4) It’s because in God’s eyes, weakness is strength.

2 Cor 12
9 But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me. 10 So I take pleasure in weaknesses, insults, catastrophes, persecutions, and in pressures, because of Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

The word for “weakness” in v9 has many meanings. In addition to the obvious–lacking strength, feeble, frail, ill, undergoing suffering or calamity–it can also refer to an inability to accomplish what they would like to do. How many times do we commit to do something and we don’t follow through? Or, how many times do we commit to being less selfish only to fail? Or, to be more loving or more compassionate and fall miserably short? This is what weakness is. We are sinners who fall short of the glory of God. But there is an amazing truth that Paul reveals in these 2 verses. He gives us one of the keys to spiritual power and vitality.

God’s grace is more than the forgiveness of God to accept you as you are. The grace of God is a POWER that is present in weakness, a power that is perfected in weakness. “Perfected” means to bring to an end, to complete, to fulfill, to reach the intended goal. The same word is used by Christ on the cross when he said, it is finished, it is fulfilled, it is accomplished, sin has been paid in full, it is consummated.

How is power perfected in weakness? When we admit our weakness and we rely on God’s grace to sustain us, then the latter half of v9–Christ’s power resides in us. This is our posture in prayer. Lord, I’ve come up short. I need you. Lord, I can’t do it, but you can. Please take over. Imagine how many times Paul must have prayed this prayer. The external suffering is too much to bear. I feel weak. I can’t do it. Lord, you got to pull me through this one.

Or, regarding the thorn, Paul prayed, I can’t bear it. Lord, help me. Please remove it. He prayed three times, but to no avail. The thorn which was allowed by God kept Paul from fancying himself as a spiritual superman. It kept him pinned down to earth. The thorn also kept Paul pinned close to the Lord, in trust and dependence. God comes to him and says, I won’t take away the thorn, but my grace is sufficient for you. My grace is enough. Rely on me and I’ll get you through.

Humility is not something we can manufacture. We can’t will ourselves to be humble. But through external hardship and internal thorns, we are brought low. Our weakness is revealed. Humility is nothing more than an honest self-assessment. Paul is not asking us to do mental gymnastics to believe we are nothing when in actuality we are something.

2 Cor 12
11 I have become a fool; you forced it on me. I should have been endorsed by you, since I am not in any way inferior to the “super-apostles,” even though I am nothing.

Paul was not speaking falsely when he said he was nothing. This is not false humility. Some people say, I am nothing when they don’t believe they are nothing. They’re dishonest, insincere, they are appearing humble when they are actually proud. Paul was being extremely truthful when he said, I am nothing. Because he understood–weakness is who we are. We have taken off the Iron Man suit. It’s finally being real.

Our entire lives, we have been fed lies. Shows like American Idol give you a taste of what this kind of Me-centered, self-esteem stroking culture has produced in our generation. From birth, our parents tell us we are great. Society tell us you can be whatever you want to be. You can do anything you put your mind to.

I can believe with all my heart that I am good enough to play in the NBA when I am swatting Elijah in my living room, but that is only a fantasy. We have been fed lies to puff up our egos. We have believed what others have told us about ourselves. Fulfill your potential. The sky is the limit. You’re great. Reach for the stars. Christians who grow up with this mentality have a really hard time depending on the Lord. Because most of their lives, they have depended only on themselves. Is it any wonder that Christians lack spiritual power?

Humility teaches us dependence on the Lord. Given his circumstances and his inner torment, it was impossible for Paul to go a day without crying out for God to rescue him. When you are sick in bed, you can’t do anything except groan. If you are fortunate to having a loving roommate or loving spouse, they will care for you. Because you can’t do anything for yourself.

When you are weak, you realize how precious and amazing grace is. Grace is not just needed to kickstart your Christian life. Grace is not just the initial door you pass through to begin your spiritual journey. Grace is needed at the beginning, the middle and the end and everything in between.

Dramatic religious experiences, like the extraordinary revelations Paul received, appear glorious and it makes us feel powerful. There is a power that brings elation, but it is not the kind of power the Lord seeks to give us. What if God gave me spiritual super powers and I felt like a super hero? And I wore a shirt on Sundays with a big “SS” on my chest which stood for Super Spiritual Man. Is that the kind of power God wants to give me? No, he wants me to depend on the grace of God, to admit weakness, to receive the sustaining strength of the Lord to get through each trial, each thorn, every mountain and valley. A life lived like this is powerful.

The grace and power of God intersect with human lives at the point of our weakness. If you think you can live out your life on your own strength, you don’t understand the grace of God. If you think you can live out your Christian faith on your own strength, you don’t understand how the power of God works. Humble people admit, I am weak, I can’t do it, but God, you are strong. His grace will get me through. His grace is sufficient. I just need to stay close to my Lord. His grace is all I need. Weakness trains us to depend on the Lord for everything.

