Boasting

 

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS

BOASTING

1 Cor 3:18-23

18 Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a "fool" so that he may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. As it is written: "He catches the wise in their craftiness"; 20 and again, "The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile."   21 So then, no more boasting about men! All things are yours, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future — all are yours, 23 and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.

NIV

It appears there are a whole lot of people that are deceived. It would certainly not be those who are members of the body of Christ, but it is those who are of the world. The world lauds wisdom as the end-all of everything. Those who think themselves wise believe they have all the answers to life, or at least are capable of finding all the answers. Yet as wise as some of them might be, if they are not a believer in Jesus Christ they are but fools, for Jesus is the answer for everything concerning life. Their thoughts are futile, yet they continue to boast about themselves. We cannot think like that. We live in Christ and Christ is of God, therefore we are in God, and God has given us a seal, marking us as His. We have seen before that because we are in Christ and He is in us, that we do not have the mind of this world, but that we have the mind of Christ. We are not deceived by any of the craftiness of men and think that the wisdom of this world is anything to strive for. We are not even supposed to boast about ourselves, as the world is full of boasters. Yet, it seems there are those in the church that boast. It appears some are so impressed with their position or a title they cannot help but boast of themselves. With all the various forms of social media, it has become ever so easy to boast about our position, title, or work for the Lord. We have even perpetuated boasting when we require those called to the mission field to come and tell all there are doing in the name of the Lord so as to garner our financial support. We might even be guilty of boasting about our faith. It would be good to remember that God is the author of our faith, as he gives every man a measure of faith, and because God does not show favoritism, we have to believe every man receives the same measure of faith. So we are left with nothing to boast about except Jesus for he has given us everything, as all things are ours.