NOTES for Co2 12:10
Interesting, from what Paul is satisfied in the persecutions, in the powerlessness, or for example, when he is offended? What mean the words "when I am weak, then am I strong"? At first sight such a position can seem strange. Indeed, only the masochists can be happy of sufferings, such thing is unusual for normal people. However it is clear that Paul was not a masochist. What could thus delight him? It is moreover necessary to notice that it is not really about joy; the Greek corresponding word indicates rather the peace and well-balanced state of mind, which the apostle keeps, obviously in spite of circumstances, which are not at all disposed in the tranquility of the spirit. But why such tranquility of the soul becomes a sign of power? And why only powerlessness makes Paul strong? It would of course have been possible to say that the strength of persuasion of man in what he proclaims and preaches is generally verified in particular in times of persecutions and pursuits. But the problem, apparently, is not only in it.
The problem is in the nature of the Kingdom. And first of all in the fact that the Kingdom, according to the word of the Savior "is not of this world". And if that was the case, if he lives according to the laws which differ fundamentally from the laws of the non transformed world, then the power of the Kingdom, is not obviously determined by what happens with man in this world. Such an independence is itself the best testimony of the fact that man really belongs to the Kingdom and lives its life, the life, that the evil world is unfit to take away from him because the Kingdom has nothing common with the evil world. But there is another side in this situation.
Particularly the feeling of the presence in oneself of power in the moments of complete powerlessness, i.e. when you know exactly that there isn’t and can’t be at the moment in you any power because one does not know where to take them, is the best proof that this power really comes from God. At other moments one can sometimes confuse the power of God with the power of this world, with the natural energy, inherent to every healthy man. And well, when there is no natural energy, one can be sure that any power that he feels in himself comes from God. And thus the work, for which it is given, is the work of God.