Introduction

I recently published on Virtue Online an essay titled "The Strength of Weakness," http://tinyurl.com/ah225yq based primarily on this passage in 2nd Corinthians. The present article may be considered Part Two. What I did not address previously was the particular reason why Paul received his "thorn in the flesh." This is my focus here. I have struggled with a 'good problem' in gathering this information: there is an immense amount of helpful material available on this topic written by others, and I have had to decide what to share and what to leave out. If this article appears to be simply an organized compendium of long quotes, I beg your patience. It could have been much longer and these quotes are worth sharing.

The Purpose of the Thorn

In examining some hermeneutical thinking from the experts, I found this helpful information in Nave's commentaries:

First, the good that comes from Paul's 'thorn in the flesh' is defined negatively: to keep me from becoming conceited. We have the saying 'an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.' This is particularly true of human arrogance, which once provoked is very difficult to curb. Most people might be tempted to think quite highly of themselves as a result of extraordinary experiences such as Paul's: "I must be a special person in God's sight that he would allow me to have such remarkable experiences." The thorn was given to prevent this from happening to Paul. The Greek text is quite explicit. It was given "in order to" (hina + the subjunctive) prevent a loftier-than-thou attitude from developing from Paul's extraordinary experiences.

Besides Paul's particular need for his 'thorn,' we also can perceive a general principle that stems from his interchange with the Lord. In certain Christian circles we hear what has come to be called 'the health and wealth gospels,' which are no gospel at all. These theologies contain a belief that it is God's will that everyone should be healthy and happy and that if healing does not occur in answer to prayer or if we are struggling in poverty, it is because we lack faith or have not prayed correctly. This thinking clearly runs contrary to Paul's experience and that of all the apostles and saints.

Without a doubt Paul had great faith, but his request for the removal of the 'thorn' was not answered. This is not to say that he didn't receive an answer. He most assuredly did-'My grace is sufficient for you.' But this is not an answer that the 'flesh' wants to hear, it is not the mindset of a person who is focused on self and 'what God can do for me.' But it is the message we must hear and embrace.

The fact that suffering is a normal experience in the life of Christians, especially those who preach the gospel, is a point that Paul repeatedly to drives home to the Corinthians. If we are to do great things for God, we must pick up our cross and follow Him (as Jesus said) and as Paul wrote, we must "carry around . . . the [dying] of Jesus" and are "always being given over to death" (4:10-11).

Remember, where human strength abounds, the effects of divine power may be overlooked. But where human strength fails, the power is clearly seen to be God's, and is identified at the end of verse 9 as "the power of Christ." Paul is probably thinking of the power that raised Christ from the dead. This divine power, Paul says, is made perfect in weakness. 'Weakness' (astheneia) is a word that crops up frequently in these last four chapters (10:10; 11:21, 29, 30; 12:5, 9, 10; 13:3, 4, 9). It does not signify timidity or lack of resolve. Nor does it refer to self-abasement. It is, rather, Paul's term for the frailties of human existence and the adversities of the gospel ministry, as the reference to insults, hardships, persecutions and difficulties in verse 10 makes clear.

Paul's statement is a rather startling one: God's power neither displaces weakness nor overcomes it. On the contrary, His power comes to its full strength in weakness and He uses it to accomplish His will. Paul's opponents claimed that God's power is best seen in visions, ecstasies and the working of signs and wonders (12:1, 12). Paul, on the other hand, maintained that God's power is most effectively made known in and through human weakness. Indeed, God's power is made perfect in weakness. It is a mysterious and paradoxical truth. From R.T. Kendall's pastorally helpful book The Thorn in the Flesh (2004), I share the following: "It was wise of God the Holy Spirit to withhold from us the identity of Paul's thorn in the flesh, for this enables each of us to enter into the experience. 1

The way the King James Version translates it, this thorn was given to him 'lest I should be exalted above measure.' The NIV translation shows the possibility of Paul taking himself too seriously, and the KJV shows the possibility of others admiring him too much. In my opinion, it is written with an intentional ambiguity; Paul is saying both.

Almost certainly by 'flesh,' Paul means fallen human nature, what Calvin would call the 'unregenerate' part of the soul. The thorn was something in Paul's life that would not go away. God inflicted this [using Satan as a means, as He did with Job]. It was painful and it seemed as though it was there to stay. At least for as long as Paul needed it.

