2 Coríntios 12
Matthew Poole · Citado em PreceptAustin
2 Coríntios 12:9
Poole writes that Jesus is saying "My Divine power, in upholding and supporting my people, is never so glorious as when they are under weaknesses in themselves. When they are sensible of the greatest impotency in themselves, then I delight most to exert and put forth my power in them and for them, my power then is most evident and conspicuous, and will be best acknowledged by my people. (Matthew Poole's Commentary on the New Testament) Hudson Taylor said "God chose me because I was weak enough. He trains somebody to be quiet enough, and little enough, and then uses him. Vance Havner in his unique way said "The Lord had the strength and I had the weakness, so we teamed up! It was an unbeatable combination Maclaren rightly remarks that... God works with broken reeds. If a man imagines himself to be an iron pillar, God can do nothing with or by him. All the self-conceit and confidence have to be taken out of him first. He has to be brought low (Ed: Lowliness is the essence of the meaning of the Greek word for humble) before the Father can use him for His purposes. The lowlands hold the water, and, if only the sluice (opening through which any thing flows) is open, the gravitation of His grace does all the rest and carries the flood into the depths of the lowly heart. His strength loves to work in weakness, only the weakness must be conscious, and the conscious weakness must have passed into conscious dependence. There, then, you get the law for the Church, for the works of Christianity on the widest scale, and in individual lives. Strength that imagines itself to be such is weakness; weakness that knows itself to be such is strength. The only true source of Power, both for Christian work (i.e., supernatural work) and in all other respects, is God Himself; and our strength is ours but by derivation from Him. And the only way to secure that derivation is through humble dependence, which we call faith in Jesus Christ. And the only way by which that faith in Jesus Christ can ever be kindled in a man's soul is through the sense of his need and emptiness. So when we know ourselves weak, we have taken the first step to strength; just as, when we know ourselves sinners, we have taken the first step to righteousness; just as in all regions the recognition of the doleful (sad) fact of our human necessity is the beginning of the joyful confidence in the glad, triumphant fact of the divine fulness. All our hollownesses, if I may so say, are met with His fulness that fits into them. It only needs that a man be aware of that which he is, and then turn himself to Him who is all that he is not, and then into his empty being will flow rejoicing the whole fulness of God. 'My strength is made perfect in weakness.' (2 Corinthians 12:8-9 Strength in Weakness) Spurgeon in Faith's Checkbook The Magnitude of Grace - Our weakness should be prized as making room for divine strength. We might never have known the power of grace if we had not felt the weakness of nature. Blessed be the LORD for the thorn in the flesh, and the messenger of Satan, when they drive us to the strength of God. This is a precious word from our LORD's own lip. It has made the writer laugh for joy. God's grace enough for me! I should think it is. Is not the sky enough for the bird and the ocean enough for the fish? The All-Sufficient is sufficient for my largest want. He who is sufficient for earth and heaven is certainly able to meet the case of one poor worm like me. Let us, then, fall back upon our God and His grace. If He does not remove our grief, He will enable us to bear it. His strength shall be poured into us till the worm shall thresh the mountains, and a nothing shall be victor over all the high and mighty ones. It is better for us to have God's strength than our own; for if we were a thousand times as strong as we are, it would amount to nothing in the face of the enemy; and if we could be weaker than we are, which is scarcely possible, yet we could do all things through Christ. Spurgeon in Morning and Evening..."My grace is sufficient for thee." 2 Corinthians 12:9 If none of God's saints were poor and tried, we should not know half so well the consolations of divine grace. When we find the wanderer who has not where to lay his head, who yet can say, "Still will I trust in the Lord" (cp Job 13:15KJV). When we see the pauper starving on bread and water, who still glories in Jesus; when we see the bereaved widow overwhelmed in affliction, and yet having faith in Christ, oh! what honour it reflects on the gospel. God's grace is illustrated and magnified in the poverty and trials of believers. Saints bear up under every discouragement, believing