2 Corinthians 10:17-18
As the Scriptures say, ‘the person who wishes to boast should boast only of what the Lord has done’. When people boast about themselves, it doesn’t count for much. But when the Lord commends someone, that’s different!
I’ve seen many different film clips on social media, mainly in relation to boxing matches when either before or during the fight, one of the contestants is behaving really disrespectfully towards his opponent. In any of these clips, it is always the one who has been disrespected that emerges as the victor which makes all the earlier gesticulating and predictions by the defeated boxer look pretty ridiculous now.
On tv, I have watched boastfulness being the source of comedy when the whole concept of one person saying they are better than another is exploited via the many weaknesses in their stance. People like this can fall into the categories of boring, intolerable, best avoided and whenever someone is boasting about a particular situation, there is always someone that will eclipse them, someone who will be better than them and have even more to boast about, should they choose to do so.
I used to work with a gent that stayed in a lovely house in Giffnock with a huge garden and one Monday in the office, he was going into great detail about how long it took him to cut his grass. This was to make anyone who didn’t already know about his house aware of how big it was. One of my other colleagues remarked ‘I used to have a lawnmower like that’. My Giffnock acquaintance didn’t quite get the Motherwell sense of humour and continued to bore us with tales of his massive garden. At no point did he seem to consider how other folks around him might feel i.e. the folks with no garden, the folks with a small garden, the folks that had other things to worry about that were a lot more important than maintaining a garden.
In this chapter, Paul says ‘Look at the obvious facts. Those who say they belong to Christ must recognise that we belong to Christ as much as they do. I may seem to be boasting too much about the authority given to us by the Lord. But our authority builds you up; it doesn’t tear you down. So I will not be ashamed of using my authority’. Paul is not praising himself, but God. The verses say, “But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord”. This means that anyone who wants to boast should boast about the Lord’s power, love, and faithfulness, not about themselves.
When I survey the wondrous cross is one of my favourite hymns and I’m sure that it will feature among yours as well and the words of the second verse are ‘Forbid it Lord, that I should boast, save in the death of Christ my God! All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood.’ Ephesians 2:9 reminds us that ‘Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it’. It is all down to what Christ and Christ alone did for each and every one of us if only we believe in him.
Prayer – Heavenly Father, we pray that like Paul, we may be meek and gentle in our Christian witness, while being ready and willing to lovingly challenge false teachers, fearlessly expose false doctrines, earnestly contend for the faith, preach or share the word in season and out of season, and be ready to give an answer for the hope we have in Christ alone.. Amen
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