MY GRACE IS SUFFICIENT FOR YOU
 

2 Corinthians 11:1-12:10, Key Verse 12:9

“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.”

In today’s passage, Paul finally goes crazy. No, of course he doesn’t really; in fact, he has a fully sound mind in everything he says. But in order to spiritually wake up the Corinthians who have been led astray by false teachers, Paul engages in a kind of boasting that he would not normally do. Then he teaches them that the right kind of boasting for a believer is boasting about our weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may be revealed. He reminds the Corinthians and us that real Christian power is not based on big-mouthed boasting but on God’s grace that works through our weakness. Let’s pray we may learn to see beyond appearances and rely on the all-sufficient grace that is ours in Jesus.

First, Paul compares his ministry to the super-apostles (1-15).

In Shepherd Rob’s message on last week’s passage, we learned about spiritual warfare. The gospel battles are not fought with human weapons, but with the weapons of the word of God and prayer, and the character of Christ, especially his humility and gentleness. Though these weapons may look humanly weak, in fact they have divine power greater than any bombs or missiles.

This week, Paul is continuing to engage in spiritual warfare for the sake of the Corinthian Christians, and we see him use some highly unconventional weapons, even letting himself seem foolish. But he does so because of his urgency to snatch the Corinthians from the teeth of wolves. Look at Chapter 11 verses 1 and 2. “I hope you will put up with me in a little foolishness. Yes, please put up with me! I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him.” Here, Paul explains that if he seems to be going to extremes, even acting foolish, there is a reason for it. Paul’s zeal to keep the Corinthians on the right path is an example of godly jealousy. He says, “I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him.”

We know the church is called the “bride of Christ.” Coming to Jesus is like being pledged to our true husband in an unbreakable bond of love, for our eternal salvation. When Jesus comes for us, it will be like a glorious wedding ceremony. A wife who is engaged to her future husband would never let herself be taken out on a date by some random other guy. But that was exactly what the Corinthians were doing spiritually when they were entertaining so many false teachers in their fellowship! Paul saw that they were like Eve who was tempted and led astray by the serpent in the Garden of Eden (3). When Christ saw this, his heart was broken just like a husband’s would be.

Verse 4: “For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.” The church at Corinth seemed very open-minded in entertaining new and interesting teachers. But the problem was that they were not discerning when those teachers were actually drawing them away from Christ himself. I remember that in Princeton, the campus office of religious life would invite various famous speakers to campus, many of whom were terrible false teachers with all kinds of new-age ideas. One of the true gospel ministers I knew commented on this, saying, “The office of religious life always tries to find interesting speakers. Unfortunately, heresy is very interesting.”

So, to protect the Corinthian church from these false teachers, Paul has to fight with them, even to the point of comparing his ministry to theirs. In verse 5 he says, “I do not think I am in the least inferior to those ‘super-apostles.’” Apparently, some false teachers were promoting themselves so highly that they even took on the title “super-apostle”, as if to say that they were a level above other apostles. Maybe compared to themselves, they wanted Paul to be considered an “average apostle”.

It’s hard for us to understand this now, because we know Paul is truly great and those false teachers have all been forgotten, but at the time they really tried to outshine Paul. It seems they were trained as excellent public speakers; they must have known how to dress and carry themselves to make a big impression, looking very prestigious and wise, having that “wow factor” and charisma. But Paul is clear, saying he really doesn’t feel inferior to them at all. Paul saw through them, saw that they were all show and no substance. In verse 6 Paul says, “I may indeed be untrained as a speaker, but I do have knowledge.” It’s good to remember that there is a speaking persuasively is not the same thing as actually knowing something.

What is the number one way to distinguish a true ministry from the ministry of false apostles? Look at verse 7. “Was it a sin for me to lower myself in order to elevate you by preaching the gospel of God to you free of charge?” Paul uses sarcasm here to show how absurd it was that the Corinthians showed more respect to people who took their money. The false teachers were all doing what they were doing as a career, to make money. I guess they realized that they could piggyback on the rising popularity of a new religion to become highly-paid public speakers! But the way Paul conducted his ministry made it clear that there was not even a hint of a profit-seeking motive. This doesn’t mean it’s wrong for full-time gospel servants to get paid for their labor; our own UBF organization has paid staff in Chicago and Korea. But it’s about the motive. Paul’s ministry of course needed support, but he was careful to do it in such a way that preaching the gospel was never something he collected a fee for, and he never put the leftovers in his own pocket. This way, those who gave to the ministry could know that they were not purchasing a product, but supporting sacrificial servants to spread the gospel.

