2 Corinthians 12:10, commentary and pictures

The verse names five hardships borne for Christ's sake — bodily weakness, insult, need, persecution, and distress. To take pleasure in them is to rejoice and glory in them with cheerful happiness in tribulation rather than despairing as if without a heavenly Father. God's grace is sufficient, and His strength is made complete in human weakness, so that when a person is weak Christ's power rests upon him and weakness becomes the opening for divine strength. Feeling and acknowledging that weakness, helplessness, and fault leads to humility and whole dependence on God rather than on self, since human strength apart from Him is only weakness. That dependence is lived out by calling on the Lord, laying anxieties and trials before Him, and hanging the helpless soul on Christ, and it gives strength to work for God and to endure pressure with cheerful faith instead of despondency.

Words and Setting

The verse lists five hardships endured for Christ's sake: infirmities, reproaches, necessities or needs, persecutions, and distresses. They can be met with pleasure, joy and glorying rather than despair, because human weakness opens the way for Christ's power to rest upon the sufferer and makes him strong when he is weak. To take pleasure in them means to rejoice in tribulation, to glory in infirmities, and to be cheerful and happy in affliction instead of despairing as if there were no heavenly Father.

Paul's thorn was not removed; God gave grace to bear it, showing that Christ's strength can sustain a person through a trial that remains. Paul had infirmities and severe trials yet did not dwell on them but turned from them and magnified God's grace, in contrast to making troubles the focus of thought and conversation.

Infirmity in the verse includes bodily affliction, such as severe sickness with fear of crippled limbs and loss of mind, when human strength fails and God gives strength not one's own. It includes a painful swelling that led to humility, prayer for healing, and praise when it was nearly gone. The strength given in such bodily weakness is preserved health, ability to get around with alacrity, and clearness of mind to keep doing service for God, which is cause for thanksgiving and praise and for seeking His help and grace.

Christ's Strength in Weakness

God's grace is sufficient for every hardship endured for Christ's sake, and His strength is made perfect and complete in human weakness. Because of this, infirmities, reproaches, necessities, persecutions and distresses can be met with pleasure, rejoicing and glorying rather than despair. When a person is weak in self, then he is strong in Christ.

Human weakness opens the way and makes room for divine strength, becoming the very setting in which Christ's power rests upon the believer and makes him strong. Paul therefore could take pleasure in infirmities, reproaches, necessities, persecutions and distresses for Christ's sake, glorying in infirmities that the power of Christ might rest upon him, for when he was weak then he was strong. In that weakness Christ supplies the strength needed to serve faithfully.

God is able and willing to give His servants all the help and strength they need, more than fulfilling the highest expectations of those who put their trust in Him. With that help He gives the wisdom their varied and different necessities demand. That provision enables them to endure pressure, carry out His purposes, and serve faithfully with joy.

Humility Dependence and Faith

Recognizing, feeling, and acknowledging weakness, helplessness, imperfections, faults, and mistakes brings humility and whole dependence on God and on Christ's grace rather than on self. Awareness of human weakness teaches reliance on power beyond oneself, and as the weak by faith depend wholly on Jesus, His grace becomes the only dependence and they receive strength from Him and strength to work for Him. Knowing oneself to be weak and helpless brings strength in His strength, for human weakness is the place where strength is found, and God is glorified when people remain deeply humble and trust Him rather than relying on themselves. Spreading anxieties and trials out before the Lord braces the spirit for endurance and opens the way to be disentangled from embarrassment and difficulty, and the heavier the burdens cast upon the Burden-bearer, the more blessed the rest found.

The needed power is not inherent in man, for strength apart from God is only weakness and human judgment is foolishness, while strength is in God who is able to save to the uttermost, so no trust is to be placed in own strength or wisdom and help is found only in Him. God teaches people as grown-up children by showing them their faults and mistakes, and testing and proving will reveal mistakes and force the lesson of dependence, so no one should flatter himself that he makes no mistakes. Self-sufficiency and taking credit for success leave no room for God's work, foster weakness in spiritual conflict, threaten the work, and may bring affliction. Success in service and in defending the truth comes from God, so all glory belongs to Him and no human being should be given credit for success.

