rather power-in-weakness, for his grace is apprehended only in the awareness of our weakness. This is not, we emphasize, merely a warm ‘devotional thought’. It is at the very heart of the gospel and the argument of this letter. Paul related how in Asia he had been ‘beyond power’ (hyper dynamin), ‘crushed’ (1:8). He had acknowledged himself to be an expendable ‘jar of clay’ who can cope with adversity only by the ‘all-surpassing power of God’ (hyperbolē … dynameōs; 4:7). Paul’s ministry, which was