Look at verse 12. “And I will keep on doing what I am doing in order to cut the ground from under those who want an opportunity to be considered equal with us in the things they boast about.” It means Paul would keep on offering the gospel free of charge, sacrificially, because that was the one act no false teacher could follow; in the final calculation, all false teachers are in it for themselves. Paul says they are “deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ,” just like Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light (14). Their judgment was coming soon (15).

Thank God for our coworkers who preach the gospel free of charge, even sacrificing their own time and money to serve students who are in need of the word of God. They are every bit as legitimate as the preachers on TV or YouTube. Let’s pray that we may not be wowed by people who look impressive humanly, but join our lives with those who serve and give in the gospel work.

Second, Paul’s boasting (11:16-33)

In order to defend the Corinthian Christians from wolves in sheep’s clothing, Paul now resorts to doing something that he calls “foolish”. He is referring to self-confident boasting. Verse 17 says, “In this self-confident boasting I am not talking as the Lord would, but as a fool.” Do you know what self-confident boasting is? Of course, we have all heard plenty of it, especially from politicians. We might think that we would not listen to such boastful people. But when someone sounds very confident, talking so big, like they have all the answers and know how to fix everything, it’s easy to lose our minds to them. The Corinthians did, and so Paul is trying to shake them out of it, sarcastically saying again, “You gladly put up with fools since you are so wise!” (19) He wants them to realize they have been entranced by people whose only real goal is to take advantage of them to gain power (20-21).

So, Paul is going to boast a little, to show again that he is in no way inferior to the big-talking super-apostles. Look at verses 22-23a. “Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they Abraham’s descendants? So am I. ²³Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more.” As a religious Jew, Paul had credentials that even super-apostles could not match. There is some irony here, because elsewhere Paul said that his earthly credentials and human righteousness were like garbage compared with knowing Christ. But if it were a matter of pedigree, no one could say that Paul was lacking it. He even said he was more of a servant of Christ than others, which he admitted is a kind of off-the-charts thing to say. However, Paul has the facts to back up even this boast.

How did Paul serve Christ? He starts off by saying he has worked harder. That’s indisputable. But then, after that, in the rest of the paragraph, what does he actually boast about? It’s all about his sufferings. He has “been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again.” (23) If you want to get into details, he can go on and on. “²⁴Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. ²⁵Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, ²⁶I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. ²⁷I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked.”

What kind of boasting is this, anyway? Most people boast of their achievements, good things that they accomplished for themselves. What Paul is boasting about sounds like failures. But this is the gospel secret. It is these very sufferings that reveal the character of Christ, who came down to us from heaven not to show off his glory but to serve and suffer for us. Once again, Paul is showing what the false apostles could not do. False teachers who were in it for themselves would never persevere in ministry through the kinds of things Paul endured. The sufferings show Christ’s work through Paul just as much as the achievements. Paul also mentions among his sufferings the internal suffering of his concern for all of the churches (28-29). Would the super-apostles care enough about the church to write such a difficult letter as this, agonizing over the church’s problems? I doubt it.

Look at verse 30. “If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.” This was Paul’s true principle of boasting to reveal God’s glory only. To illustrate this, Paul tells a funny story. Look at verse 32. “In Damascus the governor under King Aretas had the city of the Damascenes guarded in order to arrest me.” Another dangerous situation for Paul. Is this a story about how Paul boldly stood up to the authorities, rebuking the governor and preaching the gospel without compromise? No, not this time. Verse 33 says, “But I was lowered in a basket from a window in the wall and slipped through his hands.” The best word I can think of for this event is “humiliating”. There is nothing in it that makes Paul look good. We don’t need to judge whether Paul should have stood his ground as opposed to escaping. It’s just the fact that God used Paul’s friends to rescue him in a funny way so he could serve Jesus another day. It shows that the life of mission isn’t always glamorous and heroic. And it shows the great contrast between false apostles, who always worry about being properly honored, and servants like Paul, who are not ashamed to look weak or even silly. If Paul had been trying to save his ego, he would never have mentioned the “basket incident.” But he didn’t care, because it was all for Jesus. Let’s also pray that as genuine gospel servants, we may be willing to be dishonored for Jesus.

