Dr. Alan J. Dunn

Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself! Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong (2 Corinthians. 12:7-10).

Paul asked the Lord to remove this thorn three times and yet He did not remove it. What was this thorn? No one knows for certain. Commentators make various suggestions: a demon, the false apostles, a physical ailment, maybe bad eyesight (Gal. 4:15), or some other chronic debilitation. Evidently, Paul contended with this thorn for over fourteen years (v.1) because it was given along with the surpassing revelations of his heavenly vision. Whatever it was, it was another obvious weakness. However, Paul discerned both the sovereignty of God and the insidiousness of Satan operating in the one same thorn. He said it was given me, a divine passive, and yet he understood that it was a messenger of Satan, sent by Satan. We think of Job and how God permitted Satan to attack Job. We may wonder what Job knew about Satan,¹ the accuser of the brethren (Rev. 12:10), but Paul knew that his thorn was a messenger of Satan.

Did the Corinthians know what Paul’s thorn was? We cannot say, but we can say that the Spirit wants us to know, not what the thorn was per se, but the lesson Paul learned from it. The lesson? Paul repeats what he learned twice in verse 7 to be sure that we get it: to keep me from exalting myself. When the Corinthians initially heard that Paul had a vision of Paradise, no doubt they glanced at each other with expressions of relief. At last, now their apostle looked like someone of whom they could be proud! Then here comes this thorn which punctured their newly inflated pride. That is what a thorn does to the rising hot-air balloon of arrogance. Thorns keep us from exalting ourselves.² That was the precise purpose of Paul’s thorn: to keep me from exalting myself. What did the thorn teach Paul? Humility. This vision of Paradise could have enticed Paul to start boasting like a Corinthian! Instead, the thorn taught him to be a Christian.

It is crucial that we learn the lesson of humility by perceiving that the thorn was something that made Paul weak. The undefined character of the thorn invites us to focus in on the lesson: learn humility. The “thorn” can represent anything with which we might have to contend in the good fight which we are called to fight. Whatever our “thorn” might be, it has theological and sanctifying significance. It is given by God, even if we perceive a demonic dimension in it, and it has a saving purpose. It is given to puncture our pride. It is given to humble us. It will hurt. It brings suffering. Nevertheless, as we learn to suffer for Christ, our weakness becomes the stage on which the power of Christ’s resurrection life will manifest itself. In that life, there is joy inexpressible and full of glory (1 Pet. 1:8e). In Christ, we can even learn to be most glad and content in our weaknesses as we experience the indwelling presence and power of Christ (2 Cor. 12:9-10). In union with the crucified and risen Christ, we can learn to communicate Christ even to Corinthians.

Like Jesus in Gethsemane, Paul prayed three times asking the Lord to take away the thorn. The Lord did not remove the thorn, but He did speak to Paul, and He said to me… and this time, Paul told the Corinthians what He said! It is interesting that Paul was not permitted to speak the inexpressible words that he heard in Paradise. O, how the Corinthians would have loved to have heard those words! Paul does, however, tell them these words from Jesus. He told them what Christ said to him after his thrice-prayed petition failed to be answered as asked. Again, the Corinthian might have paused in bewildered embarrassment. “Can’t Paul even get his prayers answered? Well, at least Jesus said something to this supposed apostle. Paul, what did Jesus say?” He said what has become one of Scripture’s most wonderful axiomatic truths: My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness. Rather than revealing the words of ineffable glory, Paul recounted Christ’s words given to sustain him in his weakness and suffering. As Jesus, who rose from His prayers to accept Satan’s heel-piercing fangs at Calvary, so too Paul rose from his prayers to accept Satan’s thorny messenger through the course of his ministry. Paul labored in Corinth having learned the lesson of Calvary and the empty tomb: Christ has crushed Satan and as we live out the death-to-life-dynamic of the gospel, the God of peace will soon crush Satan under our feet (Rom. 16:20a).

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¹ We might think that Satan appears at the beginning of Job and then moves off stage and Job had no clue as to his involvement in his suffering. Christopher Ash, Job: The Wisdom of the Cross (Wheaton, IL., Crossway, 2014), 420, encourages us to think that when the Lord assured Job of His sovereignty over evil depicted by the Behemoth and the Leviathan, that Job was given adequate instruction to answer the questions of theodicy and God’s superintending sovereignty over Satan. “We are therefore on strong Biblical grounds when we identify the Leviathan at the end of the book of Job with the Satan at the start. This also answers a popular objection to the integrity of the book, namely, that the Satan plays a critical role at the start and then disappears from view. He does not disappear from view; he appears in all his evil terror at the end.” Job learned that the Lord is stronger than evil, death, and Satan. With a renewed view of the transcendent majesty of God, he was then told to honor the Lord with sacrificial worship (Job 42:8). Paul knew that Satan had been defeated by Jesus whose sacrificial worship on Calvary crushed the serpent’s head (Gen. 3:15). Paul submitted to the impeccable purposes of his ascended Sovereign, who even uses messengers of Satan for the benefit of His servants and the advancement of His kingdom of redemptive grace.

²ὑπεραίρωμαι subjunctive present passive first person singular of ὑπεραίρω: to lift one’s self up above and beyond, to proudly set oneself up, puffed up with pride.

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Extract from Christianity or Corinthianity? Communicating Christ to Contemporary Corinthians , which will be published soon by Pillar and Ground of the Truth