1 Corinthians 1:30-31 Sermon
Introduction to topic
Why am I talking about boasting? My choice of topic may seem a bit strange. But I believe it is faithful to what the church needs to hear today. This sermon is a followup to my last sermon here. Last time I was here I preached about division in Corinth. Now I am continuing where I left off in the text. In the next chapter 1 Corinthians 1:30-31 Paul begins to address the issue of division from the perspective of the individual. Last time I was here I was asked the question how do you stay humble? In turn I want to ask when should you not be humble?
(SLIDE 2) Central Question: How do you talk about yourself and God?
Introduction to Text
How arrogant should you be? Essentially how much pride should you have in being a Christian? Our subject today is how you interface with the world around you among non-believers and believers. Who do you say you are and what do you say about God? We started talking about Paul's relationship with the Corinthians last time I was here. About how he spent a year and a half among them preaching nothing but the Gospel, working to make his own way, yet they still questioned his authority among them. The Corinthians had the wrong sort of pride or arrogance. They understood their own value in terms of the greatness of the teachers they had among them, the amount of knowledge and earthly wisdom they had accumulated, they were in their mind better than everyone else. Paul went about correcting this mistake of thinking. He talked in first Corinthians about what exactly you should be boasting about and what you should not be boasting about.
The other teachers of the Corinthians were boasting about themselves and their education. The Corinthians had put Paul in the position of having to praise himself. Paul flips the table around by suggesting instead that he will stay humble because in his weakness Christ has been glorified. He suggested in the most Paul way possible that the Corinthians were losers both in the earthly sense and spiritual sense. But we will get into that in a bit.
1. Analogy Boasting
I wanna start things off by taking a look at that word boasting. It is the Greek word καυχάομαι. which was not very commonly used. It is similar to words for pride or glory or even joy.
(SLIDE 3) Boasting is self glory.
But essentially the idea of boasting in the Greco Roman context was to give yourself glory to self glorify. There was a letter written by Plutarch shortly after Paul's death shortly after his letters to the Corinthians, really talking about the idea of self glory. His letter was called “How a Man May Inoffensively Praise Himself Without Being Liable to Envy.” That is quite the title and I wouldn't wanna be caught sitting around reading that! Might be judged for it. But in this letter, Plutarch writes, “It is true then, as Xenophon says, The most pleasant sound that a man can hear is his own praise in another’s mouth; but the most odious thing unto others is a man commending himself. For we brand them as impudent who commend themselves, it becoming them to be modest though they were praised by others; and we account them unjust in arrogating that to themselves which another has the sole propriety of bestowing on them” and he goes on to say “But those who at present are incapable of ambition, if they express themselves loftily, seem only to bear up against the storms of Fortune, to undergird the greatness of their souls, and to shun that pity and commiseration which supposes a shipwrecked and forlorn condition.” There is a sense of nobility to what Plutarch says, a sort of earthly wisdom which I think most of us can agree with. That nobody likes it when you go out seeking praise or when you say how awesome you are in one way or another because that is something that other people are supposed to do. Other people praise you or condemn you, not yourself. This is widely accepted I think.
Yet, Paul has a somewhat different message. It doesn't disagree with the earthly wisdom we might find from someone like Plutarch. Yet it is heavenly wisdom instead of earthly. As Paul writes in his second letter to the Corinthians 12:9 “And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.” What Paul says is that when we boast about ourselves, we are denying the power of Christ in our lives and therefore Christ does not dwell in us. Yet as Christians, we have plenty to boast about. There is a time and a place to boast.
Where in your life are you being tempted to boast? In my life it is how much I know. Yet God has in a way blessed me with a bad memory. I read 200 books a year and apply the lessons learned. Yet I still find it challenging to remember people's names. This helps keep me from becoming too prideful. Yet is there an area of your life that you believe you can boast about?
2. Hook Friend
I have a friend I met a few years ago, let's call him Gene. When I met him, he was six months sober. He had just become a Christian and he was interested to learn more about what it meant for someone like me to go into ministry and dedicate my life fully to God. We got to know each other while talking for a few hours about God, life, and so on. Since that day about five years has passed, he's now about six years sober. He has a stable job. He has custody of his daughter and they both go to church regularly and call themselves Christians. Does Gene have something to boast about? Should he be boasting about how he lifted himself up by his boot straps or how he was able to get his life back in order? Or should he boast about the God who helped him get to where he is today?
