[Paul’s] thrice-repeated prayer for the removal of the ailment was answered, not by his deliverance from it, but by his receiving the necessary grace to bear it – not simply to live with it but to be thankful for it. If his ministry was so effective despite this physical weakness, then the transcendent power was manifestly God’s, not his own. Infirmities like this were welcomed, together with the other hardships…if they were the condition on which the power of the risen Christ operated through him. They constantly reminded him not so much of his own inadequacy as of the total adequacy of Christ, in whom, when he was personally most weak, he knew himself to be most strong.
— F.F. Bruce (1910–1990), Bibelwissenschaftler
Related Bible passage: 2COR.12.9
Topics: Illness & Weakness, Grace & Redemption, Faith & Trust
Occasions: Comfort, Encouragement
F.F. Bruce
Frederick Fyvie Bruce (1910–1990) war ein schottischer Bibelwissenschaftler und Professor für biblische Kritik und Exegese an der Universität Manchester. Er verband historisch-philologische Forschung mit bibeltreuer Theologie, geriet jedoch wegen seiner Offenheit gegenüber modernen Strömungen und egalitären Positionen bei strengen Konservativen in die Kritik. Für heutige Bibelleser bleiben seine nüchternen Kommentare und Studien zur neutestamentlichen Geschichte eine wichtige Referenz zur historischen Kontextualisierung der Schrift.
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Charles Haddon Spurgeon
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