2 Corinthians 12:9
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.
KJV
καὶ εἴρηκέν μοι, ἀρκεῖ σοι ἡ χάρις μου· ἡ γὰρ δύναμις ἐν ἀσθενείᾳ τελεῖται. ἥδιστα οὖν μᾶλλον καυχήσομαι ἐν ταῖς ἀσθενείαις μου, ἵνα ἐπισκηνώσῃ ἐπ’ ἐμὲ ἡ δύναμις τοῦ Χριστοῦ.
Greek NT
et dixit mihi : Sufficit tibi gratia mea : nam virtus in infirmitate perficitur. Libenter igitur gloriabor in infirmitatibus meis, ut inhabitet in me virtus Christi.
Vulgate
And he hath said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my power is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
ASV
And he said to me: My grace is sufficient for thee: for power is made perfect in infirmity. Gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
Douay-Rheims
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In the original Greek
20 distinct Greek words appear in this verse.
Textual variants
3 variant units attested by manuscript witnesses and modern critical editions.
- δύναμις — SBLGNT
- δύναμις — Westcott-Hort, Tregelles, Reader's GNT (NA27)
- + μου — Robinson-Pierpont
- τελεῖται — SBLGNT
- τελεῖται — Westcott-Hort, Tregelles, Reader's GNT (NA27)
- τελειοῦται — Robinson-Pierpont
- μου — SBLGNT
- μου — Tregelles, Reader's GNT (NA27), Robinson-Pierpont
Themes
Doctrines that cite this verse
Historic Christian voices
17 passages from patristic writers, Reformers, and church catechisms citing this verse.
§268of all the divine attributes, only God's omnipotence is named in the Creed: to confess this power has great bearing on our lives. We believe that his might is universal, for God who created everything also rules everything and can do everything. God's power is loving, for he is our Father, and mysterious, for only faith can discern it when it "is made perfect in weakness".103 "…
§273Only faith can embrace the mysterious ways of God's almighty power. This faith glories in its weaknesses in order to draw to itself Christ's power.113 The Virgin Mary is the supreme model of this faith, for she believed that "nothing will be impossible with God", and was able to magnify the Lord: "For he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name."114
§1508The Holy Spirit gives to some a special charism of healing118 so as to make manifest the power of the grace of the risen Lord. But even the most intense prayers do not always obtain the healing of all illnesses. Thus St. Paul must learn from the Lord that "my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness," and that the sufferings to be endured can mean t…
God showed himself, by the fall of man, as patient, benign, merciful, mighty to save. Man is therefore most ungrateful, if, unmindful of his own lot, and of the benefits held out to him, he do not acknowledge divine grace. 1. Long-suffering therefore was God, when man became a defaulter, as foreseeing that victory which should be granted to him through the Word. For, when stren…
2. For when He had come down from the mountain, there came a leper, saying, Lord, if You will, You can make me clean. Great was the understanding and the faith of him who so drew near. For he did not interrupt the teaching, nor break through the auditory, but awaited the proper time, and approaches Him when He has come down. And not at random, but with much earnestness, and at …
2. But do thou consider, I pray you, who they are that hear these injunctions, so hard and laborious: the timid and ignorant; the unlettered and uninstructed; such as are in every respect obscure, who have never been trained up in the Gentile laws, who do not readily present themselves in the public places; the fishermen, the publicans, men full of innumerable deficiencies. For…
Source. Translated by J. Walker, J. Sheppard and H. Browne, and revised by George B. Stevens. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 11. Edited by Philip Schaff. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1889.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. <https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/210218.htm>. Contact information. The editor of New Adven…
2. But what means, according to the flesh? According to what is in sight; according to the life that now is; according to the discipline of the Gentiles. Then, lest he should seem to be at variance with himself, (for he had convinced both the Proconsul, Acts 13:12 and the Areopagite, Acts 17:34 and Apollos; Acts 18:26: through Aquila and Priscilla and other wise men, too, we ha…
1. There are two kinds of consolation, apparently opposed to one another, but yet contributing great strength each to the other; both of which he has here put forward. The one is when we say that persons have suffered much: for the soul is refreshed, when it has many witnesses of its own sufferings, and this he introduced above, saying, Call to mind the former days, in which af…
