¹⁶ … holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain.

Boasting was actually not uncommon for the apostle Paul, as odd as that may seem. To understand this we must unpack the use of this word (“to glory” in the NASB version can be translated “to boast” as rendered in other translations) and the concept as used in the Scriptures.

There can be good boasting and bad boasting. To be sure, certain kinds of boasting at times were censured. For example, in 1 Corinthians 5:6 Paul tells the carnal Christians in Corinth that their prideful tolerance of gross immoral sin was absolutely reprehensible. In classical understatement he wrote, “Your boasting is not good.” They were arrogant in their attitude toward sin.

However, using the same underlying Greek word, Paul wrote to the Philip­pians earlier in the book, that he was planning to stay on in service of the Lord, “… so that your proud confidence in me may abound in Christ Jesus through my coming to you again” (Phil 1:26). The words, “proud confidence” render the same Greek word for “boast­ing.” But the cause of the boasting is different. In the first case the Corinthians’ boast was in their own religious “sophistication” in tolerating sin. In the second case, Paul was encouraging the kind of boasting that focused on what God was doing through him in the lives of the Philippians. It was a boasting that would abound in Christ.

This is a far cry from boasting before God about any meritorious works we might do that could earn us favor with God. Paul wrote to the Romans, “For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God” (Rom 4:2). Obviously, we cannot boast about ourselves independently from God as though something we do might impress Him. Our salvation is “not a result of works, so that no one should boast” (Eph 2:8).

So what is Paul boasting about in our passage today? He is speaking of a future boast, when the Lord returns. He wants to be able to look back from eter­nity future and see that all his labors here in this life produced something of worth. His prayer or desire is simply that his life will not have been in vain, and he will, in the end, have proven to be a useful tool in the hands of the Lord. It is a simple desire, a singular one, and in fact a humble one. For it is propelled by his ultimate boast, “But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal 6:14).