"There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan."
25. And must this mighty apostle, O merciful God, be subject to trials
lest he exalt himself because of his great revelations? Then how
should others, how should such infirm beings as we, be free from
self-exaltation? Many teachers have explained Paul's thorn to be the
temptations of the flesh. The Latin text is responsible for this
interpretation; it reads, "stimulus carnis," a spear, or thorn for the
flesh. Yet that rendering does not do justice to the words. Paul is
not in the habit of terming temptations of the flesh "thorns." The
thorn stands rather for something painful and afflicting. In "a thorn
of the flesh" the thought is not of an instrumentality whereby the
flesh stings, but of something that stings the flesh. The Greek text
impels us to the thought of a thorn for the flesh, or a thorn upon or
in the flesh. The idea is much like that in the German proverb, "The
clog is bound to the dog's neck." We may imagine Paul expressing
himself: "As a clog to a dog's neck, as a ring in a bear's nose, a bit
in a horse's mouth or a gag in the mouth of a swine, in order to
restrain them from running, biting and general mischief,--so is my
thorn a clog to my body lest I exalt myself."
26. But Paul himself explains the nature of the clog, or thorn. He
calls it "a messenger of Satan," a devil, to "buffet" him, or to flay
and jog him. Hence a spiritual trial cannot be meant. The explanation
appeals to me that the persecutions and sufferings the apostle
recounts above constitute the devil's flaying. Thus his meaning would
be: "I have received great revelations, for which reason the clog is
bound to the dog; that is, the many dangers and misfortunes with which
the angel of the devil buffets and humiliates my body will make me
forget to exalt myself. They are the thorn in my flesh, or upon my
body; for God will not permit it to come upon my soul."
27. Yet the text seems to imply some peculiar work of the devil upon
Paul's body, for it says the thorn, or clog, is the messenger Satan
employs to beat his body; and also that the apostle diligently but
unavailingly thrice besought the Lord to remove it. I do not imagine
him praying for the cessation of persecutions in a spirit of
unwillingness to suffer them. But since he does not specify the
affliction, we must let it remain a secret one, a distress known only
to himself. It is enough for us to know that while God had given him
great revelations, revelations beyond human ken, he also bound the
clog to him--gave him a thorn for his body--to prevent his exaltation
of himself; and that the knowledge of the buffetings and flaying
caused by this clog, or devil, are likewise beyond human ken.
"My power is made perfect in weakness."
28. It is a strange sort of strength which is weak and by its weakness
grows stronger. Who ever heard of weak strength? or more absurd still,
that strength is increased by weakness? Paul would here make a
distinction between human strength and divine. Human strength
increases with enhancement and decreases with enfeeblement. But God's
power--his Word in us--rises in proportion to the pressure it
receives. It is characteristic of God the Creator that he creates all
things from naught, and again reduces to naught all created things.
Human power cannot do this. The power of God is the true palm-wood
which buoys itself in proportion as it is burdened and weighted.
29. Note here, "weakness" is not to be understood in a spiritual
sense, as on a previous occasion, but externally; as not illness
alone, but every sort of evil, misfortune, suffering and persecution
calculated to buffet and humble the body. The power of Christ, in
connection with which spiritual weakness cannot exist, is invoked
against this weakness likewise. He says, "Most gladly will I glory in
my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." And his
weaknesses he immediately explains as infirmities, injuries,
necessities, persecutions and distresses. The thought, then, is:
Christ is not mighty within us, his word and his faith are not strong
in us, unless our bodies suffer affliction. The false apostles,
however, take excellent care to escape suffering.
_Sunday Before Lent_
Text: First Corinthians 13.
1 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love,
I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have the
gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I
have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am
nothing. 3 And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I
give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing.
4 Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth
not itself, is not puffed up, 5 doth not behave itself unseemly,
seeketh not its own, is not provoked, taketh not account of evil; 6
rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth; 7
beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth
all things. 8 Love never faileth: but whether there be prophecies,
they shall be done away; whether there be tongues, they shall cease;
whether there be knowledge, it shall be done away. 9 For we know in
part, and we prophesy in part; 10 but when that which is perfect is
come, that which is in part shall be done away. 11 When I was a child,
I spake as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child: now that
I am become a man, I have put away childish things. 12 For now we see
in a mirror, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but
then shall I know fully even as also I was fully known. 13 But now
abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is
love.