Having manifested what he was and what he is, he shows the great fruit of his confession; and being about to examine by what method God and the happy life may be found, he enlarges on the nature and power of memory. Then he examines his own acts, thoughts and affections, viewed under the threefold division of temptation; and commemorates the Lord, the one mediator of God and me…
Is grace fittingly divided into gratuitous grace and sanctifying grace? The division into operating and cooperating grace The division of it into prevenient and subsequent grace The division of gratuitous grace The comparison between sanctifying and gratuitous grace Article 1. Whether grace is fittingly divided into sanctifying grace and gratuitous grace? Objection 1. It would …
Is God alone the efficient cause of grace? Is any disposition towards grace needed on the part of the recipient, by an act of free-will? Can such a disposition make grace follow of necessity? Is grace equal in all? May anyone know that he has grace? Article 1. Whether God alone is the cause of grace? Objection 1. It would seem that God alone is not the cause of grace. For it is…
Was there any habitual grace in the soul of Christ? Were there virtues in Christ? Did He have faith? Did He have hope? Were there the gifts in Christ? Was the gift of fear in Christ? Were there any gratuitous graces in Christ? Was there prophecy in Christ? Was there the fulness of grace in Him? Was such fulness proper to Christ? Was the grace of Christ infinite? Could it have b…
Cross-references
- 1Chr 16:28 — Give unto the LORD, ye kindreds of the people, give unto the LORD glory and strength.
- 1Chr 29:14 — But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee.
- 1Cor 2:5 — That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
- 1Cor 2:5 — That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
- 1Cor 3:7 — So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.
- 1Cor 10:13 — There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to esca
- 1Cor 15:10 — But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
- 1Cor 16:13 — Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.
- 1Kgs 19:8 — And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God.
- 1Pet 1:6 — Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:
- 1Pet 4:13 — But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.
- 1Pet 4:13 — But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.
- 1Sam 2:4 — The bows of the mighty men are broken, and they that stumbled are girded with strength.
- 1Sam 15:29 — And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent.
- 1Tim 1:12 — And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry;
- 1Tim 1:14 — And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
- 2Chr 14:11 — And Asa cried unto the LORD his God, and said, LORD, it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power: help us, O LORD our God; for we rest on thee, and in thy name
- 2Cor 3:5 — Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;
- 2Cor 3:5 — Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;
- 2Cor 11:30 — If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities.
- 2Cor 12:5 — Of such an one will I glory: yet of myself I will not glory, but in mine infirmities.
- 2Cor 12:10 — Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
- 2Cor 12:10 — Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
- 2Cor 12:15 — And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved.
- 2Cor 12:15 — And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved.
- 2Kgs 2:15 — And when the sons of the prophets which were to view at Jericho saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha. And they came to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him.
- 2Pet 1:3 — According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
- 2Sam 22:33 — God is my strength and power: and he maketh my way perfect.
- 2Tim 1:8 — Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God;
- 2Tim 2:1 — Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
- 2Tim 4:17 — Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.
- Acts 18:10 — For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city.
- Col 1:11 — Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;
- Col 1:11 — Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;
- Col 1:28 — Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:
- Col 1:29 — Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.
- Dan 10:16 — And, behold, one like the similitude of the sons of men touched my lips: then I opened my mouth, and spake, and said unto him that stood before me, O my lord, by the vision my sorrows are turned upon
- Dan 10:19 — And said, O man greatly beloved, fear not: peace be unto thee, be strong, yea, be strong. And when he had spoken unto me, I was strengthened, and said, Let my lord speak; for thou hast strengthened me
- Deut 11:8 — Therefore shall ye keep all the commandments which I command you this day, that ye may be strong, and go in and possess the land, whither ye go to possess it;
- Deut 33:25 — Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be.