To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. (2 Corinthians 12:7)

A popular claim is that the “thorn in the flesh” refers to an illness that God declined to heal. The application is that our prayers for healing may be unanswered, but he will provide the “grace” for us to endure the suffering. However, this interpretation is fraudulent.

The Bible uses similar expressions in a number of places, and they refer to persons, not objects or conditions, such as diseases:

But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides. (Numbers 33:55)

Now therefore I tell you that I will not drive them out before you; they will be thorns in your sides and their gods will be a snare to you. (Judges 2:3)

But if you turn away and ally yourselves with the survivors of these nations that remain among you and if you intermarry with them and associate with them, then you may be sure that the LORD your God will no longer drive out these nations before you. Instead, they will become snares and traps for you, whips on your backs and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land, which the LORD your God has given you. (Joshua 23:12-13)

Some verses lack the full expression, but still use “thorns” to represent people, not objects or conditions, and not diseases:

But evil men are all to be cast aside like thorns, which are not gathered with the hand. (2 Samuel 23:6)

And you, son of man, do not be afraid of them or their words. Do not be afraid, though briers and thorns are all around you and you live among scorpions. Do not be afraid of what they say or terrified by them, though they are a rebellious house. (Ezekiel 2:6)

No longer will the people of Israel have malicious neighbors who are painful briers and sharp thorns. Then they will know that I am the Sovereign LORD. (Ezekiel 28:24)

Our verse shows that Paul follows this usage of the expression. He calls the thorn “a messenger of Satan” (v. 7), not an object, condition, or disease.

He also calls it his “weakness” (v. 9). That is, when he prayed that it would be removed, the Lord answered, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (v. 9a). So Paul says that he would therefore boast about his “weaknesses” (v. 9b). To understand what he means by this, we need to look at the larger context.

Paul has been defending his ministry against the influence of false apostles (2 Corinthians 10-12). Although these characters portray themselves as “super-apostles” (11:5), Paul calls them “deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ” (11:13). Still, they have been accepted by the Corinthians: “For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough” (11:4).

In order to assert their authority, they have made great claims about their credentials and experiences. Paul complains that this is “foolishness” (11:1, also v. 16-21), but he says that even if such standards were used, he is still not inferior to the false apostles (12:11). Are these people Abraham’s descendants? “So am I” (11:22). Are they servants of Christ? “I am more” (11:23). He lists some of the things that he has suffered, and which show that he is more of a servant of Christ than the imposters:

I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. (11:23-28)

The false apostles make boastful claims that portray themselves as “strong,” but they do not exhibit traits that mark an apostle. Paul points out that the Corinthians would tolerate “anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or takes advantage of you or pushes himself forward or slaps you in the face” (11:20). He sarcastically admits, “To my shame I admit that we were too weak for that!” (11:21). In contrast, he preached to the Corinthians “free of charge” (11:7), at his own expense and at the expense of other churches (11:8). So it is strange that the Corinthians would turn from one who has been a father to them, and follow those who would exploit them and abuse them.

As for experiences, no matter what the false apostles claim that they have had, Paul has them as well, and more of them. He writes, “I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know – God knows. And I know that this man – whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows – was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell” (12:1-4).

Although he distances himself from the experience, he is obviously talking about himself, because he proceeds to say, “To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh” (12:7). In fact, the thorn in the flesh was sent to him because of these “surpassingly great revelations.” So whether we are talking about human credentials or divine experiences, Paul’s answer is that only a “fool” asserts apostleship by these things, but even if we do, “I am not in the least inferior to the ‘super-apostles'” (12:11). He distances himself because he prefers to boast about his “weaknesses” instead (12:5) and so that no one will think more of him than is warranted (12:6).

Miracles are not the things that mark a true apostle in the first place; otherwise, Paul’s focus would be to refute the claims made by others rather than to match or exceed them, and then say that this is “foolishness” (11:1) and that “there is nothing to be gained” (12:1) by all the boasting. It is a mistake to think that 2 Corinthians 12:12 teaches that the power to work miracles is the mark of an apostle or even that the power to work miracles belongs exclusively to the apostle. Some translations practically prescribe this interpretation by their renderings. The KJV and ESV are better: “Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds”; “The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience, with signs and wonders and mighty works.” On the day of Pentecost, the apostles were a mere ten percent of those who received power to work miracles (Acts 1:8, 15), and Paul himself declares, “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good” (1 Corinthians 12:7).

