Boasting in Weakness
For Meditation
Most of us are probably familiar with phrases like “put your best foot forward,” or “you have one chance to make a first impression,” and we’ve likely heard them as encouragement to present ourselves well to others. If we were to work to live out those statements, we most likely wouldn’t present our weaknesses first. In fact, we probably would work diligently to keep our weaknesses from showing. We work hard to present ourselves as people who don’t have any significant struggles or any major weaknesses, all the while knowing that there are things we’d rather not have be true of us or that we’d rather not have to deal with because they remind us and show uswe’re weak.
Weakness is a reality for all of us whether we acknowledge it or not and we can respond in different ways to this reality. Many of the ways we can, and often do respond, don’t lead us to full and abundant life, but there is one way we can respond to weakness that leads to flourishing and life. The apostle Paul has been writing about this all through the letter of 2 Corinthians and in chapter 12 verses 1-10 he clearly spells it out. The way to truly flourish is to boast in weakness.
To say this is counterintuitive is an understatement to us, but as Paul has been writing and as well explore more in the sermon we’ll see that it’s in our weakness that God’s power is made perfect. It’s in our weakness that Jesus’ power rests on us and when that’s true in our lives we’ll live a life of flourishing, even in the midst of the struggles and difficulties of our weaknesses.
2 Corinthians 12:1-10
1 I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. 2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. 3 And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows— 4 was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell. 5 I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses. 6 Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, 7 or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.