The thorn in the flesh, then, is from God, and it is a way of making us learn. Nothing else will work for us at the time. So God, who knows this, sends the thorn. It is not unlike what C. S. Lewis called 'severe mercy.'

I think that most Christians have one.... I am not talking about the general trials and tribulations that beset every Christian, I refer rather to a crushing blow so definite and lasting that one knows that 'thorn in the flesh' is the best explanation for it.

To be honest, though, I must add that there is a singular kindness attached to such an affliction. So too with yours; it is God's hint to you that He is not finished with you yet. If you ask me, there is no sweeter thought than the sheer consciousness of God refining me to a greater anointing for His glory. This causes me to hold my thorn close to me, almost to embrace it and say, 'Lord I would still prefer that You take it away, but not until it has fulfilled all the purposes for which You allowed it.' I dare pray no other way.

In his hymn, "I Asked the Lord," John Newton (1725-1807, author of "Amazing Grace") wrote that after complaining and asking for respite from temptations in prayer, the Lord responded:

"These inward trials I employ, From self and pride to set thee free,

And break thy schemes of earthly joy, That thou mayest seek thy all in Me."

The Nature of Pride: Hiding from the Truth

The essential error of the Pelagian heresy is to deny original sin and its ever-present effects on us. We want to be proud of ourselves rather than humbled, and we certainly don't want to feel ashamed. But it is vital that we should never forget the stark reality of our fallen nature; hiding from this shameful truth can only keep us from God. Denial and her brother Pride may be the greatest obstacles to spiritual progress as they keep us chained to our sins. Painful at first to acknowledge, the truth regarding our fallen nature and our personal sins can set us free. But until then, we try to delay the negative consequences of judgment by hiding from the truth, for we have yet to trust God's heart.

In Psalm 32, David described both the futility of trying to conceal his sin and then the relief he found when he opened his soul to the Lord in humility: "I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,' and You forgave the iniquity of my sin." Confessing our sins to God and forsaking them brings the awareness that now we have nothing that we need to hide. This is freedom. For when we uncover our sins to God in repentance and trust, He covers them back up with the blood of Jesus Christ.

Here is an helpful little vignette provided by Julie Ackerman Link (Our Daily Bread) that provides an appropriate picture of our dilemma in trying to hide from the truth: "I smelled something burning, so I hurried to the kitchen. Nothing was on the stove or in the oven. I followed my nose through the house. From room to room I went, eventually ending up downstairs. My nose led me to my office and then to my desk. I peeked beneath it and there, peering back at me with big eyes pleading for help, was Maggie, our dog, our very fragrant dog. What smelled like something burning when I was upstairs, now had the distinct odor of skunk. Maggie had gone to the farthest corner of our house to escape the foul smell, but she couldn't get away from herself.

Maggie's dilemma brought to mind the many times I have tried to run away from unpleasant circumstances only to discover that the problem was not the situation I was in but me. Since Adam and Eve hid after sinning (Gen. 3:8), we've all followed their example. We run away from situations thinking we can escape the unpleasantness - only to discover that the unpleasantness is us."

Human beings have been very creative in coming up with ways of trying to hide from God and from ourselves ever since that species-changing episode in the Garden. And Cain tried to run from God. Of course, neither strategy worked; you can't run or hide from God. Like Adam and Eve, we can blame others (projective externalization of responsibility), we can fabricate mental stories until we go crazy (psychosis), and we can distract ourselves into oblivion through all kinds of addictive substances and behaviors. And, most dangerously of all, we can pretend to be significantly better than we are, and perhaps we can convince others and even ourselves that our façade is the truth. This most pernicious 'hiding strategy' is pride.

Pride may be described as that ubiquitous human process of hiding our worst faults behind our best gifts and abilities. It is thinking more highly of ourselves than is appropriate; it is comparing ourselves favorably to others and judging others unfavorably (making ourselves look better in our own eyes); it is erecting a false front of goodness, sophistication and strength in order to hide the reality of our dark side and our actual weaknesses. This façade of pride is the source of all hypocrisy and prejudice. It uses relativistic and competitive thinking to elevate oneself. It says: "I'm better than these people, so I'm not so bad." But in reality, this lie can make us worse than those we judge.

