{"id":5783,"date":"2020-11-16T08:00:46","date_gmt":"2020-11-16T00:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=5783"},"modified":"2021-10-07T05:08:12","modified_gmt":"2021-10-06T21:08:12","slug":"263-st-paul-on-strength-in-weakness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=5783","title":{"rendered":"260. St Paul on Strength in Weakness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #008080;\"><strong><sup>7\u00a0<\/sup>even considering the exceptional character of the revelations. Therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated. <sup>8\u00a0<\/sup>Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me,\u00a0<sup>9\u00a0<\/sup>but he said to me, \u201cMy grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.\u201d So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.\u00a0<sup>10\u00a0<\/sup>Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong<\/strong>.<\/span> (<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">2 Cor. 12:7-10<\/span>, <em>NRSV<\/em>)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Paul-Writng-by-Jeff-Ward.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-5784\" src=\"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Paul-Writng-by-Jeff-Ward-272x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"562\" height=\"620\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Saint Paul makes two very catchy statements:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cMy grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cfor when I am weak, then I am strong.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">But what does he mean? And, what life-applications do they hold for us today?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">We must render attention first to the context of Paul\u2019s two statements.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Paul has himself (even though he spoke of a third party \u2013 a man) been granted visions and revelations of exceptional character from God . It was something he did not consider proper to talk about, lest he be judged boastful. In fact, what he wrote suggests that, like a mystic, he had an out-of-body experience, a wonderful \u201cdetachment\u201d no doubt, as his spirit rose to an unsurpassable ecstasy in its nearness to God. Using the word \u201cparadise,\u201d Paul referred to an intimate companionship with God. Paul had been the companion of God!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>A Price for Vision of the Divine<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In Paul\u2019s view, the surpassing nature of the revelation granted to him obliged him to exercise refrain. In this, Scripture captures for us the warning inherent in the Christian journey where the vision of the glory of God is granted, one to which the story of the Transfiguration had already pointed, that is, <strong><em><u>after the vision of glory, comes the pain<\/u><\/em><\/strong>. As the story after the Transfiguration has shown, the first disciples of Christ were helped by the <em>remembered-<\/em>vision of the transfigured glory of Christ to see them through their times of severe hardship after the Lord had departed from them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Now in the case of Paul, to stop him from getting puffed up with pride over the exceptional gift of revelation, a <em>skolops<\/em> (Greek for a thorn or stake) was given him in the flesh. It is, for him, like \u201ca messenger of Satan\u201d to harass him. He says it again: it is to keep him from being too elated.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">What did he do about it? Three times he begged the Lord to relieve him of the <em>skolops<\/em>. But the Lord directed him to divine grace as sufficient remedy for his woes: \u201c<u>My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness<\/u>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Understanding all this, despite the great discomfort of the \u201c<em>skolops<\/em>\u201d, Paul learned to gladly boast of his weaknesses, so that the power of Christ could work all the more powerfully in him.\u00a0He then concludes in what has now become powerful substance of his famous spirituality, that is, \u201cstrength in weakness\u201d:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><sup>10\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities; for <strong><u>when I am weak, then I am strong<\/u>. <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>What Is Paul\u2019s \u201c<em>Skolops<\/em>\u201d?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The word <em><u>skolops<\/u><\/em> in 2 Corinthians <u>12:7<\/u>, translated as \u201cthorn\u201d, is used only once in the entire New Testament. It normally meant a pointed piece of wood &#8211; a stake.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">As to what St Paul actually referred to, opinions from scholars boil down to three possibilities.<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The first reading takes the thorn to refer to human opposition and persecution that often stalked Paul in his ministry.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The second sees the thorn as a physical pain caused by some constant bodily ailment or infirmity, an illness, or disfigurement, or disability of some sort such as a poor eyesight. [Paul wrote in large letters &#8211; Gal 6:11.]<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The third is a popular Catholic view of the thorn as a moral (or carnal) temptation that constantly plagued the apostle. As he had written: <em>\u201cDo we not have a right to be accompanied by a wife, as the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?\u201d (1 Cor 9:5). Concupiscence or s<\/em>exual lust, after all, is the most difficult basic human instinct to tame.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Saint Francis de Sales wrote that concupiscence is left in us for our discipline to the end that we may exercise spiritual valour by resisting it. It is something that we need to always fight against but never subdue, weaken but never destroy. It lives with us, and it never dies until we die. It is truly accursed and detestable, since it issues from sin, and tends to sin. And yet, it can never make us guilty unless we assent to it and obey it. This <em>skolops<\/em>,\u00a0though truly a &#8220;rebellion of the sensual appetite&#8221;, does not reign in us unless we give consent to it. Grace strengthens our resistance against giving that consent (see Rom 6:1-14).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">St Paul might have lived in a world way apart from us, but his issues remain just as relevant today. We have the same issues. So the struggle is still on. So long as we are human and alive, we all live with what the Chinese call the \u201cseven emotions and six desires\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (\u4e03\u60c5\u516d\u6b32).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Pointers for Spiritual Reflection in Paul\u2019s Experience <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Whatever the\u00a0<em>skolops<\/em>\u00a0in Paul&#8217;s flesh was, two truths from the context seem obvious:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Firstly, the reason for the <em>skolops<\/em> to be given to Paul was to prevent him from getting too proud. There is a clear message to all this for us: We need to check self-exaltation, and becoming puffed up by pride. Of course there is an expression that we find encouraging at times: \u201cI must take pride in what I do.\u201d This form of pride is pleasant and tolerable and we would all do well with it. But when we allow this pride to cause us to be \u201chigh and mighty\u201d, to be conceited, then our pride becomes unhealthy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Secondly, consider the fact that though Paul \u201c<em>implored the Lord three times <\/em>that this <em>skolops<\/em> might leave him,\u201d the Lord\u2019s reply forms the basis of the second reason why the\u00a0<em>skolops<\/em>\u00a0was given, that is: \u201cMy grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.\u201d [<em>NLT<\/em>]<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">So we learn from Paul that if you have a \u201cthorn in the flesh\u201d that you have been praying to the Lord for it to leave you, but it still remains, take courage. For the Lord is up to something wonderful in your life. St Paul guarantees that God\u2019s grace and power is all we need in \u201cthorny\u201d times, so long as we remain humble and weak before God. As we surrender our temptations over to God, Paul\u2019s dictum points to God\u2019s grace that turns temptations into opportunities to grow in spiritual valour. Then, our \u201cpower\u201d gets perfected in weakness, as God becomes powerful in us.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Copyright \u00a9 Dr. Jeffrey &amp; Angie Goh, November 2020. All rights reserved.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">You are most welcome to respond to this post. Email your comments to <strong><u><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"mailto:jeffangiegoh@gmail.com\">jeffangiegoh@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/u><\/strong> You can also be dialogue partners in this <em>Ephphatha Coffee-Corner Ministry<\/em> by sending us questions for discussion.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>7\u00a0even considering the exceptional character of the revelations. Therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated. 8\u00a0Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me,\u00a09\u00a0but he said to <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=5783\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Dr. Jeffrey &amp; Angie Goh","author_link":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?author=1"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?cat=1\" rel=\"category\">From Our Perspective<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"7\u00a0even considering the exceptional character of the revelations. Therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated. 8\u00a0Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me,\u00a09\u00a0but he said to&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5783"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5783"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5783\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6672,"href":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5783\/revisions\/6672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}