Articles
Acceptable Bragging
“He who glories, let him glory in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:31). Scripture says that we have the right to brag and be joyous "in the Lord".
Too often, we brag about other things, maybe our wealth, our power, or our wisdom. This type of bragging is very unhealthy, and can even result in sin. (1 Corinthians 4:7) When we praise ourselves or even other humans for what God has done, we don't have it right. And if we believe that we did it without God, we deceive ourselves. But those earthly things don't bring true joy anyway, regardless.
We should seek our wisdom from above, which leads to justice and righteousness in our lives. “The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy” (James 3:17).
We should be more like the Apostle Paul, who said, “God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14). Paul in Ephesians explains that we are saved by grace, through faith, and that it doesn't come from ourselves, but from God (Ephesians 2:8-10).
Our salvation comes from faith in Christ, through baptism. (Galatians 3:26, 27) He gives us salvation, as a result of His grace, available to us through our obedient faith. “Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:3, 4).
Now that is something to brag about!