The title may be a bit odd, but I hope, after reading this you will see its Christ exalting beauty.
Paul writes 2nd Corinthians in defense of his apostleship. There is a group of so-called super apostles who are making Paul's life challenging. Yet, he gives us insight into his emotional framework and how the gospel encourages as well as strengthens him in the midst of these satanic assaults. He does this in ways that we would not think but in ways that are to be embraced by all whose desire is to honor Christ in the fruitful as well as frustrating seasons.
In chapter 12 Paul provides us with a vision he had of the third heavens and whatever this vision entailed it was an insight that he was forbidden to reveal. What we see in verses 5-7 is what appears to be a battle within himself to not boast and you sense this tension in his words. But who of us would not feel the same? Perhaps many of us would not even consider the fact of being quiet about such things because such experiences would usher us into the spotlight. This would be a challenge for many as it was with Paul as well. Yet, he tells us that the Lord stepped in and hindered his boasting writing,
7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations,
a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming
conceited (2 Corinthians 12:7).
The emphasis of the phrase "to keep me from being conceited" in this single verse speaks to the battle of Paul to stay humble. In his own words he had to be kept from being conceited about what the Lord revealed to him because it seems he desired to make it known.
But with those super apostles discrediting his apostleship would it not have been powerful to make known such a revelation to those who might be questioning his leadership? Would it not be a best seller? Wouldn’t such a revelation certainly make it to the big screen? Wouldn’t the church grow beyond belief I just could tell what the Lord showed me? You can feel the tension within Paul to tell it and, the Lord knows this too, so the Lord intervenes. He helps Paul by sending a messenger of Satan to keep him quiet. Paul’s words here are more powerful than we might imagine.
Paul is telling us this story to show us something fascinating about pride. Pride is destructive to the working of the Lord in the life of the soul. It must be crushed. It must be killed, but not in the way we think. Pride in itself is not bad or evil. I am not contradicting myself here but setting up a way that I want you to see the eternal intent of pride. As we see it, pride is bad, but as the Lord designed it, pride is glorious in this way:
The Lord calls us to kill pride not by taking the life of pride but by redirecting the focus of
pride."
We kill pride by changing its object from a boast in self (self-centered) to boasting in God (God centered). Sinful pride that compels us to boast in self, needs to be killed (redirected) to a boasting in the Lord alone. Paul’s thorn in the flesh which stands for sufferings for Christ in general, is seen by Paul as a gift from the Lord. This thorn re-directed his pride by killing the temptation to self-sufficiency by bringing him low in order that he might only see that God, alone, is sufficient
While the world allows and even demands that we be proud in ourselves, our cultures, etc, the Bible calls us to an exclusive boasting in the Lord, alone. This boasting in the Lord does something amazing: it creates within us an internal worth not based on who we are but on His presence within us. The Holy Spirit has redeemed our worth and value by re-creating and redeeming the image of God in us through the work that Christ has accomplished in us by faith in Him death and resurrection for us.
Now, when pride is redirected to its rightful place of God centeredness this causes me to boast in something radically different and totally contrary to what the world calls me to. I boast, now, in my weakness. Paul put it this way,
8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me,
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will
boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me
(2 Corinthians 12:8–9).
My pride (my boast) is now my weakness. This weakness is the fact that I, in and of myself am nothing and from such boasting God alone get's glory from, in and through me. The world calls me to take pride in anything and anyone other than God because the world, under the away of the devil, is calculating my demise. The power of Christ is inconsistent with the notion of power in this world. Pride of life will cause me to fight for myself by myself and in my own strength. The gospel reminds me that the Lord fights for me when I boast in my weakness by boasting in His glory. Paul reminds us that the Lord fights for us when we kill the sinful bent of self-centered pride back to life in a God centered focus.
So, do not fight for the elimination of pride or boasting. We must kill the natural inclination to pride within us so that the true, redeemed, life of pride can emerge. The true expression of pride is always centered on the worth and Glory of God in the Person and Work of Jesus Christ. This is precisely why Paul said this: in his first letter to this Corinthian church:
"... as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:31)