The claim that miracles are “signs of an apostle” or even the exclusive signs of an apostle would backfire against Paul. We know that many believers other than the apostles worked miracles. Some of the most spectacular visions and miracles recorded in the Bible happened to other disciples such as Stephen (Acts 6:15, 7:55-56) and Philip (Acts 8:39-40). The claim is then made that even if miracles were performed by others, they were done by those who were associated with the apostles and approved by the apostles. The Bible contradicts this (Mark 9:38-39); moreover, once this is added to the original claim, 2 Corinthians 12:12 would become irrelevant as an assertion of Paul’s apostleship, because it would mean that he could be nothing more than an associate of an apostle. In fact, it seems that he sometimes had to refute precisely this charge, and when he did, he did not focus on his miracles as if they were signs of an apostle, but he related the history of his calling, appealed to God as his witness (Galatians 1:11-2:10), and as he does in this letter to the Corinthians, referred to the manner and the fruit of his ministry (Matthew 7:15-23; Galatians 2:7-8; 2 Corinthians 1:12-14, 3:1-3, 4:1-2, 5:11-20, 6:3-13, 7:2-7, 10:1-12:10).

Rather than listing the things that would make a person appear strong and accredited, but that could not show one to be a true servant or apostle, Paul writes, “If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness” (11:30). Again, what does he mean by “weakness”? He tells us immediately: “The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, he who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying. At Damascus, the governor under King Aretas was guarding the city of Damascus in order to seize me, but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped his hands” (11:31-33). This is an example of the things that he lists in 11:23-28.

Therefore, by “weakness,” he refers to the difficult and embarrassing situations that he frequently faces. These events often make him look defeated, and take from him all traces of dignity, perhaps in sharp contrast to the impressive showmanship of the false apostles and false teachers. While the false apostles dined at the best restaurants with wealthy businessmen, Paul was trapped in a filthy prison cell next to robbers and murderers, and treated as if he was one of them. While the false teachers were networking with leaders of the church establishment, Paul was shipwrecked, drifting on the open sea. Then, when he got the chance to visit some of his spiritual children, they had turned against him. They looked down on him because he was not refined enough, not eloquent enough, not entertaining enough.

It is disappointing that our text has been so often used for the purpose of assuring people that God regularly refuses to heal the sick. Sick? Are you joking? Paul received thirty-nine lashes five times (11:24). They did not use cotton towels to whip people. It is amazing that he still had a back to be whipped the other four times. He was beaten with rods three times (11:25). Instead of having to stay in bed for the rest of his life with a broken spine and crushed legs “for the glory of God,” he is still walking around – more than those who have never been whipped or beaten – and preaching the gospel.

Sick? With an eye disease you say? This is hilarious. This is foot-stomping, wall-punching funny. He was stoned (11:25). The Jews did not fool around. When they stoned someone, they stoned to kill. They knew how to do it. They were good at it. Stephen was killed this way (Acts 7:54-60). They were not throwing cupcakes at him. They were throwing rocks, as hard as they could, seething with anger and intending to kill – on his head, on his face, and all over his body. They did it until they were satisfied that he was dead (Acts 14:19). Then “he got up and went back into the city” (v. 20). The disciples did not pull him up or carry him back. He got up. He went back into the city. Forgive him if he had to limp for a few days! And now that you are down with the flu, you think you are just like him! Sick? This is like saying that a spiritual man was feeling “under the weather,” even wobbling all over the place, so it is fine if we are sick too, when the truth is that the man was recovering from having his head cut off a few days before.

An appeal to our passage is a strategic error for those who wish to undermine God’s supernatural power, especially when they are so eager to take the Lord’s answer to Paul and apply it to all Christians. It is a landmine of healing miracles and charismatic experiences. It can only serve to drastically increase our faith in God’s healing power and our expectation of what kinds of miracles and experiences are possible for those who trust in him.

This is what Paul means by “weakness.” If it has anything to do with physical ailments, it is referring to something that ought to have been incapacitating, even fatal. Accordingly, he writes, “That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties” (12:10). All the items come under broadly similar categories, and none of them mean sickness. This is another indication that the weakness does not refer to sickness.

Paul says, “If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness” (11:30). We see what this means now. And why would he boast about his weakness? He continues, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me….For when I am weak, then I am strong” (12:9-10). When a Christian trusts in Jesus Christ and not in human credentials, eloquence, or showmanship, the Lord’s power is “made perfect” in him. The more people oppose him, the more they embarrass him, and the more they strip him of his dignity, the more the power of Christ manifests.

