Boasting in Weakness (2 Corinthians 12)

When Your Weakness Becomes the Place Where God's Power Shows Up

What are your weaknesses? Your flaws, your hang-ups, the things you'd rather hide from others? The question might sound harsh, but it's the one the apostle Paul raises in chapter 12 of his second letter to the Corinthians. He tells of an extraordinary experience there: he was caught up to paradise, he heard words that cannot be told. And yet he refuses to boast about it. He chooses to boast about only one thing: his weakness, and the greatness of the God who uses a man this weak for his own glory.

This sermon, preached at Agape Church in Tokyo, invites you to turn your whole gaze back on yourself. Where you see a source of shame, God sees a place where his strength can be displayed. Where you chafe against your own limits, Christ whispers: "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."

Outline of the teaching

1. Our weaknesses: what you'd rather hide

2. The fleshly reaction: putting on armor to protect yourself

3. Paul's reversal: boasting in his weakness

4. Why God leaves the thorn in your flesh

5. How your weakness brings you back to Christ every day

1. Our weaknesses: what you'd rather hide

Each of us has weaknesses, small or great. There are physical weaknesses: a chronic illness, a fragile body, a mental health that wavers under the pressure of a society living against God's ways. There are intellectual weaknesses: the feeling of not being educated enough, cultured enough, capable enough to succeed in this world. There are weaknesses of character: fear, timidity, the tendency to fall apart at the smallest shock. There are also relational weaknesses: a family problem you dare not tell anyone about.

Instinctively, you want to hide all of this. Because this world is a world of competition. Showing a weakness means exposing yourself to attack, making yourself vulnerable in a society that shows no mercy. So you build strategies. You play the strong one. You put on a good face. You laugh louder than everyone else to hide the anguish eating away at you.

2. The fleshly reaction: putting on armor to protect yourself

Look closely at what the flesh produces when it tries to cover up a weakness:

• Bluffing. You inflate your stories. You embellish. You play a bigger role than your reality. Little by little, you don't even notice you're exaggerating anymore, it's become your normal way of speaking.
• Forced cheerfulness. You become someone who's "always doing fine," who's "always laughing." Except it isn't the joy of the Lord, it's a forced joy, a bit loud, that makes others uneasy without them knowing why.
• Stubbornness. You stop apologizing. Admitting a mistake costs too much for the image you're defending. Yet the Bible says stubbornness is a serious sin: it means putting your own thinking above God's, making an idol of yourself.
• Lying. The more fragile you are, the more you lie, to protect yourself, to look better, to resemble the image of yourself you'd like to project.

The preacher shares her own testimony here. Raised in a serious family, formed in the church from childhood, she worked hard to "be a good Christian." Thirty years into her career, she realized these efforts had led her to put on armor after armor. She had become strong, efficient, able to face anything, and completely hard. Her own sisters told her: "You're cold." God had to come, with hammer blows, and break these pieces of armor one by one so she could begin again a right walk with Christ, from zero.

Here's the illustration she gives: a Christian who hides their weakness is like someone who douses themselves in cheap perfume. From a distance, it smells strong. Up close, it stings and gives you a headache. The Christian who lives their weakness with the Lord, on the other hand, gives off a subtle, genuine fragrance, the scent of a flower. Which one do you want to be?

3. Paul's reversal: boasting in his weakness

Read the text carefully: 2 Corinthians 12:1-10. Paul objectively had every reason to boast. Trained at the feet of Gamaliel, fluent in several languages and cultures, he would today be the equivalent of a tenured university professor with several doctorates. He had been caught up to the third heaven. He had seen what the human eye does not see.

And yet he declares: "I will not boast of that. I will boast of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me."

The reversal is complete. The world tells you: hide your weaknesses, project a strong image, sell yourself well. Paul tells you: carry your weaknesses before people as living proof that a great God is at work in a small life. Your weakness is no longer a shame, it becomes the channel through which Christ reveals himself.

4. Why God leaves the thorn in your flesh

Paul says it plainly: because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations he had received, God allowed a thorn to be placed in his flesh, "a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited." Three times he pleaded with the Lord to take it away. Three times the answer was the same: "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."