Our sinful pride is more absolutely evil and more separating from God than we realize. From God's perspective, only pure and righteous beings can be allowed into His heavenly Kingdom. So unless we are perfect, it matters not that we might be less sinful than someone else. We are equally unable to get in the door. The only comparison that matters is our comparison to Christ - and we all fall far short of that ideal. Without His righteousness, imputed to us by our faith in Him, we have none. Spiritually speaking, "the ground is level at the foot of the cross" and no one can look down on anyone else. The Worst Sin?

Spiritual pride can be particularly subtle, and was illustrated by the attitudes of the scribes and Pharisees of Jesus' day. David Myers (The Inflated Self: Human Illusions and the Biblical Call to Hope) warns Christians not to be overly certain of our own interpretations, nor to be intimidated by judgmental people, for they too are in error: "The temptation to pride-to think more highly of ourselves than we ought-is ever present. If falsehoods creep into all domains of human belief, then they are bound to contaminate my [biblical interpretations] and yours, and the next person's too. Not only is it therefore OK to have doubts, it is silly self-deification not to grant the likelihood of error within our belief system. Each one of us peers at reality through a glass, darkly, glimpsing only its shadowy outlines. The belief we can hold with greatest certainty is the humbling conviction that some of our beliefs contain error, which is, of course, only a way of saying that we are yet finite men and women, not little gods."

Of course, narcissists are blatant egotists who do tend to perceive themselves as gods and thus must learn to think less highly of themselves. However, for the average Christian, humility does not so much mean thinking less of yourself, rather it means thinking of yourself less, and thinking of God and the needs of others more.

In William Dembski's 2009 book "The End of Christianity: Finding a Good God in an Evil World", he discusses this issue of pride in reference to Lucifer's rise and fall (Isaiah 14:12-15, Ezekiel 28:12-19):

"In both Isaiah and Ezekiel, evil displays a clear direction of movement. It starts with a vertical ascent (the lower rises up and attempts to usurp the higher) and ends with a vertical descent (the lower, having exalted self, is cast down precipitously, never to rise again). The evil here is pride. Pride, by definition, is the exaltation of self about rightful authority. Small wonder that Christian theology has traditionally regarded pride as the deadliest of the deadly sins, for it alone among sins denies that God is God. Pride does not merely disobey God. Pride also entertains the grand ambition of replacing God. And why replace God? Because, says Pride (now writ large), it can do a better job than God. This was Eve's sin- she [in agreeing with the serpent/Satan] thought she knew better than God what was best for her.

Orthodox theologian Alexander Schmemann saw into the heart of evil when he wrote: 'It is not the immorality of the crimes of man that reveal him as a fallen being; it is his positive ideal-religious or secular-and his satisfaction with this ideal.' The heart of evil is pride, which always comes with a self-righteous agenda. It finds fault and knows better. It is intensely moralistic and becomes indignant as soon as its pretensions are exposed.

The tax collectors and prostitutes of Jesus' day had many faults, but pride was not high on the list. They realized their lack of standing before God. As a result, Jesus could offer them hope. Although the tax collectors and prostitutes were widely regarded as the worst sinners in Jewish society, Jesus never condemned them. That distinction He reserved for the Pharisees and Sadducees, who paid lip service to God, but whose real interest lay in glorifying themselves [see Matthew 23]. Their sin, preeminently, was pride."

What is so bad about pride? Pride is the worst of sins, not only because it was Lucifer's original sin, but because it keeps human beings from repentance and faith. Spiritual pride is based on a lie, and when it enters into the life of a believer, it can be devastating. Self-righteousness ("holier than thou") is a form of blindness that, at best, keeps us from growing and at worst can send us to hell. No one can repent and change unless they admit their sin and need of forgiveness. No one can access God's transforming power unless they admit their weakness and need.

This explains why it is that those among God's people who are called to prominent roles (that cause them to receive significant worldly respect, honor, and praise) must be given (like Paul) some evident weakness to keep them from thinking too highly of themselves, as if somehow they deserved such honors. The temptation to pride is far too powerful. We all want to think well of ourselves and to have others think well of us.

Humility is Almost Impossible for Successful People

Prestige, fame, wealth, and worldly influence are not what we are here for and not what we should aim for. If such things come, they may be an actual hindrance to our spiritual development and service to God. The rich man's chances for getting through the gate into the Kingdom are not good (see Matthew 19:24). It's probably worse for the powerful; as the saying goes, "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." So for those who are deemed successful in the world, humility is an especially important virtue to pursue.

