2 Corinthians 12:9 — the answer to a prayer that was refused
My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. It is quoted as comfort, and it is comfort — but it is also the second half of a refusal. One verse earlier, Paul asks three times for something to be taken away, and the answer is no. This sentence is what he is given instead of the thing he asked for. Below is the whole passage in both translations, from the list of what he had already survived to where he ends up.
He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Most gladly therefore I will rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest on me.2 Corinthians 12:9 · World English Bible
2 Corinthians 12:9 in the King James Version
The King James wording — My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness — is the one that hardened into the quotation. The World English Bible has power where the King James has strength, and keeps the perfect tense of the opening verb visible: he has said to me. Both are public domain, so either can be printed anywhere without permission or fee.
And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.2 Corinthians 12:9 · King James Version
Line by line
2 Corinthians 11:23-28
Are they servants of Christ? (I speak as one beside himself.) I am more so: in labours more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly, in stripes above measure, and in deaths often. Five times I received forty stripes minus one from the Jews. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I suffered shipwreck. I have been a night and a day in the deep. I have been in travels often, perils of rivers, perils of robbers, perils from my countrymen, perils from the Gentiles, perils in the city, perils in the wilderness, perils in the sea, perils amongst false brothers; in labour and travail, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, and in cold and nakedness. Besides those things that are outside, there is that which presses on me daily: anxiety for all the assemblies.
Where the argument is coming from, and worth reading before the famous verse. Shipwrecks, beatings, a stoning, a night in open water, and then the thing he names last: anxiety for all the assemblies. Whatever the thorn was, this is the man asking.
2 Corinthians 12:1-4
It is doubtless not profitable for me to boast, but I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who was caught up into the third heaven fourteen years ago—whether in the body, I don’t know, or whether out of the body, I don’t know; God knows. I know such a man (whether in the body, or outside of the body, I don’t know; God knows), how he was caught up into Paradise and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.
The vision, told in the third person — I know a man in Christ — because he will not put his own name to it. Three times in four verses he says he does not know how it happened.
2 Corinthians 12:5-6
On behalf of such a one I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except in my weaknesses. For if I would desire to boast, I will not be foolish; for I will speak the truth. But I refrain, so that no man may think more of me than that which he sees in me or hears from me.
The rule he sets for himself before the thorn is mentioned at all: he will not boast on his own behalf except in my weaknesses.
2 Corinthians 12:7
By reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelations, that I should not be exalted excessively, a thorn in the flesh was given to me: a messenger of Satan to torment me, that I should not be exalted excessively.
The thorn. Note what the text does and does not say: it is in the flesh and it is a messenger of Satan to torment me. It is not called a blessing, and it is not identified.
2 Corinthians 12:8
Concerning this thing, I begged the Lord three times that it might depart from me.
The request, and the only number in the passage. Three times.
2 Corinthians 12:9
He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Most gladly therefore I will rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest on me.
The answer, which is not the one he asked for. The verse everybody quotes begins here, one line after the refusal.
2 Corinthians 12:10
Therefore I take pleasure in weaknesses, in injuries, in necessities, in persecutions, and in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then am I strong.
Where it ends. Read the whole sentence — the pleasure is taken for Christ’s sake, which is not the same as saying hardship is good for you.
It is the answer to a prayer that was turned down
Almost every use of this verse starts at My grace is sufficient for you. The sentence before it is short and it changes the register completely:
Concerning this thing, I begged the Lord three times that it might depart from me.2 Corinthians 12:8 · World English Bible
So the famous line is a reply. Paul asked for the thing to go, asked again, asked a third time, and was told no — and what he was given instead was grace inside it rather than removal of it. That shape is the passage. It disappears the moment the verse travels on its own.
Which is worth saying plainly to anyone who has prayed for something to stop and watched it not stop: the man who wrote this asked, and was refused, and wrote that down too. The Bible is not embarrassed by the refusal. It is printed one line above the comfort.
The tense of the answer
There is a detail here that both translations handle differently and that is easy to miss in English. I begged in verse 8 is an aorist — the Greek form for an action completed in the past. He has said in verse 9 is a perfect, the form for a past action whose result is still standing.
