Love Does Not Boast

Post date: Feb 27, 2017 8:30:16 PM

“Boasting is the outward form of the inward condition of pride.”

--John Piper

I’ve been a Christian for most of my life, so I can tell you that I have a very quick visceral reaction to words like “boasting” and “pride.” I think that for many of us, we’ve had verses like “Pride goeth before a fall” ingrained in our brains, so I suppose that isn’t too surprising. I appreciate John Piper’s distinction between boasting as an outward form and pride as an inward condition, because it helps me to understand the difference between them and know exactly what I’m looking for in my own heart.

What exactly is boasting? The dictionary tells us that boasting is talking with excessive pride or self-satisfaction about one’s achievements, possessions, or abilities. We come from a U.S. culture that separates boasting into several categories - some positive and some negative. On one hand, we want to avoid people that we would consider “braggers” or who sing their own praises a little too often. On the other hand, our culture also celebrates a certain amount of public boasting. It’s why a synonym of boasting - “swagger” - is now a way of indicating that someone has an attractive amount of confidence and is worth knowing. Or, of course, we could talk about the even more modern version of boasting, the “humblebrag” - where the individual makes a “humble” statement purposefully designed to draw attention to something that actually makes them proud.

Regardless of the kind of boasting, truly loving someone else means you aren’t spending your mental and emotional energy reflecting on yourself. A heart that is too focused on self has two problems. It can’t see past it’s own satisfaction or insecurity to appreciate and enjoy the achievements and abilities of others. More importantly, it doesn’t give credit where credit is truly due - to the Father who is the giver of all good gifts. Charles Spurgeon did a great job of talking about the issue of boasting for Christians when he said:

"You are not mature if you have a high esteem of yourself. He who boasts in himself is but a babe in Christ, if indeed he be in Christ at all. Young Christians may think much of themselves. Growing Christians think themselves nothing. Mature Christians know that they are less than nothing. The more holy we are, the more we mourn our infirmities, and the humbler is our estimate of ourselves."

I love the words of the song, How Deep the Father’s Love for Us. It certainly puts things into the right perspective:

“I will not boast in anything

No gifts, no power, no wisdom

But I will boast in Jesus Christ

His death and resurrection.”

May the Lord help us as we live out our relationships, not focused on our own insecurities or successes, but in true and humble love for one another!