26th June 2023
Power made perfect in weakness
This study is the ninth in a series of studies on the books of the New Testament
(2 Corinthians – read in 23 minutes)
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 about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 2 Corinthians 12:9 (NIV)
The world is not as we thought it was. Becoming a Christian means to accept that the world is turned upside down in so many ways – and in 2 Corinthians Paul highlights this to the people who made up the church in Corinth. There is comfort to be found in affliction (2 Cor. 2:5-8); there is sufficiency through insufficiency: ‘having nothing, and yet possessing everything’ (2 Cor. 6:10); there is life in death: ‘…given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body.’ (2 Cor. 4:11). And summing it all up in 2 Corinthians 12:9 “…power is made perfect in weakness.” This is how God has decided to do his work – through weak, fallible human beings. Underlying this is the reality that the Son of God became a weak human being to bring salvation, through his life, death, and resurrection.
This perspective provides an explanation why life may have been a struggle for those in Corinth – and for all who have accepted Christ as saviour. It is also a thinly veiled rebuke to those who may have been destabilising the church with powerful but misguided preaching. The continuing theme of highlighting challenges to Paul’s authority is there as a shadow at the back of his appeals and exhortations to the Corinthians. In 2 Corinthians 10 he quotes someone as criticising his letters as “weighty and forceful” and that his speaking “amounts to nothing” (v10). He talks about people who ‘commend themselves’ (v12).
Throughout the letter, Paul opens up to this congregation about his own life, his own trials and sufferings. In so doing Paul acknowledges his weaknesses but returns to the persisting theme that it is in his weakness Christ works through him.
Although titled ‘2 Corinthians’, this epistle is at least the fourth letter Paul had written to the church. There is an early one referred to in 1 Corinthians 5:9 which was, at least partly, corrective, followed by 1 Corinthians. He refers to a ‘tearful’ letter in 2 Corinthians 2:4 and then there is 2 Corinthians. This continuing correspondence, in itself, tells of the love, compassion and overwhelming concern Paul had for the people he had brought to Christ, and the anguish experienced in seeing them drift in another direction. This anguish is evidenced in the comments he makes regarding his ill-fated visit to the church – occurring between the writing of the two preserved letters. He describes it as a ‘painful visit’ (2 Cor. 2:1). This is what prompted the now lost letter, delivered by Titus that he describes as written in ‘great distress and anguish’ (2 Cor. 2:4).
In this letter Paul is a pastor fighting for the people in the church he worked with for eighteen months. He is encouraging the repentant whilst reaching out to those who are still resistant. The overall tone is more conciliatory than the first letter following a positive report from Titus. He is also fighting to prove the legitimacy of his apostolic calling which is central to him claiming the authority for his letter to this church.
Prayer
Echoing Paul, let us ‘be of one mind’ and ‘live in peace’ with one another. And may ‘the God of love and peace’ be with each one of us. (2 Corinthians 13:11) In Jesus’ name, Amen
Study by Maggie Mitchell
About the writer:
Maggie Mitchell attends the Northampton congregation of Grace Communion International and is Chair of the Pastoral Council
Local congregation:
GCI Northampton
Ecton Village Hall
78A High Street
Ecton
Northampton
NN6 0QB
Local congregational contact:
Maggie Mitchell
Email: maggie.mitchell@btinternet.com
Word of Life contact:
wordoflife@gracecom.church