Weakness or reality?

Boasting in our weakness (2 Cor 12:9,10) and being called to walk in weakness - i.e. in humility - is a bit of a paradox. Normally boasting and humility are opposites; a seeming contradiction. 

We see other examples of this paradox in the following... "to live you must die"... "to find your life you must lose it." Don't we normally boast in our strengths, not our weakness? 

So what does this mean? In a sense, it is a play on words. Weakness is really nothing more than simply recognizing the reality of our dependence i.e. seeing ourselves according to the truth that we are dependent creatures. It is not really weakness in the commonly understood sense. It is operating according to the reality of who we are as finite beings dependent on our Infinite Creator. 

This is another way of saying we are not our own god - the opposite of the lie Adam and Eve bought into. The necessary recognition of this reality (our dependence) is actually the basis for our true strength and flourishing because it is grounded in the reality of our true nature and design as creatures.

It only ²seems like weakness to us if and when we are committed to being our "own god" ...being our own god is not actually possible because this ultimately leads to eternal death and separation from the only true God.

"Weakness" is only being who we were designed to be and really are - finite creatures created in God's image - totally dependent on our Creator and his love to operate fully as God intended and designed us to. When we recognize this "weakness" we are strong in our dependence on God and the power He gives in and through His love/Spirit.

This is not alien to who we really are - who we were created to be - but only to who we choose to be i.e. our own god. Therefore, we are actually strong in God only when we are weak in ourselves. 

"...Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing... As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love..." - John 15:5b and 9

These are Jesus own words in the upper room shortly before his betrayal and upcoming crucifixion (the completion of his own humiliation and ultimate experience of weakness on our behalf). 

This type of "weakness" recognizes all life, love, meaning, and purpose is from God alone, not ourselves, and to living accordingly. 

We were never designed to be our own god; to operate independently of God and outside of his infinite, boundless love. To attempt doing so leads to death, just as God warned. 

To live in this way (as totally independent) only gives the appearance of power. And it often does feel powerful but only for a season because it is not power rooted in the reality that from, through, and to God - not us -  are all things. Trying to be our own god is short term power rooted in the lie that we can be i.e. we are the source of power and God isn't.  

To live according to truth, the way we were designed to live, is to live fully and truly. It is not weakness, it is true power, it is fullness of life; abundant life. It is being loved with nothing less than the infinite, eternal love and joy that flows between the Father and the Son, via the Spirit; the very essence of the life of God.

We are only to be weak "in the flesh" i.e. in our attempts to garner the approval of God and man by our efforts. 

However, we are to be strong "in the Spirit" i.e. in actions driven by the Spirit/Love. In and by so doing we bear much fruit for his glory. 

Joh 17:3  And this is eternal life, that they ¹know you (the Father) the only true God, and (I) Jesus Christ whom you have sent. - 

Jesus talking to his Father right before he was betrayed by Judas Iscariot.

For a further discussion on the difference between operating "in the flesh" vs "in the Spirit" see the following... 

Defining terms: the flesh, the Spirit, living in and by the Spirit, living under or by the law etc

Starting in the Spirit, ending in the flesh. 

"performance" or action by faith

The above was inspired by "Way of the Dragon or The Way of the Lamb" page 13. by Jamin Goggin and Kyle Stroble. 

To download the intro and chapter 1 from the book click here and "get a free chapter" on the bottom right. 

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¹know: ginōskō - Thayer Definition:

1) to learn to know, come to know, get a knowledge of perceive, feel

1a) to become known

2) to know, understand, perceive, have knowledge of

2a) to understand

2b) to know

3) Jewish idiom for sexual intercourse (i.e. intimate knowledge through first hand experience- my comment) between a man and a woman

4) to become acquainted with, to know

²seems like weakness... I would add it also feels like weakness. Whenever we are required to depend on someone this feels weak. The real issue however is it requires trust when distrust is the heart of our problem. We don't want or like to trust. We like being our own god. Yet being finite requires we trust and if we are wise we trust Him who along knows all things and loves us infinitely. 

 

We prefer to follow in the footsteps and example of Adam. The is bound up in the very core of our being. However when you consider we are dependent creatures, it is in reality simply acting as we were created to act i.e. as finite creatures created in the image of the infinite Creator.