Lessons #105 and 106
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+ 1. It is best to use this note after you have listened to the lessons because there are +
+ comments given in the actual delivery not in the note. +
+ 2. The Bible abbreviations are as follows: CEV =Contemporary English version, +
+ CEB = Common English Bible, ESV= English Standard Version, +
+ GW = God’s Word Translation, ISV = International Standard Version, +
+ NAB=New English Bible, NASB= New American Standard Bible, +
+ NEB= New English Bible, NET = New English Translation, +
+ NLT = New Living Translations NJB = New Jerusalem Bible, +
+ NJV = New Jewish Bible, TEV = Today’s English Version. +
+AMP = Amplified Bible, UBS = United Bible Society +
+ 3. Notes have not been edited for grammatical errors. +
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No boasting about personalities (1 Cor 3:21-23)
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.
In this section of 1 Corinthians, the apostle instructs the Corinthians against boasting about men, but we will recast the message of this section slightly different from what appears on a surface reading of the passage. The message we believe the Holy Spirit wants us to convey to you is this: You should not brag about spiritual leaders because everything in God’s creation serves you and because you are in Christ you belong to God. You probably may wonder the reason for casting the message in such a way that instead of the word “men” in our text we used the term “spiritual leaders.” Well, there are at least three reasons for this approach.
A first reason for presenting the message of this section in the way we did, is because boasting can be viewed either negatively or positively. Negatively, boasting is an outward display of sin that involves arrogantly praising oneself. That it is a sin is evident first from its being included among the sins associated with those who reject the worship of the true God in Romans 1:29–30:
29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents;
Apostle Paul used the word “arrogant” and “boastful” together to show that they are related but are different. Arrogance is an attitude of the mind that involves thought of one’s importance while boasting is an outward expression of the thought, in that a person indeed speaks of the individual’s importance or greatness. That boasting in a negative sense is a sin may also be noted from the Holy Spirit’s condemnation of it as evil in James 4:16:
As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil.
The boasting here refers to arrogantly asserting what one would accomplish in the future, specifically in business ventures. This kind of boasting is described as evil because such assertion ignores God who is in control of all things on this planet. It is because negative boasting is sinful that it is one of the reasons God brought judgment on Nebuchadnezzar, as recorded in Daniel 4:28–31:
28 All this happened to King Nebuchadnezzar. 29 Twelve months later, as the king was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, 30 he said, “Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?”
31 The words were still on his lips when a voice came from heaven, “This is what is decreed for you, King Nebuchadnezzar: Your royal authority has been taken from you.
Positively, boasting is trusting and being extremely joyful, that is, to rejoice in who God is, and what He has done. Sometimes our English versions may use such words as “glory” or “glorifying” to express positive boasting as it is used by Apostle Paul in his jubilation regarding what Christ accomplished through him, as we read in Romans 15:17–19:
17 Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God. 18 I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done— 19 by the power of signs and miracles, through the power of the Spirit. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ.
The sentence I glory in Christ Jesus of the NIV is literally I have boasting in Christ Jesus. The Scripture encourages the positive boasting that acknowledges what God has done, as stated in Jeremiah 9:23–24:
23 This is what the LORD says: “Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, 24 but let him 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,” declares the LORD.
A second reason for presenting the message of this section in the way we did is because that keeps the apostle from contradicting himself on a surface reading of the Scripture. How you may ask? On a surface reading of the instruction in 1 Corinthians 3:21, the apostle seem to say that no one should boast about other human beings. But if that was what he meant he would be contradicting himself in his second epistle to the Corinthians. This is because the apostle indicated he had boasted about the Corinthians to Titus, as recorded in 2 Corinthians 7:14:
I had boasted to him about you, and you have not embarrassed me. But just as everything we said to you was true, so our boasting about you to Titus has proved to be true as well.
Of course, the sentence of the NIV I had boasted to him about you is literally for if I have boasted anything to him about you. The use of the word “if” is such that it can be translated not merely as a supposition but a statement of fact, that is the reason the NIV and the TEV simply dropped the word “if” and translated the Greek as referring to what Paul indeed did. The apostle did not here tell us what he boasted about the Corinthians, but we can be certain that his boasting must have included the generosity of the Corinthians that he boasted to the Macedonians as we may gather from 2 Corinthians 9:2:
For I know your eagerness to help, and I have been boasting about it to the Macedonians, telling them that since last year you in Achaia were ready to give; and your enthusiasm has stirred most of them to action.
It is not only that the apostle boasted about the Corinthians he boasted about how he conducted his ministry among the Corinthians, according to 2 Corinthians 1:12–14:
12 Now this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you, in the holiness and sincerity that are from God. We have done so not according to worldly wisdom but according to God’s grace. 13 For we do not write you anything you cannot read or understand. And I hope that, 14 as you have understood us in part, you will come to understand fully that you can boast of us just as we will boast of you in the day of the Lord Jesus.
Thus, the apostle must have recognized that there is nothing wrong with boasting in the right way about people or of an individual doing so although he certainly recognized that there is a limitation to a person’s boasting even in the right sense, as we may deduce from the limitation he placed on his own boasting, in 2 Corinthians 10:13:
We, however, will not boast beyond proper limits, but will confine our boasting to the field God has assigned to us, a field that reaches even to you.
By the way, the apostle also recognized that the right boasting should concern God’s work as we have indicated that he was extremely joyful of what Christ accomplished through him in the preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles, but he also boasted of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross for our sins as implied in his declaration in Galatians 6:14:
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.
Anyway, it is our assertion that without casting the message of 1 Corinthians 3:21-23 the way we did that on a surface reading of the text the apostle contradicted what he wrote, especially to the Corinthians in his second epistle to them.
A third reason for presenting the message of this section in the way we did is because the context of 1 Corinthians 3:21-23 demands this approach. Firstly, because in the preceding context, the apostle had chastised the Corinthians about their partisanship based not on ordinary men but on the spiritual leaders who have had a ministry of the word among them or with some of them, as implied in 1 Corinthians 3:4–7:
4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere men? 5 What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. 6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.
Secondly, because of the Greek word that begins 1 Corinthians 3:21.
Verse 21 in the NIV begins with the phrase so then which is the way its translators rendered a Greek particle (hōste) that may be used in two different ways. It may be used as a marker of result in both independent and dependent clauses. In independent clauses, it has the meaning of “therefore, for this reason, so.” It is for introducing independent clause that the word is used with the meaning “so” to indicate believer’s position with God through the work of Christ in Galatians 4:7:
So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.
It is regarding its use for dependent clause that Apostle Paul used it to describe the effect of Peter’s hypocrisy on others when he withdrew from having fellowship with his fellow believers who are Gentiles, as recorded in Galatians 2:13:
The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.
In some context, it may be difficult to differentiate result from purpose so that the Greek conjunction is used as a marker of purpose with the meaning “so that, in order that, for the purpose of.” This is the case with the authority Jesus Christ gave to the twelve disciples when He sent them out on a mission work, according to Matthew 10:1:
He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.
Here the translators of the NIV and many of our English versions implied that the purpose of the authority of Jesus to the disciples is to do the miraculous as indicated with the word “to” but a handful of our English versions used “so” or “so that” that may be interpreted as either result or purpose. In 1 Corinthians 3:21, it is used with the meaning “for this reason, therefore” so that it is used to make a deduction or inference based on the preceding section.
Our interpretation that the Greek word that begins verse 21 has the meaning “for this reason” raises the question of the reason(s) the apostle had in mind. As we indicated, the reason(s) must refer to what the apostle had stated prior to this verse. In the immediate context, there are two reasons the apostle would have had in mind. The first is God’s action to worldly wisdom in that He thwarts and destroys it and punishes those who rely on it as the apostle stated in verse 19. The second is that human thoughts are of no significance in spiritual matters as the apostle discoursed in verse 20. In short, the apostle meant that because of human limitations that he had explained in the preceding section or because of his entire argument against partisanship based on personalities of spiritual leaders, he issued the instruction of 1 Corinthians 3:21.
The instruction is concerned with avoidance of wrong kind of boasting as in the expression of 1 Corinthians 3:21 no more boasting about men. Literally, the Greek reads let no one boast about men. This is because of the Greek words used. The phrase “no one” we used in the literal translation is translated from a Greek word (mēdeis) that as an adjective may mean “no” as it is used in the instruction given to younger widows to remarry to avoid anything that would give an opportunity to Satan through unbelievers to slander the Christian faith in 1 Timothy 5:14:
So I counsel younger widows to marry, to have children, to manage their homes and to give the enemy no opportunity for slander.
The word used as a noun may mean “no one, nobody” as it is used in the apostle’s instruction to Titus as the resident pastor in Crete, as we read in Titus 2:15:
These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you.
The translators of the NIV used the meaning “anyone” to translate our Greek word here in Titus 2:15. In our passage of 1 Corinthians 3:21, it is used in the sense of “no one” referring to any believer in Corinth and so any believer in general.
The word “boasting” is translated from a Greek verb (kauchaomai) that means to take pride in something so the word means “to brag” as it used in Romans 2:17:
Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and brag about your relationship to God;
The word may mean “to rejoice” as Apostle Paul used it to describe his and his team’s attitude towards sufferings in Romans 5:3:
Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;
The sentence we also rejoice in our sufferings is literally we also boast in our sufferings. The word may mean “to take pride” as it is used in 2 Corinthians 5:12:
We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart.
The word may mean “to boast” as in 2 Corinthians 10:8:
For even if I boast somewhat freely about the authority the Lord gave us for building you up rather than pulling you down, I will not be ashamed of it.
The word may mean “to glory in” as in Philippians 3:3:
For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh—
Our Greek word is related to two other Greek words. It is related to a Greek word (kauchēma) that refers to an expression of pride so means “boast, what is said in boasting” as Apostle Paul used it in expressing his pride in the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 9:3:
But I am sending the brothers in order that our boasting about you in this matter should not prove hollow, but that you may be ready, as I said you would be.
Our Greek word is also related to another Greek word (kauchēsis) that may mean “boasting,” that is, the act of taking pride in something as we read in Romans 3:27:
Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith.
The word can refer to that which constitutes a source of pride and so means “reason to boast, object of boasting” as it is used in a passage, we cited previously in 2 Corinthians 1:12:
Now this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you, in the holiness and sincerity that are from God. We have done so not according to worldly wisdom but according to God’s grace.
In our passage of 1 Corinthians 3:21, the Greek verb is used in the sense of “to boast,” that is, to display or proclaim publicly (and often ostentatiously) a satisfied contentment with another’s achievements.
The verb is in the present tense. This means that the prohibition could be understood as a general prohibition without any comment about whether the action is ongoing or not. It can also be understood as a prohibition to stop an action that was already in progress. The context in which the Corinthians were involved in partisanship based on the personalities of those who have taught to them the word of God, suggests that the apostle had in mind cessation of an activity that was in progress among the Corinthians. It is probably to capture this interpretation that the translator of the NIV used the expression no more boasting about men.
The word “men” is translated from a Greek word (anthrōpos) that may mean “a human being” without regard to gender, as Apostle Paul used it to describe the fate of evil doers in Romans 2:9:
There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile;
The word may mean a male person, that is, “a man” as Apostle Paul used it in relation to marriage instruction in Ephesians 5:31:
“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”
The word may mean “a person, someone, one” although some English versions may use the word “man” in their translation of the Greek word in some passages as it is translated in Apostle Paul’s usage of the word in stating the spiritual law of sowing and reaping in Galatians 6:7:
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.
It is true that the translators of the NIV used the word “man” in their translation of our Greek word, but the sense of the word is “person” since the applicability of the spiritual law of sowing and reaping is not limited to male members of humanity. The word in some contexts is used in idioms with several meanings. For example, it may mean “self” when it is used with a Greek adjective (palaios) that means “old” in describing a pattern of behavior as Apostle Paul used it to instruct believers to behave differently than they did when they were unbelievers in Ephesians 4:22:
You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;
The phrase your old self is literally the old man. Likewise, Our Greek word may be used to describe the inner being of a person so may mean “being” as the apostle used it in Ephesians 3:16:
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,
The phrase inner being is literally inner man. In our passage of 1 Corinthians 3:21, the Greek word is used in the sense of “person” or “man.” The context is concerned with teachers of God’s word who have been or are in Corinth that led to the partisanship in the local church in Corinth. Therefore, the apostle was not speaking of people in general but those who are teachers of the word of God. It is because of this understanding that we used the term “spiritual leaders” in presenting the message of 1 Corinthians 3:21-23. By the way, the 2011 edition of the NIV has recognized this interpretation that instead of the word “men” the phrase “human leaders” is used. The apostle wanted the Corinthians to stop boasting about any of the teachers of God’s word as he had already conveyed that each minister of God’s word carries out his assigned task by the Lord and so should not be compared to another teacher in such a way as to be the object of partisanship.
Be that as it may, the apostle had a reason for prohibiting boasting about spiritual leaders but before we get to that, let us make few comments about boasting in general so that we recognize that we should be careful regarding taking pride either in our accomplishments or that of another. Of course, we have already noted that boasting could be right or wrong depending on the reason for it. However, the apostle is much more concerned with the wrong kind of boasting. This we know not only because of the passage we are considering but what the apostle states later about being proud because of one’s achievement or success in a series of questions in 1 Corinthians 4:7:
For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?
The questions in this passage of 1 Corinthians 4:7 are intended to cause us not to boast about our successes or achievements because such are from God and not our own doing. Anyway, there is more to the wrong type of boasting that we find in the Scripture to warrant examination of the subject in a little more detail.
We have already noted that boasting could be considered negatively or positively. Recall that boasting viewed negatively involves arrogantly praising of oneself while positively it is trusting and being extremely joyful, that is, to rejoice in who God is, and what He has done. Our examination of the subject of boasting will focus primarily on the negative boasting for three reasons. First, the Scripture has much to say about negative boasting. Second, it is the one that believers should avoid as we will note later. Third, positive boasting is essentially the same as praising God which is commended in the Scripture. That positive boasting is equivalent to praising God may be deduced from Psalm 44:8:
In God we make our boast all day long, and we will praise your name forever.
The word “boast” is translated from a Hebrew word (hālǎl) that may have negative or positive meaning. Positively, it means “to praise”, that is, to extol the greatness or excellence of a person, object, or event as the psalmist used it to promise his activity of praising God among his people in Psalm 22:22:
I will declare your name to my brothers; in the congregation I will praise you.
It is in the sense of “to praise” that the word is used in the instruction to avoid self-praise in Proverbs 27:2:
Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; someone else, and not your own lips.
Negatively, the Hebrew word may mean “to be arrogant, boast” as it is used in the psalmist’s confession regarding his attitude towards the wicked that prospered, as we read in Psalm 73:3:
For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
The phrase the arrogant is literally the boastful which is the way to translate a Hebrew participle that literally means the boasting, which in this psalm refers to a person that is characterized by boasting and pride. The fact that our Hebrew word may mean “to praise” or “to boast” is probably the reason that in second line of Psalm 44:8 the psalmist wanted to convey that the word “boast” used in the first line should be understood positively, hence in the second line he used a Hebrew word (yāḏāh) that means “to praise, to give thanks.” Therefore, we are correct to say that to boast in a positive sense means “to praise.” That aside, there are several facts we should focus regarding negative boasting. By the way, to keep from using the phrase “negative boasting” we use the word “bragging,” being a shorter word to describe negative boasting that involves pompous or boastful statement.
A first fact is that bragging is that which characterizes the world that is in rebellion against God. It is for this reason that the Holy Spirit directed Apostle John to include boasting as part of the world system in 1 John 2:16:
For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world.
The boasting associated with the world is certainly negative as indicated not only in this passage of 1 John 2:16 but also from the fact that the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul makes us aware that there is a boasting that is in keeping with the world’s standard which he refused to follow in his boast, as we gather from 2 Corinthians 11:18:
Since many are boasting in the way the world does, I too will boast.
The world’s boasting or bragging is conveyed in the verbal phrase in the way the world does. The fact that the world has its standard of boasting or bragging leads to the second fact we should consider.
A second fact about bragging or negative boasting is there are several reasons people get involved in it. A sense of superiority would lead a person to brag or boast. This was the case with Simon the Sorcerer who because of the attention he garnished from his people because of his sorcery boasted or bragged about his greatness, as recorded in Acts 8:9:
Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great,
It is the same sense of feeling of superiority that caused Haman to brag or boast about several things that convey his superiority over others, as we read in Esther 5:11:
Haman boasted to them about his vast wealth, his many sons, and all the ways the king had honored him and how he had elevated him above the other nobles and officials.
Haman’s bragging or boasting included the next reason people boast which is their possession of great wealth as indicated in Psalm 49:6:
those who trust in their wealth and boast of their great riches?
Another reason people brag, or boast is their success. This reason although could be related to great wealth but wealth is not the only thing that may mean that people are successful. There are other things that define success about which people brag or boast. A person may brag of success in business. This could mean that a person would brag of the success of knowing how to negotiate a business deal to the person’s advantage. It is this kind of bragging regarding business success that is stated in Proverbs 20:14:
“It’s no good, it’s no good!” says the buyer; then off he goes and boasts about his purchase.
This verse describes the art of bargaining regarding goods to be sold where the buyer not being quite truthful puts down the product offered for purchase. The individual claims that there is something not right with the product or the individual says that the product is of poor quality, only so the seller would not drag on the purchase price. In short, the buyer displays an art of buying something by beating down the price. But once the buyer beats down the price and purchases from the buyer then the individual brags regarding what good purchase the person made. Thus, such success could cause a person to boast of being a good negotiator or one skilled in the art of making a business deal. It is not only success in business that could lead to bragging but also success in military conflict could cause a person or even a nation to brag of its success. It is this kind of bragging that the Lord through Prophet Isaiah charged the king of Assyria, as recorded in Isaiah 10:10–15:
10As my hand seized the kingdoms of the idols, kingdoms whose images excelled those of Jerusalem and Samaria—11shall I not deal with Jerusalem and her images as I dealt with Samaria and her idols?’” 12 When the LORD has finished all his work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, he will say, “I will punish the king of Assyria for the willful pride of his heart and the haughty look in his eyes. 13 For he says: “‘By the strength of my hand I have done this, and by my wisdom, because I have understanding. I removed the boundaries of nations, I plundered their treasures; like a mighty one I subdued their kings. 14As one reaches into a nest, so my hand reached for the wealth of the nations; as men gather abandoned eggs, so I gathered all the countries; not one flapped a wing, or opened its mouth to chirp.’” 15Does the ax raise itself above him who swings it, or the saw boast against him who uses it? As if a rod were to wield him who lifts it up, or a club brandish him who is not wood!
King of Assyria did not know that he was carrying out God’s plan so that he boasted of his military power. Of course, the Lord eventually punished the Assyrians according what the prophet wrote. Anyway, the point is that military success could cause a person or a nation to brag of it. Still another factor that is the basis of boasting is a person’s appearance. It is this that the Holy Spirit mentioned through Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:12:
We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart.
The clause so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart is literally in order that you may have an answer for those who boast in appearance and not in heart. A person may not necessary boast in words because of appearance but may display the boasting that is based on appearance by acting in a way that shows that the individual relies on appearance to get advantage over others.
A third fact about bragging or negative boasting is that there are specific cases of boasting that should be avoided, according to the Scripture. It is specifically forbidden for a person to boast regarding the person’s evil action, as we read in Psalm 52:1:
Why do you boast of evil, you mighty man? Why do you boast all day long, you who are a disgrace in the eyes of God?
There are those who are powerful that do bad things to people and brag about them. For example, there are those involved in organized crime and boast of those they have killed or maimed. Such boasting is wrong so also their criminal activities. That aside, there are some who have no problem boasting about something bad they have done. For example, there are some men who boast of having sex with so many women, such boasting is wrong since that is boasting about sin. Boasting about any kind of sin shows that a person does not have a sense of shame which characterizes a person or groups of people that have rejected God as Prophet Jeremiah implied in Jeremiah 6:15:
Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; they will be brought down when I punish them,” says the LORD.
The point is that if you do something wrong it would be adding to the sin to boast about it. Such boasting is tantamount to defiant sinning. In other words, a person who boasts of the wrong thing the individual has done in effect is daring God to do something about the person’s failure. Of course, God acts in His own way and time, but people may not connect the sin boasted by the sufferer to whatever is being suffered at a later time. Anyway, it is wrong to boast about sinful conduct of any kind. Another kind of boasting or bragging that is specifically prohibited in the Scripture is that of boasting about what will take place the next day or in the future. It is this kind of bragging or boasting that is prohibited by God in Proverbs 27:1:
Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.
This passage warns against bragging about what one would do the next day or in the future because only God controls what is in the future. James elaborated on this warning by indicating that people should not boast of the next day because they may not live to see tomorrow since no one is guaranteed to live the next day. Hence, he provided the appropriate way of talking about tomorrow by indicating we should preface our plans by indicating that they would be carried out if it is God’s will, as we read in James 4:13–15:
13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”
A fourth fact about bragging or negative boasting is that God through His works in the past had undercut any basis for boasting. This fact is demonstrated first with giving victory to Israel through Gideon. The Lord undercut any basis of bragging by providing Israel victory through three hundred soldiers with the explanation that it is so that Israel will not boast of victory, as we read in Judges 7:2:
The LORD said to Gideon, “You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands. In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her,
To ensure that Israel had no basis of boasting, only three hundred men were chosen to fight for Israel, as stated in Judges 7:7–8 (NIV84)
7 The LORD said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the other men go, each to his own place.” 8 So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites to their tents but kept the three hundred, who took over the provisions and trumpets of the others. Now the camp of Midian lay below him in the valley.
Anyway, more important than military victory is eternal salvation. That, the Lord had undercut any basis of boasting about salvation because it is a gift through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, is stated in Ephesians 2:8–9:
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
This passage in Ephesians implies that no one who relies of his/her good works would be saved. For if God saved a person because of good works then the person could boast. Of course, it is impossible for anyone to be saved by good works because of the issue of original sin or what to do with sins of humans. God could not arbitrary ignore or forgive sin. The point is that God through making salvation a gift received by faith through Jesus Christ had undercut any basis of boasting regarding salvation.
We have stated facts that are necessary in dealing with negative boasting, but we should recognize that there is correct type of boasting. It is the type that is done in God. In other words, we are to boast only as it relates to God. Thus, the psalmist spoke of boasting in the Lord in Psalm 34:2:
My soul will boast in the LORD; let the afflicted hear and rejoice.
We have already indicated the instruction given through prophet Jeremiah regarding the right kind of boasting that is done in the Lord. Therefore, if you do the correct boasting it must involve showing the greatness or goodness of God. This brings us to the end of our study for today but let me refresh your mind of the message we are expounding which is You should not brag about spiritual leaders because everything in God’s creation serves you and because you are in Christ you belong to God.