Love does not Boast

26 March 2003

I Corinthians 13:4

The term or the key to boasting is to “sound your own trumpet.” You always want to elevate yourself higher than others. Someone who wants to love must humiliate his or herself. The dictionary meaning of boasting is to “glorify yourself or to impress others especially about oneself.” Love does not boast.

Jesus said that if you humble yourself you will be exalted, and if you exalt yourself you will be humbled, Matthew 23:12. When does someone boast? From boasting comes hidden pride and you want the glory to belong to you.

By boasting you want to receive glory. Proverbs 12:9

When did boasting first start in the Bible? Genesis 4. Cain was jealous of Abel and because he was the oldest, God was obliged to accept his sacrifice. Jealousy was present but really Cain wanted to boast, to show his brother He was someone and because of this Cain killed Abel. When God asked Cain, “Where is your brother,” Cain said to God, “I am not someone who is supposed to look after him”. Can you see Cain’s intentions? He thought that it wasn’t his work to look after Abel; he thought he was someone else, “My level is not to look after Abel God, I’m someone else.” If you are the oldest brother then you are to look after your younger brother, it is normal. But Cain wanted to prove to God that it wasn’t his place.

Numbers 16. Korah told people “I know what Moses is doing and it is not correct, I am also a Levite like others.” Moses became angry so God told the people to leave the area and the earth opened. God wanted to humiliate them. Many people of Israel wanted to prove that they were better than Moses, but God confused them.

In the church today we have this spirit. When someone enters a church the first thing that comes to mind is, “Where shall I sit”? If Tongans are that side you will sit on another side because you are black or white. Automatically you think you don’t belong to that race or class. Boasting.

Also when you pray people can feel that this person has studied, and because you have studied you want people to know who you are. People who boast always use the word “I” and never “We” or “God can.” Every glory belongs to this person. When you boast you are taking the glory from God’s hand. Before Satan became proud he wanted “glory” and when we want glory we start to boast.

Example: If you expect everybody to come up to you and say “your preaching was good”, and when they do, you feel good, but when nobody says a word, something in your heart will boil. So if nobody comes to you after giving an exhortation you will feel something is wrong, and it is a lack of glory especially when you are use to people glorifying yourself. In every activity in the church boasting is present.

If we give a lot of testimonies concerning ourselves the glory will go to you. It is better to take a testimony from the Bible. If all the reference goes on you, everyone will think that this man is special and follow what you are doing, which is not bad but people will forget about God’s glory. However, when people don’t come back to you and ask you for prayer or testimonies, it will be hard for you. When you see that people use to come to you but now go to someone else, jealously will arise. Boasting means you need glory. If you are someone that is use to glory and you see it going to someone else you will start to feel bad. This is dangerous because you could end up like Cain and become so angry that you kill someone (spiritually). Let’s try to remember all the glory belongs to God and we don’t need to be acknowledged for the work we do because it is God’s work, not ours.