" To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 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. 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".
2 Corinthians 12 v 7-10.
Many have speculated on what Paul's 'thorn in the flesh' might have been. I'm not interested in doing that here, but I would recommend an excellent book on this subject written by Dr R.T. Kendall, called not surprisingly 'The Thorn in the Flesh'. He covers in detail the various thorns that many of us have to live with, and is pastorally very sensitive in lifestyle application.
My question on why the Lord allows these thorns is answered in the earlier verses where Paul speaks about being 'caught up to third heaven and paradise', hearing in vision 'inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell'.The Lord allowed the thorn in Paul's life to prevent him from becoming conceited. There is a weakness and endearing vulnerability in any man or woman who has spiritual depth in the Lord. Like Paul, they know that whatever has been accomplished in and through their lives has been a work of grace from beginning to end. There is no place for subtle boasting or attention grabbing headlines over their life's script.
All who have known any significant measure of grace will at some point have come to that place of self awareness that ' this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us'. Jacob is one of my favourite examples of someone who learnt this secret. After his wrestling match with God, Jacob is left with a permanent limp, and his account of the event is very clear: 'For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved' ( Genesis 32 v 30). The next verse says how 'the sun rose on him (Jacob), and he limped on his hip'. This new day of favour for Jacob would be characterized with a limp. In his weakness God's grace would begin to shape Jacob's (Israel's) destiny to be the womb that would bring forth Abraham's seed...Jesus.
The thorn prevents us from becoming conceited and falling into the pitfall of taking credit for that which belongs to the Lord alone. There can be a subtle smugness that can creep up on us when we have known the grace and power of God flowing through our lives. We can come to think of ourselves as indispensable and irreplaceable. Eugene Peterson gives this insight of human nature in his book 'The Contemplative Pastor: Returning to the Art of Spiritual Direction'.
' I want to appear important. What better way than to be busy? The incredible hours, the crowded schedule, and the heavy demands on my time are proof to myself and to all who will notice- that I am important. If I go into a doctor's office and find there is no one waiting, and I see through a half open door the doctor reading a book, I wonder if he's any good. Such experiences affect me. I live in a society in which crowded schedules and harassed conditions are evidence of importance, so I develop a crowded schedule and harassed conditions. When others notice, they acknowledge my significance, and I my vanity'.
The virus of pride is so deeply entrenched in all of us, that perhaps it does need at times something as strong as a 'messenger of Satan' to prevent conceit overwhelming us. This all seems very drastic, but the fruit that it produced in Paul's life (delighting in weakness, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties) should check any temptation on our part to relegate this episode in Paul's life to a peculiarity unique to him. In 'Mere Christianity', C.S.Lewis devotes a whole chapter to 'The Great Sin'-pride. It is worth looking at what Lewis has to say on this ' worst of all vices'.
'It is a terrible thing that the worst of all the vices can smuggle itself into the very centre of our religious life. But you can see why. The other, and less bad, vices come from the devil working on us through our animal nature. But this does not come through our animal nature at all. It comes direct from Hell. It is purely spiritual: consequently it is far more subtle and deadly. For the same reason, Pride can often be used to beat down the simpler vices. Teachers, in fact, often appeal to a boy's Pride, or, as they call it, his self respect, to make him behave decently: many a man has overcome cowardice, or lust, or ill-temper by learning to think that they are beneath his dignity- that is, by Pride. The devil laughs. He is perfectly content to see you becoming chaste and brave and self- controlled provided, all the time, he is setting up in you the Dictatorship of Pride- just as he would be quite content to see your chilblains cured if he was allowed, in return, to give you cancer. For Pride is spiritual cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love, or contentment, or even common sense.
If Lewis is right, and I think he is, then perhaps there are times when drastic surgery is needed on our lives to prevent the spread of this spiritual cancer. Thorns in the flesh are not appealing- Paul wouldn't have pleaded with the Lord three times for his to be removed if they were appealing! However, the self evident fruit this produced in Paul's life is surely an encouragement to any of us who are currently struggling with any thorn in our flesh.
If pride really is the Mount Everest of sin, then perhaps it does take a thorn in the flesh from time to time to 'keep our boasting in the Lord', and not in ourselves. Lewis finishes his chapter on 'The Great Sin', with the following insights:
'If anyone would like to acquire humility, I can, I think, tell him the first step. The first step is to realise one is proud. And a biggish step, too. At least, nothing whatever can be done before it. If you think you are not conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed'.
My conclusion is that 'every good and perfect gift is come from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows'. Whilst the thorn was clearly a messenger of Satan, the Lord clearly gave permission for this, not unlike when the Lord allowed Satan permission to torment Job. If the fruit of this thorn is to produce a greater dependence on the Lord, a safeguard against the cancer of pride, and a harvest of grace and righteousness in our lives and the lives of those we are serving, then perhaps it is no bad thing that the Lord doesn't always answer our prayers for deliverance in quite the way we want and expect.
