Grace and Peace

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant.  1 Corinthians 13:4 (ESV)

In the second of Paul's negative assertions concerning love, he uses a word used nowhere else in the New Testament translated in English as, "boast."  The word literally means to "be a windbag."  Gordon Fee says it suggests self-centered actions in which there is an inordinate desire to call attention to oneself.  It refers to a parading of one's accomplishments; it can be seen as the "other side of envy", for it involves attempting to make others jealous of what we have. While envy seeks to put others down, bragging is an attempt to lift our selves up.  It is the particular sin of pride running wild.

Now remember when Paul writes his pastoral letters he writes with regard to a particular situation or circumstance in the church addressed. The situation in Corinth was a mess and the root of all the sin in their fellowship was pride. The Corinthians were spiritual show-offs; parading their gifts before each other in a conspicuous manner.  Each tried to exercise their gift or office as ostentatiously as possible.  The Corinthians were conceited about their giftings, their teachers, and their knowledge; they even boasted in their worldliness, which was pretty ugly: idolatry, immorality, and incest of a kind which even pagans were ashamed to practice (1 Corinthians 5:1).

It doesn't take a Bible scholar to recognize that God takes a dim view of pride.  In Proverbs, we are told that pride is dishonorable (Proverbs 11:2), destructive (Proverbs 16:18), and that God hates it (Proverbs 8:13).  Pride is the sin of Satan and being the destructive being that he is; he uses every trick to turn humanity to the same path - so that we exalt ourselves above others and even God.

Seeing the danger of pride is fairly easy, the more difficult task is learning how to overcome pride?  Melvin Newland points out three great scriptural princilples to help us.  First, we must remember our mortality.  We are not God; we are but flesh.  "Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes." (James 4:14 ESV)  We do not know the span of our life; only God does! Pride causes us to forget our place, but remembering that our lives here on earth are temporary and hang so precariously is a sobering dose of reality.

Next, we should acknowledge our fallibility.  Admit that you are a sinner.  "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (James 4:14 ESV) Not only that, admist that you haven't got everything else together in life either.  Theologically, we are fallen.  Yet, in a practical sense, we often get it wrong-no matter what "it" is.

Last, let's acknowledge God's sovereignty.  While we are mortal, destined one day to die physically, and while we are fallible, failing with regularity, God is immortal and infallible...and He is in control.  "For God is the King of all the earth;sing praises with a psalm!  God reigns over the nations; God sits on his holy throne." (Psalm 47:7-8 ESV) When we act with pride and become arrogant and boastful; we act as though we have forgotten that God is in sovereign control and not us.  Let's remember He is the Creator and we are the creation.