In this context, this power cannot only refer to an ethical power, as in a strong integrity, or to emotional endurance. If it refers to endurance, it must include a supernatural endurance that enables one to survive stoning, whipping, beating, and shipwrecks. It is also a power that enables one to receive “visions and revelations” (12:1), since the thorn in the flesh came because of these in the first place (12:7), and the Lord’s statement, “my power is made perfect in weakness” (12:9), refers to the same. This is power in a thoroughgoing charismatic sense. Even if it means more than this, it cannot mean less. If the passage has any application for the Christian, this is it. This application cannot be denied, and it is surely treasonous to assert an opposite application, as most scholars appear to do.

While we are on the subject, we should take a look at Galatians 4:13: “As you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you.” If some Christians are so obsessed with limiting God’s healing power in Paul’s life, so that they may excuse their own unbelief or find solace in defeat, this verse is more plausibly twisted for this purpose than 2 Corinthians 12:7.

First, there are some who do not think that the verse must refer to a sickness. Many translations assume that it does and state it as such, but some say “weakness of the flesh” or “infirmity of the flesh.” Adam Clarke thinks that Paul was only overworked, but this seems to be speculation, like the theories that assign specific sicknesses to the verse. In any case, he apparently disagrees with these other theories.

John Gill suggests a number of possibilities, of which a physical ailment is only one among several options, “Meaning either their infirmity, to which the apostle accommodated himself in preaching the Gospel to them, …or his own infirmity, respecting either some particular bodily infirmity and disorder, as the headache, with which he is said to be greatly troubled; or the weakness of his bodily presence, the mean outward appearance he made, the contemptibleness of his voice, and the great humility with which he behaved; or rather the many reproaches, afflictions, and persecutions which attended him.”

Although it seems possible that Galatians 4:13 refers to a sickness, we cannot be sure that it does. No one can prove that it does, no matter how hard he tries. And if the “weakness of the flesh” is not a sickness, then nothing more needs to be said about it relative to our subject. Nevertheless, in order for the discussion to continue, and so that we may consider the implications for the doctrine of healing, in what follows we will pretend that the verse indeed refers to a sickness. We will pretend that Paul was sick when he first preached to the Galatians.

If this “weakness of the flesh” is a sickness, then contrary to many commentators, it is certain that Galatians 4:13 is not referring to the same thing as 2 Corinthians 12:7. This is because we have established that the thorn in the flesh in 2 Corinthians 12:7 cannot refer to a sickness. Since Galatians 4:13 refers to something else, and not the thorn in the flesh, this means that the Lord’s answer in 2 Corinthians 12:9 does not apply to the condition in Galatians 4:13. One cannot say that the Lord refused to heal Paul in Galatians 4:13 on the basis of what he tells Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9.

Then, even if we identify the two by force, although every indication is against this, it would still be only one case of sickness that was not healed. General application would be impossible, since it is obvious that there are many cases of healing in the Bible, and also broad promises for healing (James 5:15). Thus even if we were to abuse the passages like this, it would be possible to make only slight progress toward the direction of sickness. But again, this would be an abuse of Scripture, and thus it cannot in fact be done.

We will continue with the assumption that Galatians 4:13 refers to a sickness. Is there any indication as to what kind of sickness it could be? Commentators often like to suggest malaria because of the local situation, or ophthalmia because of several expressions that Paul used.

Biblical scholars like to act like detectives, but they often end up more like the Pink Panther than Sherlock Holmes. The clumsy investigator rushes into a crime scene. He inspects the ground with a magnifying glass, and finds foot prints formed by a brown substance. He scoops up some of it and puts it in his mouth…”Hmm, officer, record these footprints. The criminal was wearing boots of this size, and judging from the taste of manure, he came from a farm nearby.” The officer replies, “Sir, you just walked in after stepping on some dog poop outside. Those are your prints.”

The Bible includes no actual indication of the local situation, and even if it does, it contains no indication that Paul contracted what was common in that area. It is total speculation. So other scholars read, “What has happened to all your joy? I can testify that, if you could have done so, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me” (Galatians 4:15). Aha, eye disease! However, like “the thorn in the flesh,” which has nothing to do with an actual thorn, this could be just an expression for the people’s strong concern and willingness to sacrifice for the apostle.

