2 Corinthians 12
7or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.
2 Corinthians 11
23Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again.
24Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.
25Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea,
26I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers.
27I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked.
28Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.
John 16
33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Lamentations 3
12He drew his bow
and made me the target for his arrows.
13He pierced my heart
with arrows from his quiver.
James 1
2Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds,
3because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.
4Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
1 Peter 5
10And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.
Our Painful Thorns
As we’ve seen, the Apostle Paul had a painful thorn in the flesh that wouldn’t go away. The reality is that all of us have thorns. I know I do. Sometimes these are irritating like a rosebush thorn. At other times they are debilitating, more akin to a dagger or spear. Author and pastor Timothy Keller put it this way: “Suffering is everywhere, unavoidable, and its scope often overwhelms.”
We are all in a sense, sufferers, but not all of us experience the extremity of human pain. Pain doesn’t happen in the abstract. It is personal and screams for our attention. None of us is immune, whether they involve wounds like the agony of betrayal, the tentacles of cancer, the frustration of loss, or countless other disappointments. “Pain is not the islands of our lives but the ocean;” says Dane Ortlund, “disappointments or letdown is the stage on which all of life unfolds, not an occasional blip on an otherwise comfortable and smooth life.”
Paul, in 2 Corinthians 12:7 talks about a singular thorn in the flesh, but in 11:24-28, he chronicles multiple painful episodes. As I prepared to write The Point of Your Thorns, I asked friends, “What is your thorn in the flesh?” How would you have answered that? It turned out that most had multiple painful thorns, not just one.
Bible characters like Job, and Jeremiah, had numerous physical, emotional, and relational thorns. Job endured tragic family deaths, agonizing sores all over his body, and unrelenting accusations from his “friends.” The Prophet, Jeremiah, in Lamentations 3:13, describes his thorns as arrows from God’s quiver. Not one, but many.
Jesus, in John 16:33, reminded his disciples that in the world they would experience multiple troubles, but that this need not paralyze them, because he had overcome the world. That’s similar to what Jesus said to Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9 – my grace is overwhelmingly adequate and unfailingly available for every one of your debilitating thorns.
As you consider the pain of your thorns, reflect on three elements of Paul’s thorn in the flesh.
- For him, it was a pain that wouldn’t go away.
- It was suffering that reminded him how weak he was.
- It was a pain that had the potential to drive him into God’s all-sufficient arms of grace.
How do those three elements relate to your own thorns?