No one likes a proud person. Well, let me take that back. The proud person definitely likes himself/herself. I suppose a few people enjoy a proud person, like hanging out with your favorite athlete. Pride, “a high or inordinate opinion of one’s own dignity, importance, merit, or superiority, whether as cherished in the mind of as displayed in bearing or conduct,” offers a good feeling. It promotes self-worth, confidence, and can encourage the owner to seek achievement over and over again. He or she deserves to “feel” proud. A gold medalist, a Stanley Cup winner, or someone taking the World Series, these are amazing achievements. If one achieves it, you are the best of the best, that is, in that specific arena. But does that necessarily mean that superior skill will earn them the gold medal in their personal life, like at home or with their neighbors?
We are certainly aware of the saying “pride cometh before the fall.” Those who boast often in front of others – and annoyingly do so touting the credit due them – are accompanied by others who desire their fall. I have been there. Boy, I can’t wait to see you mess up. It’s so wrong, but yet it feels so good when they do fall. Hold on. Didn’t I just say that the one with the pride felt good and then the one wishing the owner of pride to fall feels good when it happens? How can this be? Each person in this situation experiences a good feeling only at the expense at the other. So how can you tell the difference between good boasting and bad boasting? Huh. I’ve never really thought about it that way. I mean I guess I have but never put it in those words.
During the early years of the Church, Paul, a man who used to elevate himself at the expense of these new believers but has now been called and appointed by Jesus to share the gospel, is dealing with pressures of false teachings from false apostles. Their gospel is of untruth, sharing a variation of the Christ message, and to serve their own desires. How does Paul deal with it? Reading 2 Corinthians 11, I notice he has an immense and reverent pride for being called personally by Jesus and, yet, he struggles with it. How can he share with them that he knows he’s sharing the true gospel without boasting himself as the best and credible apostle?
It would take quite a while to unwrap what it means to be the best follower of Jesus and to boast in your relationship with Christ. We certainly know, as I have talked about, that Jesus deems the least to be the greatest. Paul’s attempt to share his pride is quite humorous though: “What anyone else dares to boast about – I am speaking as a fool – I also dare to boast about.” I don’t know about you, but I keep getting stuck on that and this verse isn’t new to me. Read 2 Corinthians 11 for yourself and tell me if you also notice that he struggles the pride of his “strengths” – he’s a Jew, from the line of Abraham, he’s a servant – but rather wants to promote his weaknesses, for Paul is not the best speaker and has been tortured and nearly killed many times. Besides the fact that God has miraculously saved him from death while preaching, teaching, and serving, his experiences in worldly terms would be considered a life of failure and, yet, he is proud of it.
As I see it, Paul is proud in one thing only: He has a relationship with a loving God who uses his weakness for God’s glory. He has Father who loves him so much that he loves him back in complete surrender and service to the Father. He is dead to himself, but alive in Christ.
Now that is worth boasting about.
21b What anyone else dares to boast about—I am speaking as a fool—I also dare to boast about. 22 Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they Abraham’s descendants? So am I. 23 Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. 24 Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, 26 I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. 27 I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. 28 Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.29 Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?
30 If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. 31 The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is to be praised forever, knows that I am not lying. 32 In Damascus the governor under King Aretas had the city of the Damascenes guarded in order to arrest me. 33 But I was lowered in a basket from a window in the wall and slipped through his hands.
2 Corinthians 11:21b-32
27 days!
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