Love Is...Not Boastful

Love Is…Not Boastful

Pastor Russell Henderson

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8a, NIV.

Boasting, or vaunting (as the King James Version puts it), is an attitude that we must constantly be on guard against.  The biblical definition means a self display, employing rhetorical embellishments in extolling one's self excessively.  The dictionary defines boasting in this manner: to speak with exaggeration and excessive pride, especially about oneself.  Other biblical definitions literally mean to praise or to ascribe glory.

This is what the LORD says: "Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches…

Jeremiah 9:23 NIV

There is no quicker way to call down the judgment and jealousy of God than to exalt yourself, your works, and your achievements.  When you begin boasting, whether about yourself or someone else, you are removing the praise and glory from your heavenly Father, and you are ascribing it to someone else.  Boasting is a form of idolatry.  It is placing yourself or that thing or person above God.  Deuteronomy 4:24 tells us that God is a jealous God, a consuming fire.  The context of this passage is directly centered around idolatry, and God will have none of it.

Boasting opens the door to a lying spirit.  Have you ever known someone that had to exaggerate everything they did just to get more attention?  Being on the “inside” of ministry, I’ve known ministers who would exaggerate their ministerial work to make themselves look better and get a bigger offering.  It is much more than a silly little exaggeration. It is a lie and manipulation all in an effort to bring glory upon themselves. 

Love always points to God; it always glorifies Him and His work.  Boasting, on the other hand, always glorifies self and diverts the attention away from God and His work.  The man who boasts in himself does not have the love of the Father.  So we should ask this question:  Is there ever a situation in which boasting can be a good thing?  The answer is “Yes”.  While we usually tend to give the word a negative connotation, it doesn’t have to be that way. Remember the passage that we looked at from Jeremiah 9?  Let’s look at that verse again and add to it the following verse.

 This is what the LORD says: "Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight," declares the LORD. - Jeremiah 9:23-24 NIV

Paul said it this way:

Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin.  Therefore, as the Scriptures say, "If you want to boast, boast only about the LORD." - 1Cor 1:30-31 NLT

I like how the Message puts it:

Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. That's why we have the saying, "If you're going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God."

If you need to find something to boast about, boast about how God has freed you from sin.  Boast about how you have been made righteous and holy.  But be careful to always point your boasting towards God.  Even our boasting of the works of God could be manipulated to puff ourselves up.  But when you boast of God and his work do it in a way that shows others the love of Christ and points them to salvation and freedom.

So go ahead.  Blow the trumpet.  But blow it for the glorification of God.  True agape love boasts of God.