You've probably prayed like Paul. You've asked God to heal that suffering, to lift that burden, to change that circumstance. And nothing moves. Understand this: God is neither deaf nor distant. He sometimes withholds deliverance because he wants to keep you from pride and hold you in a living dependence on his presence.

Paul had poor eyesight, a speech impediment (some say he stammered), an unimpressive physical appearance, a small stature. These limits were the very ramparts God used to guard his soul in the midst of the powerful ministry he had entrusted to him. And in the eyes of the world, those same limits became the proof that such a man could not produce such fruit on his own, meaning God really was at work in him.

5. How your weakness brings you back to Christ every day

When you think you're strong, you move forward on your own. You make decisions, you decide, you push ahead. When you know you're weak, you ask Jesus at every step: "Lord, right or left? This project, yes or no? This word, do I say it or stay silent?"

This ongoing conversation, this dialogue with Christ throughout the day, is what Paul calls "clinging to Christ." The more empty of yourself you are, the more you let him fill you. The more you turn to him, the more you know him. The more you know him, the more you bear fruit that doesn't come from you.

The preacher closes by quoting a poem posted on the wall of a rehabilitation institute at a university in New York (translated into Japanese by a pastor): "God's Answer to All My Prayers." Here's an English rendering of it:

I asked God for strength, that I might achieve great things; he made me weak, that I might humbly learn to obey.
I asked for health, to do greater things; he gave me sickness, that I might do better things.
I asked for riches, to be happy; he gave me poverty, that I might become wise.
I asked for power, to be admired by others; he gave me weakness, that I might feel my need of God.
I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life; he gave me life, that I might enjoy all things.
I received nothing that I asked for, and yet I received everything I had hoped for.
In spite of myself, my unspoken prayers were answered: among all people, I am most richly blessed.

Key takeaways

• Trying to hide your weaknesses leads you to put on armor made of bluffing, stubbornness, and lying, a "cheap perfume" that pushes others away.
• Paul deliberately chooses to boast in his weaknesses, because they're the very place where the power of Christ is displayed.
• The thorn in the flesh isn't a failure of faith: it's a rampart God places to guard your heart from pride.
• Your weakness forces you to ask Jesus, to talk to him, to obey him, that's how you come to know him.
• What God gives you instead of what you ask for is always deeper than what you were asking for.

Personal application

1. What weakness are you trying, right now, to hide from others, or even from yourself?
2. Do you recognize, in these portraits of the flesh (bluffing, stubbornness, forced joy, lying), one of your own pieces of armor? Which one would God like to break this week?
3. What "thorn" have you long been asking God to remove? What would happen in your relationship with him if you told him today, "Your grace is sufficient for me"?
4. At what point in your day could you open up a real conversation with Christ, like a child asking his Father at every step?
5. What's the small thing you'd like to offer God this Sunday so he can turn it into a channel of his glory?

Verses cited in the sermon

• 2 Corinthians 12:1-10 · A thorn in the flesh
• John 4:23 · Worshiping in spirit and truth
• Psalm 100:2-4 · Serve the Lord with gladness
• Luke 15:11-32 · The prodigal son and his older brother

FAQ

What does it actually mean to "boast in your weakness"?

It means giving up trying to hide what makes you fragile and instead laying it before God and before others, not as a complaint, but as proof that a strength greater than yourself is with you. You no longer put your own achievements on display: you put on display the One who carries you.

Does that mean I should stop praying for healing or deliverance?

No. Paul prayed three times, sincerely. Keep asking God about what weighs on you. But accept that he may sometimes answer, "My grace is sufficient for you." His answer is never a rejection: it's a gift more precious than the one you were asking for.

How do I know if my weakness comes from my own sin or if God is leaving it for his glory?

Weaknesses that come from sin (anger, lying, stubbornness, pride) are to be fought through repentance and sanctification. Weaknesses tied to your constitution, your health, your temperament, or your circumstances are to be carried with the Lord as places where his grace can be displayed.