It is in the nature of men and women to ‘boast’ of their achievements, to take pride in their homes, possessions, even their family; their success in business or for their intellectual recognition; the internet and social media is full of people who are ‘self-made’ and who relish the independence they have gained.  Men and women measure their status by how influential they are, or delight in executive positions as the heads of powerful corporations and governments.  And Scripture does not proscribe boasting entirely.

May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.(Galatians 6:14)

Greek word translated: καύχημα; kauchéma (G2745) means ‘a boast’, is more fully the grounds for boasting, pride, self-glorification/exultation. Deriving from the root word auχēn, which means ‘neck’, it refers to holding one’s head high and does not inherently negative connotations, depending on the grounds.  And the grounds for positive boasting is always to be found in God, and the negative in idolatry.

While God calls the Israelites a ‘stiff-necked people’ after making the Golden Calf (Exodus 32:9) and Stephen uses the same analogy in denouncing the unbelievers on the Sanhedrin:

‘You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: you always resist the Holy Spirit!  Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him –  you who have received the law that was given through angels but have not obeyed it.’  (Acts 7:51-53)

Paul wants believers to endure with God-given confidence.

That is the sense that he employs in the opening verse. To boast of the cross is to live in the certainty of the death and resurrection of the Son of God.  The verb kauchema includes within its range of meanings ‘to glorify’; therefore, the believer of the Gospel can glorify, exult and ‘take pride’ the cross.   Of course, any pride taken is vicarious.

 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Paul warns of the flip side, to ignore saving grace is to take the credit when the truth is that none can offer aught but sinfulness.  This is because it is natural for men and women to boast in themselves; idolatry, then, is the root cause, while the objects of boasting remain in earthly and temporal achievements and acquisitions. Jeremiah offers the divine cautionary:

 This is what the Lord says:

 ‘Let not the wise boast of their wisdom
or the strong boast of their strength
or the rich boast of their riches,

but let the one who boasts boast about this:
that they have the understanding to know me,
that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness,
justice and righteousness on earth,
for in these I delight,’ declares the Lord.  (Jeremiah 9:23-24)

Thus, Scripture defines the three main pursuits of humankind as knowledge, power and wealth. These consume energy, preoccupy, cause anxiety and ultimately come to nothing.

Taking each in turn, Scripture offers further insight.  Jeremiah is quoted in part by Paul in his first letter to the church of Corinth. He opens the passage portraying the foolishness of humankind – the lack of wisdom.

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.  For it is written:

 ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.’

 Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?  For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. (1 Corinthians 1:18-21, quoting Isaiah 29:14)

The passage continues to also speak of weakness, the lack of power.

Christ (is) the power of God and the wisdom of God.  For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.  (ibid 1:24-25)

Paul says he ‘will not boast about myself, except about (his) weaknesses,’ and referring to his ‘thorn’ that he pleaded to be taken from him:

Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.  But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore, I will boast (kauchaomai) all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.  That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.  (2 Corinthians 12:8-10)

And as for wealth and riches.  Jesus exclaims:

‘How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!’  (Mark 10:23)

Impediments to the relationship with God, even viewed from a temporal perspective, wealth, wisdom or power proffer security, purpose or health.  Any man or woman can be brought low and destroyed by calamity or illness and at any moment, control over one’s destiny can be exposed as illusion.

And as they certainly do not accrue no eternal benefit – wealth, wisdom and power are, at best, mixed blessings, at worse, they are curses.  Consider:

‘Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth…’  (Matthew 5:3-5)

In the ‘Sermon on the Mount’, the first blessing is to be found in the one’s poverty of spirit, that is foolishness, not pride in one’s intellect or intelligence.  The second blessing is given to those that fall out of love with this world, its undeniable delights and riches are to be put aside and all will grieve the loss.  Thirdly, Jesus says all must become meek*, which means more than being humble, it means being submissive.  While tyrants may rule the earth gathering to themselves considerable power and might, they are not the heirs to lasting blessings.

Jesus requires all put aside notions of self-reliance, in one’s own mind, body or spirit, to see the kingdom of heaven, be comforted and achieve a worthwhile inheritance.   These blessings are therefore eternal.

But lest Christians think that Jesus is speaking of the unrighteous to the exclusion of his followers, there are copious warnings of pitfalls for the believer:

But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you…For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error.(2 Peter 2:1&18)

Jude warns of the infiltration of the Church by ungodly people purporting to be Christians, this is apostasy:

For certain individuals, whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a licence for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord…(who) follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.  (Jude 1:4&16)

And James warns of overweening and groundless self-confidence that afflicts the local church in the same way as any secular organisation, when it sends people on mission, erects ever-bigger and grander buildings and raises money to run ambitious and elaborate programmes:

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.’  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.  Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’  As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil.  If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.  (James 4:13-17)

So boasting is not of itself evil, only when one boasts of oneself.  To boast in the Lord, His riches, provision and might – that is godly:

I will bless the Lord at all times;
his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
My soul makes its boast in the Lord;
let the humble hear and be glad.
Oh, magnify the Lord with me,
and let us exalt his name together!  (Psalm 34:1-3 ESV)

Paul’s message to the church of Corinth speaks to all in faith and reminds every one of their station before the cross, bankrupt, weak and humbled:

Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.  But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.  God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things – and the things that are not – to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.  It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God – that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.  

Therefore, as it is written: ‘Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.’

(1 Corinthians 1:26-31)

 

* Note, the anachronism ‘meek’ is word derived from the Old Norse mjukr, which means ‘soft or gentle’ but not ‘weak’.  The word translated is πραΰς praus (Strong’s 4239) and it conveys the sense of standing firm under God’s rule.  In Jesus is seen gentleness and mildness but also strength that is gained from His father.  Biblically meekness is standing strong before the world but submitting to God.