(SLIDE 4) Who is worthy of glory? God alone.
3. Text
Our text today is 1 Corinthians 1:30-31. Where Paul says, “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, “LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD.” Verse 31 is a reference to Jerimiah 9:23. In this passage there is an interplay of the text between first Corinthians and Jeremiah chapter 9. In the passage the Lord says that the wise, mighty, or rich ought not to boast but rather all men ought to boast that they know the Lord.
4. Central question
I want you to start thinking about:
(SLIDE 5) How do you talk about yourself and God?
This passage has four keywords, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. So we will look through these four ideas to see how they all tie together to give us an explanation of when and how to boast.
Wisdom
Jeremiah 9:23-24 what to boast about: “Thus says the LORD, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the LORD.”
God does not delight in our wisdom or strength or richness. He doesn't need us to tell Him anything, to explain to God how things work, He doesn't need us to give him money. The one thing that we can give God is understanding. The more we come to understand and know who God is the more we glorify him and know his rightful place in our lives. The error that we may find ourselves in is to become prideful in who we are in relation to God.
If we look at the life of Daniel, he was a wise man among the Babylonians. Yet he did not boast of his wisdom, but rather acknowledged the source of it in God. In stories like his, we see that God cares for those who understand Him. What made Daniel different from the other wise man was not his wealth or his knowledge or the power that had been bestowed on him, but rather his relationship to God, which in turn gave him access to power, and knowledge, and wealth, which the other Wiseman were envious of.
(SLIDE 6) Wisdom is the knowledge of who you are in relation to God. We see in Psalm 36:5 David declares “Your lovingkindness, O LORD, extends to the heavens, Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.” The boast was not about himself, but rather about God.
1. Central question
How do you talk about yourself and God?
The Corinthians did not realize who they were in relation to God, do you? You are a slave set free and a child of the one true King.
Righteousness
The next thing is righteousness. That is the reality of wisdom. Just because you know something doesn’t make it true in your life. The truth that Paul was trying to get the Corinthians to realize is that spiritually we are all trust fund kids. We did not earn our relationship with God. It is Christ that has saved us. We did not work our way up to Him, He came down to us.
In the New Testament we learn that none are righteous, not one person. Yet Jesus is righteous and we see the result of His righteousness in 2 Corinthians 5:21 where God’s righteousness makes us righteous. “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
(SLIDE 7) Righteousness is when God justifies us.
Dwight L. Moody is thought to have said that, “though he had many flaws, he knew God, and God had all of him.” What about yourself might you be protecting? Where in your life are you boasting in order to avoid changing into a better person?
Sanctification; boast in God’s power
This leads to the third thing that Paul lists, sanctification. We might consider the text of 1 Thessalonians 5:23, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The idea here is that sanctification which means becoming holy. Or (SLIDE 8) Sanctification is moving into God’s presence. We through the Holy Spirit become increasingly aware of the hand of God in our lives.
1. Intellect
What we see here is that your boasting ought to correspond with the position you find yourself in. So the more power you have the more you need to be humble. While the more your position is that of weakness you should boast in the Lord. We can think of this with two dimensions. First physically, if you are imprisoned for your faith boast! While if you are rich be humble. But in a second way we recognize that we are all spiritually poor. None of us are righteous. We are poor in spirit therefore we all boast in the Lord.
Humility should follow strength, acknowledge how all you have is from God, do not disregard God when you lose it all. God humbles the prideful James 4:6 “GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.” Boasting should follow us in our weakness when we experience trials. Alternative: God comforts you.
2. Community
In the Church we often see this play out in how we do church. You might think to yourself I have been a Christian my whole life. I know the Bible, I know the songs, I know the right way to do church. Yet in this we can fall into the trap of being like the Pharisee who prayed to God saying “God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ‘I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’” Yet Jesus says he was not justified before God rather the other man who ““But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’” (Luke 18:9-17) in your heart who are you like? In all of our striving after righteousness let us not forget God and condemn ourselves.