One could say, “I would take a bullet for him,” when no one is shooting at his friend. Or, “He is such kind gentleman, he would give you the shirt off his back at the drop of a hat,” when no one needs a shirt from him and no one is dropping any hats. If Paul had an eye disease, verse 15 would be consistent with it, but the verse in itself cannot indicate that he had this issue. Then, 6:11 is just his signature. I know someone who has such a big signature that his wife has to leave extra room for him on every greeting card they send. If he wishes to be emphatic, he might make his signature even bigger than usual. It has nothing to do with the condition of his eyes.

Another possibility is that Galatians 4:13 refers to the effects of his stoning. This would have to mean that a significant number of his readers first heard him after Acts 14:19, or the order of events would not fit.

There are several advantages to this theory. It is the only option that can be connected to something actually recorded in the Bible, and that occurred at around the time and location where Paul first preached to his readers. The stoning would have left him severely disfigured, with injuries throughout his body. His appearance would have been much worse than if he had ophthalmia. This would make it even more impressive that the Galatians did not treat Paul with contempt because of how he looked (4:14). The suffering was intense and memorable to him: “You, however, know all about…what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured” (2 Timothy 3:10-11). Christians love to identify with these things, but Paul adds, “Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them” (v. 11), so let us identify with that as well.

However, if this is what Galatians 4:13 refers to, then what appears to be a record of sickness becomes a testimony to God’s healing power. We have such a testimony in Acts 14:19-20 anyway, but the question is whether this verse in Galatians refers to the aftermath of the same event. In Acts 14, the Jews stoned Paul until they thought he was dead (v. 19). Even if he was not dead, he was apparently so injured that the Jews thought that he was. If there was any sign of movement, of speech, of breath, or any other sign of life, they failed to detect it. If he was dead, God raised him from the dead. From such a condition, Paul got up and went back into the city. By the following day, he was well enough to travel (v. 20). Then, either immediately or soon after, he was well enough to preach, to appoint elders, to pray and fast, and to travel some more (v. 21-25).

This is a frightening measure of healing power. The man refused to die, and if he did, he recovered from death itself. This happened regardless of what Galatians 4:13 is talking about. Nevertheless, since there is nothing definitive that would connect Acts 14:19 to Galatians 4:13 in this manner, it remains only a possibility that the “weakness of the flesh” refers to the remaining injuries of stoning.

Pay attention to what is in the verse, and what is just not in there. We can say for sure that Paul had a condition that he calls a “weakness in the flesh.” This could have been an illness or injury. Its exact nature is unknown. The condition existed when he first preached to these readers. Although the Galatians could have regarded him with contempt because of it, they did not.

We cannot say that this was a chronic illness, because the text does not say it. We cannot say that he never recovered, because the text does not say it. We cannot say how long the condition remained, whether ten hours or ten years, because the text does not say it. He says that he had this condition when he first preached to them. He could have recovered during his time with them or by the time he left them, or perhaps he never recovered. On the basis of the text, no one can know, because it does not tell us.

Therefore, the text by itself does not strengthen or undermine an expectation for healing, because it does not say that he received healing, and it does not say that he never received healing. It shows that a Christian can be attacked with sickness, but this is not new information. The Bible tells us what to do about it: “Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven” (James 5:14-15). Many other passages encourage an expectation for healing.

The Bible also teaches that healing can be instant, but it can also take a little time. Jesus himself ministered to a blind man twice before he was completely cured (Mark 8:22-25). James refers to Elijah’s prayer in the context of praying for healing, and Elijah prayed seven times before the answer came (James 5:17-18; 1 Kings 18:41-46). Elisha had to pray and stretch himself upon a child more than once before the child was raised from the dead and fully restored (2 Kings 4:32-35). Many have testified that, although sometimes it took hours, days, or weeks of prayer, even incurable and terminal cases have been healed. Thus even if Paul had not recovered by the time he first preached to the Galatians, it does not mean that he never recovered. Rather, his point is not that he was ill, but that his readers did not look down on him.

Some people go to great lengths to show that Paul was sick and did not receive healing, or that he prayed for someone and that person did not receive healing, but this does nothing other than to expose their idolatry. Their arguments are wrong, but putting that aside for the moment, the issue is why we should care in the first place. “Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul?…What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe” (1 Corinthians 1:13, 3:5). We look to Christ for healing, not Paul, and the apostle himself had to look to Christ.

When I pray for someone to receive healing, I do not pray to Paul or in the name of Paul, but to God in the name of Jesus Christ. So I look to God’s promises concerning faith, healing, and prayer. If God says healing belongs to us, then I can receive it whether or not Paul ever received it. If God says that we can pray for the sick and they will recover, then I can expect him to heal them, whether or not Paul was ever successful at it. When people look to Paul for healing, or when they base their belief on theories about his experience, they are already defeated. These people look to men, and this is why they are failures. They are sick in spirit, and it is the worst kind of sickness. Satan has a grip on their hearts, but Jesus can deliver them even from this.

