All-Sufficient Grace

In this section of Paul’s letter he engages in a little boasting, which he calls foolishness, to show up the foolishness of the Corinthians in esteeming the ‘super apostles’ . On closer look, we see that his boasting is not of the same ilk as his opponents. Whereas they trumpet their successes and accomplishments, his resume consists of beatings, shipwrecks and humiliations. Even when he might have been able to boast about the exclusive revelations and visions he had received from the Lord, he insists on highlighting his weaknesses and even confesses that to keep him from becoming conceited, the Lord gave him a ‘thorn in the flesh’. The great paradox of Christian ministry is that it is only in weakness that God’s power is displayed just as the ‘weakness’ of Christ’s Cross is the power of God for our salvation. It is in weakness that we learn, as Paul had to, that the grace which flows to us daily from the Cross is all sufficient and God’s power is made perfect in weakness. Rather than grumbling about such weakness or seeking to deny it, we are content since it is by knowing God’s grace as he sustains us in our wretched state that we are able to truly proclaim it and be strong in the face of opposition and adversity.