Being unable to lift up holy hands to God leaves people weak and inefficient, but making Christ their sufficiency and hanging the helpless soul upon Him brings power to every soul. The more of this power received, the weaker people feel in themselves alone, with no swelling pride, because they know God is their strength and power and elevation and wisdom, so every step forward in light becomes praise to God. Christ's abundant grace makes the feeble strong and the strong mighty, and all strength and every endowment that enables acceptable service come from Him, for the Lord saves His people in His own way by such means that the glory returns to Him alone. Those fully consecrated to Him make Him their entire dependence and return all the glory to God.

Dependence is exercised by calling on the Lord, for when a person feels weak the Lord blesses him, and all who call upon Him will be strengthened. It is exercised by spreading anxieties and trials before Him, hanging the helpless soul on Christ as sufficiency, clinging to Jesus, and working with the Spirit, through conscious weakness and distrust of self that leads to seeking God's help. The heavier the burdens cast on the Burden-bearer, the more blessed the rest, bracing the spirit for endurance. Christ gave the perfect example of this dependence, for He pitied human weakness and conquered Satan on man's behalf, clothing divinity with humanity to reach man with a human arm while grasping the throne of the Infinite with a divine arm, so that His merits elevate humanity and link man to the Infinite to overcome the degradation of the fall. As man's representative He rested wholly on the power of God through the severe conflict with the wily foe in the wilderness of temptation, where Satan knew the plan of salvation and his own destruction depended on whether Christ would bear the test Adam failed to endure, thus showing that victory comes by total dependence on God.

Joyful Endurance Under Trial

There is to be no despondency in God's service but cheerful faith that endures pressure, taking pleasure and being cheerful and happy in infirmities, reproaches, necessities, persecutions and distresses endured for Christ's sake, because when weak in self then strong in Christ. God is able and willing to bestow upon His servants all the strength they need, more than fulfilling the highest expectations of those who put their trust in Him, and giving the wisdom their varied necessities demand. Christ's grace is sufficient, His strength is made perfect in weakness, and His power rests upon the afflicted, giving consolation and shelter so that persecution does not separate from the love of Christ.

Trials that come with faithfulness to God should be accepted rather than avoided for ease or pleasure, for strength for doing what is right is greatest when people feel and acknowledge their weakness. Present happiness and success are welcome when found in the path of duty. God permits testing circumstances to increase love and to perfect trust in Him, and trials are evidence of being children of God. Through self-denial and suffering with Christ believers grow in grace and in knowledge of the truth, desiring by sharing Christ's sufferings to be conformed to His image.

The persecuted are blessed with the kingdom of heaven and great reward in heaven, persecuted but not forsaken, cast down but not destroyed, and all who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. To glory in tribulation, affliction and necessities as those waiting for the return of the Lord means to keep the eyes directed heavenward, to answer scoffers and adversaries with watching and waiting for the Lord, and to turn from earthly pleasure, worldly fame and the deceitfulness of riches. By that watching position believers become strong and overcome sloth, selfishness and love of ease. Affliction's fire still kindles upon them and the waiting time seems long, with grief and faltering faith, but they rally again and overcome fear and doubt.

Taking pleasure in hardships for Christ's sake is rejoicing in tribulation instead of despairing as if the Father in heaven were dead. Temptation itself is no sin; the sin is in yielding to temptation. When believers are weak under heaviness through manifold temptations, their weakness becomes strength through Christ, with strength drawn from the armory of heaven and communicated by God with grace. This enables the tempted soul to rely on a power mightier than the enemy, to resist temptation, and to stand steadfast in faith while God restrains the adversary. Such patient endurance in His strength develops Christlikeness of character and the graces of the Spirit, keeps the soul uncontaminated by the world, makes partakers of the divine nature complete in Him, and overrules affliction for good to praise and honor and glory.

