Why Is Weakness Such An Asset?

It is so counter-intuitive to think that weakness is an asset. Weakness is supposed to be a liability. But that is just one of many reversals that we find in Scripture. The poor become rich. He who loses his life finds it. The first will be last. On and on it goes. At some point each of these reversals have to be explained because, as already mentioned, it just doesn’t make sense to our natural way of thinking.

It turns out that our natural way of thinking isn’t very natural after all. It is a result of the fall and the insanity that brought it all about. Why would an angel rebel against an all-powerful God? Why would two people lean on their own understanding that contradicts an omniscient God? The insanity of sin!

This brings us to Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians. In chapters 11-13, Paul references weakness 10 times, and speaks of it as an asset, as something he boasts in. What has changed in Paul that he now thinks like this?

What has changed in Paul is that he now sees his true situation with clarity. One of the outworkings of our sinful insanity is our flawed notions about strength and ability. We typically think that we have abilities and influence and some degree of power. That is our mistake. That is the same mistake Eve made in the garden when she assumed she had the ability, insight and reasoning power to assess what was truly best for her.

The reality is; you are weak beyond description. Look up into the stars and feel your smallness. Look over the pages of history and discover “great” men who no one knows about any more. Look how helpless you are to stop the headlong rush to the grave. Are you keeping your heart beating and cancer at bay? There is nothing powerful or great about you. Lest you start looking over your bank account, or your countless employees, or your governmental influence, or your sway over culture, or your health – remember that God has granted and sustained every one of those abilities and situations. The only difference between you and the hobo in the cardboard box is God’s providential choices.

Your great delusion is that you have strength of any kind.

This means that the sooner you start recognizing your weakness, the sooner you will begin lining up with reality. Living in a fantasy is foolish and that is what you have been doing all your self-exalting life. On the stock market, quick changes happen when investors realize that their investments were not based on the actual value of some asset. That is when the market corrects itself. It is a painful, but necessary process.

Adjusting to reality is called repentance. It is clinging to what is true, even at great costs. Paul boasted in weakness because it was a true reality. And when he boasted in it, he was pointing beyond it to the one who brought glory and amazing things in the midst of Paul’s weakness. Paul knew that he was not the ultimate cause for all the impact he made. But with great wisdom, by boasting in weakness, Paul was fast tracking the very thing that produces the people-influencing, church-building, culture-impacting abilities: Grace.

Therefore, seeing weakness is an asset because it allows you to see where everything actually comes from. And seeing that it comes from God humbles you to ask God to give it to you according to His wise and good pleasure. And guess what God does when you humble yourself? “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” James 4:6