But he that boasts, let him boast in the Lord.
Paul is answering rivals at Corinth who built their reputation by talking themselves up. His reply is not a defence of himself. It is a line from the Old Testament that moves the whole argument onto new ground.
The verse ends a section about limits. Paul will not claim credit outside the sphere God gave him. One writer sets that against the boasting that comes naturally to us.
Others might boast without limit. This is natural to the flesh, especially in conceited minds. But the apostle worked as he lived, in the fear of God. Not a thought crossed him of displaying his abilities. He was a servant, a slave, of Jesus Christ. So for him it was not a question of liking or disliking. It was a question of doing the work assigned to him, "with regard to the area of influence God assigned to us, to reach even to you."
The sentence is not new with Paul. He is repeating a prophet's words about Israel and its leaders. That prophet named three things people rest on, and then named the only one worth boasting in.
God has made Him everything to us, so our boasting is to be in Him. This quotation is from Jeremiah. He spoke of the sad state of Israel and its leaders, and said, "Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches; but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD."
The verse does not silence confidence. It gives it a proper object, and warns that any other object drags us back to ourselves.
But the Christian has a just ground of boasting. There is One in whom we may and ought to boast — not self, but the Lord. So said the prophet long ago. The Jews of his day were either boasting in idols or distrusting the LORD, who was exposing their emptiness and punishing their departure from Himself. So the apostle now repeats it to the saints at Corinth. To glory in the Lord is due to Him and good for us; to glory anywhere else is a danger as well as a delusion. It connects with self, more or less directly. And it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.
Nothing in the verse restricts it to apostles. Whether a person has just been saved or has served for decades, the same source supplies them both.
If there must be boasting among God's labourers, let it at least have its proper object. The Lord is the only boast of the true disciple's heart. Whether as sinners saved by grace, or as anointed ministers of truth, it is in Him they stand, and out of His fullness they are all supplied. By Him they work, and in Him their labours find their end. Self-praise will wither in His presence and turn into reproach. Self-judgment leads to fruitful diligence, and at His appearing it will become a crown.
Self-congratulation does not only wear a worldly costume. It can dress itself in spiritual language too.
The more worldly-minded believer may be tempted to boast in wisdom or noble birth. The more spiritually minded may be tempted to boast in spiritual experiences, imagined or real. But the only safe ground of boasting is the one the Apostle Paul stated: "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."
The same danger can settle on a whole group, not just one person. One writer names the cost:
To magnify our own importance in testimony is to be set aside as witnesses altogether, so that others take our place. Has this not happened, to our deep sorrow?
It all turns on who gets to hand out approval.
If there is any glorying it must be in Him, who is the only proper object. He must be glorified by the true minister; He must be praised and exalted, not the instrument. Self-praise and self-commendation do not bring approval from the Lord, but the opposite. Self-commendation and the love of human praise appear in some form, disguised or undisguised. They are prominent features in many who preach and teach a great deal of truth in our days of boasting. Happy is the servant who hides himself, whose aim is to please the Lord and who looks to Him for approval.
- Measure — God hands out the sphere of service. Paul claims no credit outside it, so the boast starts where the assignment starts.
- Source — Jeremiah had already ruled out wisdom, might and riches. What is left is to know God Himself.
- Object — the command does not remove boasting. It moves it. The Lord is the one worthy object; everything else is a danger and a delusion.
- Reach — the rule holds for the newest believer and the oldest worker. Both stand in Him and draw on His fullness.
- Verdict — self-praise withers in His presence. The servant who hides himself has the only approval that counts: the Lord's.
For not *he* that commends himself is approved, but whom the Lord commends.
Paul ends his defence of his ministry with one test of a true servant of Christ. You cannot award yourself approval; the Lord gives it. At Corinth some men were promoting themselves at Paul's expense. The verse puts a question to every reader: whose verdict am I working for?
Paul's rivals had a method for proving their worth. It kept them busy and got them nowhere.
They were eager to commend themselves, and so gain a footing with the Corinthians. In doing this a spirit of competition took hold of them. They began "measuring themselves by one another and comparing themselves with one another," which was very unwise. That way they got no higher than themselves. It was all self. One man stood out for one quality, another for another. But in comparing themselves with one another they never rose up to God, or to the measure He had set.
Boasting is not the problem. Its object is. A servant stands in the Lord and works by Him, so the Lord is the one thing worth boasting about.
If God's workers must boast, let their boasting at least have the right object. The Lord is the only boast of a true disciple's heart. Whether as sinners saved by grace, or as anointed ministers of truth, they stand in Him, and He supplies them all out of His fulness. They work by Him, and their labours find their end in Him. Self-praise will wither in His presence and turn into shame. Self-judgment leads to fruitful hard work, and at His appearing it will become a crown.
Self-praise looks harmless. Its real effect on a servant is the reverse of what he wants.
Self-praise and self-commendation do not mean approval from the Lord, but the opposite. Self-commendation, and the love of human praise in some form, hidden or open, stand out in many who preach and teach a great deal of truth in our boastful days. Happy is the servant who hides himself, whose aim is to please the Lord and who looks to Him for approval.
The warning goes wider than open self-promotion. A servant can stop praising himself and still live off the good opinion of other Christians.
The Apostle warns us not only to beware of trying to exalt ourselves through other people's labours, but also to beware of boasting in our own work. "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord." It is good for every servant to refuse all self-commendation, and not even to look for the commendation of fellow believers, but to want only the Lord's approval.
Two churches show how the Lord's verdict can reverse what a church says about itself.
Smyrna claimed nothing, but the Lord knew their poverty and yet declared them to be rich. Laodicea claimed to be rich, and the Lord told them their real poverty in scathing terms — wretched, miserable, poor, blind, naked.
Real spiritual weight never has to announce itself. People feel it.
A man who puts on the air of a father is not a father. The real father behaves and acts as a father simply because he is one. "For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends." True spiritual superiority does not push itself forward; it makes itself felt. It does not look for recognition; people recognise it because it is real. Some at Corinth carried themselves like fathers, but were really only babies in the faith.
The verse points forward to a day. The Lord's commendation comes at the judgment seat, and that timing shapes how a Christian lives now.
Men may push themselves forward and commend themselves, as Paul's opponents were doing, but it is all worthless. It comes very naturally to us to "receive glory from one another" and not to "seek the glory that comes from the only God" (John 5:44), but it is deadly. To have the Lord's commendation when the great day of the judgment seat arrives is worth everything. Let us live as people whose eyes are on that day.
- Wrong ruler. Compare yourself with other people and you never rise above yourself. Only God's measure reaches higher.
- Wrong direction. Self-praise does not earn a smaller approval — it earns the opposite of approval.
- Right object. Boast in the Lord instead. You stand in Him, He supplies you out of His fulness, and your labours end in Him.
- Right silence. Refuse self-commendation, and refuse to live on the praise of fellow believers. People recognise real worth because it is real.
- Right day. The Lord overturned Laodicea's claim and called Smyrna's poverty riches. Live now with your eyes on the judgment seat, where the only commendation worth having comes.