What was Paul’s thorn in the flesh?
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What was Paul’s thorn in the flesh? Was Paul’s thorn in the flesh a physical ailment or a spiritual attack?
Source Article: https://www.gotquestions.org/Paul-thorn-flesh.html
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- What was Paul's thorn in the flesh? We're going to answer that question.
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- You can also discover more on GotQuestions .org. Paul speaks of a thorn in the flesh in 2
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- Corinthians. He calls it a messenger of Satan that had a purpose of torment.
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- Many explanations have been put forward, but whether Paul is referring to a physical, spiritual, or emotional affliction, or something else entirely, has never been answered with satisfaction.
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- Paul was not talking of a literal thorn. Popular metaphorical interpretations of the thorn include temptation, a chronic eye problem, malaria, migraines, epilepsy, and a speech disability.
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- Some even say that the thorn refers to a person, such as Alexander the coppersmith, who did
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- Paul a great deal of harm. No one can say for sure what Paul's thorn in the flesh was, but it was a source of real pain in the apostle's life.
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- Paul clues us in concerning the thorn's purpose, to keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations.
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- So God's goal in allowing the thorn in the flesh was to keep Paul humble. Anyone who had encountered
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- Jesus and was commissioned personally by him would, in his natural state, become puffed up.
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- Add that to the fact that Paul was moved by the Holy Spirit to write much of the New Testament, and it is easy to see how
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- Paul could become haughty, or exalted above measure, or too proud.
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- Paul also says that the affliction came from, or by, a messenger of Satan. Just as God allowed
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- Satan to torment Job, God allowed Satan to torment Paul for God's own good purpose.
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- No one likes to live in pain. Paul sought the Lord three times to remove this source of pain from him.
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- He probably had many good reasons why he should be pain free. He could have a more effective ministry.
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- He could reach more people with the gospel. He could glorify God even more. But the
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- Lord was more concerned with building Paul's character and preventing pride. Instead of removing the problem, whatever it was,
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- God gave Paul more overwhelming grace and more compensating strength.
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- Paul learned that God's power is made perfect in weakness. The exact nature of Paul's thorn in the flesh is uncertain.
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- There is probably a good reason that we don't know. God likely wanted Paul's difficulty to be described in general enough terms to apply to any difficulty we may face now.
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- Whether the thorn we struggle with today is physical, emotional, or spiritual, we can know that God has a purpose and that His grace is all sufficient.
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- That answers the question, what was Paul's thorn in the flesh? On our website, GotQuestions .org,
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