Day 37 – 1 Corinthians 1: 26-31

We have a tendency, as human beings, to not like certain things and one of them is someone who boasts about being good at something. We prefer to see a person being humble and contrite, the sort of person who says, “I do it for God and for his people”. That kind of person we hold up on a pedestal.

But scripture tells us that there are those who should “boast in the Lord” (1 Cor: 1: 31). Is it the same kind of boasting that is happening when we do this, or should it be something different to our human perception of boasting?

To understand that, we need to think about that list at the beginning of today’s passage, where Paul creates a list of qualities that we hold dear when it comes to personality. Qualities such as wisdom, influence, or nobility. We are to look back at our lives before we found Jesus and then look forward to how we can witness to His saving grace and love. God wants us to share our faith with others because the gospel news, the good news, is worth the sharing. That is why we share our faith with others, to boast of the fact that they too can taste the wonder of God’s enduring love.

Isaac Watts wrote a fantastic hymn in When I Survey The Wondrous Cross and in that, he wrote these words:

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God!
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.

Perhaps, we need to set our eyes firmly on Jesus today more than ever, so that we too can boast of nothing but the death of Jesus, our Friend, our Saviour, our God.

Loving God, teach us today to share Your love more with those we meet, so that they too can come to know You. Amen

by Rob Johnson
Stokesley Circuit
Local Preacher & Circuit Steward