2 Corinthians 12

Humanly speaking, as historical figures go, the Apostle Paul has much that he could boast about. He worked miracles; he spoke in more tongues than anyone else; he saw the Lord; he heard from the Lord; and like the Old Testament prophets, he was brought up to visit heavenly paradise. Yet he chooses not to boast in His many visions and revelations. He instead boasts in His weakness. It is in the weakness of His willing death for sinners that the Lord demonstrated the greatest power ever known. We follow Him in ministry when we celebrate not our supposed spiritual strength or ability, but the way that God is able to use the weak to display His own power in bringing life to the dead.

Think about the work of Christ and its relevance for our understanding of powerful ministry. Millions were bound in sins chains according to our own demerit and Adam’s sin. Imagine the firepower necessary to make an assault on hell, and to free the captives who were bound in death and misery. Who would know how to fight that battle, and who could put together a military strategy that would have even the remotest chance of success? Yet Jesus not only defeated death with the power of His weakness, He also secured permanently boundless life for millions. This is the power of the cross, and it must be celebrated not only with our words but with deeds of powerful ministerial weakness. There are already enough worldly boasters plying their trade, but the longer one listens to God, one gets the impression that such proud self-promoters accomplish less than they suspect. God converts. God sanctifies. God keeps. God glorifies. Our little part is just the story of God using weakness to demonstrate His power.

Some of the most important things that happen in the life of any minister are not his worldly successes, but his surrenders. Paul was no different in this. We all would become elated beyond reason in the fact that we seem to know what others don’t understand. The normal course of blessing is not through being puffed-up, but through being humbled. When we receive some thorn in the flesh, or some messenger of Satan to harass us, we can be sure that there is a best of all friends behind every providence, the God who is working all things for our good. Though we plead with Him that we will actually be much better servants without our troubles, it could well be that His reply to us is, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

If we have this happen to us frequently and deeply enough, it may be that we will come to see things well, leave our impressive and autobiographical letters of recommendation unopened, and boast instead in the fact of insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities that were very important in our further understanding of, and surrender to, the message of the cross. Is the world so very sweet to you? What reason do you have to seek a sweeter blessing beyond what any number of peddlers would like to sell you? But when we embrace weakness, the strength of God has somehow become our strength, and our surrender to the Christ who surrendered Himself to death for us becomes fuller, richer, and more fruitful in our love for others.

Paul loves the Corinthians. Is this because Paul is a nice fellow, who cannot help but defer to everyone around him? From what we have been reading this does not appear particularly likely. Paul has been humbled through unusual suffering. This was not entirely a surprise, since at the time when he was called to this ministry, the Lord made it known that He would be showing Paul how much he would have to suffer for the Name of Jesus. Any man is only so strong. Eventually we must give in to grace, particularly if we want to proclaim that grace to others. It is then when our weakness finally becomes a greater testimony of what we have to offer than our miracles. Paul did not get any money from the Corinthians, though he had the right. His challenge to all the false ministers was to match his scanty compensation plan, and then see whether they were faithful to the call that they claim God had given them. Paul loved the Corinthians not for what he could get from them, but for what God had done for them in the person of Jesus Christ.

The ministerial imposter has no credibility in such a boast. He is not like the Christ who died for us. He harbors secret desires for his own everything. He hates men like the apostle Paul for the same reasons that so many Pharisees hated Jesus Christ. But the Lord has put all His enemies to open shame in the mighty display of His weakness. Let that cross of Christ be your strength and your boast, and do not reject the trials that He gives you, and may God show you that His weakness is far stronger than the powerful boasts that men so easily make in themselves.