WRONG BOAST—RIGHT BOAST

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on August 15, 2021 under 2021 |

Bethany Bible Church Sunday Message; August 15, 2021 from 2 Corinthians 10:12-18

Theme: Our confident hope in ultimate worth must rest in the commendation of the Lord.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

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The theme of this morning’s passage is ‘boasting’. To be more specific, it’s about making sure that we are boasting in the right way—and in the right thing.

Now; we are used to thinking of ‘boasting’ as something negative. You may not think of ‘boasting’ as something that could ever be done in a right way. We tend to consider it a poor character quality if someone is known for ‘boasting’. In fact, you may even say to yourself, “I don’t even like the word ‘boast’ at all.” But that’s the very word that the apostle Paul uses in this morning’s passage. In it, he uses the Greek word for ‘boasting’ or ‘taking pride’ in a thing a total of five times.

And interestingly, he uses that word not only to condemn something that is wrong to do, but also to affirm something that is right to do.

In 2 Corinthians 10:12-18, he wrote to the Corinthian believers and told them;

For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise. We, however, will not boast beyond measure, but within the limits of the sphere which God appointed us—a sphere which especially includes you. For we are not overextending ourselves (as though our authority did not extend to you), for it was to you that we came with the gospel of Christ; not boasting of things beyond measure, that is, in other men’s labors, but having hope, that as your faith is increased, we shall be greatly enlarged by you in our sphere, to preach the gospel in the regions beyond you, and not to boast in another man’s sphere of accomplishment. But “he who glories, let him glory in the Lord.” For not he who commends himself is approved, but whom the Lord commends (2 Corinthians 10:12-18).

Now, in the English translation I’m using—the New King James Version—you may have only counted three times that the word ‘boast’ was mentioned. But in verse 17—when he quoted from the Old Testament and said, “he who glories, let him glory in the Lord”—he was using the very same word in the original language that is translated elsewhere as ‘boasting’. (That’s how other translations have it, by the way; “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”) It’s as if he was saying that he and his co-workers in the gospel were careful not to boast in a wrong way—that is, in a way of commending themselves; but to boast in a right way—that is, in a way that truly honored God and that kept their hopes focused on the approval of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Because the word ‘boasting’ is used to describe both something wrong and something God-honoring, I suggest that the best way to understand the word ‘boast’ is as ‘the confident hope we place in whatever gives us ultimate worth’. We all, to some degree, have that kind of a hope in something—whether it’s the wrong thing or the right thing. We can’t avoid it. It’s built into our very being. We all long for that sense of ultimate worth and value. For some folks, their confidence is placed in the hope that their good deeds will give them that ultimate worth. For others, it’s the confidence that their religious rituals and traditions will make them righteous. For some, it’s the confidence they place in their accomplishments or their standing in society to give them lasting value. Someplace such confidence in their education and intellect; and some in the degree to which they have undergone suffering or pain or loss. Sadly, some even place their confidence in the degree to which they exercise control and power over others. Those are all the wrong kinds of things in which to place one’s confident ‘boast’. But whatever form it takes, our ‘boast’ boils down to the confident hope that we place in whatever we believe will give us ultimate worth—ultimate rightness—ultimate stature—ultimate value.

And the apostle Paul rejected those other things as his boast. In this passage, he showed us that his ‘boast’—his confident hope for ultimate worth—was strictly kept in something beyond human ability to achieve. It was kept in the approval and commendation of the Lord Jesus Christ. He affirmed that it wasn’t the person who commended themselves that was approved, but whoever the Lord Jesus commended. He looked ahead to that time when the Lord Jesus would gaze upon him in glory; and, by grace, say to him, “Well done, good and faithful servant!” That was the only safe place in which to rest his hope for ultimate worth and rightness. That was the only secure ‘boast’ that he could make.

And so; this passage has something very important to teach you and me, dear brothers and sisters in Christ. It teaches us that we need to be very careful of what it is in which we make our ‘boast’. We can’t help but have such a boast; but we need to be careful not to boast ‘wrongly’. Instead, we need to remember that our confident hope for ultimate worth must rest in the commendation of the Lord Jesus Christ alone.

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Now; the apostle Paul had a very good and practical reason for affirming his boast. And that was because others were making a wrong boast—and they were doing so to the harm of the Corinthian Christians, and from out of an effort to harm Paul’s ministry to them.

After Paul had been used by God to first bring the gospel to the Corinthians, and to establish the church, he then spent a year-and-a-half ministering to them. He had worked hard to teach them about keeping their faith fixed upon the cross of the Lord Jesus, and about walking in obedience and holiness before Him. But not long after he had gone away to other labors, some false teachers began to move in. They were pretending to have ‘apostolic authority’; and were presuming to step into Paul’s work among the Corinthians and move them away from the things he taught them. They were teaching the Corinthians that the work of the Lord Jesus on the cross was not enough; and that they needed to follow other ceremonies and religious rituals in order to be right with God. These false teachers were making their ‘boast’ in outward things; that is, that they were more attractive and dynamic speakers than Paul, and that they had impressive credentials and endorsements and training that Paul didn’t have.

