Blog 5: I am Content with Suffering
The word Paul uses for “content” in this verse is the exact same word that is used in the three gospels when Jesus comes up out of the waters at His baptism and the voice of the Father is heard from heaven saying:
“This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased.”
In fact, verse 10 of 2 Corinthians is the only place in the New Testament where this word is translated as “content.”
More than half of the 21 instances where the word is used are translated as being “pleased.”
Paul doesn’t just accept his sufferings, he’s pleased with them. He takes pleasure in them.
Blog 4: Do Not Waste Your Thorn.
Paul imitated Christ. So he boasted in, gloried in, rejoiced in his thorn because he knew that to do anything else would be to lose out on more of Christ and thus would be a waste of his thorn.
So let’s learn from him, brothers and sisters, and let’s not waste our thorns.
Blog 3: Who Gave This Thorn to Paul?
If you read verse 7 carefully, it doesn’t tell us explicitly who gave the thorn to Paul. Paul only explicitly tells us in verse 7 that a thorn was given to him. So one natural question that arises is: who gave the thorn to Paul?
Blog 2: God gives suffering to His people to break us of our pride.
God gives suffering to His people to break us of our pride. So with this context in mind, verses 7-10 show us that God gives suffering to His people to break us of our pride because Jesus only makes His dwelling in broken people. First,…
Blog 1: God’s Goodness in Your Sufferings (2 Cor. 12:7-10)
By nature, every single one of us is averse to suffering. We avoid it like the plague. We do so because we think suffering is primarily about losing something…
But in reality, for the Christian, suffering is primarily about gaining something: Jesus Christ. And it’s only by the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit that our hearts are changed to see that suffering is primarily about gaining Jesus, not losing something.
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