Paul's Unlikely Boast

Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10

Boasting is never acceptable. Well, almost never. In his second letter to the Corinthians Paul indulges in a most unlikely boast: Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses.

We live in a culture that has raised boasting to an art form. Professional athletes, talk show hosts, infomercial hawkers, and a host of others routinely proclaim their own praises. They are the greatest! Their products are the finest!

But Paul takes the act of boasting and turns it on its head. He boasts not of his strengths, but of his weaknesses. Which begs the question: why in the world would any one boast of his or her weaknesses? Because in the spiritual life weakness is like a magnet that attracts God’s grace – which makes us truly strong! Boasting and inflated self-confidence, on the other hand, repel God’s grace and that makes us weak indeed.

It’s really quite simple: our weakness + God’s grace = strength. 

Now that’s something to boast about!

Our weakness + God's grace = strength!