Third, grace working through weakness (12:1-10)

As Chapter 12 begins, Paul continues his so-called boasting. He moves on to a different category, saying, “I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord.” (12:1) Of course, it is a great privilege to receive a special vision or revelation from God. But for this very reason, false apostles, who want to be recognized by others as holy, also boast about visions and revelations they claim to have received.

Could Paul compete with the super-apostles in the area of visions and revelations? In verse 2, he starts talking about a man in Christ who was caught up to the third heaven. In Jewish astronomy, “third heaven” refers to what we would normally just call “heaven”, above the sky and above outer space, the place where God actually dwells. In the third heaven, he saw paradise and heard inexpressible things that no one is permitted to tell. Wow! Who did Paul know that received such an awesome revelation? In fact, if you read further down, it becomes clear that the man who had this vision was Paul himself.

He speaks in the third person because he is reluctant to talk about anything great in regard to himself. He said in verse 5, “I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses.” Nothing further is known about the content of this vision, because Paul never wrote about it anywhere else. But Paul’s spiritual authority did not rest on receiving supernatural visions. Paul said, “I refrain [from boasting about visions], so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say.” (12:6) Though he was again not at all inferior in the realm of visions, he chose to let his actions and plain words speak for themselves.

A vision is really just a special gift for the person who receives it. That’s why, in our fellowship, we also don’t focus on visions too much. Instead, we focus on sharing grace that we received from the word of God, sharing how some words from the Bible hit home with us in a new way and convicted or encouraged us. To me, this is much better to talk about than a vision, because when it’s from the Bible, it’s undeniable, and other people can understand it just as well and be built up like we were.

Also, the great vision Paul received came with a cost. Verse 7 says that because of the greatness of these revelations, “in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.” God decided that Paul needed something in his life to counterbalance to the greatness of this visionary revelation; otherwise, the temptation to become conceited was too great. So there was a “thorn”. No one knows exactly what Paul’s “thorn” was, but because he says it was “in the flesh,” it must refer to some type of bodily affliction. We know that Paul endured all types of sufferings with no complaints, but this thorn in the flesh was bad enough that Paul pleaded with God three times to take it away (8).

Do you have a thorn in your flesh? Or maybe in your life circumstances? To me, a “thorn” is anything in our life that we feel is an obstacle to living up to our potential. A lot of people feel like their job is a thorn in the flesh. We might think that if we didn’t have the limitation of our thorn dragging us down, we could do much greater works for God. But God might not see it that way. Look at verses 8-9a. “Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. ⁹But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’” God did not take away Paul’s thorn. Rather, he taught him that the thing that seemed to keep him weakened was the very thing that allows God’s power to work through him.

What is the meaning of, “My grace is sufficient for you”? It means that in spite of our weaknesses, limitations, and afflictions, God has given us everything we need to do his good will and finish our mission victoriously. The gospel’s power is not based on human strength but on grace, which is the undeserved free favor of God. The grace of God in Jesus is enough. Grace comes from the cross, where Jesus seemed to be utterly humiliated and defeated, but in fact he won the final victory over our sin. In the same way, grace doesn’t always take away human weakness or suffering but mysteriously channels God’s power through it.

‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ This verse is the life key verse of Missionary Sarah Barry, the co-founder of our UBF ministry. Though God has done so much through her in world mission, she never thinks of herself as an especially able or gifted person. Everyone who talks with her finds her to be so humble and relatable, almost ordinary. Thank God that we don’t need to be puffed-up people like super-apostles to do great things for God. God doesn’t even want that. He wants our lives to display the power of grace. So whatever we are struggling with, let’s remind ourselves that God’s grace is sufficient.

Paul concludes in verse 10 by saying, “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.” The gospel really calls us to turn our value system around. I’m not spiritually mature enough yet to find all hardships and difficulties delightful. But it’s a good reminder of how limited our human point of view is. Let’s pray to at least remember that to God, difficulties are not actually difficult and that grace can give victory in unexpected ways.

Today we saw that Paul’s need to defend the Corinthian church drove him to talk about himself more than he would normally do. But even in his so-called boasting, he revealed the gospel. He taught us that if we boast, we should boast about things that show our weakness and reveal God’s glory. Let’s pray to learn the secret of “When I am weak, then I am strong” and rely on God’s all-sufficient grace.