And many of the Corinthian Christians were falling for it. They were becoming impressed by the outward things in which these phony ‘apostles’ boasted. This all burdened Paul greatly. In much of the remaining chapters of this letter, Paul ‘boasted’ in the qualifications for ministry that God had given him—even though he felt somewhat embarrassed that he had to talk about such things. At the beginning of Chapter 11, he told the Corinthians;

Oh, that you would bear with me in a little folly—and indeed you do bear with me. For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted—you may well put up with it! (11:1-4).

He wanted to show the Corinthian Christians the sincerity of his love for them—and, most of all, of the truth of the gospel that he brought to them—by showing them that he boasted in the right thing. Unlike those false teachers, he had placed his confidence for the hope of ultimate worth in the approval and commendation that comes only from Jesus Christ.

He wanted those Corinthian believers to do the same. And the Holy Spirit has preserved these words from Paul’s letter for us, dear brothers and sisters, because He would also want us to do the same.

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So; how then should we make our boast? In this passage, Paul highlights three wrong ways of doing so; and then gives us the one right way to do it.

First, he warned us that …

1. WE MUST NOT MEASURE OURSELVES BY OTHER PEOPLE.

That’s often how we try to make our boast; isn’t it? We make our boast on the horizontal level—looking at other people and comparing ourselves with them, in order to evaluate and elevate ourselves. That’s what those false teachers were doing. That’s how they ended up ‘commending’ themselves to the Corinthians. They developed, as it were, their own ‘mutual admiration society’—with themselves as the chief executive officers—and declared their superiority over all others. But Paul and his co-missionaries would not do that. He wrote in verse 12; “For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves.” Such commendation—coming as it does from one’s own self or from one’s own group—has no ultimate value.

Apparently, these false teachers brought ‘letters of recommendation’ with them. But Paul didn’t feel that he need to bring letters of endorsement to commend him to the Corinthians. All he had to do was point to the life-transformation that the Corinthians experienced in Christ through his ministry. Back in 2 Corinthians 3:1-3, he wrote;

Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as some others, epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you? You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart (3:1-3).

Nor did he need to make any kind of boast in respect to how he appeared in comparison to others. That’s what the false teachers were doing. They were boasting in how they were more attractive and dynamic in their ministry than Paul was. But in 5:12, he wrote;

For we do not commend ourselves again to you, but give you opportunity to boast on our behalf, that you may have an answer for those who boast in appearance and not in heart (5:12).

In fact, when Paul first came to them—as he reminded them in the second chapter of his first letter to them—he intentionally came to them in weakness and in much trembling, and not in persuasive words of human wisdom; so that their faith would be in the power of the message of the cross of Jesus Christ alone.

Paul went on to say in verse 12; “But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.” That reminds me of a scene in Charlie Chaplain’s movie The Gold Rush. (You probably already know that I love Charlie Chaplain’s movies.) In one part of the movie, Charlie was found wandering around in the Alaskan snow. And so, to find his way, he pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket that had an arrow drawn on it that pointed north. Then he simply turned the arrow in the direction that seemed best, and started walking. That’s what we do when we measure ourselves by looking at other fallen sinners. We’ll carefully choose who to compare ourselves with, in such a way as to make ourselves look the way we want to look—without any real, objective standard from God.

Comparing ourselves with others will never lead us anywhere but in the wrong direction. Let’s not make our ‘boast’—our confidence for the hope of ultimate worth and rightness—in how we measure up next to others.

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Second, Paul warned that …

2. WE MUST NOT GO BEYOND GOD’S APPOINTED SPHERE.

In boasting about themselves as ‘apostles’, those false teachers were way out of line. They were not true apostles—not true ‘sent ones’ (which is what the word ‘apostle’ means). But Paul (a genuine apostle) and his co-missionaries would not transgress the bounds that God had set for them. In verse 13, Paul wrote, “We, however, will not boast beyond measure, but within the limits of the sphere which God appointed us—a sphere which especially includes you.”

God had set certain boundaries for Paul and his ministry. He worked in full submission to the way the Holy Spirit directed him and to the other apostles to spread the gospel. Some were to go to the Jewish people—that is, ‘the circumcised’; and others were to go to the Gentile people—that is, ‘the uncircumcised. In Galatians 2, Paul wrote of the other apostles and said;

… when they saw that the gospel for the uncircumcised had been committed to me, as the gospel for the circumcised was to Peter (for He who worked effectively in Peter for the apostleship to the circumcised also worked effectively in me toward the Gentiles), and when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that had been given to me, they gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised (Galatians 2:7-10).

Paul was careful, then, not to go beyond God’s appointment for him. The range of God’s appointment for him, however, included bringing the gospel to Corinth—which was, at that point, the furthest west into the Gentile world that he had gone with the gospel. These false teachers were making their way into Corinth, as if Paul didn’t belong there. They were boasting beyond measure. But Paul was not. In verse 14, he wrote; “For we are not overextending ourselves (as though our authority did not extend to you), for it was to you that we came with the gospel of Christ.”