Power for Service and Victory

Awareness of human weakness teaches dependence on a power beyond oneself, and as that dependence is exercised strength to work for God is received. When human strength fails, strength not one's own is given, including after severe sickness with fear of crippled limbs and loss of mind, in preserved health, ability to move about with alacrity, and clearness of mind to continue in service, which calls for thanksgiving and praise to the heavenly Father and for seeking His help and grace. Weakness and affliction become occasions for God to be a person's strength, and when weakness is recognized and action is taken in the fear of God, strengthening for work is given.

A weak man through faith in God's power may become strong, decided in effort, and full of great results. The hesitating and irresolute person, by exercising abilities in God's cause, becomes firm and decided, and grasping that he is called by the Redeemer of the world to work with Him for the salvation of men, he dedicates his life to the work. His nature is exalted and Christ's mission opens before him with new importance and glory, and with deep humility he knows himself a co-laborer with the Saviour, which is the highest office given to man. There is no joy equal to being an instrument in God's hand for saving souls, looking back on labor marked with glorious results, seeing precious souls progressing in the light through his efforts, and feeling that God has worked with and through him in the world's harvest field.

For gospel workers this means much prayer to be taught how to present truth as it is in Jesus and not in a controversial way, trusting God to supply strength for the work. Strength in Christ's service comes from God and not from self, so that out of weakness strength is gained. Clear practical understanding of the means God uses in working out salvation guards against darkness and doubt, futile struggle, and losing sight of the Saviour.

Human weakness can be united with Christ's strength, and in medical missionary work those seeking treatment are to be led to Christ and taught to rely on His strength. Human weakness becomes a source of strength when God is trusted to do what cannot be done by self. Wholehearted service is accepted and deficiencies are made up, so that those who may not seem richly gifted are used to accomplish His purposes.

Success comes by working humbly and in faith while realizing personal weakness and joining that weakness to Christ's strength, ignorance to His wisdom, unworthiness to His merit, frailty to His enduring might, and poverty to His boundless wealth. Those who do this become overcomers and are of good courage in the Lord, and through their efforts precious souls confess belief in the truth and take their stand under the blood-stained banner of Prince Emmanuel. Christ's abundant grace makes the feeble among His disciples strong and the strong mighty, and all strength and every endowment enabling acceptable service comes from Him. The Lord saves His people in His own way by such means that glory returns to Him alone, so no human being is to be credited for success, and those fully consecrated to Him make Him their entire dependence and return all glory to God.

Whoever steadfastly adheres to the principles of trust has the assurance that the weakest points of character may become the strongest. God calls for men of undaunted courage, full of faith, hope, and trust, who rejoice in the thought of final triumph and refuse to be hindered by obstacles. Heavenly angels are close beside one who strives to bring life into harmony with God and His holy precepts, and God is with him as he declares that surrounding temptations must be overcome lest they overcome him and drive Christ from the heart. By strength obtained from on high he combats all temptation and braves all opposition, holding in control the passions and tendencies which uncontrolled would bring defeat. In tender compassion God does not leave a person in darkness to be a failure but prizes the soul, strives with him, lifts him up, and keeps him from perishing, so that when united with Christ by belief and work for Him, the weakest points become strongest notwithstanding past failures, and a special work is given.

When nothingness is felt the Lord girds with His strength, and to one discouraged and emptied of spiritual strength He proffers omnipotence and divine strength. That strength is recovered step by step by full thankfulness to God, by refusing to let the attitudes of brethren discourage, by breaking free from the enemy's snare, by doing one's best to help someone else in every place, and by working with heart, mind, and strength as a laborer together with God in prayer and trust. Weak points of character must be made strong points, especially weakness in discernment, self-control, and resistance to improper sympathy and familiarity toward women seeking counsel and sympathy outside marriage. This is done by cutting off every thread of such association, refusing letters and confidential confidences, standing free and independent, reasoning from cause to effect with sound common sense, and standing steadfast to Bible principles. Severe physical affliction does not prevent blessed ministry, for when the afflicted one asks the Lord for strength He gives victory and blessing even while speaking, so that weakness is turned into strength.