Wednesday 14th June
Read 2 Corinthians 12:5-7a
“I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses. 6 Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, 7 or because of these surpassingly great revelations.” (NIVUK)
As we now discover that this ‘man in Christ’ is Paul, because he ‘would be speaking the truth’ we find that he has refrained for all this time for at least one simple reason. He does not want people to think more of him than they ought because he was the recipient of such a surpassingly great revelation. The principle is remarkably simple, yet very difficult to follow.
The vision was a gift. Is it right to boast about receiving a gift? Is it right to claim any superiority over others based on anything that you have not earnt? Should we manipulate anyone into thinking we are better than we are on such pretense? The answer is obviously no. Yet so often we do precisely that. Our ‘gift’ may not be a surpassingly great revelation as Paul received, but it may be something equally unearned. Maybe it the privilege of being university educated. Or being educated at all. Maybe it is simply being born in Australia rather than somewhere poorer. Maybe it is winning the genetic lottery with beautiful parents. All of these are unearned – yet so often we ‘boast’ as if they confer on us privileges relative to others.
Paul would have us cease and desist from such boasting. He would have us be judged on what we do and say – how we live and love others. A challenge indeed.