Sometimes, dear brothers and sisters, we try to seize value to ourselves by going beyond the realms of ministry that God has appointed to us. When we place our faith in Jesus, the Holy Spirit places us in His spiritual body—the church. And He gives each of us a unique role to play in the service of that body. But when we boast beyond our limits—when we place our confidence in the value and worth we think we could receive by doing something that God did not give us to do—we only bring harm to ourselves and to the body of Christ. You cannot do what God has given only for me to do; and I cannot do what God has given only for you to do. As Paul put it in Romans 12:3-8;

For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness (Romans 12:3-8).

And so; let’s not boast beyond our limits—let’s not seek our confidence for ultimate worth and value—in trying to do what God has given someone else to do. Let’s ‘boast’ within our own God-given sphere of ministry.

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In a similar way, Paul went on to warn that …

3. WE MUST NOT INTRUDE INTO SOMEONE ELSE’S LABORS.

In verse 15, Paul wrote, “not boasting of things beyond measure, that is, in other men’s labors …” That, of course, was what the false apostles were doing. The apostle Paul had labored hard to establish and build up the church—setting Jesus Christ as the only true foundation; but then these false teachers came along, sought to intrude into his work, and build upon the foundation with something other than a full trust in Christ. They tried to boast in Paul’s labors through stealing the results of those labors for their own purposes.

Now; did you know that the apostle Paul had a policy in his mission work that would never permit him to do such a thing? This policy determined where it would be that he would take the gospel. He described it in Romans 15; and said;

For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ has not accomplished through me, in word and deed, to make the Gentiles obedient—in mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and round about to Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. And so I have made it my aim to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build on another man’s foundation, but as it is written:

“To whom He was not announced, they shall see;
And those who have not heard shall understand” (Romans 15:18-21).

Paul was a ‘ground-breaking’ foreign missionary. He was careful to take the gospel to places that had not previously heard it; so that no one could ever accuse him of trying to build on the work of someone else or of intruding into someone else’s labors. Instead—if his ministry expanded to places beyond his sphere—it would only be by the help of those that he had already served and established in the faith. As he went on to say to the Corinthians in verses 15-16; “but having hope, that as your faith is increased, we shall be greatly enlarged by you in our sphere, to preach the gospel in the regions beyond you, and not to boast in another man’s sphere of accomplishment.”

Sometimes, soldiers speak of a thing called ‘stolen valor’. That’s when someone poses as a military veteran and seeks to gain honor and attention—or even sympathy—for military heroism that is not theirs. And there can be such a thing in the work of the Lord too—when someone seeks to take credit for work in ministry that they did not do, or seeks to claim authority over a field of ministry that they did not establish, or seeks to change an existing and established work of God into something other than what it was founded by God to be. When they do that, they are trying to boast in something that they have no right to boast in.

Paul warned the Corinthians not to fall victim to that. He warned his brothers and sisters not to let some intruder in to steal them away from their faithfulness to Christ. In 1 Corinthians 4:15-16, he wrote;

For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. Therefore I urge you, imitate me (1 Corinthians 4:15-16).

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So; in these words, Paul outlines for us three wrong ways to boast—three wrong things to place our confident hopes in for ultimate worth and value. First, we must not measure ourselves by others—other people, or other ministries, or other churches. Second, we must not go beyond our appointed sphere—seeking to go where God has not sent us, or seeking to do what God has not given us to do. And third, we must not intrude into someone else’s labors—either laying claim to what God has accomplished through someone else, or taking over and changing the work of another.

But what do we do instead? What is the proper way for us to ‘boast’? As Paul goes on to say …

4. WE MUST REST ONLY IN THE APPROVAL OF JESUS.

In verses 17-18, Paul wrote; “But ‘he who glories, let him glory in the Lord.’ For not he who commends himself is approved, but whom the Lord commends.” He is quoting here, by the way, from Jeremiah 9:24. And it must have been that this was a very important Old Testament passage to him; because he also quoted it in the first chapter of his other letter to the Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians 1:30-31, he wrote;

But of Him [that is, of God the Father] you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:30-31).

The fact that he quoted that Old Testament passage twice to the Corinthians must mean that they needed to remember it and take it to heart. And it must mean also that he needed to remember it and take it to heart too. And so do we. No ‘commendation’ that we bring upon ourselves—in any merely human way—would ever be of any lasting value. Our only true, lasting, eternal value and worth will come from the commendation of the Lord Jesus—when, by His grace, we will have done as He commanded us and we hear Him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant!”

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Near the end of Paul’s life—as he was sitting in a prison cell; about to be executed for his faith in Jesus Christ—none of the shallow boasts of the flesh amounted to anything to him. He had no trust in them or any hope in them whatsoever. But reviewing his faithful labors in the Lord—in what we can rightly consider his last words to us—he wrote;

But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that the message might be preached fully through me, and that all the Gentiles might hear. Also I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen! (2 Timothy 4:17-18).

That was where Paul’s confidence for ultimate worth and rightness was placed. It was in the expectation that Jesus Christ would be glorified in and through him. That was his boast. And it was the right boast.

May it be yours and mine too.

EA