Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:26-31. A gentlemanly old pastor was walking down the street one day when one of his church members strutted up to him with a self-satisfied smile. The pastor knew this young man had been quite proud of his own Scriptural accomplishments.

The teen boasted, “Pastor, did you know that I have now read the Bible all the way through three times this year?”

The pastor kindly replied, “David, the important thing is not how many times you have been through the Bible, but whether the Bible has been through you.”

The young man stood and pondered this a moment, thanked the pastor, and went on his way, promising himself to live the Bible he was learning.

A Philippino proverb states, “He who boasts of his accomplishments will heap ridicule.” The maxim seems to be true as we probably have had some experience about it in the reality of life. We know that, but why do we love to “blow our own trumpet” about our accomplishments? I think it is because we are crazy about seeking self-aggrandizement and self-glorification. We love to let others realize our greatness in completing the tasks. A former heavyweight-boxing champion boasted, “I am the greatest.” Sometimes, we like to brag about something we did not actually do, because we want to cover up our limitation of capacity, or to delude ourselves that we are in full control of all situations.

We even boast at the community level. A lot of church advertisements and bulletins are full of good information. But at time, they boast of their assets: their services, their amiability, their programs, their ministries, their magnificent buildings, their ample parking, their family life concentration, and so forth. There seems to be a lot of prideful things about which these churches today can boast.

On the contrary, the embryonic church established by Christ had no corporeal assets to boast about. Near the end of his life, Jesus had carefully prepared his disciples to be a devoted and confident fellowship of faith. They were to be a community of profound love with the gates wide open to welcome everyone. But the Acts of the Apostles depicts a picture of a church in which the disciples barricaded in a house with the doors bolted shut. The disciples were instructed to stride boldly into the world to bear fruit in Jesus’ name. But they were scared, disheartened, and defensive from the beginning.

Indeed, the Scriptures give us a snapshot of an early church with no plan, no promise, no program, no parking lot, no infrastructure, nothing. The disciples had nothing to “shoot their mouths off” about themselves. But they had one thing to keep them going on: the risen Christ. The risen Christ was the main focal point of the immature church. The risen Christ pushed open the bolted door of a church with nothing. The risen Christ entered the panic-stricken house of that church and filled the place with his own life. From then on, the risen Christ was the subject about which the disciples boasted everywhere, and every time. Whatever the disciples talked or performed, they did it just to glorify the risen Christ.

And so, when Saint Paul taught “Whoever boasts, should boast in the Lord,” he exhibited the true humility of a person seeking only the Lord’s glory by willingness. Applying it to Christians, when we seek to serve Christ faithfully, practice holiness, and live with integrity, we will humbly submit to the will of God. Our ultimate confidence cannot exist in ourselves, but only in God.

Spiritual work really requires spiritual measurement. In the church’s business management, we need to report things that can be seen, be reported, and be measured. Of course, the report of the amount of offering, the number present at ministry events, or the numerical growth rate of the church does say something significantly. It can bring the cheerful, enlivening spirit to the life of the church. However, it does not say everything.

Here, we need to remember the prudent words of the pastor in the story above, “The important thing is not how many times you have been through the Bible, but whether the Bible has been through you.” That is, we need to be careful with our fascination with standards of success that impress the secular world or statistics. Instead, we use those successes as the means to glory in the Lord. In other words, we do not boast about our human accomplishments, but we boast about deeds we have done in the Lord.

We put the spotlight on the Lord and focus on him. When we get together with family members, or friends, let’s just brag on Jesus. So many good things have been happening in our lives as individuals, in our families, and in our churches that we ought to boast on the Lord all the time. If God has done great things for us, it is our imperative duty to sing about it at the top of our lungs.

In psalm 34:1-3, King David sang, “I will bless the Lord at all times; praise shall be always in my mouth. My soul will glory in the Lord that the poor may hear and be glad. Magnify the Lord with me; let us exalt his name together.”

Let us always remember that when we boast, we should boast in the Lord.

Rev. Linh N. Nguyen