Paul’s Thorn: Have We Made It Say Something It Never Said?

There are certain interpretations of Scripture that have been repeated for so long that we rarely stop to ask whether Scripture actually says what we have been taught that it says.

Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” may be one of them.

I am only a few years into my own walk as a born-again believer. I grew up around Christians and around church, but when I began truly reading and studying the Bible for myself, I started noticing things that made me stop and ask questions.

Paul’s thorn was one of them.

As a new believer, I had also experienced a dramatic deliverance in my own life from an addiction that had held me for nearly forty years. So when I repeatedly heard Christians use Paul’s thorn to explain why God does not heal, it naturally caused me to look more closely.

I would hear statements something like:

“Well, you know, God wouldn’t even heal Paul. He had his thorn in the flesh.”

But something about that never connected for me.

Part of the reason may have been very simple.

A Thorn in My Side

Growing up, I remember my grandmother and other elders using an old expression:

“He’s a thorn in my side.”

Or:

“That has been a thorn in our side.”

They weren’t talking about sickness.

They weren’t describing a literal thorn lodged somewhere in their body.

It was simply an expression for a person, problem, circumstance, or continual aggravation that troubled them, hindered them, or just would not leave them alone.

So when I heard Christians say that Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” was a disease God refused to heal, I wondered:

Is that actually what Paul said?

That question became even more interesting when I discovered that similar language appears long before Paul—in the Old Testament Scriptures themselves.

God warned Israel concerning the hostile people remaining in the land:

“...those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell.”—Numbers 33:55

Joshua gives a similar warning:

“...they shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes...”—Joshua 23:13

And Judges says:

“...they shall be as thorns in your sides...”—Judges 2:3

In these passages, the “thorns” were not diseases.

They were troublesome adversaries.

Does that automatically prove precisely what Paul meant by his thorn?

No.

And that distinction matters.

But it should cause us to stop before automatically assuming Paul was describing chronic illness—especially when Paul himself immediately tells us something about the thorn.

What Did Paul Actually Say?

Paul writes:

“And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me...”—2 Corinthians 12:7

Notice Paul’s own words.

A messenger of Satan.

And what was this messenger doing?

Buffeting him.

Now compare Paul’s actual words with the story many of us have heard:

Paul was sick.

Paul asked God to heal him three times.

God said no.

God wanted Paul to remain sick to keep him humble.

Therefore, sometimes God refuses to heal His children because sickness serves a greater spiritual purpose.

There is a problem.

Paul never actually says those things.

He never identifies the thorn as a disease.

He never says God gave him a disease.

He never says, “I asked God to heal me.”

And nowhere in the passage does Jesus say:

“No, Paul. I will not heal you.”

Somewhere along the way, “My grace is sufficient for thee” became interpreted as God saying “No.”

But the word no isn’t in the passage.

What Was Happening Around Paul?

We also shouldn’t isolate 2 Corinthians 12 from what Paul has just told us in the preceding chapter.

In 2 Corinthians 11, Paul describes what his ministry had looked like:

Imprisonments.

Beatings.

Stoning.

Shipwreck.

Danger from robbers.

Danger from his own countrymen.

Danger from Gentiles.

Danger in cities.

Danger in the wilderness.

Weariness.

Pain.

Hunger.

Thirst.

Sleeplessness.

And the continuing burden of caring for the churches.

Then, shortly afterward, Paul tells us about a “messenger of Satan” that was buffeting him.

Does that prove beyond question that every aspect of Paul’s thorn can be identified as persecution?

No.

But neither should we ignore the context immediately surrounding his words.

We don’t need to manufacture an explanation where Paul did not give us one.

Connect the dots. Don’t manufacture any.

But Didn’t God Say No?

Here is where I believe we need to slow down and read Christ’s response again.

Paul says:

“For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.”—2 Corinthians 12:8

And the Lord answered:

“My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”—2 Corinthians 12:9

Read that answer again without adding anything to it.

“My grace is sufficient for thee.”

“My strength is made perfect in weakness.”

Where is the “No”?

What if we have spent generations reading refusal into a passage that is actually revealing provision?

Look at Paul’s response:

“Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”—2 Corinthians 12:9

And then:

“...for when I am weak, then am I strong.”—2 Corinthians 12:10

Paul doesn’t finish this revelation talking about the greatness of his thorn.

