seems to imply some peculiar work of the devil upon
Paul's body, for it says the thorn, or clog, is the messenger Satan
employs to beat his body; and also that the apostle diligently but
unavailingly thrice besought the Lord to remove it. I do not imagine
him praying for the cessation of persecutions in a spirit of
unwillingness to suffer them. But since he does not specify the
affliction, we must let it remain a secret one, a distress known only
to himself. It is enough for us to know that while God had given him
great revelations, revelations beyond human ken, he also bound the
clog to him--gave him a thorn for his body--to prevent his exaltation
of himself; and that the knowledge of the buffetings and flaying
caused by this clog, or devil, are likewise beyond human ken.

"My power is made perfect in weakness."

28. It is a strange sort of strength which is weak and by its weakness
grows stronger. Who ever heard of weak strength? or more absurd still,
that strength is increased by weakness? Paul would here make a
distinction between human strength and divine. Human strength
increases with enhancement and decreases with enfeeblement. But God's
power--his Word in us--rises in proportion to the pressure it
receives. It is characteristic of God the Creator that he creates all
things from naught, and again reduces to naught all created things.
Human power cannot do this. The power of God is the true palm-wood
which buoys itself in proportion as it is burdened and weighted.

29. Note here, "weakness" is not to be understood in a spiritual
sense, as on a previous occasion, but externally; as not illness
alone, but every sort of evil, misfortune, suffering and persecution
calculated to buffet and humble the body. The power of Christ, in
connection with which spiritual weakness cannot exist, is invoked
against this weakness likewise. He says, "Most gladly will I glory in
my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." And his
weaknesses he immediately explains as infirmities, injuries,
necessities, persecutions and distresses. The thought, then, is:
Christ is not mighty within us, his word and his faith are not strong
in us, unless our bodies suffer affliction. The false apostles,
however, take excellent care to escape suffering.

_Sunday Before Lent_

Text: First Corinthians 13.

1 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love,
I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. 2