As we near the end of our current Series, Paul asks a question or two. Questions that answer themselves, really. Questions that teach.

For example … “Who is weak, and I am not weak?” 2nd Corinthians 11:29

The verb “is weak” translates the Greek word “astheneo.”

It is derived from “sthenoo,” actually meaning “to be strong!” The noun “sthenos” means “bodily vigor.” But the word we’re studying (“astheneo”) has that little “a” in front of it.

And the letter “a” there serves as an “alpha privative,” demanding that the meaning of the root word be “reversed.”

Thus, “not to be strong!”

In the King James Version we love, “weak.”

This weakness can be physical or emotional or spiritual, whatever.

“Who is weak, and I am not weak?”

I think Paul is telling us here that he loves his people (those in the Churches he has helped establish) so much … that if they go through a “hard time” of trial and discouragement (weakness in that sense) … he is also (in sympathy with them) “weak!”

It’s like Paul is asking … “Who is weak, and I do not feel his (or her) weakness?”

One writer thought it could be worded this way … “Who makes a mistake and I do not feel his sadness? Who falls without my longing to help him?”

And yet another, less effectively I believe … “When someone gets to the end of his rope, I feel the desperation in my bones.”

Paul himself wrote: “To the weak became I as weak ….” To these same Corinthians Paul said this, back in 1st Corinthians 9:22.

And this “empathy,” this “bearing the burdens of others,” really took its “toll” on Paul. It is part of the “warfare” he wages for the Cause of Christ.

I am admiring this man of God more and more!

A real Pastor indeed!

This sounds a lot like Jesus being “touched with the feeling of our infirmities,” doesn’t it? Hebrews 4:15, praise the Lord!

What examples we have to follow!

What a great “cloud of witnesses!”

Amen.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell