Is it good to draw attention to our blessings or accomplishments? Gratitude is good. Accomplishing goals is good. Rejoicing with each other is good.
But Paul has some warnings for us.
The Greek word kauchaomai (καυχάομαι) means to speak highly of something. It appears in some form fifty-nine times in the New Testament, fifty-six of those in the epistles of Paul. In the King James Version, it is translated “rejoice” fourteen times, “boast” sixteen times, and “glory” twenty-nine times. Paul tells us not to glory in ourselves, he cheerfully glories in other people, he urges us to glory in the Lord.
“Your glorying is not good.”
In his first epistle to the Corinthians, Paul uses the unleavened bread of Passover as a metaphor for the humility we ought to maintain. “Your glorying is not good,” he says. “Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened” (1 Corinthians 5:6-7). A little bit of boasting can generate a lot of pride, so we should avoid it even in small doses.
Any boasting we do is probably exaggerated anyway. We have a tendency to take too much credit for the good things that happen to us. Earlier in the letter, he asks, “Who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?” (1 Corinthians 4:7).
When we accomplish something in our church service, we need to be particularly cautious. This is true for two reasons:
- God chooses “the weak things of the world” to accomplish His purposes, in order to make it clear that it is His work, not ours. So when we do something meaningful in His service, it may be perfectly obvious that we never could have done that on our own. God does this so that “no flesh should glory in his presence” (1 Corinthians 1:25-27).
- With all the blessings we have received from Him, we are duty-bound to give our best efforts in His service. “Though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is me, if I preach not the gospel!” (1 Corinthians 9:16).
And if we believe that we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, then we are missing the target when we focus on our works: “Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith” (Romans 3:27).
At the end of his second epistle to the Corinthians, Paul dedicates two chapters to a critique of popular teachers who are full of themselves. He calls them “super-apostles” (2 Corinthians 12:11, NIV), and he critiques them by means of satire. “That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord,” he writes, “but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting” (2 Corinthians 11:17). He then speaks of his background and calling, of the sacrifices he has made in his ministry, and (indirectly) of the revelations he has received. But then, he speaks about his weaknesses, saying, “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me…for when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).
Book of Mormon prophets consistently teach the same message: Don’t glory in your accomplishments. When Benjamin makes an accounting of his service, he adds, “I have not done these things that I might boast…for I have only been in the service of God” (Mosiah 2:15-16). As Alma reviews his joy in organizing the church, he says, “Nevertheless, in this I do not glory, for I am unworthy to glory of myself” (Mosiah 23:11). Several prophets specifically warn people not to boast. (See Mosiah 2:24, Alma 38:11, Alma 39:2, Helaman 5:8, Helaman 13:22.) And Mormon specifically highlights several incidents in which groups of people boasted “in their own strength.” This always led to catastrophe. (See Mosiah 11:19, Helaman 4:13, Mormon 3:9, Mormon 4:8.)
“Great is my glorying of you.”
Even though Paul warns us against glorying in ourselves, he gratefully glories in the people he loves. “We are your rejoicing,” he writes to the Corinthians, “even as ye also are ours in the day of Christ Jesus” (1 Corinthians 1:14, italics added). “We commend not ourselves again unto you,” he writes, “but give you occasion to glory on our behalf” (2 Corinthians 5:12). And as he encourages them to participate in a fundraising effort, he tells them multiple times that he has bragged about their generosity. “Great is my glorying of you,” he says (2 Corinthians 7:4). He asks them to live up to the great things he has said about them: “Shew ye to them…the proof of your love, and of our boasting on your behalf” (2 Corinthians 8:24; see also 2 Corinthians 9:2-3). He also finds joy in the faithfulness of the saints in Thessalonica:
We ourselves glory in you…for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure.
2 Thessalonians 1:4
This boasting of others reminds me of an important distinction made by Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf:
I believe there is a difference between being proud of certain things and being prideful. I am proud of many things. I am proud of my wife. I am proud of our children and grandchildren.
I am proud of the youth of the Church, and I rejoice in their goodness. I am proud of you, my dear and faithful brethren. I am proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with you as a bearer of the holy priesthood of God.
“Pride and the Priesthood,” General Conference, October 2010
“Let him glory in the Lord.”
Ultimately, Paul urges us to give full credit to God for the blessings we have received. “We…rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And…we glory in tribulations also,” he writes. “We also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have also received the atonement” (Romans 5:2-3, 11, italics added). “I have whereof I may glory through Jesus Christ,” he later adds, “in those things which pertain to God” (Romans 15:17). And twice, he counsels the Corinthians, “He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:31, 2 Corinthians 10:17; note that this is a paraphrase of Jeremiah 9:23-24).
Nephi follows this pattern at the end of his writings: “I glory in plainness; I glory in truth; I glory in my Jesus, for he hath redeemed my soul from hell” (2 Nephi 33:6).
At the end of a miraculously successful fourteen-year mission among the Lamanites, Ammon reviewed the incredible blessings they had experienced with his brothers. “How great reason have we to rejoice,” he asked, “for could we have supposed when we started from the land of Zarahemla that God would have granted unto us such great blessings?” (Alma 26:1).
As he began to list those blessings, his brother Aaron interrupted him with a rebuke: “I fear that thy joy doth carry thee away unto boasting” (Alma 26:10).
But Ammon clarified that his joy was motivated by gratitude, not by arrogance:
I do not boast in my own strength, nor in my own wisdom; but behold, my joy is full, yea, my heart is brim with joy, and I will rejoice in my God.
Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever.
Alma 26:11-12
Ammon urges his brothers to follow his example: “Let us glory,” he says, “yea, we will glory in the Lord…. Behold, who can glory too much in the Lord?” (Alma 26:16).
Ammon’s friend Alma shared that sentiment: “I do not glory of myself,” he wrote, “but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy” (Alma 29:9).
Conclusion
I would summarize Paul’s counsel on glorying in three statements:
- Don’t glory in yourself. Don’t focus on your own achievements, and don’t take undue credit for them.
- Do glory in others. Rejoice with them in their blessings and in their accomplishments.
- Always glory in the Lord. Recognize that all good things come from Him, and be grateful.
Today, I will strive to purge myself of the leavening of self-promotion, congratulate other people for their accomplishments, and express gratitude to God for the blessings I and others have received from Him.