claim that when you are going through a trial (especially a sickness) God may not help you. Instead, he will give you "grace to endure the trial" so that you can "glorify" God through the suffering. People who teach this undermine one of the most important promises in the Bible: that God will always help us during times of trouble. They introduce doubt by suggesting God may not answer our prayers for help. And they imply it is more spiritual or "godly" to accept suffering, than to ask God to deliver you from it. --- I've talked about suffering in several podcasts. But I wanted to discuss 2 Corinthians 12 since it is often abused to push this false idea that God might not answer your prayers for help. There are several reasons people teach this wrong idea: A. they are taking the passage out of context B. translators impose this view by mistranslating one word and C. people do notunderstand grace. --- So, what is Paul talking about? What was his thorn in the flesh? And does this passage mean that suffering is from God and he might not deliver us from it? Let's see what the Bible has to say. I'm Adam Casalino and this is the Gospel Talker podcast… --- Before we get into it, let me put to rest the lie that God might not help you when you're suffering. “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the Lord delivers him out of them all.” (Psalm 34:19, NKJV) If you are a Bible-believing Christian, then you know that you can't interpret one passage of scripture in a way that contradicts another passage of scripture. Those who use 2 Corinthians 12 to teach that God might not deliver you from suffering are ignoring Psalm 34:19—and many other passages besides. God always, always, always delivers his people. That is a non-negotiable. Any doctrine that claims God might not help you, or might not answer your prayer, (or needs evil to accomplish good) is a lie. Such teaching introduces doubt and undermines your confidence in God. And, since you are not confident when you pray, you do not persist in prayer long enough to see God bring the answer. This is an issue of faith. What do you believe to be true? If you believe God helps all those who cry out to him, you will and he will. But if you believe God may not help you, you will have just enough doubt to not trust him. --- Let's take a look at the passage in question: “And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:7–10, NKJV) So, if you are taking a quick, sloppy approach to interpreting this text, you can easily come up with the wrong idea: God sent Paul a problem to cut him down to size! When Paul asked God to remove this problem, God said no! So, we also can't ask God for help when we suffer, we just need grace to endure it. Obviously, if you believe this, you will never ask God for anything. And you will begin to think that a life of faith is purely a life of suffering, not victory. This kind of thinking often leads to the misguided belief that God makes us suffer to purge us of sin. Paul was proud, so God sent him this affliction to humble him. God must be doing the same to me by giving me this sickness, problem, etc. And we end up concluding that if we ask him to deliver us from the problem, we are going against his will. Or, we assume that if he doesn't answer our prayer for help right away, it is not his will to help us. Instead, he will give us "grace" to endure the suffering—until it goes away on its own (if it does at all). · People who use the phrase "grace to endure the suffering" don't know what grace means. · And people who say God wants you to "glorify him in suffering" are doing an injustice to the character of God. --- To understand what Paul is actually saying, we need to look at what he wrote before this section. A part of the reason Paul wrote this letter, 2 Corinthians, was to confront false teachers who were trying to lead the church astray. You might be under the impression that the New Testament church was perfect. They had the apostles, so everything must have been hunkydory. In reality, they had the same problems the Church has today. Like today, there were false teachers going around trying to defraud the church. When I say "defraud" I mean they were deceiving Christians for influence and money. --- Paul had spent a long time building the church in Corinth. After spending over a year and a half there, Corinth had a thriving, prosperious church. After he left, however, false teachers came and tried to defraud the Corinthians. These men claimed to be important leaders, bragging about their skills, accomplishments, and influence. It appears they even had letters supposedly from other leaders in the Church endorsing them. These men tried to cheat the church; and they were successful to a certain extent. Part of what did was underminePaul's relationship with this church. Paul preached the Gospel of Grace—that our relationship with God is based on unearned favor through Jesus' death and resurrection. These men were teaching you are saved and kept right with God only if you perfectly obeyed the Old Testament law. So, they had to drive a wedge between Paul and this church so the Corinthians would believe their false gospel instead of Paul's true Gospel. They did this by insulting Paul and mocking his speaking abilities. --- Paul wasn't going to try to out-boast these con men, whom he called false apostles. Instead, he undermined their pride by boasting in his weaknesses. “But what I do, I will also continue to do, that I may cut off the opportunity from those who desire an opportunity to be regarded just as we are in the things of which they boast.” (2 Corinthians 11:12, NKJV) He goes on to describe some of the hardships he experienced while preaching the gospel. Paul doesn't right about all the miracles he performed, the many people he saw saved, the countless times people were healed by his ministry. That's the kind of thing we'd expect him to say, right? That's what modern ministries talk about when they discuss their work. They focus on their accomplishments, so we'd be impressed by them. Instead, Paul talks all about the horrible parts of his ministry! The times he was in prison, beaten with sticks, stoned to death, robbed, abandoned and rejected by people. Why on earth would he say all this? Because these false apostles never endured these kinds of things for the gospel. Why? Is Paul saying that suffering validates us as Christians? That following Christ is a life of suffering? It's easy to interpret chapters 11 and 12 that way. But that is not what Paul is saying! He is teaching an important lesson about grace. Grace is God's unearned favor. We cannot earn God's approval, love, or blessings. They are only given to us freely, because of what Jesus did for us on the cross. We receive grace when we acknowledge our need for God by faith. That means, there is a way to prevent grace from flowing in your life. And this is what Paul is getting at in this section. These false teachers boasted in their power, abilities, and supposed accomplishments. Paul instead boasted in his weakness. Why? As I said, he was exposing these men for a frauds they were. A true servant of Christ does not boast in himself. He does not think he is all that and a bag of chips. Instead, he acknowledges he is nothing without Jesus. And the best way to illustrate that is to point out all of your weaknesses. But why? Because, if you really want to enjoy "abundance of grace" and God's "gift of righteousness" you need to recognize how much you need him. And the best way to recognize how much you need God is to remind yourself of your weaknesses. So you will never think you can do this thing called life on your own. And you will always, by faith, depend on the Lord for power. Paul points this out in living color with his story about the thorn. --- Paul opens chapter 12 by talking about "a man" who went up to heaven and learned amazing things from the Lord. “It is doubtless not profitable for me to boast. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord: I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows—such a one was caught up to the third heaven. And I know such a man—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows—how he was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. Of such a one I will boast; yet of myself I will not boast, except in my infirmities. For though I might desire to boast, I will not be a fool; for I will speak the truth. But I refrain, lest anyone should think of me above what he sees me to be or hears from me.” (2 Corinthians 12:1–6, NKJV) Paul, of course, is writing about himself. These false apostles, according to Jude, bragged about the "visions" and "dreams" they received from God, which they claimed also validated their ministries. (Remember, these are liars who are spreading a false gospel. But they are bragging about their w
