1st Corinthians 13: 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
What is boasting:
As we continue with our Loving God series, we are dealing with loving God by loving fellow believers the agape way. Today the topic is on Love does not boast. Boasting is a negative attribute that Love does not exhibit, and we are encouraged not to do. The scriptures above inform us that Love does not boast. Boasting entails verbally magnifying one’s accomplishment, possession, abilities, endowments, and status in life with a sense of arrogance, superiority, and pride. This might be done in a brash, crude or gentle and subtle way. The boasting stems from the belief that all the person is, acquired and achieved were by virtue of the person’s ingenuity and God has no place in it. But the person’s whole existence is sustained by God therefore how can that person boast when God created and gave him life? The boastful person filled with pride acknowledges only his grandeur and superiority but refuses to acknowledge the superiority of God over all creation. Therefore, God hates the proud but gives grace to the humble (James 4:8)
Also, the boastful individual treats other people with contempt and utter disregard especially when the person is not as gifted. Because they are consumed with themselves and life is all about them, they will not be valuable to other people They will use the smallest opportunity they have to help others, to talk about themselves and let you know how great they are. There is nothing wrong in acknowledging your worth provided you do not make it an obsession and that you understand that God is really the one that can provide the best evaluation of your worth before Him. Consider the Rich man and Lazarus in the Gospel of Luke 16:19-31. The rich man’s problem was not that he was wealthy but because he did not acknowledge and honor God who has control over his existence. He trusted in himself and his riches and never used his riches to help people like Lazarus. When he thought life was perfect death came calling. Also, there is nothing wrong with wealth, riches, fame etc. provided they are acquired in a Godly way, seen as blessings from Him that should be used for the advancement of His Kingdom; be it helping people, supporting genuine ministries that are genuinely spreading the word of God. This way, the individual acknowledges God as the source of blessing and uses the blessings to the glory of God. This is how the child of God exhibit agape love to other believers. The person though highly blessed and gifted by God, honors and respects God and His principles; uses the blessings from God as tools to ensure service to God in this present life. The child of God knows also that He will give account of his stewardship here on earth. As a Christian, instead of boasting, esteem others better than you (Phil. 2:3).
Boasting might not be occurring verbally, but some people might be silently boasting in their hearts yet appear pious in speech and character. 2 Corinthians 5:12 We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart.” However, God sees and judges the intents of our hearts.
Jesus did not boast but was humble:
Believers in Christ Jesus must learn from the Lord Jesus who, left us an example to follow His steps. The Lord Jesus being fully God and fully man never boasted about whom he is but humbly endured the death on the cross to fulfil His purpose on earth as Philippians 2:3-11 rightly instructs us: “3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Also, Paul the apostle was highly gifted by God and relentlessly served God with other believers to ensure the establishment of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ among the gentiles. Through those ministry efforts, we became believers in Christ Jesus today. In 2nd Corinthians Chapter 11 and 12, the Corinthian Christians were being seduced and led astray by false apostles who preached false doctrine and who boasted about their superiority to Paul; superior knowledge of a faith that excused and encouraged sinful lifestyles instead of rebuking and condemning them. They caused the believers to live in sin so that they will continue defrauding them in many ways. Paul was sad about the situation and told the Corinthian Christians that servants of the Lord Jesus do not boast and to contrast his actions with those of the false prophets, he was compelled to list all his accomplishments. He used it to show them how he has suffered and walked in love towards them and continue to do so but ascribed all glory to God who used him to bring them to the faith in Christ Jesus. We must avoid boasting verbally and in our hearts. Boasting of any type including the one that sees Christian liberty and grace as excuses for sinful behaviors shall not be encouraged. Watch preachers who boast, defraud and encourage sinful lifestyle. Boasting can cause us to maintain sinful lifestyles that compromise our Christian values and lead to peoples’ downfall.
Boasting can lead to a person’s downfall:
The scriptures gave accounts of people who boasted and were judged by God. Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon boasted about himself and his great Babylonian empire in Daniel 4:40-41 and the Lord judged him. In 1 Samuel 17 the giant and undefeated Goliath boasted about his strength and power, derided, and treated David with contempt and God brought him down by the hands of David. Also, God will not be pleased with us when we fail to stop those who worship us as gods and heap praises upon us that will cause our hearts to be lifted in pride and boasting. In Acts 12:18-25 King Herod was in this kind of position when the people of Tyre and Sidon were seeking reconciliation and after his speech, they said that his voice was the voice of god and not of man thereby ascribing a kind of deity to mortal man. He did not object to that kind of adulation and did not give glory to God. Therefore, an angel of God struck him dead, and he was eaten by worms because God will not share His glory with any man. God did this as an example for people to understand how seriously God takes it. Believer in Christ take note.
Of course, a boastful attitude will cause problems in the church because the person is there to be served and not to serve God. Serving God will stop him/her from serving all his/her self-interest and selfish ambition. They are also incorrigible and will cause divisions in the church because people must please them at all costs and if not, he will stop being a member of that church.
We might be guilty of boasting:
The truth is that most of us might be guilty of the sin of boasting when we:
Feel that we are better than the other person or feel that we should have been given that position instead of who it was given to and who also deserves it.
We think that we are more spiritual and gifted than others and look down on them.
Talk constantly about how better than the other person we are in character and wants always to be praised for our accomplishments and giftings.
Always wanting to hear our name being mentioned and recognized on every occasion.
Brag about our spiritual gifts and feel that we are the most important person in the church
God can transform and change us:
Romans 12:2: Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, perfect will of God
From the scriptures above, we learn that boasting is not of God and we will not be loving others the Agape way if we continue to boast. After recognizing that Love does not boast, we examine our hearts and ask God to expose any kind of boasting lurking in it. Once we know the ways in which we boast, let us repent of it and sincerely ask God to transform our hearts and the way that we think to conform to his word. As we continue to study the word of God, we practically apply what we have read to avoid boasting and ask the Holy Spirit to help us to obey Him. We do not have to follow the patterns of the world where everyone is boasting about themselves because Paul the apostle has already told us to turn away from such behavior in 2nd Timothy 3:1-5; “1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. 2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4 traitors, heady, high minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 5 having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.â€
But Boast in truly Knowing God:
We are encouraged by the scriptures to seek, know, and love God and by doing so, we will see the futility of boasting in ourselves
Jeremiah 9:23-24 (ESV); 23 Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, 24 but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.â€
Therefore, when we truly know God as the source of our life and existence and that He genuinely loves us, it humbles and transforms our hearts so that we live to serve and glorify His name. Apostle Paul states this in (Galatians 6:14) states, “But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.â€
It is not about your ministry, your gifts, your fame, your wealth, and special accomplishments which you boast of, it is about knowing the source of life and those accomplishments-the only true God who loves us and gave His only begotten son to die for our sins. He showed us what love is and keeps blessing us till this present day but wants us to know and love Him by cultivating a loving relationship with Him, reading His word, praying and serving in our local church or in which ministry He might call us. If you have all the blessings but do not take the time to really know God and Christ Jesus our Savior and love believers the agape way, life might profit you nothing.
May God Help Us in the Mighty Name of our Lord Jesus
