The Delight of Boasting
'Boasting is always an advertisement to self-poverty' - anon. Or is it really?
'Boast' appears in Scripture ninety-three times. (NIV -UK version). It is a persistent theme, for it is the habit of mankind.
Jeremiah notes well that the customs, habits and ways of men are worthless in God's eyes.
He also quotes the good Lord:
‘Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches, but let the one 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,’ (Jeremiah 9:23-24)
The delight of boasting falls on a man when he boasts not of himself, but of what the Lord has given him:
- we boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (Romans 5:8)
- let the one who boasts boast in the Lord (1 Corinthians 1:31, 2 Corinthians 10:17)
- May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. (Galatians 6:14)
The parent of boasting is pride. The parent of humility is salvation. Only one brings pure joy when it is spoken out.
Today's Soul Snippet:
"Ignorance of the Scriptures is the root of all error." ~ J.C. Ryle