Knowing The Word in 2 Corinthians: Boasting, 1:12-14

Boasting

12 For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you. 13 For we are not writing to you anything other than what you read and understand and I hope you will fully understand— 14 just as you did partially understand us—that on the day of our Lord Jesus you will boast of us as we will boast of you.

Boasting is a major theme in this letter, namely the reasons for boasting and its variations. Paul says the Corinthians are his reason for boasting. They are the evidence and the testimony that assures Paul’s conscience that he has been doing things in a good and godly way. Paul stresses that he boasts of them and that they too will one day boast of him.

Empower me

to be a bold participant,

rather than a timid saint in waiting,

in the difficult ordinariness of now;

to exercise the authority of honesty,

rather than to defer to power,

or deceive to get it;

to influence someone for justice,

rather than impress anyone for gain;

and, by grace, to find treasures

of joy, of friendship, of peace

hidden in the fields of the daily

you give me to plough.

Ted Loder