"Flesh-Thorn" = "Meat-Hook"!

"FLESH-THORN" = "MEAT-HOOK" !

Why all this interest in exactly what Paul's "thorn-in-the-flesh" was? What difference could it make? Besides, that was not Paul's point. And that's probably why he refused to name it! [If, indeed, it was not the "messenger from hell sent to torment him"!]

After all, my heroin addiction is not your lying habit, or that other guy's need for self-pity. Does it really matter what "meat hook" has us "caught" in this "thorn-thicket" of carnal myopia?

Jesus may have said their "flesh is weak", but He also said their spirit was "willing". Our weak flesh (proved weak by uniquely individual "meat hooks", specifically designed to "hang" each & all of us "out to dry") simply is not the point. The issue is Jesus Christ and His "meat-hook" - the Cross! That's exactly what Grace does; takes our "meat" (carnal-nature) off "the hook" (condemnation), and renders it not the "issue".

It is written "cursed is any man ("meat/carne") that hangs". But Paul complains (bitterly, by the sound of it) three times about this thing which "addicted" (bound) him to his "meat" (carnal body/this world). Jesus flatly refuses; says "NO!". In so many words, Jesus says "that's what Grace is for!".

Bound to, but not by. Remember when He said in, but not of the world? Sheep among wolves? Right! Who lights a candle in broad daylight? Probably the same guy who gets furious that his Saviour insists on leading him to the Cross! "Saviour, yes; Lord NO!", is another way of saying, "you can take your "GRACE" and ........... !"

Jesus "took off the 'gloves'" with Paul. Abrupt, belligerent, ruthless, even brutal, at times - theirs was a relationship of encounter. No holds barred.

Paul wanted "off the hook" & Jesus rebukes his "whimpering" with the same apparent pitilessness with which He "mugs" Paul on the road!

Did Jesus "mug" Paul? It would seem so! There's no indication I know which hints of any "willing spirit" at all on the part of Paul prior to his conversion!

If not an abduction, certainly an interdiction took place that day; and Jesus was the perpetrator! Why?

Paul says, "Therefore hath He mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth"-Ro 9:18. And, for this reason, Paul says he was "taken prisoner" by/of/for Jesus Christ - personally!

No, Paul (later) speaks "fondly" of his "meat-hook". Indeed, nowhere else in all human literature (before or since) is man's "dilemma" (flesh vs spirit) so expertly examined for us than Paul's magnificent chapter seven in Romans!; "and I died!"-vs9; "sin slew me"-vs11; "I am carnal, sold under sin"-vs14; "the law of sin brings me into captivity (slavery) in my members"-vs23; "Who will save me?"-vs24.

No, I thank God Jesus refused to remove Paul from his battle with his "meat-hook" (whatever type it was). Bound to this fleshy world, Paul was all the more "bound" by GRACE to Jesus Christ!

God proved (and graphically demonstrated) in Paul that it's not our grasp on Christ but His CLAIM that we are HIS which save us!. (Nor can any "meat-hook-thorn-in-the-flesh's" grip on us can prevent it!).

You will remember, it was Paul who feared all his converted life (apparently) that he might yet be a "castaway"! No, there's Hope (GRACE) for you and me In Christ because of Paul's "meat-hook/flesh-thorn"! NOW WHAT ABOUT MINE? [or yours?]