Victory!

Paul, the bond-servant of Christ Jesus, was proud of two things: his power and his weakness. His power was in the message he preached. His weakness was whatever he could accomplish by his own talents. As long as Paul was able to distinguish between the two, he could minimize the latter in order to leave room for the former. Thus Paul allowed this message to put to use its power without being overshadowed by his own personality. Because Paul recognized the fact that his weakness...
More Description

Paul, the bond-servant of Christ Jesus, was proud of two things: his power and his weakness. His power was in the message he preached. His weakness was whatever he could accomplish by his own talents. As long as Paul was able to distinguish between the two, he could minimize the latter in order to leave room for the former. Thus Paul allowed this message to put to use its power without being overshadowed by his own personality. Because Paul recognized the fact that his weakness was his strength and his strength his weakness, he could boast only about the Gospel of his Lord and that which the Gospel accomplished through him (Romans 15:18,19; 1 Corinthians 2:1-5; 2 Corinthians 3:5; 4:5; 10:17,18; 11:30; 12:5-10; Galatians 6:14; Colossians 2:8). The Lord told Paul this very thing in 2 Corinthians 12:9.This gospel and the privilege of preaching it were of first importance to Paul, as we note from Romans 1:14-16, Romans 10:14,15 and other passages (1 Corinthians 9:16-18; 2 Corinthians 5:11,20; 1 Timothy 4:16; 2 Timothy 4:2).