2 Corinthians 12:9: my grace is sufficient for thee (the thorn in the flesh)

1616 · Francis de Sales, Treatise on the Love of God Book IX. Love of Submission, Whereby our Will is United to God's Good-Pleasure, Chapter VII. Of the Indifference Which We Are to Have As to Our Advancement in Virtues

The sting of the flesh, an angel of Satan, roughly attacked the great S. Paul, in order to make him fall into sin. The poor Apostle endured this as a shameful and infamous wrong, and on this account called it a buffeting and ignominious treatment, and petitioned God to deliver him from it, but God answered him: Paul, my grace is sufficient for thee, for virtue is made perfect in infirmity. Thereupon this great holy man said in acquiescence:—Gladly will I glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may dwell in me. But take notice, I beseech you, that there is sensual rebellion even in this admirable vessel of election, who in running to the remedy of prayer teaches us that we are to use the same arms against the temptations we feel. Note further that Our Lord does not always permit these terrible revolts in man for the punishment of sin, but to manifest the strength and virtue of the Divine assistance and grace. Finally, note that we are not only not to be disquieted in our temptations and infirmities, but we are even to glory in our infirmity that thereby God's virtue may appear in us, sustaining our weakness against the force of the suggestion and temptation: for the glorious Apostle calls the stings and attacks of impurity which he endured his infirmities, and says that he glories in them, because, though he had the sense of them by his misery, yet through God's mercy he did not give consent to them.

c. 1714 · Daniel Mayo, Commentary on 2 Corinthians 12.1-10

Some think it was an acute bodily pain or sickness; others think it was the indignities done him by the false apostles, and the opposition he met with from them, particularly on the account of his speech, which was contemptible. However this was, God often brings this good out of evil, that the reproaches of our enemies help to hide pride from us; and this is certain, that what the apostle calls a thorn in his flesh was for a time very grievous to him: but the thorns Christ wore for us, and with which he was crowned, sanctify and make easy all the thorns in the flesh we may at any time be afflicted with; for he suffered, being tempted, that he might be able to succour those that are tempted.

1871 · A. R. Fausset, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on 2 Corinthians 12.7

given … me—namely, by God (Job 5:6; Php 1:29). thorn in the flesh—(Nu 33:55; Eze 28:24). Alford thinks it to be the same bodily affliction as in Ga 4:13, 14. It certainly was something personal, affecting him individually, and not as an apostle: causing at once acute pain (as "thorn" implies) and shame ("buffet": as slaves are buffeted, 1Pe 2:20). messenger of Satan—who is permitted by God to afflict His saints, as Job (Job 2:7; Lu 13:16).

1872 · John Wesley, Sermons on Several Occasions 40

Let it be observed then, First, it does by no means appear that this thorn, whatsoever it was, occasioned St. Paul to commit sin; much less laid him under any necessity of doing so. Therefore, from hence it can never be proved that any Christian must commit sin. Secondly, the ancient Fathers inform us, it was bodily pain: “a violent headache, saith Tertullian; (De Pudic.;) to which both Chrysostom and St. Jerome agree. St. Cyprian [De Mortalitate] expresses it, a little more generally, in those terms: “Many and grievous torments of the flesh and of the body.” [Carnis et corporis multa ac gravia tormenta.] Thirdly, to this exactly agree the Apostles own words, “A thorn to the flesh to smite, beat, or buffet me.” “My strength is made perfect in weakness:” — Which same word occurs no less than four times in these two verses only. But, Fourthly, whatsoever it was, it could not be either inward or outward sin. It could no more be inward stirrings, than outward expressions, of pride, anger, or lust. This is manifest, beyond all possible exception from the words that immediately follow: “Most gladly will I glory in” these “my weaknesses, that the strength of Christ may rest upon me.”

