Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.’ For it is not those who commend themselves that are approved, but those whom the Lord commends.”
NL Daily Devotion for Saturday, May 18, 2024
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
No one should boast. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be willing to speak the truth boldly to one another, provided we’re sure it’s the truth. It’s frighteningly easy for our egos to drive us to try to dominate others, to bring them around to our way of thinking about a particular subject or our way of addressing a particular issue. Paul felt pretty sure of himself to set the Corinthians straight about whatever they’d done to make him angry. Maybe he had conferred with the other apostles he worked with, as we ought to confer with one another before trying to sway people to our way. I’d like to think so. He had plenty of folks around him to check things out with. There’s no way to know, of course. And knowing this doesn’t change the truth of this text, though I would rephrase it a little. ‘Let the one who speaks boldly give credit to God for whatever truth she manages to convey.’ Or something along those lines.
What does it mean to me to “boast in the Lord”? How would this play out in my particular context?