How can you and I tell if we are living by our own strength or God’s strength? It’s hard to tell sometimes. On the outside, we all come to church and read our Bibles and pray before meals so how can we discern if we are living by our own strength vs. God’s strength?

Let’s read 2 Cor 13:4-5. [READ]

Christ himself is the example and the model for us to follow. He was weak to the point of being obedient to death and He allowed himself to be crucified in weakness. But in that act of supreme weakness, God’s power rested on him and Christ was exalted literally from the grave. Now, Paul advises us to test ourselves to see if we are in the faith.

Christ is the standard. He is the answer key. Are we passing the test? How do we know? On God’s scantron, if you will, there are 3 choices. Choice A, B, or C. There is only 1 right answer. Some of us are weak, but it’s not weakness in the same way that Christ was weak.

Choice A) Some are very weak, but their weakness is just a disguise for immaturity.

Please turn with me to 2 Cor 11:28-30. [READ]

At the tail end of the verses outlining Paul’s suffering, Paul mentions his greatest suffering. He suffered the most when he heard that false teachers were stumbling weak brothers and sisters in the faith. He burned with indignation, he felt the most weak, the most frustrated when those who were not yet mature were being led astray.

This is different from the godly weakness that we have been talking about this afternoon. This weakness stems from immaturity.

Let’s read 2 Cor 13:9-11. [READ]

Twice in the span of 3 verses, Paul tells weak or immature Christians to become mature, to become fully mature. In other words, grow up. If you’ve been a Christian for 5, 10, 20 years and you are still immature in the faith, there is something wrong. You are failing the test. It’s time to grow up.

Choice B) Some are strong but their strength comes from self and it stems from pride.

This is hard to discern from Choice C) Few are strong but their strength comes from God and it stems from weakness. On the surface, both can look very similar. You know how you can tell? You look at how that person relates with others.

Let’s read 2 Cor 12:20. [READ]

With the exception of “selfish ambitions” and perhaps “arrogance,” every other sin listed here is relational. Quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, slander, gossip and disorder.

How you relate with others is a good indicator of where your strength is coming from. If your strength is coming from yourself as you try to relate with others, problems will inevitably arise in your relationships.

Prof. Paul Barnett, retired Anglican bishop of North Sydney and Teaching Fellow at Regent College in Vancouver had this to say:

“It is always a temptation for Christian ministers to use one’s position or one’s gifts, or both, to create a circle of admirers. Such a person exercises his ministry in the name of Christ but is really involved in an ‘ego trip.’ More subtly, the minister may encourage people to lean on him like a crutch, out of his own need to be needed. Alternatively, the minister is capable of being corrupted by the power given him in the church so that he becomes a bossy authoritarian who must always have his own way. It must always be remembered that the word ‘minister’ means ‘servant.’ The application is able to be extended to all people whose roles in life give them power over others–parents, employers, business executives, doctors, teachers, lecturers, and many more. The Christian must not shrink from exercising whatever authority his role gives him. But he must do so in a way that creates an environment of justice and fair play. And he himself must at all times remain like Christ and the apostle, a humble servant.”

If self is at core, it will poison your relationships and it will destroy the ministry. Remember, this is THE Pastoral Epistle, arguably more so than even the commonly known pastoral epistles of 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus. So Paul is giving us wise counsel in terms of how we minister and relate with one another in the church. If your strength is coming from yourself, you are failing the test. This relates to the final choice, which is the correct answer.

Choice C) Few are strong but their strength comes from God and it stems from weakness.

A minister or servant leader will not rip relationships apart. A minister or servant leader will not rip churches apart. Instead, he will serve with the purpose of building others up.

Turn with me to 2 Cor 12:19. [READ]

Paul spoke for the purpose of building others up. Again in 2 Cor 13:10, turn with me there. [READ ]

Paul mentions twice about becoming mature and twice about building others up, not tearing them down. What’s the application? It is wrong to say, I can minister out of my own strength. It is equally wrong to say, I am too weak to minister. Both involve a lack of trust in the grace of God and His power to change you.

You may think you are strong because you believe you can minister out of your own strength. Don’t stop there. You have to become weak so that the power and strength of God can reside in you. You may think you are too weak and can’t do anything. Don’t stop there. You have to move beyond your immaturity and begin to trust in the power of God to change you. For one person, you are asking for the grace of God to change you from being proud to being humble and then onto dependence on God’s strength. For another person, you are asking for the grace of God to change you from being immature and insecure to being humble and then onto dependence on God’s strength.

I pray that we can all become like Paul, but ultimately like Jesus Christ, in terms of their servant leadership. Christ embodied divine humility and weakness and God endowed him with divine strength. Not only did he embody this message of weakness, Jesus expressed this weakness in his ministry through his servant leadership and he gave us a pattern of ministry to imitate.

I want to end by rereading 2 Cor 12:9-10.

2 Cor 12
9 But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me. 10 So I take pleasure in weaknesses, insults, catastrophes, persecutions, and in pressures, because of Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Our weakness, God’ strength.