1872 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 18 (1872) 1084

One Divine is of the opinion that Paul endured the earache and I generally find that each expositor has selected that particular thorn which had pierced his own bosom. Now I believe that the Apostle did not tell us what his peculiar affliction was, that we may everyone feel that he had sympathy with us—that we may everyone believe that ours is no new grief. It was a trial mainly of the body and from the use of the term, "flesh," rather than, "body," it would seem that it excited in the sufferer some fleshly temptation. It may not be so, but still, the writer is so accustomed to associate with, "the flesh," the idea of sin, that I think it no idle conjecture that some temptation which the good man considered he had effectually overcome, fell upon him by reason of his bodily ailment. It became, therefore, to him not merely a thorn in his flesh, but, "a messenger of Satan," tempting him to an evil which he abhorred and which for many a day had been so trampled down by his nobler nature that he almost thought such a propensity extinct within him.

1872 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 18 (1872) 1084

If the English word expresses the exact meaning—and I think it is pretty near it—you need not be at a loss to understand the simile. A thorn is but a little thing and indicates a painful, but not a killing trial—not a huge, crushing, overwhelming affliction, but a common matter— none the less painful, however, because common and insignificant. A thorn is a sharp thing which pricks, pierces, irritates, lacerates, festers and causes endless pain and inconvenience. And yet it is almost a secret thing—not very apparent to anyone but the sufferer. Paul had a secret grief somewhere, I know not where, but near his heart, continually wherever he might be, irritating him—perpetually vexing him and wounding him. A thorn, a commonplace thing such as might grow in any field and fall to any man's lot. Thorns are plentiful enough and have been since Father Adam scattered the first handful of the seed. A thorn—nothing to make a man unbearable or give him the dignity of unusual sorrow.

1930–1933 · A. T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament: 2 Corinthians 12.7

All sorts of theories are held (malaria, eye-trouble, epilepsy, insomnia, migraine or sick-headache, etc.). It is a blessing to the rest of us that we do not know the particular affliction that so beset Paul. Each of us has some such splinter or thorn in the flesh, perhaps several at once. Messenger of Satan (αγγελος Σατανα). Angel of Satan, the affliction personified. Buffet (κολαφιζη). See on Mt 26:67; 1Co 4:11 for this late and rare word from κολαφος, fist. The messenger of Satan kept slapping Paul in the face and Paul now sees that it was God's will for it to be so.

c. 386–397 · John Chrysostom, Homilies on Second Corinthians 26.3

“And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee; for my power is made perfect in weakness.” That is to say, ‘It is sufficient for thee that thou raisest the dead, that thou curest the blind, that thou cleansest lepers, that thou workest those other miracles; seek not also exemption from danger and fear and to preach without annoyances. But art thou pained and dejected lest it should seem to be owing to My weakness, that there are many who plot against and beat thee and harass and scourge thee? Why this very thing doth show My power. “For My power,” He saith, “is made perfect in weakness,” when being persecuted ye overcome your persecutors; when being harassed ye get the better of them that harass you; when being put in bonds ye convert them that put you in bonds. Seek not then more than is needed.’ Seest thou how he himself assigns one reason, and God another? For he himself says, “Lest I should be exalted overmuch, there was given to me a thorn;” but he says that God said He permitted it in order to show His power. ‘Thou seekest therefore a thing which is not only not needed, but which also obscureth the glory of My power.’

c. 390 · John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew 25.4

No one hath so labored that we should be approved, and great, and in all things right-minded, as the God who made us. Wherefore both against our will He befriends us often, and without our knowledge oftener than not. And if thou marvel at what I have said, I point to this as having occurred not to any ordinary person, but to the blessed Paul. For even that blessed man, when in much danger and affliction, often besought God that the temptations might depart from him: nevertheless God regarded not his request, but his profit, and to signify this He said, “My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” So that before He hath told him the reason, He benefits him against his will, and without his knowing it.

404–407 · John Chrysostom, Letters to Olympias (selection) 2.3

Moreover that they who have lived very righteously derive much benefit from such chastisement is plain from the case of Job, who was more illustrious after it than before, and from the case of Timothy, who although he was such a good man, and entrusted with such an important ministry, and made the circuit of the world with Paul passed not two or three days, nor ten or twenty, or a hundred, but many in succession in ill health, his body being very seriously enfeebled. Paul shows this where he said “Use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake, and thine often infirmities.” And he who raised the dead did not cure this man’s infirmity, but left him in the furnace of his sickness so that he might therefrom contract a very great abundance of confidence. For the lessons which Paul himself had enjoyed from his Master, and the training which he had received from Him, he imparted to his disciple. For although he was not subjected to bodily infirmity, yet he was buffeted by trials not less severe, which inflicted much physical pain. “For there was given unto me” he says “a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me” meaning by this the blows, the bonds, the chains, the imprisonments, the being dragged about, and maltreated, and tortured by the scourges of public executioners. Wherefore also being unable to bear the pain occasioned to the body by these things “for this I besought the Lord thrice (thrice here meaning many times) that I might be delivered from this thorn.” And then when he did not obtain his petition, having learned the benefit of the trial, he held his peace, and rejoiced at the things which happened unto him.

