The Apostle Paul knew, and Jesus lived, the truth that power is made perfect in weakness.
Here’s a transcript:
I’m thinking about the twelfth chapter of Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 12:2-10).
Second Corinthians to modern eyes reads as a pretty contentious letter. In it, Paul wrote that he had already sent a “painful letter,” and you and I might be excused for wondering how could that letter have been much more painful than Second Corinthians?
One of the issues that clearly lay between Paul and the church was the issue of Paul’s own authority, yet here in chapter twelve, Paul almost refrains from boasting about himself. He would boast of someone who had received extraordinary revelations, he says, but not about himself. That seems like it’s a backhanded reference to himself.
Then Paul said something much deeper and more significant. If I would boast, I will boast of my weaknesses, he said. Boast of the hardships, boast of the sufferings, boast even of some kind of illness or disability that he says kept him from being “too exalted.”
Well. That is a statement counter to the culture of his day and, for that matter, our day. We embrace power, celebrate power, seek power, try to exert power. It has to be said that the Apostle Paul himself frequently asserted power and attempted to wield power; it’s so clear from his letters. But it’s also clear that he knew the truth, that if he was still subject to the temptations of power, he knew better; that ultimate power is found in weakness and if the Apostle Paul did not necessarily live that way, he knew of someone who had: and that was Jesus.
In Jesus, power indeed was made perfect in weakness.
So even as the world around us continues that search for power and embrace of power and idolization of power, let us remember, and strive to live as those who know that power is made perfect in weakness, and in so doing more closely follow Jesus Christ.
That’s what I’m thinking. I’m curious to hear what you’re thinking. Send me an e-mail or leave me your thoughts in the comment section below. I’d love to hear from you.
