God Keeps Us Humble
7 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. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.
In the above passage, Paul is in the middle of his argument about his authority and position in the church. The members of the church at Corinth have been lead astray by “super-apostles.” Apparently they were eloquent in speech, powerful in delivery and, it seems, charged for their services. If we read into the passage the Corinthian believers may be disappointed in Paul’s lack of eloquence and, yet, expense to them. Paul is setting them straight on several fronts. He lets them know he is not and has not charge them any money and has, in fact, lived off the support of other churches. He confesses his lacks the eloquent speech, but he overflows with knowledge. His argument leads him to start to outline for them all the ways he has been persecuted and proved to be an Apostle of the Lord. He also outlines a short list about his supernatural visions and prophecies. Here is where we find the above passage. A man of Paul’s stature in our culture would be flying around in private jets and have multiple homes on different coasts. But, Paul was not that kind of servant. He did not want to burden anyone and he did not want to boast. This is the context of the above. So that he would NOT boast, God sent some time of “thorn” into Paul’s body. Paul didn’t complain about it. He did seek God out multiple times to remove it. But, at the last, Paul accepted the thorn as a gift from God and something to keep him humble. Most speculate that the thorn was his lost of eyesight. At his conversion on the Damascus road he as blinded. Some maintain that God left some of the blindness as the thorn in his side. Whatever it was, Paul recognized that God used it for his humility. God needs to humble the most gifted teaching in the Christian faith. Paul wrote most of the New Testament. He had ever right to boast and be held in high esteem. But, for support he made tents. In rank he was the least of the Apostles. In status he lacked the eloquence of his colleagues. In preference he was not the most preferred teacher. Yet, God still needed to make him humble by a thorn in his side. God sends us pain and difficulty, at times, to keep us humble. When we want to self promote we have to realize that God wants us to Him promote, ONLY!
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