To Encourage You

1 Corinthians 1:31 “as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.’”

1 Corinthians 13:4 “Love . . .  does not . . .  boast”

2 Corinthians 12:7 “So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.”

Do you ever listen to yourself talk about yourself?  Surely one of the most tempting things that plagues most, if not all, of us is the propensity to boast.  And it doesn’t matter if we are “great” in the eyes of the world, our friends, or anyone else that intersects our lives.  We tend to think a lot more of ourselves than we ought. Or maybe we don’t see ourselves as proud, except, of course, that we may be very proud of ourselves that we are so humble!  

God knows all about this weakness, for He knows it is a part of our sinful nature; thus, the commands and instructions above.  Boasting, puffing ourselves up to those around us and thereby attempting to show someone else how we are a little better than someone else is a character trait rooted in selfishness. It is the opposite of love.

It is interesting that the truly great apostle Paul, who actually wrote 1 Corinthians 13 to teach us that we should not boast, also had a problem with this very sin.  Paul had been given great spiritual blessings by God. He was given wonderful visions of the third heaven.  He actually saw the risen Christ and was taught by Christ in great depth so that he could convey that rich teaching in all the biblical epistles that he authored.  It was in that very blessing that the trap of Satan was laid to puff Paul up with conceit.  It is that very thing that could have crippled Paul’s ministry.  But God, in His grace, worked in Paul’s life to prevent this from happening. So, how did He do it?  He gave Him a “thorn in the flesh.”  We aren’t told specifically what it was other than that it was called “a messenger of Satan to harass” him.  In other words, God allowed Paul’s spiritual archenemy to bring pain into his life in one way or another. Perhaps it was by way of a physical or emotional affliction.  Maybe it was a person or persons who opposed Paul’s teaching everywhere he went. That did happen, by the way.  We aren’t told specifically what it was for a reason.  God, in His wisdom, didn’t want us to know exactly what Paul experienced, just that whatever it was, it was designed to keep him very humble and dependent on Jesus for strength. 

Christians can be tempted to be proud just like the Pharisee who prayed in this way: “God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get” (Luke 18:11-12). We tend to forget what we were before we believed.  Perhaps, because of God’s disciplining hand on Paul’s life, he often reminds us in his writings that he was little more than a terrorist, persecuting Christ himself, before he was saved.  And there is not one of us that is any better.  Each and every one of us has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).  Each and every one of us who has ever believed was saved by grace through faith. It was not of ourselves. It was a gift of God. And no one, absolutely no one, can boast about that (Ephesians 2:8-9).  Each one of us that has ever believed was rescued from the dominions of Satan in spite of  our sin, not because of our goodness. 

May the Lord help us to keep such things in mind.  May we be humbled under His mighty hand, so that He and only He, and never ourselves, can lift us up (James 4:10).