Humility is simply honesty about one's true state of being before God. I was enlightened by a personal and creative essay on humility by Max Lucado from his book Traveling Light; I love the title - "Get Over Yourself." I share part of it here in order to complete this study in a lighter vein - since being able to laugh at yourself is an important aspect to humility.

"Humility is such an elusive virtue. Just when you think you have it, you don't, or you wouldn't think you did. You've heard the story of the boy who received the 'Most Humble' badge and had it taken away because he wore it? Something similar happened to me just the other morning. I had retreated to a nearby town to work on this book. The village is a perfect hideaway; it is quaint, quiet, and has great food. I'd gone to a café for breakfast when I noticed that people were staring at me. As I parked, two fellows turned and looked in my direction. A woman did a double take as I entered, and several patrons looked up as I passed. When I took my seat, the waitress gave me a menu but not before she'd given me a good study. Why the attention? Couldn't be my fly; I was wearing sweats. After some thought I took the mature, realistic position and assumed they recognized me from my book jackets. Why this must be a town of readers. And, I shrugged to myself, they know a good author when they see one. My appreciation for the village only increased.

Giving a smile to the folks at the other tables, I set about to enjoy my meal. When I walked to the cash register, the heads turned again. I'm sure C.S. Lewis had the same problem. The woman who took my money started to say something but then paused. Overwhelmed, I guessed. It was only when I stopped in the rest room that I saw the real reason for the attention- a ribbon of dried blood on my chin. My patch job on the shaving nick had not worked, and I was left with my own turkey wattle. So much for feeling famous. They probably thought I was an escapee from a Texas prison. Oh, the things God does to keep us humble. He does it for our own good, you know. Would you set a saddle with poison ivy on the back of your five year old? Would God let you be saddled with arrogance? No way. This is one heavy piece of luggage that God hates. He doesn't dislike arrogance. He doesn't disapprove of arrogance. God hates arrogance. What a meal of maggots would do for your stomach, human pride does for God's. "I hate pride and arrogance" (Proverbs 8:13, NIV). "The Lord despises pride" (Proverbs 16:5, NLT). "Do nothing ... out of vain conceit" (Phil 2:3, NIV) "Do not let arrogance come out of your mouth" (1 Sam 2;3, NASB). And in the same way that He gives grace to the humble, "God opposes the proud" (1 Peter 5:5, NIV). As humility goes before honor, "pride goes ... before a fall" (Proverbs 16:18, NASB).

Ever wonder why churches are powerful in one generation but empty the next? Perhaps the answer is found in Proverbs 15:25: "The Lord will tear down the house of the proud" (NASB).

God hates pride because it is based on a lie and He hates lies. He hates arrogance because we haven't anything to be arrogant about. Do art critics give awards to the canvas? Is there a Pulitzer prize for ink? Can you imagine a scalpel growing proud after a successful heart transplant? Of course not. They are only tools and instruments, so they get no credit for the accomplishments.

We may be the canvas, the paper, or the scalpel, but we are not the ones who deserve the applause. And just to make sure we get the point, right smack-dab in the middle of Psalm 23, David declares who does. The Shepherd leads His sheep, not for our names' sake, but "for HIS names' sake."

Why does God have anything at all to do with us? For His names sake. No other name on the marquee. No other name up in lights. No other name on the front page. This is all done for God's glory. [The chief purposes of mankind, according to the Westminster Confession, is to give glory to God and enjoy Him forever.]

Why? What's the big deal? Does God have an ego problem? No, but WE do. We are about as responsible with applause as I was with cake I won in the first grade. In the grand finale of the musical chairs competition, guess who had a seat? And guess what the little freckle-faced Lucado boy won? A tender, moist coconut cake. And guess what the boy wanted to do that night in one sitting? Eat the whole thing. Not a couple pieces of it. Not half of it. ALL of it. After all, I had won it.

But you know what my folks did? They rationed the cake. They gave me only what I could handle. Knowing that today's binge is tomorrow's bellyache, they made sure I didn't get sick on my success.

God does the same. He takes the cake and shares a little of it. He takes the credit, not because He needs it, but because He knows that we cannot handle it." [...and because only He truly deserves it. God is all about truth.]

Summary

Here is how this principle operates. We hate the reality of our weakness, we hate it that we are faulty souls with vulnerable bodies. We think that without strength and courage and material resources we are bound to fail. Yet such positive human abilities tend to push us to self-sufficiency and away from God-dependency. Second, when we do seem to succeed, we tend to take the credit- rather than giving God the glory. So it follows that true spiritual power in human beings may require weakness, vulnerability, and dependency, for the actual power lies in God alone; we can do no better than to rely solely on Him.