that all things work together for their good (Ge 50:20, Ro 8:28-note, Ep 1:11-note), and that out of apparent evils a real blessing shall ultimately spring-that their God will either work a deliverance for them speedily, or most assuredly support them in the trouble, as long as he is pleased to keep them in it. This patience of the saints proves the power of divine grace. There is a lighthouse out at sea: it is a calm night-I cannot tell whether the edifice is firm; the tempest must rage about it, and then I shall know whether it will stand. So with the Spirit's work: if it were not on many occasions surrounded with tempestuous waters, we should not know that it was true and strong; if the winds did not blow upon it, we should not know how firm and secure it was. The master-works of God are those men who stand in the midst of difficulties, stedfast, unmoveable,- "Calm mid the bewildering cry, Confident of victory." He who would glorify his God must set his account upon meeting with many trials. No man can be illustrious before the Lord unless his conflicts be many. If then, yours be a much-tried path, rejoice in it, because you will the better show forth the all-sufficient grace of God. As for his failing you, never dream of it-hate the thought. The God who has been sufficient until now, should be trusted to the end. A primary qualification for serving God with any amount of success, and for doing God's work well and triumphantly, is a sense of our own weakness. When God's warrior marches forth to battle, strong in his own might, when he boasts, "I know that I shall conquer, my own right arm and my conquering sword shall get unto me the victory," defeat is not far distant. God will not go forth with that man who marches in his own strength. He who reckoneth on victory thus has reckoned wrongly, for "it is not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." They who go forth to fight, boasting of their prowess, shall return with their gay banners trailed in the dust, and their armour stained with disgrace. Those who serve God must serve him in his own way, and in his strength, or he will never accept their service. That which man doth, unaided by divine strength, God can never own. The mere fruits of the earth he casteth away; he will only reap that corn, the seed of which was sown from heaven, watered by grace, and ripened by the sun of divine love. God will empty out all that thou hast before he will put his own into thee; he will first clean out thy granaries before he will fill them with the finest of the wheat. The river of God is full of water; but not one drop of it flows from earthly springs. God will have no strength used in his battles but the strength which he himself imparts. Are you mourning over your own weakness? Take courage, for there must be a consciousness of weakness before the Lord will give thee victory. Your emptiness is but the preparation for your being filled, and your casting down is but the making ready for your lifting up. "When I am weak then am I strong, Grace is my shield and Christ my song." An unknown poet has written: Once I heard a song of sweetness as it cleft the morning air, Sounding in its blest completeness like a tender, pleading prayer; And I sought to find the singer whence the wondrous song was born; Till I found a bird, sore wounded, pinioned by an ugly thorn. I have seen a soul of sadness while its wings with pain were furled, Giving hope and cheer and gladness that should bless the weeping world; Soon I learned a life of sweetness was of pain and sorrow born, For that stricken soul was singing with its heart against a thorn!' You are told of One who loves you, of a Savior crucified, You are told of nails that pinioned, and a spear that pierced His side; You are told of cruel scourging, of a Savior bearing scorn, And He died for your salvation with His brow against the thorn. You are not above the Master! Will you breathe a sweet refrain? Then His grace will be sufficient when your heart is pierced with pain; Will you live to bless His loved ones though your life be bruised and torn, Like a bird that sang so sweetly with its heart against a thorn? If you have thorns in your life, thank God for the roses of grace that inevitably go with them. -H G Bosch MOST GLADLY, THEREFORE, I WILL RATHER BOAST ABOUT MY WEAKNESSES: hedista oun mallon kauchesomai (1SFMI) en tais astheneiais mou: 2 Co 12:10,15; Mt 5:11,12 Boast - 2 Co 12:5, 2 Co 11:30 2Ki 2:15; Isa 4:5,6; 11:2; Zeph 3:17; Mt 28:18,20; 1Pe 4:13,14 2 Corinthians 12 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries Therefore (oun) is a term of conclusion which in context introduces the logical (albeit not to the natural man - 1Co 2:14) reaction to the seemingly