“I really don’t need to write to you about this ministry of giving for the believers in Jerusalem. For I know how eager you are to help, and I have been boasting to the churches in Macedonia that you in Greece were ready to send an offering a year ago. In fact, it was your enthusiasm that stirred up many of the Macedonian believers to begin giving.”
2 Corinthians 9:1-2 NLT
I’ve written about boasting before, but from a different angle to Paul’s words today, where Paul is boasting about the Corinthians’ willingness to send an offering to Jerusalem. The believers in Jerusalem were in dire straits, recovering from a severe famine a year or two before. The problem with famines amongst people who rely on crops they produce to stay alive is that they end up having to eat the very seeds needed for next year’s crop. So the impact of a famine lasts for years unless they receive assistance. It was essential that believers suffering in another part of the world were helped by believers elsewhere, those who had survived the famine and who had the means to help them. The situation in Judea must have been difficult, because the news of the situation had spread to the Macedonian churches as well. But such was the bond of love between the believers everywhere that there was a general willingness across the churches to help, and this was what Paul was boasting about.
In 1 Corinthians 9:15, Paul was boasting about his willingness to preach the Good News without charge. He wrote, “Yet I have never used any of these rights. And I am not writing this to suggest that I want to start now. In fact, I would rather die than lose my right to boast about preaching without charge”. In 1 Corinthians 1:31, Paul, quoting Jeremiah, wrote, “Therefore, as the Scriptures say, “If you want to boast, boast only about the Lord””. Jeremiah recorded an important message from the Lord, which reads, “This is what the Lord says: “Don’t let the wise boast in their wisdom, or the powerful boast in their power, or the rich boast in their riches. But those who wish to boast should boast in this alone: that they truly know me and understand that I am the Lord who demonstrates unfailing love and who brings justice and righteousness to the earth, and that I delight in these things. I, the Lord, have spoken!” (Jeremiah 9:23-24). In the light of this Scripture, was Paul’s boasting about the Corinthians ability to give a bit misplaced? I think not, because the offering for the believers in Judea was all part of the mission of the early church, as it put into action the words of Jesus, “love your neighbour as yourself”. To back up Jeremiah’s prophecy we find Psalm 20:7, “Some nations boast of their chariots and horses, but we boast in the name of the Lord our God”. The name of the Lord is an ultimate source of authority, because anything done in His name will happen.
“Some nations boast of their chariots and horses,
but we boast in the name of the Lord our God”
Towards the end of Romans, Paul was boasting again. He wrote, “Yet I dare not boast about anything except what Christ has done through me, bringing the Gentiles to God by my message and by the way I worked among them” (Romans 15:18). Regardless of all his achievements, his privations, his ministries, the miles he had travelled, the number of churches he had established and so on, Paul was only prepared to boast about what Christ had “done through [him], bringing the Gentiles to God”. It wasn’t through his efforts, he said, but through the power of the Gospel, the message he preached.
Boasting is a very worldly characteristic, because it is associated with the braggart with a new car, or a family with a new house. Perhaps they have booked a holiday somewhere expensive, or they have met someone they, and the society around them, feel is important, like the King or a well-known actor. Boasting is associated with people who, by their own efforts (and usually a huge bank loan), feel they have the right to brag about their achievements and their possessions. But none of it will find them a path into Heaven, and one day they will face into the reality that the life after the grave has no need for a Porsche or expensive jewellery.
Do we pilgrims have anything to boast about? Somehow, it’s not possible to boast about our faith, and not just because those worldly people around us perceive it to be a weakness. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 2:14, “But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means”. So why would we want to boast about such a thing, because most of our hearers would consider it foolishness? We can do nothing to earn our salvation. Through faith in Jesus, we accept the free gift of God, His salvation. The very essence of our faith is God. It’s all about Him and what He has done for us, and not about us at all. In Philippians 2:3 we read, “Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves”. Humility is the way forward for Christians. We have an inner strength that comes from knowing that God loves us personally and individually. And because of that we don’t have to puff ourselves up in front of our peers. We don’t have to make inflated claims about our worth, to try and make those around us look up to us. The Lord Himself will lift us up at the right time. We read in James 4:10, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honour”.
Living in God’s Kingdom is a counter-cultural way of life. The world’s values don’t exist in God’s Kingdom, and worldly boasting is one of them. But we can boast about the virtues of God’s Kingdom, and especially about all that Jesus has done for us. If that involved working for God, as with the offering being collected, then we will boast about it, because in the process, all the glory and all the praise and all the honour go to God Himself.
Dear Father God. We humbly give You our thanks for all the things You have done for us. Our efforts have been and will be an apt response to Your presence in our lives and the lives of fellow believers. Thank You. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 