We must remember God's explanation as to why Paul received his thorn: to keep him from becoming self-exalted. Relying on self-strength (knowledge, experience, will-power, assertiveness, experience, IQ, education, health, wealth, beauty, popularity, worldly influence, or all of these things combined) turns out to be a dangerous spiritual fault. Even believing we are among the chosen few (which may be true) can turn into pride and looking down on others. As Paul advised: "Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you." (Romans 12:4) Not even the great saints are qualified to feel superior to anyone else, for all of us are sinners saved by grace. I heard it said once that those persons closest to spiritual perfection are so aware of the faults that remain that they become dismayed rather than proud.

Fortunately for us, God knows exactly when it is necessary to apply a "thorn in the flesh" to prevent self-glorification. No one likes pain. But God knows that pride is a much worse problem than pain. Pain is temporary, but pride has eternal consequences. And so when the "thorn" does intrude into my life, it is always for my best welfare, even if it does not seem so at the time. "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28) According to Jesus' metaphor of the vine and branches in John 15, this painful experience may be regarded as part of a pruning process, so that we 'branches' can bear more and better fruit in the future. Thus, when it comes, we can do no better than to praise God for it.

Note: What exactly was Paul's "thorn in the flesh"?

"It was wise of God the Holy Spirit to withhold from us the identity of Paul's thorn in the flesh, for this enables each of us to enter into the experience." And it was helpful of Dr. R. T. Kendall to point this out. However, the reality of mystery here has not prevented many people from hypothesizing about what Paul's 'thorn' may have been. We tend to think that it was similar to our own painful circumstances. Certainly it is true that many Christians who struggle with same-sex attraction have promoted this hypothesis as a viable possibility for Paul's 'thorn.' But it could have been anything.

My own best guess stems from my father's belief (with some scriptural evidence) that it had to do with Paul's eyes. My father was an ophthalmologist who quickly picked up on the repeating issue of vision in Paul's life, for example:

a) As Saul of Tarsus, he had been spiritually blind as to who Jesus was until the Lord appeared in a blinding light and spoke personally to him on the Damascus Road. Then Saul was physically blind for three days (Acts 9:9, 22:11) until his sight was restored when Ananias put hands on him and prayed. Acts 9 never says that Paul was completely healed, it only says that he could see again. The theory is that Paul's physical vision was never 100% healed (none of our healings are complete until the Resurrection), perhaps as a humbling reminder to Paul of his past spiritual blindness.

b) There is that one place in Paul's letters (Galatians 6:11), where Paul throws in a parenthetical self-deprecating comment about how his writing was so large. Prior to modern technology, many people could not read well due to vision problems (especially far-sightedness) and needed very large print to read and when they wrote, they wrote large.

Paul wrote this after he had commented on the need for mutual dependence and humility in Galatians 6:2-3: "Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves." I am not the first to suggest that perhaps it was Luke, Silas, Barnabas, John Mark, and/or others of Paul's companions who actually penned most of his letters as he dictated them. Remember that the issue was one of pride that could occur as a result of the great revelations and visions from God. Light is necessary in order to see, but too much light can blind. So God may have chosen t0 limit Paul's physical vision as a reminder of where he had come from and of his continued need of help from others. Paul was totally forgiven for his past sins so he did not need to feel guilty, he just needed to stay humble. So Satan was allowed by God to send the 'thorn' to aid in this divine task. c) Another small bit of evidence is the blinding of the Jewish sorcerer by Paul recorded in Acts 13. Why use blinding? Because the whole issue of vision and blindness was always immediately before Paul. It was probably the first thing he would think of.

The connection being made here is that the purpose of Paul's problem with vision was to remind him of his history as a legalistic Pharisee and his susceptibility to spiritual blindness - so that while God was providing him with visions and amazing revelations of the deeper truths, it would keep him from developing a superiority complex.

Dr. Atkinson is a graduate of Fuller Theological Seminary with a doctorate in clinical psychology and an M.A. in theology. He is a licensed psychologist in clinical practice in Atlanta and also works as a clinical supervisor training Christian counselors for Richmont Graduate University. He is a founding member of Trinity Anglican Church in Douglasville, Georgia.