LOVE IS NOT BOASTFUL
1 Corinthians 13:4
It is very easy and often desirable to gloat over one’s accomplishment in life. We tend to praise ourselves. As sinless as it seems, if one is not careful, you would easily tilt to being boastful. Inasmuch as it is harmless to appreciate the efforts you have put into arriving at your present status, you must take extra care not to gloat over your achievement. Love is never boastful. It is natural to endeavour to make others see where you have reached in life, what you have gained in life, and how superior one is compared to others. However, when you are boastful, you tend to show or feel excessive pleasure or satisfaction over your own success or good fortune, or over someone else’s failure or misfortune. To appreciate where God has placed you is one thing, and is good. But when it becomes self eulogy, it becomes boasting and this is not good.
Self is at the very centre of boastfulness, and it takes its root from pride. It is the object of self-worship. We are created in the image of God and we must therefore live as imitators of Jesus, to love in a humble way doesn’t mean we “think less of ourselves but to think of ourselves less” (cf. C.S. Lewis). Self-centredness and an excessive desire to be admired by others has consumed our world. We must stand out, never joining the multitude to do evil. Boasting about your looks, abilities, achievements, willpower, and self-righteousness is sinful and a sign of the end times: “in the last days perilous times shall come” when “men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud,” (2 Timothy 3:1-2).
To be what we truly profess, we must love and there is no love in you if you are boastful. Never engage in self-praise but “Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips” (Proverbs 27:2). The antidote to boasting and pride is tohonour God, ascribe all glory to him. Whatever you have achieved or acquired, acknowledge that it has not been by yourself. It is God that gives the wherewithal. Listen to what He wants us to do. In your thought, speech, or action, always be guided by this: It’s not about me; Jesus, it’s all about you!” That is love in action.
PRAYER: Help me to always ascribe all the glory to you as it is never me but you, Lord.