3. Text among OT thought
Jeremiah 23:23-25
“Am I a God who is near,” declares the LORD, “And not a God far off? “Can a man hide himself in hiding places So I do not see him?” declares the LORD. “Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares the LORD. “I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy falsely in My name, saying, ‘I had a dream, I had a dream!’”
If God has given it is not “I this” and “I that”. It is “God” and “God alone.”
4. Meaning then
We can consider examples like Job. Towards the beginning of his story we read that Job would make sacrifices to God on behalf of his children. He was blameless and upright. He knew he was in relation to God. He was humble. Yet towards the end of his story Job is brought to despair and wishes he was never born. God questions Job. He asked were you there when I created everything? Do you know why the sun rises? No. everything is restored to Job moreover and He now may boast in the Lord. He says, “I know that You can do all things, And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ “Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand, Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.” ‘Hear, now, and I will speak; I will ask You, and You instruct me.’ “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; But now my eye sees You; Therefore I retract, And I repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:1-6) We see a sort of unity and balance between humility and boasting in the Lord.
5. Meaning now
What we see now is that circumstances can change just like that. Like the flip of a coin all that you have may go away. Your hope and trust must be in the Lord. Be humble, and praise God. What would it cost you to boast only in the Lord? When someone says you are a good man, or you are generous, or you are a good parent. Do you take pride in that or do you turn it over to God? If you focus solely on how you are a good person rather than turning back to God have you actually accepted God as ruler of your life? This is such as important point (pause)
Redemption: Boast in your identity
Redemption ties these ideas together. You see Corinth was a city of former slaves just 100 years prior. They had been redeemed by Rome and given their freedom. In the same way as the Corinthians have become Christians they have been released from another type of slavery. Yet in either case Corinth was a city defined by its status. Imagine Las Vegas had a baby with Wallstreet and that baby was raised by Instagram influencers. That is ancient Corinth.
(SLIDE 9) Redemption is when God sets us free.
Redemption here is the nail in the coffin so to speak. It is the culmination of Wisdom, Righteousness, and Sanctification. Redemption is when you are bought and paid for. Paul is reminding the Corinthians that they were slaves to Rome before gaining their freedom. That Corinth was settled some 100 years prior by slaves. And again they were slaves to sin before God set them free. Their physical freedom and their spiritual freedom is not because of their goodness or strength.
What we see in 2 Corinthians 10:18 is that “it is not he who commends himself that is approved, but he whom the Lord commends.”
Colossians 1:14 “in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” Redemption is forgiveness of sins. While sanctification is that process of being made worthy of what has already been done.
2 Corinthians 10:12 “For we are not bold to class or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves; but when they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding.” Culture often tells us not to compare ourselves to others but instead to compare ourselves to our past selves. This is where the Corinthians got caught. They were better off then their parents and grandparents. They knew more, they had more power, and more pride. Yet Paul takes us a step further, our comparison should be who we were before we met Christ and who we are today because of Christ.
Conclusion
I wrote this sermon and then I listened to it. I asked myself how do I need to change. On my way to church last Sunday I was reflecting on this and my heart was drawn to a memory. I recall being in the courtyard of my childhood church when I was maybe 8 years old. And a family friend, Daren was speaking to this former drug dealer. He told Daren about two guys from a rival gang who walked up to him and drew guns. And said to them you can kill me but one of you is coming with me. They backed down and the fear of that moment brought him back to God. But what Daren said stuck out to me. He said I am jealous of your testimony. So we were driving to church and I am wondering why is that an issue? So I began to think of Jesus when His feet were washed by a prostitute. Who washed His feet with tears, perfume, and her hair. She didn’t bring an explanation she just brought herself to God.
You see, what Daren was jealous of was how strong the drug dealer's realization of God was. We do not all see what we have lost. Yet we are all equally lost without Christ. When we realize this we stop boasting in ourselves and turn to Christ the saviour of our lives.
Instead of boasting in ourselves, protecting and defending ourselves. We realize our reputation was nothing to start with. We stop comparing and instead lean fully on God.
What do you bring to Jesus when you come to Him? (Pause)
What would it look like for you to stop managing your reputation and simply come to Christ as you are? (Pause)
