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THORN IN THE FLESH
II CO 12:7-10
So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave 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 of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
(2Co 12:7-10 ESV)
When we think of Paul’s thorn in the flesh, we usually think of something in the lines of a rose thorn or a thorn from an orange or lemon tree or something more like this:
But NOT like this:
I do not think Paul was talking about this kind of a thorn in the flesh.
According to Chuck Smith and David Guzik, the meaningof this thorn comes from the original Greek term (skolops) andwas more in the lines of a tent stake, which actually comes closer to our second picture above than the English translation of thorn. This goes quite a ways to both humble and get someone’s attention. It is also a good way to make someone usable for God’s purposes.
There is also another kind of thorn that could be associated with our first picture. This thorn is more commonly considered as our daily trials. They are things that we know we need to do that are unpleasant or difficult, so we avoid them until we absolutely have to do them. Some examples of this would be …
The minor in comparison to Paul’s thorn/stake in the flesh, the smaller thorns can be just as unpleasant and humbling until we get them out of the way.
I do believe, that God has allowed all believers to have a thorn in the flesh of some sort. Whether some kind of a physical or mental disability, age, being married or single or something else that humbles us.
Bear with me as I share with you a mini testimony of my own thorn in the flesh…
While Paul does not tell us what his thorn in the flesh was some commentators guess that it was some great bodily pain, others think it was the indignities done to him by false apostles. In any case, it was serious enough, based on the Book of Acts that Paul had to have some kind of medical help in his travels because of this thorn in the flesh.In any case, this thorn that Paul talks about was nothing minor but quite serious.
It is my personal opinion that another possibility of Paul’s thorn in the flesh might be that throughout his epistles, he talks about both his pride and his doubts. Both of these could cause a lot of problems and definitely humble someone when they are brought to their attention.
David Guzik talks about Paul’s thorn in the flesh as being a form of pride in that when God gave permission to Satan to inflict this thorn Satan was more than happy to oblige.
We also know that Jesus suffered a thorn in the flesh that kept him humble. It was not just the three nails and the crown but also our sins.
It is through these thorns that we become humble and God is able to work through us and use us for his purposes wherever he sees fit. God uses the “thorn” to both humble us and inspire us.
Dick Innes of Acts International/Daily Encounter uses this example of how a thorn in the flesh can guide us to great things.
"Around the turn of the 20th century a young man named Ole took his girlfriend on a summer outing. They took a picnic lunch out to a picturesque island in the middle of a small lake. She wore a long dress with about a dozen petticoats. He was dressed in a suit with a high collar. Ole rowed them out to the island, dragged the boat on to the shore, and spread their picnic supplies beneath a shady tree. So hypnotized was he by her beauty that he hardly noticed the hot sun and perspiration on his brow. Softly she whispered to him, 'Ole, you forgot the ice cream.'
"Ole pulled the boat back to the water and rowed to shore. He found a grocery store nearby, bought the ice cream, and rowed back to the island. She batted long eyelashes over deep blue eyes and purred, 'Ole, you forgot the chocolate syrup.'
"Ole got back into the boat and returned to the store for syrup. As he rowed back toward the island, suddenly he stopped. He sat there in the boat the rest of the afternoon, fascinated by an idea. By the end of that afternoon, Ole Evinrude had [in his mind] invented the outboard motor. And by the way, Ole later married the girl who waited so long on the island."
You can very easily see how Ole probably got quite frustrated rowing that heavy wooden boat to and from that island. This thorn inspired him on to greater things.
In a popular Scripture in Jeremiah 29:11 after God gave the children of Israel the massive thorn by sending them into exile for 70 years, God also promised them that he would take the thorn away by bringing them back to their land. So it is with us today, that whatever thorn God gives to us to humble us, through his grace and mercy, he gives us a way to overcome it and use it to further his purpose.
Looking back at Jesus’s three nails and a crown the humbling effect that this gave him as though Jesus did not need to be humbled in the first place, can be considered more than you and I can stand. However to reward Jesus for this sacrifice, God resurrected him and gave him a crown and the keys to the kingdom with the promise that all who follow him and believed in him would have eternal life. Paul expands upon this thought where he states in 2 Corinthians 13:4:For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you we will live with him by the power of God.
Now I know that everybody here believes in this and that we all know we will be seeing Jesus in eternity.
My question to this church is do we have the courage to bear our thorns in the flesh no matter how big or small in order to receive God’s mercy and grace and an eternity of peace. Can we do as Paul did in 2Thessalonians 1:4 and be able to boast of the perseverance of this church through its faith in the trials and persecutions both the members and the church in general may be going through?
Some things to remember:
*As Christians, we all have a thorn/skolopsin the flesh whether it is visible to other people are not and whether it is a major thorn or a minor thorn.
*This thorn is meant to keep us humble and dependent upon God’s mercy and grace.
*This thorn is what the Holy Spirit uses to guide us to do God’s will and to show us the way God wants us to go.
As we finish, there is one more thorn of the flesh that we have not talked about and that is both our mouth and our hearts. Our mouth can cause great harm or it can cause great joy. Because what we say comes from our heart. This can be a thorn in the flesh because the harm words can do to somebody when and if we realize what we have done we can be greatly humbled.
It is with this in mind, that an old pastor friend of mine used Psalm 19:14 in order to ask God to guide his words.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
Be acceptable in Your sight,
O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer (Psalm 19:14).
Notes: