Boasting, Confidence and Pride: Like Paul or Like Jesus?

Jeremiah 9:23-24
1 Corinthians 1:26-31
Philippians 1:20

September 5, 2004

Jeremiah 9:23-24

²³Thus says the LORD: Do not let the wise boast in their wisdom, do not let the mighty boast in their might, do not let the wealthy boast in their wealth; ²⁴but let those who boast boast in this, that they understand and know me, that I am the LORD; I act with steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight, says the LORD.

1 Corinthians 1:26-31

²⁶Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. ²⁷But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; ²⁸God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, ²⁹so that no one might boast in the presence of God. ³⁰He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, ³¹in order that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Philippians 1:20
²⁰It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be put to shame in any way, but that by my speaking with all boldness, Christ will be exalted now as always in my body, whether by life or by death.

Last week from this pulpit, we considered a parable of Jesus in which he advocated to his disciples that they accept the radical lifestyle of humility that he had adopted in his life.

He said to them

“When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet…go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. ¹¹For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”[1]

Jesus abhorred pridefulness arrogance and all boasting.

A Texas oilman died and went to heaven.  After a few days, his bragging was getting on St. Peter’s nerves.  No matter what part of paradise he was shown, the oilman claimed it failed to measure up to Texas.  Finally St. Peter took him to the edge of heaven so he could look straight into hell.  “Have you got any thing like that in Texas?” he asked.  “No,” the oilman replied.  “But I know some good ol’ Texas firemen who could put out that fire in an hour flat!”[2]

You know folks like this… like the folks that come from the old country and brag about how great it was back in Marash or Kharpert, Habousi or Garmiri.  No matter how fresh and plump and tasty and rich the plums in my neighbors’ yard were when I was a kid, my grandfather would always turn to one of his boys and say, “O, this is nothing, back in Haleb, we had some plums that were twice this size and three times as juicy.”  That would lead to a discussion of how special the weather was for such growing and how it never snowed, the heat was a perfect dry heat and the water tasted so pure and natural that nothing paralleled it.  Marash, and even Haleb, grew in the memories, so that there was nothing about either of those places that didn’t merit some playful bragging, boastfulness and pride.

This kind of pride and boasting is harmless when it comes to reminiscence and yearning for lost glory.  But how dangerous and harmful it can be if the boasting is about how much better one spouse is than another, or one sibling than his brother.  Or one flavor of Christians as opposed to another. 

How many times have you heard one Christian completely dismiss another entire group of Christians because they have some differing beliefs than his own?  How many times have you heard a so-called Christian say that others who follow Jesus in ways that differ somewhat from her own are not really Christians at all but pretenders who would probably go to hell?

Remember what Jesus said:

¹¹For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”[3]

Remember Jesus’ own humility, his own example.  Rather than boasting about how great and exalted he was, he would dip down to the most humble, base and inconspicuous path. 

·        On several occasions he, the Master was found washing the feet of one of his followers. 

·        He would associate with women and children, lepers, tax collectors and the sick, rather than take pride and name drop that he had been with the Pharisees and rulers of his community. 

·        He wanted to deflect some of the inevitable attention that came when he performed his miracles and told the disciples and others to keep the stories of whatever great spectacle in which they had participated to themselves.  Imagine the extra mileage a proud, arrogant and boastful person could have gotten out of the healings he performed.  Instead, on over ½ dozen occasions in scripture[4], we find that he insisted on silence, when he had healed someone, when his disciples first confess that they believe him to be the messiah and when a few of them see him in a vision in heaven standing alongside Moses and Elijah he commanded folks with them at each of these times to tell no one.

And on the other hand, we have Paul.  In the face of humility and not exalting oneself that we see in Jesus, the history of Christianity has another example for living out the Christian faith in the person of the Apostle Paul.  Paul often spoke of being bold and boastful, as in the two passages I just quoted from two of his epistles.  In another of his letters, 2 Corinthians, he spends an entire chapter arguing the merits of being bold and boastful, confident and forceful.  In the tenth chapter of that epistle, he defends his ministry against those who disagree with his understanding of Jesus.  He seems pushy, brash and at times angry.

Listen to this statement from 2 Corinthians 10:

“We destroy arguments ⁵and every proud obstacle raised up against the knowledge of God.  We take every thought captive to obey Christ. ⁶We are ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete.”

His opponents in Corinth said this about him: “His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.”  The Apostle Paul was a forceful man who believed in himself and took no prisoners when it came to arguing issues of faith and theology.  And he  probably made enemies with this confident boasting, steamrolling, bull-in-a-china shop attitude, I’m sure.

This type of forcefulness and boastfulness can probably be recognized as very close to the type of pride and arrogance that Jesus detested.  And sometimes this can be true of confidence as well, of blind confidence, of confidence that is built on pride and arrogance and a puffed up and overblown sense of personal accomplishment.  Yet in confidence, we enter a different area than just naked boastfulness.  There is another type of confidence, what some psychologists call a “healthy narcissism.”  What the Apostle Paul calls boasting in the Lord.

A woman renewed her Christian faith later in life, taking on the commitments and the calling of Christian life in a way that she had never envisioned in her youth.  She was full of joy.  She could not keep still about it.  She was praising God and talking about her new life all the time.  One old friend said, “You seem pretty confident about this new thing in your life.  I would not be too sure if I were you; suppose the Lord should let you slip through his fingers?”  But said the elderly woman, “I am one of his fingers.”[5]

Boasting in Christ is different than boasting about how great a Christian one is.  Confidence in Christ is different than a blind arrogant confidence in one’s own self and accomplishments.  Confidence in Christ is based in joy, it is considerate, compassionate and isn’t concerned with trampling others in the wake of its own arrogant pride.

As Christians, we see the humility of Jesus and can be tempted to contrast that humility with the boldness of Paul and ask ourselves, “which do we embrace?”

The Apostle Paul believed in himself. He believed the best about himself. He believed that whenever tested, he would do the right thing and honor Christ.  However, this is very different from the boastfulness and pride that Jesus abhorred.  The Apostle Paul’s “boasting in the Lord” is still consistent with Jesus’ humility, because it points not to his own prowess, ability and achievements, but to his own weakness turned strong through the Grace of God.  Listen again to the passage I read again from 1 Corinthians

²⁶Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. ²⁷But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; ²⁸God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, ²⁹so that no one might boast in the presence of God. ³⁰He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, ³¹in order that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

You see Paul had in faith in himself, but his faith wasn't based on himself. It was based on Christ. Paul knew without Christ, he was nothing. Paul knew that without Christ, he was a "wretched man" and the "Chief of sinners," as he confessed to his friends in his letter to the Romans (7:24) and to his colleague Timothy (1 Timothy 1:15).

So often folks are caught between two extremes.  On one extreme, there’s the boastful prideful bragging that Jesus despised.  On the other extreme, there is a greater personal conviction in one’s own ability to fail than the confidence in God's ability to keep us from falling – a lack of confidence, a fear of accomplishment, a poor self-image, weak self-esteem. 

A neighbor was befriending a new child in the neighborhood, “I understand you have twins in your home.”

“Yes sir, that’s correct,” the little guy replied.

Are you one of those twins?

The little boy looked down to the ground sadly and answered, “No, sir, I’m just a spare.”[6]

Often folks on this extreme believe more in then own weakness than in God’s strength. This misguided belief holds many back.

Paul's words tell us that it is O.K. to be self-confident—as long as the foundation of confidence is God's work of grace in our lives.  Without God, we Christians can do nothing.  With God, we can do all things through his strength.

If you are a committed follower of Jesus Christ, you have the right—and the responsibility—to believe in yourself. [7]

Bruce Barton, the advertising executive who created “Betty Crocker,” who wrote many religious works and is considered by many to be one of the most influential advertising men of the 20th century once said,  “Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside them was superior to circumstance.”[8]

He who has lost confidence can lose nothing more. --Boiste

Roy Smith, a renowned lecturer and accomplished adventurer who has scaled the most imposing mountains of the world, including Kilimanjaro and the highest and most challenging peaks in West Africa, Peru and Alaska[9] has said, “No man has the right to expect others to display confidence in him if he has no confidence in himself.”[10]

In Jesus we find humility and a disgust for arrogance, but in Paul we find boldness, even boastfulness and confidence.  They are both essential to Christian life. 

The great Christian writer Oswald Chambers said, “God expects of us the one thing that glorifies him--and that is to remain absolutely confident hi Him, remember what he has said before hand, and sure that his purposes will be fulfilled.”

Good confidence is like faith.  Good confidence has its foundation in a person’s faith in God’s promises to arrive when the need is greatest.  Good confidence is having faith in one’s own abilities and place in the world both of which spring forth from God’s calling for each of us.

Yes, we sometimes may feel of ourselves the same way that the Apostle Paul described himself, a "wretched" person and the "Chief of sinners," but there were many people in history who had no place being in God’s company but God gave them a place and the abilities and the opportunities to thrive and prosper:

• Moses stuttered.

• David was too little and no armor fit his small frame.

• Timothy had ulcers.

• Hosea’s wife was a prostitute.

• Amos’ only training was in the school of fig-tree pruning.

• Jacob was a liar.

• David had an affair.

• Solomon was too rich … Jesus was too poor.

• Abraham was too old … David was too young.

• Peter was afraid of death … Lazarus was dead.

• John was self-righteous.

• Naomi was a widow.

• Paul was a murderer … So was Moses.

• Miriam was a gossip.

• Jonah ran from God. [11]

If these people had no problem striving and thriving in God’s kingdom, then neither will we.  If God reached down and empowered people such as these to become who they became, then God can show us grace too and help us to stand strong.  We have every reason to be confident that God will give us what ever we need to become who ever we must become, but ultimately, I pray that as we come to realize this we will remember from where it comes.

So which do we choose, Jesus or Paul? 

Both! 

Which do we choose Modesty and humility or confidence and boldness?  All of the above, and God will bless us richly and his church and the world through us. 

Amen.

Childrens’ Sermon

Boasts and Toasts - Philip Schroeder from Homiletics Online

·        there is too much booing in our churches and not enough cheering.

·        Ask the children if they know any cheers. They will be familiar with the spelling cheers, Gimme a J. J! Gimme an E. E! …S U S

·         .... Let the children lead The Wave as it flows back and forth across the congregation.

·        the Beatitudes - yell or say,

·        ”Blessed are:”

·        and having others in the congregation complete the phrases from their Bibles.

·        Three cheers for the poor in spirit. Blessed, Blessed, Blessed!

·        Discuss some examples of when Christians should cheer

- How are these different than bragging? 

- Armenian word of the Day… 

·        Brag/boast: put someone else down and feel better about oneself in the process

Cheer/Boast: lift everyone up, celebrate, encourage, be joyful.