1605–1610 · Johann Arndt, True Christianity 2.54

From which words we may learn three things: 1. That St. Paul, and all others that are exercised with these trials, are humbled thereby. 2. That all those sufferings come upon us by the counsel of God. 3. That the utmost fury of the devil against a man who is so tempted, cannot exclude him from God's favor, which is expressed in these words, “My grace is sufficient for thee.”

1675–1680 · Stephen Charnock, Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God 12

Paul’s thorn in the flesh was to prevent the pride of his spirit, and let out the windiness of his heart (2 Cor. xii. 7), lest it should be exalted above measure. The goodness of God makes the devil a polisher, while he intends to be a destroyer. The devil never works, but suitably to some corruption lurking in us: Divine goodness makes his fiery darts a means to discover, and so to prevent the treachery of that perfidious inmate in our hearts; humility is a greater benefit than a putrefying pride; if God brings us into a wilderness to be tempted of the devil, it is to bring down our loftiness, to starve our carnal confidence, and expel our rusting “security” (Deut. viii. 2); we many times fly under a temptation to God, from whom we sat too loose before.

1692 · Thomas Watson, The Lord's Prayer intro

God will make all Satan’s temptations promote the good of his children. [1] As they set them praying. 2 Cor 12: 8. Temptation is a medicine for security. [2] As they are a means to humble them. ‘Lest I should be exalted above measure, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan.’ 2 Cor 12: 7. The thorn in the flesh was a temptation; it was to prick the bladder of pride. [3] As they establish them more in grace. A tree shaken by the wind is more settled and rooted; so the blowing of a temptation does but settle a child of God more in grace.

1834 · Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: 2 Corinthians 12.7

The word which Paul uses is worthy of special notice. It is that this "thorn in the flesh" was given to him, implying that it was a favor. He does not complain of it; he does not say it was sent in cruelty; he does not even speak of it as an affliction; he speaks of it as a gift, as any man would of a favor that had been bestowed. Paul had so clear a view of the benefits which resulted from it that he regarded it as a favor, as Christians should every trial.

1872 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 18 (1872) 1084

Paul says, "There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure." Now, note every word here. First, he says, "There was given to me." He reckoned his great trial to be a gift. It is well put. He does not say, "There was inflicted upon me a thorn in the flesh," but, "There was given to me." This is holy reckoning. O child of God, among all the goods of your house, you have not one single article that is a better touch of Divine Love to you than your daily cross. You would gladly be rid of it, but you would lose your choicest treasure if it were withdrawn. Blessed be God for the crucible and the furnace! "There was given to me a thorn in the flesh," Rich Grace bestowed the blessing. At first the Apostle may not have seen his thorn to be a gift, but afterwards, when experience had taught him patience, he came to look at that sharp, pricking, festering torment as a gift from his heavenly Father. You, O tried one, will come to do the same one of these days.

1894 · James Denney, The Expositor's Bible: The Second Epistle to the Corinthians XXVI. Strength and Weakness

Paul, at first, like all men, found the evil overpowering. The pain, the weakness, the degradation of his malady, were intolerable. He could not understand that only a pressure so pitiless and humbling could preserve him from spiritual pride and a spiritual fall. We are all slow to learn anything like this. We think we can take warning, that a word will be enough, that at most the memory of a single pang will suffice to keep us safe. But pains remain with us, and the pressure is continuous and unrelieved, because the need of constraint and of discipline is ceaseless. The crooked branch will not bend in a new curve if it is only tied to it for half an hour. The sinful bias in our natures—to pride, to sensuality, to falsehood, or whatever else—will not be cured by one sharp lesson. The commonest experience in human life is that the man whom sickness and pain have humbled for the moment, the very moment their constraint is lifted, resumes his old habit. He does not think so, but it is really the thorn that has been keeping him right; and when its sharpness is blunted, the edge is taken from his conscience too.

