Our tendency is to build ourselves up. Our tendency is to show ourselves to be great, to have accomplished many things. Our tendency is to try to make ourselves look good in the eyes of other people.
Paul tells the Corinthians that he has the credentials. In fact, he wears the credentials on his body. He has the scars that he has obtained by the preaching of the Gospel, and carries around the scars for the preaching of the Gospel. He has worked hard, been in prison many times, been beaten and flogged, and near death several times.
He has received the severe punishment of 40 lashes minus 1 five times. Five times!
Beaten with rods, pelted with stones. Shipwrecked. A day and a night on the open sea. Danger on every side, he has gone without sleep, without food, and without shelter.
These are Paul’s credentials. But these are not the credentials of someone who is powerful. These are not the credentials of someone who has become rich or built himself up as he has traveled to preach the Gospel. These are the credentials of someone who has poured himself out compeltely for one cause, for one simple idea: That Christ would be glorified in him and would receive all of the glory because of the people that would believe in him and live for him.
That’s it. It is worth all of that for that one reason. Paul lives his life for that reason, and that reason alone, and so he boasts of his weakness. He isn’t a strong man. From an earthly, human perspective, he is actaully quite weak, but everything he is doing, he is doing for the glory of God.
If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.
2 Corinthisna 11:30
If Paul will have something to boast about, he will actually boast as a result of his weakness. That is his goal. That is his desire, that he would be known only for the power that he has because of the power of Christ within him. It is easy to see the weakness with which he is living his life and doing his work. But looking at his life, you can see the incredible effect, the great result of this work in his life. Not through strength. Not through riches, and not through any power that Paul has obtained. Instead, this result came as a result of his weakness and the power of Christ working through him.
This must also be our aim, to live as those who are weak. Not because we are deliberately trying to be weak, but because we are living singularly for the glory of Christ. We must no longer live to build ourselves up, but we live to build up Christ. We no longer live for our glory, but for his.
This is the transformation that God makes within us as we continue to grow in our faith. We no longer live for ourselves, but we live for him. We no longer look to increase ourselves, but we give Christ every part of our lives. This is who he has created us to be and what he has created us to do, to live as weak vessels, completely dependent upon him, for his glory.
