¹⁴For we are not overextending ourselves, as if we did not reach to you, for we were the first to come even as far as you in the gospel of Christ; ¹⁵not 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, ¹⁶so 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. ¹⁷But he who boasts is to boast in the Lord. ¹⁸For it is not he who commends himself that is approved, but he whom the Lord commends.

Not boasting beyond our measure”—this sounds much like what Paul wrote to the Roman believers: “For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith” (Rom. 12:3). We must recognize there is a place for boasting, but not the way the Corinthians were doing it, and not the way many of us do it today. We often behave in ways designed to build ourselves up so that we might bask in the praise of others, even the praise we heap on ourselves. But this will never incite the commendation of God.

When Paul uses the word “boast,” the focus of this behavior is not himself, but the work God has given him to do, and ultimately his boast is in the Lord who works through him. That is why he writes, “But he who boasts is to boast in the Lord.” To do anything else is to boast “beyond measure.”

So how do we measure ourselves or boast in a way that is acceptable? It is this: we boast in what God accomplishes in us, and in that regard we want to magnify what God is doing. So Paul is excited about his ministry to the Corinthians when he sees their faith grow, and will boast of that when he preaches in other areas. We see that is what he did in boasting to the Corinthians about the Macedonians’ generosity (2 Cor. 8:1–5) and what he did with Corinthians when he spoke to other churches: “Therefore openly before the churches, show them the proof of your love and of our reason for boasting about you” (2 Cor. 8:24).

We should seek to be animated by the Lord’s commendation, not the praise of others. We humans have a significant capacity for tipping the scales of human comparisons. We crave attention and significance, so in lack of faith we look for it in the wrong places, resulting in a problem of boasting and comparison with others. Paul boasts in the fact that God has and will work in him, not building on the work of others, but as God promised, to send him to regions beyond where the gospel had not yet gone.

Lord, I seek to walk in Your ways that I might sense Your commendation.