1896 · Andrew Murray, Humility: The Beauty of Holiness XI. Humility and Happiness

Lest Paul should exalt himself, by reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was sent him to keep him humble. Paul's first desire was to have it removed, and he besought the Lord thrice that it might depart. The answer came that the trial was a blessing; that, in the weakness and humiliation it brought, the grace and strength of the Lord could be the better manifested. Paul at once entered upon a new stage in his relation to the trial: instead of simply enduring it, he most gladly gloried in it; instead of asking for deliverance, he took pleasure in it. He had learned that the place of humiliation is the place of blessing, of power, of joy.

1913 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 59 (1913) 3379

Why does the Lord deal roughly with His servants when He means to bless them? Is it not to keep them sober? High spiritual joys have about them an intoxicating element to our poor nature. "Lest I should be exalted above measure," said the Apostle, "there was given unto me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me." Sometimes the trial comes before the mercy, sometimes with the mercy, sometimes after the mercy—but a trial and a high degree of spiritual joy are usually wedded together so that when you get the one—you may look out of the window for the other. 'Tis to keep us sober. Here is a brisk gale of spiritual influence upon our fluttering sail. What then? And why? Our poor boat would soon be upset, but God ballasts us with a weight of affliction, so that the vessel may keep steady amidst the waves.

1834 · Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: 2 Corinthians 12.9

My grace is sufficient for thee - A much better answer than it would have been to have removed the calamity; and one that seems to have been entirely satisfactory to Paul. The meaning of the Saviour is that he would support him; that he would not suffer him to sink exhausted under his trials; that he had nothing to fear. The infliction was not indeed removed; but there was a promise that the favor of Christ would be shown to him constantly, and that he would find his support to be ample. If Paul had this support, he might well bear the trial; and if we have this assurance, as we may have, we may welcome affliction, and rejoice that calamities are brought upon us.

1872 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 18 (1872) 1084

God, therefore, knowing that this thorn in the flesh was a sacred medicine to Paul, would not take it away, even though most urgently requested to do so. Well does Ralph Erskine say of prayer— "I'm heard when answered soon or late, Yes, heard when I no answer get. Most kindly answered when refused And treated well when harshly used." So, though refused, Paul was answered for he got something better than the taking away of the thorn in the flesh—the result was that the Grace given him enabled him to bear the thorn and lifted him right above it—till he even rejoiced and gloried to think that he was permitted so to suffer.

1876 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 22 (1876) 1287

The Apostle prayed three times, even as our Lord did when He, too, was sorely buffeted by the powers of darkness. Paul's thrice-repeated cry was intensely earnest, for he, "besought" the Lord thrice. And Paul, singularly enough, met with very much the same answer as his Master, for our Lord was not permitted to put aside the cup, (it could not pass away from Him unless He drank it), but an angel appeared unto Him strengthening Him. And so, in Paul's case, the trial was not taken away from him, but he was strengthened by kind, assuring words and by being led to see that God would be glorified by his enduring the trial.

1894 · James Denney, The Expositor's Bible: The Second Epistle to the Corinthians XXVI. Strength and Weakness

The Apostle has been made to understand that the thorn must remain in his flesh, but along with this he has received the assurance of an abiding love and help from the Lord. We remember, even by contrast, the stern answer made to Moses when he prayed that he might be permitted to cross Jordan and see the goodly land—"Let it suffice thee: speak no more unto Me of this matter." Paul also could no more ask for the removal of the thorn: it was the Lord's will that he should submit to it for high spiritual ends, and to pray against it would now have been a kind of impiety. But it is no longer an unrelieved pain and humiliation; the Apostle is supported under it by that grace of Christ which finds in the need and abjectness of men the opportunity of showing in all perfection its own condescending strength. The collocation of "grace" and "strength" in the ninth verse is characteristic of the New Testament, and very significant. There are many to whom "grace" is a holy word with no particular meaning; "the grace of God," or "the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ," is only a vague benignity, which may fairly enough be spoken of as a "smile." But grace, in the New Testament, is force: it is a heavenly strength bestowed on men for timely succour; it finds its opportunity in our extremity; when our weakness makes us incapable of doing anything, it gets full scope to work. This is the meaning of the last words—"strength is made perfect in weakness." The truth is quite general; it is an application of it to the case in hand if we translate as in the A.V. (with some MSS.): "My strength is made perfect in [thy] weakness." It is enough, the Lord tells Paul, that he has this heavenly strength unceasingly bestowed upon him; the weakness which he has found so hard to bear—that distressing malady which humbled him and took his vigour away—is but the foil to it: it serves to magnify it, and to set it off; with that Paul should be content.

