by Kevin Williams
2 Corinthians 12:7 “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.”I was listening to Charles Leiter on Romans 7 when he made what was almost a passing remark about how ridiculous the interpretation is that the Apostle Paul’s ‘thorn in the flesh’ is really a sin in Paul’s life that God was not letting Paul get victory over, so to keep him humble.
Now as Leonard Ravenhill mockingly said, well if that’s the case then why not just get more sin and then we can be really humble.
But what struck me for the first time, and I can say this from experience, as one who used to hold to that interpretation, is that when someone holds to that view, it has the exact opposite effect to keeping the person humble.
The idea that God doesn’t allow someone to have victory over a sin in order to keep him or her humble contradicts itself and is illogical.
Let me explain:
A Christian is struggling with a sin.
Instead of obeying the command to “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.” Rev 2:5a, the Christian instead takes hold of
that interpretation and says to himself “this is just like Paul’s thorn in the flesh, so of course God is not letting me have victory over this sin, it's to keep me humble.”
But once a person takes that attitude, what is then the question that begs to be asked? What is the next step that this leads to?
Of course the next step is that the Christian struggling with sin then asks himself “Well if God won’t let me have victory over this sin because otherwise I’d be proud, then, what is it that I’m doing that I would be proud of if I didn’t have this sin?”
And so the Christian in sin, then starts looking inwardly for things that might make him proud, thinking things like “Well I’ve been preaching pretty good lately, or I’ve witnessed to x amount of people, I’ve prayed for x amount of time, so no wonder God needs to keep me in this 'thorn in the flesh' to keep me humble.”
So not only do you have a Christian struggling with a sin, but now he's taking pride in his struggle with sin, and is anything but humble, and he thinks he’s being Scriptural.
See also: Romans 7- and the Dangerous 'Wretched Christian' View
&: Romans 7 by Charles Leiter.
&: Back in Stock: Charles Leiters 'Justification & Regeneration'
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