He finishes talking about the greatness of Christ’s power in his weakness.

Grace isn’t presented here as the weakness of God’s response.

Christ directs Paul away from dependence upon his own strength and toward divine sufficiency:

“My grace.”

“My strength.”

“The power of Christ.”

And Paul arrives at:

“When I am weak, then am I strong.”

That sounds remarkably different from simply saying:

“God told Paul no.”

Hold Your Beliefs Up to Scripture

This is where the issue becomes larger than Paul’s thorn.

Paul himself warned the Corinthians:

“But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”—2 Corinthians 11:3

Earlier in the same letter, Paul spoke about spiritual warfare in terms of arguments, reasoning, and thoughts:

“Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”—2 Corinthians 10:5

And elsewhere Paul tells believers:

“Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”—Ephesians 6:10–11

There are beliefs we inherit simply because we have heard them repeated again and again.

Sometimes an interpretation becomes so familiar that eventually we no longer hear it as an interpretation.

We hear it as though Scripture itself said it.

That is why we must continually return to the Word.

Not to prove what we already believe.

Not to make Scripture fit our theology.

But to allow Scripture to correct our theology.

Hold your beliefs up to Scripture, not Scripture up to your beliefs.

And that standard applies to all of us—including me.

I don’t want to replace one assumption about Paul’s thorn with another.

Paul gives us a wonderfully simple instruction:

“Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.”—1 Thessalonians 5:21

In other words, we should not be afraid to examine what we believe. If it is true, Scripture will not be threatened by our examination of it.

Don’t simply believe me. Test it.

I want to know:

What does the Word actually say?

Where Does Jesus Fit Into This?

There is another question I cannot ignore.

If we are going to use Paul’s thorn to form our understanding of God’s character concerning healing, then we also have to look at Jesus.

Jesus said:

“He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.”—John 14:9

And when Peter later summarized Jesus’ earthly ministry, he said:

“How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.”—Acts 10:38

The Gospels repeatedly show Jesus responding to suffering with compassion, healing the sick and delivering those oppressed.

So before we take one difficult passage from Paul’s life and use it to establish that God refused to heal him, shouldn’t we first be certain that Paul actually said that?

Especially when Paul himself calls the thorn “the messenger of Satan.”

This article does not attempt to answer every question concerning sickness, suffering, healing, or unanswered prayer.

It doesn’t need to.

It asks something much simpler:

Have we made Paul’s thorn say something Paul never said?

When the Scriptures Are Opened

There is a beautiful account after the resurrection that has increasingly come to mind as I have studied this.

Two disciples were walking on the road to Emmaus when Jesus Himself came alongside them.

They didn’t recognize Him.

And rather than immediately revealing who He was, Jesus began opening the Scriptures.

“And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.”—Luke 24:27

Later they said:

“Did not our heart burn within us... while he opened to us the scriptures?”—Luke 24:32

They already possessed the Scriptures.

Yet as Jesus walked with them through those Scriptures, they began seeing what they had not understood before.

Later Luke tells us:

“Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures.”—Luke 24:45

I love that picture.

The Scriptures were opened, and understanding followed.

That is the invitation here.

Go back to the Word.

Look again.

Read what is actually there.

Allow Scripture to interpret Scripture.

And be willing to question even something we have believed for years if we discover that we have been reading an interpretation into the text.

The Psalmist wrote:

“The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.”—Psalm 119:130

Perhaps sometimes renewal begins with something as simple as allowing the Word to turn the light on.

So I am not asking you simply to exchange someone else’s interpretation of Paul’s thorn for mine.

I’m asking you to go read it again.

Read 2 Corinthians 11.

Then read 2 Corinthians 12:7–10.

Look at the words Paul actually chose.

Look at the Scriptures that came before him.

Look at the ministry and character of Christ.

And ask:

Where does Paul say his thorn was sickness?

Where does he say God gave him a disease?

Where does Jesus tell Paul, “No, I will not heal you”?

And perhaps most importantly:

Am I reading what Scripture says—or what I have been taught that Scripture says?

Hold your beliefs up to Scripture.

Not Scripture up to your beliefs.

Connect the dots.

Don’t manufacture any.

Let the Word unfold.

Let the light come.

And let God renew our minds.