1905–1910 · Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture: 2 Corinthians (chapters 7 to 12) 12.8

Be it so! 'My grace (not shall be, but) is sufficient for thee.' And what thou hast already in thy possession is enough for all that comes storming against thee of disease, disappointment, loss, and misery. Set on the one side all possible as well as all actual weaknesses, burdens, pains, and set on the other these two words—'My grace,' and all these dwindle into nothingness and disappear. If troubled Christian men would learn what they have, and would use what they already possess, they would less often beseech Him with vain petitions to take away their blessings which are in the thorns in the flesh. 'My grace is sufficient.'

1906 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 52 (1906) 2974

"My Grace is sufficient for you"—what then? "Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities"—not only gladly, but, "most gladly." Nothing else will make you happy The Grace of God comes to meet your case and now how happy you should be!

1913 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 59 (1913) 3344

Delays in prayer may turn out to be a sort of training school for us. Take the Apostle's instance. The "thorn in the flesh" was very painful, and though he was a chosen Apostle, yet he had no answer. Thrice he cried, but still the "thorn in the flesh" was not removed. It was well that it was not, for Paul needed to be taught tenderness in order that he might write those loving Epistles of his and, therefore, he received an answer of another sort, "My Grace is sufficient for you."

c. 403–404 · John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews 33.9

Paul wished to be set free, and oftentimes entreated God, and did not obtain. For the “thrice for this I besought the Lord,” is oftentimes; “and He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” ( 2 Cor. xii. 8, 9.) By “weakness,” he here means “afflictions.”

418 · Augustine of Hippo, On the Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin (De gratia Christi et de peccato originali) 1.12.13

To him, therefore, who is reluctant to endure the troublesome process, whereby this vaunting disposition is restrained, before he attains to the ultimate and highest perfection of charity, it is most properly said, “My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness,”—in weakness, that is, not of the flesh only, as this man supposes, but both of the flesh and of the mind; because the mind, too, was, in comparison of that last stage of complete perfection, weak, and to it also was assigned, in order to check its elation, that messenger of Satan, the thorn in the flesh; although it was very strong, in contrast with the carnal or animal faculties, which as yet understand not the things of the Spirit of God. Inasmuch, then, as strength is made perfect in weakness, whoever does not own himself to be weak, is not in the way to be perfected.

1754 · John Wesley, Explanatory Notes on 2 Corinthians 12.9

We see there may be grace where there is the quickest sense of pain. My strength is more illustriously displayed by the weakness of the instrument. Therefore I will glory in my weaknesses rather than my Revelations, that the strength of Christ may rest upon me - The Greek word properly means, may cover me all over like a tent.

1871 · A. R. Fausset, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on 2 Corinthians 12.9

The "for" implies, thy "strengthlessness" (the same Greek as is translated "weakness"; and in 2Co 12:10, "infirmities") is the very element in which My "power" (which moves coincident with "My grace") exhibits itself more perfectly. So that Paul instead of desiring the infirmity to "depart," "rather" henceforth "glories in infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest (Greek, 'tabernacle upon,' cover my infirmity all over as with a tabernacle; compare Greek, Joh 1:12) upon" him.

1876 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 22 (1876) 1287

See, then, what he means—First, he puts the power of Christ in opposition to his own power because if he is not weak, then he has strength of his own. If, then, what he does is done by his own strength, there is no room for Christ's strength. That is clear, but if his own power is gone, there is space for the power of Christ.