From the Desk of Jeff King

"When I am weak, then I am strong"

Man has little tolerance for affliction. Yet Rabbi Sha'ul (apostle Paul) makes this startling confession in a letter to the Corinthian church: He boasts in his infirmities (2 Cor. 12:9). The Greek word for infirmities, astheneia, can mean feebleness (mind or body), malady, disease or weakness.

Sha'ul expounds in the next verse, saying he takes pleasure in reproaches, needs and persecutions. He didn't look for trouble, but when trouble found him while spreading the gospel – beatings, shipwrecks, imprisonment – he felt empowered by Messiah Yeshua. "When I am weak," he boasted, "then I am strong."

Secular society would scoff at such a thought. But that's the beauty of it. God has made foolish the wisdom of this world (1 Cor. 1:20). Sha'ul received this radical revelation while asking God to relieve him from an undisclosed affliction. The Lord answers firmly and with clarity, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Despite hardships and setbacks in ministry, Sha'ul finished the race. He kept the faith. As a result, we have Sha'ul's epistles – he wrote two-thirds of the New Testament – to help us overcome.

The Barry Moser illustration above, "Forty Stripes Minus One," depicts the apostle Paul. It is used with permission from Pennyroyal Caxton Press and Viking Studio. The use of images does not reflect, tacitly or implicitly, Moser's personal, political, theological or Biblical perspectives.

Posted by Jeff King at September 15, 2009 02:18 PM