The asking is over. The answer is not. It was given once and it has not been withdrawn, which is a different thing from being told no three times. The World English Bible keeps that visible with he has said to me; the King James renders it and he said unto me, which reads as a one-off reply.
The two verbs in the answer itself are present tense: grace is sufficient, power is made perfect. Continuous, not a promise about some later moment when it will start.
This is a tense-and-translation observation, not a manuscript question. The Greek here is not in dispute; the two English versions are simply making different choices about how much of the tense to carry across. That is a different kind of difference from the ones on our Romans 8:28 and Matthew 6:33 pages, where the printed Greek editions themselves disagree.
“Sufficient” is the word for “content”
The verb in my grace is sufficient is arkeo (714), to be enough, and it is the first word of the answer. After he has said to me, the Greek opens Arkei soi, “it is enough for you”, before grace has even been named.
It occurs eight times in the New Testament. We counted the King James renderings in our own copy: content four times, sufficient twice, sufficeth once and enough once. The modern rendering says content four times, sufficient twice and enough twice.
So the answer Paul is given uses the verb of be content with your wages in Luke 3:14, and of having food and clothing, we will be content with that in 1 Timothy 6:8. Neither translation can show you the link, because English has to choose between two words where the Greek has one. Our page about contentment is built on the same verb and reads this verse from the other side.
Two of the eight are Philip’s. At the feeding of the five thousand he does the arithmetic:
Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may receive a little.”John 6:7 · World English Bible
And at the last supper he names the one thing that would be:
Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.”John 14:8 · World English Bible
Not enough, then enough, and the same verb both times. That is what the word measures: whether what you have will cover what you face. It is the question Paul had asked three times, and the answer comes back in the same measure.
Nobody knows what the thorn was
The text gives two facts and no diagnosis. It is in the flesh, and it is a messenger of Satan to torment me. That is all.
The guesses are old and numerous — an eye complaint, malaria, epilepsy, a speech impediment, depression, persecution, a particular person. The range of proposals is long enough that scholars including F. F. Bruce, Philip Hughes and Ralph Martin have concluded it cannot be identified from the evidence available.
This site is not going to pick one, and it is worth being clear that the picking is the problem rather than the difficulty. A page that names the thorn has told you something the passage refuses to tell you.
What the silence does is worth noticing, though. Because it is unnamed, it fits. A reader with a diagnosis, a reader with a person, and a reader with something they have never said out loud are all reading the same sentence, and none of them has to argue that their thorn qualifies.
What it does not say
- It does not say the thorn is good. Verse 7 calls it a messenger of Satan. The passage never revises that.
- It does not say Paul stopped wanting it gone. It says he stopped asking. Those are different, and the text only claims the second.
- Three is not a formula. It is how many times he asked, reported as a fact, not prescribed as a method.
- “Sufficient” is a modest word, and deliberately so. It means it is enough — it is the verb 1 Timothy 6:8 uses for being content with food and clothing, as above. It is not a promise that things will be comfortable.
- “When I am weak, then am I strong” is not a paradox to admire. Read the whole of verse 10: the claim is about where the power is coming from, and it arrives with for Christ’s sake attached to it.
If you are reading this because you are ill, our page of Bible verses for healing and sickness is built around exactly this problem — what Scripture says to the people who are not healed. If it is the running-on-empty kind of week, verses for strength starts here too.
Using it
Both texts above are public domain — the King James by age, the modern rendering by the translators’ choice. Print either on a card, a hospital noticeboard or an order of service with no permission and no fee. Most modern translations are licensed, which is why so many sites show you one verse and a copyright notice.
When it gets read
-
Chronic illness, pain and disability
Its most frequent use by a distance, and the one it fits best, because the passage is about something that did not go away. See verses for healing and sickness.
-
A prayer that has not been answered
The only passage in the New Testament that reports a specific request being refused and then says what came instead. See verses about hope.
-
Burnout and running on empty
Where verse 9's power made perfect in weakness is doing real work rather than decorating a wall. See verses for strength.
