Topical Studies
What the Bible says about
Thorn in the Flesh
(From Forerunner Commentary)
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2 Corinthians 6:11
Understanding II Corinthians as a whole requires knowledge of the often-strained relationship between the apostle Paul and the church in Corinth. The city was a crossroads of the pagan Mediterranean culture of the day, and every kind of philosophy, religion, and activity was available there. Thus, the people who responded to Paul's evangelism, mostly Gentiles, had to unlearn a great deal of worldliness—to put it lightly. They often went to extremes and were easily convinced one way or another. If we did not know that the apostle Paul's “thorn in the flesh” (II Corinthians 12:7-10) was an actual bodily ailment, the Corinthian church would have been a good candidate for it! Many Corinthians appear not to have had a good opinion of Paul, especially when they compared him to Peter and Apollos (I Corinthians 1:12; 3:4). He was not to their stature, they thought, not as bold and powerful as Peter or as eloquent and dynamic as Apollos (II Corinthians 10:10). They suspected him of impure motives, and his demanding, corrective style (as they saw it) often rubbed them the wrong way. Besides, he said things that confused and constrained them, though he also spoke about freedom, and perhaps he was just a mite too intellectual for them. In addition, he had written to them of his plan to spend some time with them (see I Corinthians 16:5-7), but due to a crisis in the Corinthian congregation (see II Corinthians 12:21; 13:2), he changed his plans, deciding that the crisis warranted an emergency visit, a year earlier than planned. But that visit was a painful disaster, a source of “sorrow” (II Corinthians 2:1-2) because, when Paul sought to correct the situation, it led to the “contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, backbitings, whisperings, conceits, tumults” mentioned in II Corinthians 12:20. He made plans to visit them twice more before returning to Judea (see II Corinthians 1:15-16). After returning to Ephesus, however, he changed his mind about his plans (reverting to his original one) and sent them another epistle (lost to history), which has come to be known in scholarly circles as the “Severe Letter” (see II Corinthians 2:3-4; 7:8-12). He seems to have decided another face-to-face visit would cause further grief, and a letter would be less confrontational. But his new plan backfired on him, as the Corinthians were offended by his vacillation, thinking him “fleshly” (see II Corinthians 1:12, 17), that is, carnal, not spiritually minded. Even so—wonder of wonders!—they responded positively to his correction in the “Severe Letter” and repented (see II Corinthians 7:7-16). Finally, also undermining Paul's reputation, a group of false apostles, probably of a Jewish bent, had infiltrated the Corinthian church (see II Corinthians 2:17-3:2; 5:11-13; 10:12-12:13). They accused him of peddling God's Word and commending himself, and they claimed he was not an apostle at all. These false teachers had shattered the Corinthians' confidence in Paul and his teaching. Such is the setting of Paul's exclamation in II Corinthians 6:11. His solution to his problems with the Corinthian members was to be completely open with them about everything. He would hold nothing back. In Greek, the sentence reads more literally, “Our mouth has been opened to you, Corinthians; our heart has been opened to you!” He lays his thinking and emotions bare to their scrutiny, telling them plainly, hoping they would see he had dealt with them genuinely and righteously. He loves them and wants to help them “come to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13). He has done everything for their spiritual good. In the next verses, he tells them he has not restrained his affection for them, as they probably thought he did not love them. But he does not hold back that their attitude toward him restricted them, stating that they needed to reciprocate, to be open with him (II Corinthians 6:13). In essence, he says, “For my part, I've cleared the air and spoken the truth. Now you do the same.” We can take it as a lesson in interpersonal relations: Honesty and openness, with humility, are the best policy. But how hard it is to do!
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
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2 Corinthians 12:7-10
Paul turned what could have sent him into deep bitterness and passivity (an affliction God decided not to heal when Paul felt he needed it) into a strength (humility and a deeper reliance on God). As painful, frustrating or hindering as it was, his circumstance never deterred him from being an apostle who by the grace of God labored more abundantly than all others (I Corinthians 15:10).
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Sovereignty of God: Part Two
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2 Corinthians 12:7-10
These verses show us two examples regarding prayer: First, it illustrates how God can respond to our prayers, and second, how Paul reacted to God's answer. We, like Paul, want God to remove our afflictions any time we are in discomfort, but especially when the affliction is chronic and, we feel, inhibits accomplishment. God's response to Paul, however, fit a far greater need, perhaps to keep Paul humble so that his many gifts did not become a curse. Instead, God gave him strength to bear up under the affliction, thus keeping him in a constant state of dependency for strength to go on. Paul humbly accepted this and continued his ministry despite his affliction, knowing it was fulfilling God's will.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Sovereignty of God: Part Nine
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2 Corinthians 12:9
God's grace is sufficient for us. Grace in general terms is "favor." It is what God favors us with, what He gives to us. It can include spiritual gifts or physical things that He provides. By His grace, we have food to eat every day, we have clothes to wear, and we have a roof over our heads or cars to drive. Paul considered his "thorn in the flesh" to be part of God's grace, a hard thing to say. How could he say that an affliction that God allowed could be part of His grace toward him? Because with an infirmity, whatever it happened to be, God balanced out for Paul the revelations that he had received, so that he would not become big-headed, sin presumptuously, and lose his salvation. It was good for Paul to be afflicted, because if he were not afflicted, he just might have done something that he would have regretted, like presumptuously taking upon himself too much, more than had been given. So Paul says, "I'm content being afflicted, because I know that God's grace is sufficient for me. This affliction is good for me, helping me to make it into God's kingdom." We have a hard time thinking this way. We consider this sort of affliction to be evil, but Paul turns that on its head, saying, "No, it is good, because with this affliction, I am weak, and because I am weak, then I don't get the big head. Then Christ can work in and through me, and the work gets done." So he was content.
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Countering Presumptuousness
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