If only we would follow the apostle’s method. Somebody flatters us, somebody says something extremely approving or pleasant, or the devil whispers it in the ear – you have done this, you have done that, you have accomplished this or that. Well, the apostle’s method was to glory in his infirmities.
You can see in the Christian bookshops books by people who will tell you: this is how to be successful; this is how to win 1,000s and hundreds of 1,000s; this is how to fill up your church, to build a mega-church. Some of these writers are apparently very wealthy, outwardly at any rate, successful people. But how different from the apostle. We have all the ‘how to’ books and the books claiming such success and some of them by people who should know better, who are Bible believers. Yet here is the apostle saying, ‘I will glory in weakness. I am getting older,’ he says, ‘I am sick, I am suffering from bodily problems and from attacks from outside, yet I stick to the simplicity of the Gospel. I will do anything to gather souls together if it is a simple thing – wooing and inviting. I will preach without histrionics, without great Greek rhetorical flourishes. I will stick to straightforward preaching, urging, pleading, presenting the truth of the Gospel.’ That is where the success, the real success is. You can build a mega-church with bands and orchestras and entertainment and everything else, but how many people will be really saved? If you could view those churches through spiritual eyes, if you could see them through the eyes of God, they would shrink down to a few poor, spiritually starved souls; I am sure of it. The apostle’s way is the preaching of the word by the power of the Spirit, not all the carnality that we see today.
How does Paul’s glorying in his infirmities tie up with chapter 2 and verse 14? ‘Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ.’ Paul had taken the picture of a Roman general returning from conquest, enjoying his official triumph through the streets of Rome. ‘To be with Christ is like that: Christ is out in front conquering souls, and I am there with him’, says Paul. ‘We are those, who, wherever we go, God causes us to triumph and souls are won.’ So how can he glory of the things which concern his infirmities? Well, yes, viewed materially, physically, the life of the apostle was very hard and he was constantly suffering humiliation and difficulty. But viewed spiritually, it was powerfully successful, because wherever he went, despite his weakness and his need and the hostility against him, souls were saved in large numbers and churches were formed. So the outward hardship was, nevertheless, accompanied by spiritual success and instrumentality of a tremendous order. Blessings came even through his weakness.