The truth is that those who undermine healing in the life of Paul do not want to learn from him. They want to use him. They want to twist his words, step on his back, and use him to exalt themselves. They want to make their useless and pathetic lives look like beacons of glory.

The thorn in the flesh is sent to one who has had the most extreme charismatic experiences, who has lived through the most dramatic miracles, visions, signs, and wonders. It cannot be used to dampen charismatic expectations, because it is applied to one who has already realized charismatic expectations far beyond the average charismatics, and even beyond the stories that the false apostles invented.

If you claim that you have a thorn in the flesh, then I want to hear about all the visions and revelations that you have received, even “surpassingly great” supernatural experiences. If you claim that you have an infirmity that God refuses to remove, then I want to witness the extreme measure of supernatural power that rests upon you – his power is made perfect in weakness. What miracles of healing, of nature, and of judgment God must have performed through you!

I do not want to hear how you remained reverent during the many hours of earthshaking diarrhea you suffered after some bad Thai food. No, I want to hear how you were preaching at some unknown corner of the world, and a native shaman chopped your head clean off. You went up to heaven, played dodgeball with the angels, and Jesus was the referee. Then you returned from the dead, reattached your own head, and still managed to walk around preaching the gospel as local warlords chased after you with bazookas aiming at your behind, because the healing power that God unleashed through you remained the greatest threat against their biological weapon business. I would accept that as a modern version of what Paul experienced. Now if you claim that you have a thorn in the flesh, I would not utter a word.

If you have nothing, then you do not have a thorn in the flesh. You have a lot of excuses, unbelief, false doctrine, and religious pride. You do not have a thorn in the flesh. You are a thorn in the flesh to those who trust God for deliverance. You do not have infirmities. You have minor annoyances in your life that you exaggerate in order to make yourself look like someone great. You are a religious hypocrite.

The false teachers of cessationism and tradition come to us preaching a different Jesus (one who does not baptize with the Spirit; Matthew 3:11, Mark 1:8, Luke 3:16, John 1:33), a different Spirit (a Spirit who does not grant miraculous power; Acts 1:4-8, 2:1-4, 17-18, 1 Corinthians 12:7), and a different gospel (a gospel that does not include healing and miracles; Matthew 8:17, Galatians 3:5, James 5:14-18). Are we going to put up with it? Rather than venturing out into the world with faith and power, and risk facing the dangers that Paul encountered, the doctrine of sickness allows one to suffer at the comfort of his own home and feel like a hero at the same time. He is praised just for being sick. This is a religious scam. The Bible teaches a doctrine of healing, power, and miracles. When this results in relief and comfort, we give thanks to God and testify to his goodness, and we use our renewed strength to fulfill the Lord’s commission.

They complain that a gospel of healing and power promises men that faith in God exempts them from all problems. If some people teach this, so that it is not a misrepresentation or statements taken out of context, it must be so rare that I have never heard it in more than twenty years, not even from those who are considered the most zealous “health and wealth” teachers. In fact, even with the most heretical ones, no one could hear them very long before they warn against the misunderstanding that faith in God implies a life without problems, not even little ones. The criticism is a straw man, and slander.

Rather, they often refer to the verse, “A righteous man may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all” (Psalm 34:19). They insist that Christians would face problems, but they also preach deliverance, because the Bible promises it. Christians might come under attack, but they can overcome by faith in God. On the other hand, and of course I have not studied every sermon in the world, I do not hear their critics use this verse. The first part would offer them comfort, but the second part would be a thorn in the flesh. They avoid passages in the Bible that promise healing, provisions, and answers to prayer. If they mention them, it is to smother them under a thousand qualifications, and to denounce those who believe them.

They portray faith as deception for itching ears, but unbelief as a defense of the gospel. God wants us to have a faith that can move mountains, and that can receive answers to prayer (Mark 11:22-24). If there is the danger of misguided or presumptuous faith, the heresy of unbelief is much worse. It is the satanic delusion that pain equals piety. But we are under no delusion that we will never encounter problems, because we know that when we go forth to perform the works of Christ, even if the heathens rejoice at the gospel, the cessationists are there to oppose us. God can remove them, but he often just turns up the power (Acts 4:29-31, 2 Corinthians 12:9-10).