A thorn in the flesh

Weakness God used to keep Paul leaning on grace.

In the closing chapters of 2 Corinthians Paul answers men who boasted of their credentials and experiences and had drawn the church after them. Pushed to answer them, he says he "must needs glory" — yet he tells of visions and revelations only reluctantly, speaking of himself as "a man in Christ" who was "caught up even to the third heaven" (2 Corinthians 12:1-4).

Then he turns to something he would never have chosen to boast about. So that he would not be "exalted overmuch" by those revelations, "there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me" (2 Corinthians 12:7). Three times he asked the Lord to take it away. The answer was not removal but a promise: "My grace is sufficient for thee: for my power is made perfect in weakness."

The word Paul uses, skolops, means a pointed stake or a splinter — something sharp lodged where it cannot be ignored. "In the flesh" ties it to his life in this mortal body. He does not say what it was, and Scripture does not tell us. Readers have suggested a bodily illness (compare "an infirmity of the flesh" in Galatians 4:13), persistent opponents (as the nations left in Canaan would be "thorns in your sides" in Numbers 33:55), or an inward trial. Each view has its defenders; none can be proved.

What Paul does make plain is its purpose and its outcome. It was given "that I should not be exalted overmuch." It came as "a messenger of Satan," yet the Lord used it to keep Paul humble. Instead of removing it, he gave grace enough to bear it and showed his power in Paul's weakness. So Paul can say, "when I am weak, then am I strong" (2 Corinthians 12:10).

In everyday English "a thorn in the flesh" (or "a thorn in my side") means a persistent annoyance — often a difficult person or a nagging problem. That sense has real roots in Scripture: in Numbers 33:55 and Judges 2:3 the nations Israel failed to drive out would be "thorns in your sides."

But the everyday idiom keeps the irritation and loses Paul's point. For Paul the thorn was not only something to endure or complain about; it was a weakness God allowed and used to keep him dependent on grace, and through it he learned that the power of Christ rests on the weak. The idiom is faithful when it names a lasting trial honestly; it falls short of 2 Corinthians 12 when it ends in complaint rather than in trust that God's grace is sufficient.

thorn

a pointed stake or splinter

But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then shall those that ye let remain of them be as pricks in your eyes, and as thorns in your sides, and they shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell.

The Old Testament background: enemies left in the land would be "thorns in your sides."

but ye know that because of an infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you the first time: and that which was a temptation to you in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but ye received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.

Paul speaks elsewhere of "an infirmity of the flesh"; some connect it with the thorn, though he does not say so.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves;

The same pattern: treasure in earthen vessels, so that the power is plainly God's.

All chastening seemeth for the present to be not joyous but grievous; yet afterward it yieldeth peaceable fruit unto them that have been exercised thereby, even the fruit of righteousness.

A different pattern: God's chastening, though "grievous" at the time, "yieldeth peaceable fruit" in those trained by it. The thorn was not correction for sin — it was given to keep Paul from pride — but both trials alike are turned by God to a good end.

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