Most people who know me, know I’m smart; at least they know I think I’m smart and that I am well educated. That’s probably because for too long I have crammed my intelligence down the throat of anyone willing to stick around long enough. I have recently decided that this tactic is probably not the best approach to use when meeting new people, trying to gain the support of co-workers, or pretty much ever. People don’t seem to respond well to the guy who seems to have all the answers and knows everything.
There are a number of passages in which the Bible admonishes us to not be boastful (prideful). One of my favorites comes from James 4:16:
“But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.”
To fully understand what James is talking about we would need only to read a couple of verses back when James addresses how we talk about our future plans. We talk about what “I” am going to do tomorrow, next week, next year or even five years from now. James tells us this language is us boasting in our arrogance. Instead we should say ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that’.
Paul tells the Galatians that we should not be boastful causing a challenge between one another (Gal. 5:26). This boasting leads to envy and strife. We know our own salvation is a gift of God’s grace not of our own works so that we will not be led to boasting.
Given all of the passages that outline the evils of boasting and pride, Paul instructs us to be boastful. Not in our works, but in the works of God and in the cross of Jesus. Even when we preach the gospel we have nothing to boast about. Paul says it best:
“If I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel.” -- I Cor. 9:16
Anything we can boast about in our lives is not our doing, the credit must go to God.
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