paradoxical truth (power in weakness) just attested by Jesus to Paul. Therefore because Christ is magnified in my weakness is the idea. And so Paul joyously boasts of his weaknesses, including his thorn as well as his beatings and hardships and sleepless nights and hunger and thirst, etc. J. Oswald Sanders writes that "The world's philosophy is, "What can't be cured must be endured." But Paul radiantly testifies, "What can't be cured can be enjoyed. I enjoy weakness, sufferings, privations, and difficulties." So wonderful did he prove God's grace to be, that he even welcomed fresh occasions of drawing upon its fullness. "I gladly glory ... I even enjoy"—my thorn." ( A Spiritual Clinic) Most gladly (2234) (hedeos from hedus/hedys = sweet) is an adverb which literally means sweetly, and figuratively as used in this passage means gladly or joyously. Hedeos thus speaks of the experience of gladness which is based primarily upon the pleasure one derives from the activity (in this case the activity of "boasting" about weaknesses)! There is a sweetness in such boasting, not because the experience "feels good" to our outer man, but because of the divine assurance that it will "yield good" in our inner man (cp 2Co 4:16, 17, 18 - observe from these great passages how a knowledge of the end result, fortifies us to fight the good fight in the midst of the experiencing of afflictions, weaknesses, etc). Such a sweet, joyous attitude is a reflection of Paul's total surrender/complete submission to His Lord. Hedeos refers to the sort of friendly indifference with which an audience may listen to this or that speaker (2Co 11:19) and the real pleasure that they may derive from so doing (Mk 6:20; 12:37). Spicq adds that hedeos was commonly used in secular letters in which "the author (would)... ask his correspondent exactly what he wants, saying that he will do it willingly. In 250 BC: "Write if you need anything from us, for we will do it hēdeōs" (graphe de kai, ean tinos tōn par' hēmin chreian echēs, hoti gar hēdeōs poiēsomen, SB 7648, 8); in the second century ad: "But you also must make clear to me what you want; they will do it hēdeōs." Pleasure is or is not derived from someone's company (SB 4317, 10; 7572, 20; P. Oxy. 298, 33; 1218, 12). The word is also used in formulas of greeting, and takes on the nuances of willingly, gladly (Pap.Lugd.Bat. XVI, 31, 4), pleasantly, with pleasure, as in this epitaph for a black slave: "Learn, stranger, that I am Fortunatus, because I obtained from Fortune that which is pleasant for mortals" (SB 8071, 18; cf. SEG VIII, 464, 22). (Spicq, C., & Ernest, J. D. Theological Lexicon of the New Testament. 2:172-173. Peabody, MA.: Hendrickson. 1994) The root word hedus/hedys is used to describe wine in the Septuagint (LXX) translation of Esther 1:10 ("the king being merry"), an offering that is acceptable to God (Josephus, Ant. 12.47 "a very great and acceptable gift which I devote to God"), a sweet child (Corpus of Jewish Inscriptions: Jewish Inscriptions from the Third Century B.C. to the Seventh Century A.D. New York, 1975), a person who is pleasant to be with (C.P.Herm. 3, 5), and of "the sweet life." Hedeos - 3x in 3v in the Septuagint (LXX) and 5x in 5v in the NT - Esther 1:10; Pr 3:24; 9:17; Mk 6:20; 12:37; 2Co11:19; 12:9, 15.
2 Coríntios 12:10
Poole writes that… A child of God seldom walks so much in the view of God as his God, and in the view of his own sincerity, as when, as to his outward condition and circumstances in the world, he walks in the dark and sees no light. Albert Barnes… When I feel weak; when I am subjected to trial, and nature faints and fails, then strength is imparted to me, and I am enabled to bear all. The more I am borne down with trials, the more do I feel my need of Divine assistance, and the more do I feel the efficacy of Divine grace. Such was the promise in Dt 33:25KJV, "As thy days, so shall thy strength be." So in Hebrews 11:34-note, "Who out of weakness were made strong." What Christian has not experienced this, and been able to say that when he felt himself weak, and felt like sinking under the accumulation of many trials, he has found his strength according to his day, and felt an arm of power supporting him? It is then that the Redeemer manifests Himself in a peculiar manner; and then that the excellency of the religion of Christ is truly seen, and its (His) power appreciated and felt. J Vernon McGee… What a contrast this man is to Samson in the Old Testament. The Spirit of God came upon Samson and he became strong. People marveled at his physical strength, but there came a day when he was very weak. The strong are made weak, and the weak are made strong. God can use the weak man. (2Corinthians 12:10-12 Mp3)