<p>12:10 <i>Therefore I take pleasure in weaknesses, in injuries, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then am I strong</i>- It is in our very weakness, the weakness of the man made to realize the weight of his own mediocrity and failure to achieve, that <i>the power of God breaks forth</i>. Reading through his letters, it is apparent that Paul saw himself as two people: a natural man, a Jew from Tarsus, a Roman citizen living in the Mediterranean world... and also, a man in Christ. He speaks of how &ldquo;I bruise myself&rdquo;, as if the one Paul was boxing against the other Paul (1 Cor. 9:27 RVmg.). This is why in this autobiographical passage in 2 Cor. 12, he says of himself: &ldquo;I knew a man in Christ&rdquo;, who had great visions 14 years previously (at the council of Jerusalem of Acts 15), and who was subsequently given a &ldquo;thorn in the flesh&rdquo;. &ldquo;Of such an one will I glory: yet of myself I will not glory&rdquo;, he writes (2 Cor. 12:5), as if separating himself from this more spiritually exalted man who saw these visions. Paul is surely telling us that he sees himself as two people. He makes the point clearly: &ldquo;I will not be a fool... I am become a fool&rdquo; (:6,11). He was the greatest apostle; although he was nothing (:11). This language comes to a crisis in 12:10: &ldquo;When I i.e. the natural Paul am weak, then am I the spiritual Paul strong&rdquo;.</p>