-
Sending it to somebody who is ill
Worth care. Sent alone it can read as stop asking to be well. Sent with verse 8 it says the opposite: that asking was reasonable, and that being refused is survivable.
Where you've heard it
This is the passage that gave English one of its most-used idioms, and the idiom is a considerable downgrade on the original.
- “A thorn in my side.” Ordinary English now for a persistent nuisance — a colleague, a leaking tap, a rival team. Paul is describing something he begged to be released from three times.
- The phrase is older than Paul. He is reaching for a stock Old Testament expression rather than coining one. It appears in Numbers, of the people Israel failed to drive out of the land:
“But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those you let remain of them will be like pricks in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will harass you in the land in which you dwell.Numbers 33:55 · World English Bible
Judges 2:3 uses it again the same way, of adversaries you are stuck living beside. In both places a thorn in the side is a person, not an illness — which is interesting and which settles nothing. Paul is using a phrase, not filing a report, and the fact that its Old Testament sense is human is not evidence about what his was. We said above that the thorn is unidentified; that holds here too.
Worth knowing mostly for how far the words have travelled. The next time the phrase turns up about a slow printer, it started as a description of something a man asked God three times to remove.
What this looks like on a phone
Push From God sends a passage when it fits what you've told it about your week — not on a schedule you have to keep up with.
For the thing you have stopped asking about
Concerning this thing, I begged the Lord three times that it might depart from me.
2 Corinthians 12:8
You said you gave up praying about it. He asked three times and stopped too — and the verse everyone quotes is what came next.
It isn't out yet.
Leave your address and we'll send exactly one email, on the day it launches.
One email when it launches. No newsletter, no drip sequence, no sharing your address. Unsubscribe is a reply.
Questions
What does 2 Corinthians 12:9 mean?
That God's grace is enough and that his power is completed in weakness — said to Paul as the answer to a request God had declined. Verse 8 records the request: he asked three times for the thorn to be taken away. The verse is quoted in full above in modern English and the King James.
What was Paul's thorn in the flesh?
The text does not say. It gives two facts — that it was 'in the flesh' and that it was 'a messenger of Satan to torment me' — and no diagnosis. Proposals over the centuries have included an eye complaint, malaria, epilepsy, a speech impediment, depression and persecution, and scholars generally conclude it cannot be identified. This site does not pick one.
Did God say no to Paul's prayer?
Yes, on the passage's own account. Paul says he begged the Lord three times that it might depart from him, and what he was given was 'my grace is sufficient for you' rather than the removal he asked for. The refusal is printed one line above the comfort.
What does 'my grace is sufficient for you' mean?
That grace is enough for the situation. 'Sufficient' is a modest word on purpose — it means it suffices, not that circumstances will improve. The verb is present tense in the Greek, so the claim is continuous rather than about a future moment.
Is 'sufficient' in 2 Corinthians 12:9 the same word as 'content'?
Yes. The Greek verb is arkeo, to be enough. It occurs eight times in the New Testament, and the King James renders it 'content' four times (Luke 3:14, 1 Timothy 6:8, Hebrews 13:5 and 3 John 1:10), 'sufficient' twice, 'sufficeth' once and 'enough' once. So 'my grace is sufficient' and 'be content with your wages' use the same verb, which no English translation can show.
Why do some Bibles say 'my strength' and others 'my power'?
It is a translation choice for the same Greek noun. The King James has 'my strength is made perfect in weakness'; the World English Bible has 'my power is made perfect in weakness'. The Greek is not in dispute here, unlike passages where the printed editions themselves differ.
Is 2 Corinthians 12:9 a good verse to send someone who is ill?
With care, and better with verse 8 attached. On its own it can read as an instruction to stop asking to be well. With the verse before it, it says the opposite — that asking was reasonable, that Paul did it three times, and that being refused was survivable.
Can I print 2 Corinthians 12:9 on a card?
Yes, with no permission and no fee. The World English Bible and the King James Version are both public domain. Modern translations such as the NIV and ESV are copyrighted and limit how much you may reproduce.