1st Corinthians 1:30-31

“God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin. Therefore, as the Scriptures say, “If you want to boast, boast only about the Lord.”” 1Corinthians 1:30-31


We like to talk. Most people have a desire to tell others about what we have done. And if we are honest, most of us like to receive a bit of praise from time to time when we do things well. Yet according to Paul, this earthly attitude is totally wrong. It belongs only to the old sinful life, not our new creation life. We should boast only about what God has done through us, and in such a way that He gets the praise for it, for it is not by anything we have done that we can be counted as righteous, but only through what Jesus did for us on the cross. “He made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin”
When you compare the death of Jesus to bring us freedom from sin with anything you can achieve (be it exam results, a sport victory, whatever), there is only ever going to be one winner as to which is more significant. Yet how much time do we waste boasting about our own insignificant achievements, and how much time boasting about what Jesus has done for us?
To ponder
.       What has God done in your life this week?
.       When you tell people about what you have achieved do you do so so that God gets glory, or you get glory?