Love Does Not Boast

After preaching this last sermon, I have been thinking about how many times I have boasted or bragged to others and how many times others have bragged to me. Bragging rights seems to be something we cherish in our human nature and comes very easily to us, however in God's estimation a braggart is nothing more than a "bag of wind". The Corinthians were nothing more than spiritual show offs and it proved they lacked love. The same can be said of many Christians today.  I have found that there are several areas where we can caught up in bragging in thinking we are being spiritual when in reality, we are indirectly demeaning others. For example:

As a pastor it is easy to brag about how many people came out to your service and how many people you were able to get to come out to a special event. But in the process of doing so especially in the company of other pastors, we may indirectly demean that person and make them feel inferior to us.
Such is not Christian love.

Or sometimes we may be attending a church that we really are blessed by and brag about our pastor or church to other Christins as if any other pastor or church was inferior and second rate compared to our church. Now while it may be true that you are blessed by the ministry in your church, wisdom would seek to be careful in how we couch our words lest we directly or indirectly make others feel like second rate Christins.

Then we can easily deceive ourselves by practicing our religion with ostentation to attract the praise and glory of men- just like the Pharisees did. Jesus made no qualms about condemning them for thier overt display of religion to elevate their egos above everyone else.


Matt. 7:5 And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.

We are good at covering up our failures and equally good at blowing the trumpet at our success. But God's word tells us that Love doe snot boast. And if we do not have love, than all our religion and spirituality is utterly worthless (1 Cor. 13:1-4) We can brag in just about anything. We can brag about our jobs, our children, our health etc. But bragging only reveals 2 things. First a denial of God's grace in providing all of our needs according to his riches an glory. Anything we have is a gift from his hand and so the only thing we should boast in is our knowledge of him (Jer. 9:23-24) Second- it reveals a heart that does not love others but is more concerned abut being loved by others.. IF we were more sensitive to the feelings of others we would be careful not to brag. We  should ask, "Would I make my brother or sister in Christ feel second rate if I boast in this success of mine?"" Is my intention to make my my brother or sister in Christ feel inferior to me?"" Is it necessary that people acknowledge my successes?" How will it glorify God? "

After asking several question like this- you will be far less quick to brag in the company of others. And if you really want people to like you you will excel by not bragging- no body likes a braggart. 

The Corinthians were a bunch of braggarts and show offs and as a result were guilty of offending their fellow Christians and God. Are we show offs? Do we boast to make ourselves look better than everyone else? If so then you need a lesson in love. 

John MacArthur made an excellent point in his commentary on this subject: "I don't know if you realize it, but boasting is geared to hurt other people. It is geared to wound somebody else--to make you stand out and them look inferior.