Strength in Weakness.
I. What was it that caused the heart of St. Paul to overflow in this now familiar paradox? It was some special personal temptation of a very painful kind, which he calls a thorn in the flesh. He was attacked by some kind of trial so severe that he speaks of it as a messenger of Satan, and besought the Lord not once, but thrice, that it might depart from him. His prayer was answered, though in a different manner from that which he anticipated. It was answered in substance. His infirmity remained, but he was taught that, so far from being the weaker for it, he might become the stronger; and still more, the power of the Master would "come out," as we say, all the more prominently in consequence of the weakness of His servant. The more painful and obvious the deficiencies under which St. Paul might labour personally, the more clear it would become that any triumphs achieved by him were due, not to himself, but to Christ. His weakness, as we may express it, would be a foil to Christ's strength.
II. It is indeed a universal law that strength is made perfect in weakness; that strength is brought out into strongest relief when it appears in a naturally weak agent. The law has infinite illustrations, and they are very beautiful. For instance, the most' timid bird will show courage when its young ones are threatened with danger. Here it is the instinct of parental affection which brings strength out of weakness. And, to take a higher illustration, what is more interesting than to mark how many of the greatest commanders in war, by land and sea, have been men whose constitution seemed always on the point of breaking down? Here it is patriotism or professional pride which makes strength perfect in weakness; but when we come to spiritual dangers and conflicts, there really is no power in heaven or in earth that can give us permanently the victory but the power of Christ from above working in us here below. We must come to feel that Christ is absolutely essential to us; that at the foot of His cross and the foot of His throne in heaven is the only strength which can carry any one of us through life on earth to life in heaven.
H. M. Butler, Harrow Sermons,p. 365.
Strength out of Weakness.
The true position of the Church of God in the world is that of weakness, and it is through this very weakness that she manifests her power. When the Christian is most sensible of his own weakness and most distrustful of his own strength, then the power of Christ rests upon him. The Saviour fills none but the hungry, and strengthens none but the weak.
I. A sense of weakness has a natural tendency to make us strong, because it puts us on our guard against temptation. We are never more in danger of falling into the snares of the devil than when we flatter ourselves that we are most secure.
II. A sense of weakness is calculated to give us strength, because it obliges us to lean upon the Saviour. Self-dependence is a broken reed. It may serve a good turn, perhaps, when no great pressure is to be sustained, but when trials and afflictions come, with their crushing weight, we must have underneath us the everlasting arms. The more we let go confidence in ourselves, the more abundant help shall we receive from God.
III. A sense of weakness has a natural tendency to make us strong by rendering us earnest and persevering in prayer. When good old Bishop Latimer was describing the way in which his father trained him as a yeoman's son, he said, "I had my bows bought me according to my age and strength: as I increased in them, so my bows were made bigger and bigger." Thus boys grow into crossbow-men, and, by a like increase in the weight of their trials, Christians become veterans in the hosts of the Lord.
J. N. Norton, Every Sunday,p. 385.
Strength in Weakness.
God's answer to Paul's prayer lays down a general law. God does not merely promise to perfect Paul's strength in that particular weakness: He states the general truth, a truth not peculiar to the spiritual life, though appearing there in its noblest aspect, that strength is perfected in weakness.
I. Strength perfected in weakness. We know that the converse is true: that weakness is perfected in strength; for both our reading and our experience show us that the greatest manifestations of weakness are constantly seen in those whom the world deems the strongest. On the other hand, illustrations are equally abundant of strength perfected in weakness. They are all about us in our ordinary life. The consciousness of infirmity often makes its subject so cautious, and puts him under such careful discipline, that he accomplishes more than another who is free from infirmity.
II. Look at the truth on its religious side. Then it comes into even stronger relief, because in the Christian economy weakness is assumed to be an universal condition, and dependence is therefore the universal law of the Christian life. There it is invariably true that real strength comes only out of that weakness which, distrustful of itself, gives itself up to God. There it is invariably true that God's strength shines through human infirmity, and often selects for its best and richest expressions the poorest, weakest, most burdened, of mankind.
III. In the text there is no encouragement to cherish weakness. Weakness is not commended as a good thing in itself. The object of Christian training is to make men strong; and the Psalmist tells us that God's children go from strength to strength. But weakness is a universal fact in human nature. Our Lord covers all humanity with the statement that the flesh is weak, and the text does tell us to recognise the fact and to provide against it by taking Another's strength. The thing which it does commend is the permission of conscious weakness to have Another's strength push up through itself and pervade and transform it, a
"Holy strength whose ground
Is in the heavenly land."
M. R. Vincent, The Covenant of Peace,p. 96.
References: 2 Corinthians 12:10. P. T. Forsyth, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xiii., p. 85; Preacher's Monthly,vol. viii., p. 7. 2 Corinthians 12:11. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxv., No. 1458; J. H. Newman, Sermons on Subjects of the Day,p. 14.