Can We Boast?

II Corinthians 10: 1-17

Now I, Paul, myself urge you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ--

Paul is personally pleading with them gently and meekly, as Christ is. 

I who am meek when face to face with you, but bold toward you when absent!

This is what he's being accused of. 

I ask that when I am present I need not be bold with the confidence with which I propose to be courageous against some, who regard us as if we walked according to the flesh. 

He wants to not have to be hard on them when he is with them, but he does want to deal with those who are against him, noting that they are thinking that he thinks like them. 

Don't we all tend to think other people are thinking the same way we are? 

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, 

Even though we still are living in our physical bodies, our battles are not fought with physical weapons. 

for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. 

We are fighting spiritual battles with spiritual weapons God gave us to gain victory over our spiritual enemies. 

We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, 

These are lies, and deceptions, and self-promotion, and other prideful and selfish ideas that the enemy uses to take hold of vulnerable people to steer them away from the simplicity and purity of God's Word and His character. 

and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, 

This is the key: our thoughts are the beginning of everything in our lives. How we think about something determines what we believe about it to be true, so we will speak and act according to that concept, whether it really is true or not, or if we've been tricked into believing something that is not accurate. 

That is why we need to learn what God is like, what Jesus' character is like, and why we need to conform our own thinking processes to align with Christ. That is how we renew our minds, as Paul wrote to the Romans:

Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this World; but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God (Romans 12:1-2).

When we let God transform our thinking processes to realize His Truth about who He is, how He sees us, and our true worth; then we will see with "new eyes" what is happening around us, and see opportunities to minister and help others and to love God and one another as He has loved us. This will transform our very lives!
 
and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete. 

So when those in Corinth are secure in their position and path in obeying what aligns with Christ's character, then Paul will be confident in calling out those who refuse to humble themselves before the Lord.

You are looking at things as they are outwardly. 

So far they have only looked at the surface of what is going on. They need to look deeper, at the spiritual root of what they are doing. 

If anyone is confident in himself that he is Christ's, so also are we. 

We need to be confident in our faith in Christ to have taken our place in death on the Cross, so that He really has washed us as white as snow and given us His Spirit to live in our human spirit, to teach us His Truth and to show us what is really going on in the World around us.  

For even if I boast somewhat further about our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I will not be put to shame, 

If Paul is talking about the authority the Lord gave him to help lay the foundation of the church so it could grow and spread all over the World, he is only speaking the reality of why he does what he does, and there is no need to be ashamed of that. He is obeying the Lord in following His plan for him. 

Building the church was the job God gave Paul. And Paul was busy obeying that commission. That's what the Apostles did, lay the foundation of the church, which is Christ.

for I do not wish to seem as if I would terrify you by my letters. 

Paul's letters could seem to be scary if you don't want to follow the Lord faithfully, but he didn't intend them to scare the believers, just to encourage them to continue to follow what is right.

For they say, "His letters are weighty and strong, but his personal presence is unimpressive and his speech contemptible." 

These troublemakers are criticizing Paul with slander. 

Let such a person consider this, that what we are in word by letters when absent, such persons we are also in deed when present. 

Paul says that he's the same person, whether he's writing a letter or talking with them face to face. He doesn't change. 

For we are not bold to class or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves; 

Paul is not comparing himself with anyone else, only with Christ.

but when they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding. 

These guys are just showing that they don't even understand God's ways at all. So we need to take note of this, and stop comparing ourselves with each other, because we'll always find someone who's doing better than us, as well as those who aren't doing as well. So we won't be either depressed or puffed up.

But we will not boast beyond our measure, but within the measure of the sphere which God apportioned to us as a measure, to reach even as far as you. 

Paul is only looking at the area of his own ministry, which includes Corinth.

For we are not overextending ourselves, as if we did not reach unto you, for we were the first to come even as far as you in the Gospel of Christ; 

When he claims Corinth as his own ministry, he's not reaching beyond what God has given him, because he was the one who introduced the people of this area to Christ, who had never heard of Him before Paul and company came that far.

not boasting beyond our measure, that is, in other men's labors, but with the hope that as your faith grows, we will be, within our sphere, enlarged even more by you, 

So he's not trying to claim anyone else's work, but when those he has won for Christ go out to tell others, they will also be included in Paul's sphere, as an extension of his own ministry. 

so as to preach the Gospel even to the regions beyond you, and not to boast in what has been accomplished in the sphere of another. 

When Paul's converts go into other regions beyond where Paul went personally, then they are enlarging Paul's area of influence, without impinging on anyone else's territory. 

But,

He who boasts is to boast in the Lord (Isaiah 65:16, see also Jeremiah 9:24). 

Whoever wants to boast, should only boast about what the Lord is doing through them, not what they've done through their own power and initiative. 

For it is not he who commends himself that is approved, but he whom the Lord commends. 

God is Truth. Jesus is Truth. The Holy Spirit teaches us Truth, and works Truth through us. So only those who God commends, is truly approved by God. 

Whenever we boast about what we've accomplished, we may receive accolades from other people. But to be accepted and approved by God, we must do our things according to His ways, in His power. We have to let God work through us, not try to wrest control from Him to do it ourselves.

Whenever I do that, I fall flat on my face. God won't let me succeed in my own strength, He loves me too much to do that. He lets me fail, so that I will turn to Him, confess my failure to trust Him, and let Him have His way in me again. 

Then I can go on, confident in His strength and wisdom, and then He gets all the credit, all the glory. Then I can boast in Him. Only then I can boast at all. 

O my Father, thank You for Your wisdom and Your gracious generosity to us. You know that we are just dust, with damaged DNA so that we are unable to do anything worth anything in our own power, or that can be accepted by You. 

So You have taken pity on us, revealed who You are to us, and done everything we need to have done for us to be able to even know who You are. Then You went on to put Your Son in charge of us humans, to give us Your Law and told the prophets to write what He would accomplish when He came. Then You sent Him to Earth, to be one of us, so He could die! 

I am amazed that You would love us so much, even knowing how damaged we are, to allow Your own Son to die! God can't die, but if we couldn't die, we wouldn't be able to have Someone die in our place, so we could live!

You are so wise, Father, and so magnanimous to have made us anyway, knowing how we would be, and then to do all You have done for us; everything possible and impossible! 

So if we can boast at all, it will be boasting in all You have done, dear Father! 

Because You have done it all! We have done nothing! It's all You! 

And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Christ and Messiah, Lord God of the Universe, and sovereign King over all creation, to the glory and credit of Almighty God our Father, forever and ever, Amen. 

Even so, come soon, Lord Jesus!