Skip to content
mannafest.faith
Read
2 Corinthians

2 Corinthianschapter 12

21 verses · BSB2 Corinthians book hub →

Speaks with:2 Corinthians 11×62 Corinthians 12×31 Corinthians 9×2Galatians 1×11 John 5×1Acts 22×1

Summary

Chapter summary

Paul's vision. Caught up to the third heaven, hearing unspeakable words. Lest he should be exalted, there was given him a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan. He besought the Lord thrice; the Lord answered: My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. I fear, when I come, I shall not find you such as I would. Calvin reads the chapter as the paradox of apostolic strength.

Context

Epistle · Paul — 2 Corinthians overview

  • A. 1–6 Caught Up to the Third Heaven
  • B. 7–10 A Thorn, a Refusal, and Strength Made Perfect
  • C. 11–13 Signs of an Apostle — and the Wrong Paul Did You
  • D. 14–21 Coming a Third Time, Afraid of What He'll Find

The outline

  1. A.Caught Up to the Third Heavenvv. 1 to 6

    Read vv. 1 to 6 →

  2. B.A Thorn, a Refusal, and Strength Made Perfectvv. 7 to 10

    Read vv. 7 to 10 →

  3. C.Signs of an Apostle — and the Wrong Paul Did Youvv. 11 to 13

    Read vv. 11 to 13 →

  4. D.Coming a Third Time, Afraid of What He'll Findvv. 14 to 21

    Read vv. 14 to 21 →

Threads

Each of these runs on past this chapter. The passage you have just read is marked.

Strength made perfect in weakness

Pattern

Three times 2 Corinthians sets Paul's weakness beside God's power: the sentence of death in Asia, the treasure in earthen vessels, and the thorn answered with my grace is sufficient for thee.

The letter defends Paul's apostleship by scars rather than credentials. The thread reaches its summit at 12:9, where the Lord himself gives the rule: my strength is made perfect in weakness, and Paul answers, when I am weak, then am I strong.

  1. 2 Corinthians 1:8-9

    The sentence of death

    Pressed out of measure in Asia, Paul despaired even of life, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead.

  2. 2 Corinthians 4:7

    Treasure in earthen vessels

    The excellency of the power is of God, and not of us; the frail vessel is the point, not the problem.

  3. 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 you are here

    My grace is sufficient for thee

    The thorn stays and the answer stands: my strength is made perfect in weakness; when I am weak, then am I strong.

The world behind this chapter

2 Corinthians 12
When
Written from Macedonia · c. AD 55–56
Where
A vision Paul had kept quiet for fourteen years, and the affliction he was not delivered from.
Who first heard it
Corinthians impressed by rivals who traded on visions and revelations.

The history

Claims of heavenly ascent were a currency in the religious world of the day, and Jewish apocalyptic writing describes journeys through multiple heavens. Paul enters that arena only under protest, tells the story in the third person, and refuses to report what he heard. That is nearly the opposite of how such experiences were normally used.

The thorn in the flesh is deliberately unspecified. Suggestions have ranged since the church fathers from eye trouble to malaria to persistent opposition, and the text supports none of them decisively. What it does say is that it was given, that he asked three times, and that the answer was no.

The word for "power made perfect in weakness" carries the sense of reaching its intended end. In a culture that measured a patron or philosopher by strength and self-sufficiency, this was an inversion of the whole scale.

His refusal to be a burden on his third visit returns to the money question, and he answers the accusation that he took their money by a trick through his companions — an insinuation that must have been circulating, since he bothers to name and deny it.

What it meant to them

For the first hearers, the sentence that mattered was the Lord's, not Paul's: my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. A church chasing impressiveness was told that God had declined to remove his apostle's humiliation on purpose.

His closing image is parental and disarming after chapters of combat: children do not save up for their parents, but parents for their children, and he will gladly spend and be spent for their souls.

Sources cited

Every work MannaFest builds on →

The text of this chapter

This page carries no textual note on 2 Corinthians 12. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →

Connections from this chapter

v. 9 · Written to them

My grace is sufficient for thee

topics/suffering→

MannaFest topical index

This page draws on Charles Hodge, An Exposition of 2 Corinthians; Charles Spurgeon, My Grace Is Sufficient (sermon); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.

← Back: 2 Corinthians 11Continue: 2 Corinthians 13 →