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Coping with Life 36 – Boasting
Coping with Life 36 – Boasting
Mike Willis
In listing the sins of the Gentiles, Paul includes “boastful,” translated from the Greek word alazōn which is defined as “boaster, braggart” (BDAG, 41). The word only appears in two New Testament verses (Rom. 1:30; 2 Tim. 3:2 [translated “proud” in the ESV]). The Greek word group includes alazoneia, which means “pretension, arrogance in word and deed, make arrogant boasts, James 4:16” (BDAG, 40) and alazoneuomai means “to boast, be boastful,” but the verbal form does not appear in the New Testament. The word group speaks of a self-exalting person, self-absorbed conceited individual who is full of one’s own superiority.
People boast of their riches (Psa. 49:6) or station in life. In ancient times, people boasted in their idols, the gods whom they served (Psa. 97:7). Those who incorrectly believe that they can save themselves by their perfect obedience boast in their works (Eph. 2:9). The Pharisees were pretty good at that. In His Parable of the Pharisee and tax collector who went to the Temple to pray, Jesus described the proud Pharisee as saying, “God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get” (Luke 18:11-12). Spiritual boasting is no better than boasting in riches or one’s idols! The braggart is out to impress people. The world has plenty of people who constantly tell us how good they are and that no one is their equal, much less better than them.
Sadly, men who are so full of themselves rarely see a need for Jesus in their lives. After all, people who know more than everyone else sees no need of a Savior. Such people act as if they know more than God or what His word has revealed in Scripture. What God revealed about ______ is not as important as what the proud, boastful braggart feels about the same subject.
Scripture teaches believers not to boast in themselves, but in the Lord. “My soul makes its boast in the LORD; let the humble hear and be glad. Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together!” (Psa 34:2-3; cf. also 44:8; Isa 61:6; Rom. 2:17). Paul was very careful to say, “‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.’ For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends” (2 Cor. 10:17-18). Nor is it wrong to boast in the good deeds of one’s brethren (2 Cor. 9:2).
We sometimes speak of braggarts as being “full of hot air” or “full of themselves.” Paul wrote, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but EMPTIED HIMSELF, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2:5-7). Are you and me “full of ourselves” or do we follow the example of Jesus and “empty ourselves”?
