Bible Passage: 1 Corinthians 1:26-31
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: February 1, 2026

Bulletin – February 1, 2026

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

Human pride is a stunning thing .  Sometimes it is stunning in its silliness.  For example, there is a character in a movie named Miles Gloriosus.  He is a captain in the Roman army.  And in one scene, before getting off his horse, he announces, “Stand aside everyone!  I take large steps!”  Sometimes human pride is stunning because it is nonsensical.  Nietzsche once wrote:  “I have reached such a height that when I stand atop the summit, I look down upon myself.”  Huh? Or, a musician once commented, “My greatest pain is that I cannot watch myself perform live.”  Sometimes pride is stunning because it is so blasphemous and disturbing.  Some of you will remember years ago when the Beatles were at their peak and John Lennon announced, “We’re more popular than Jesus now.”  Another pop artist of more recent vintage proclaimed, “Some accuse me of worshiping the devil.  If there was a devil, he would worship me.”

I think we can agree that all such boasting is unholy.  It is human pride unmasked.  It is grotesque and ugly.  Pride is what became of worship in a fallen world.  Instead of impulsively worshiping God, fallen man worships himself.

In contrast to this, Paul wants us to know that there is also what we might call “holy boasting.”  There is a boasting the Christian may happily and eagerly engage in!  Let’s listen, then, to Paul as he instructs us in this thing called “Holy Boasting.”

Before he can talk to us about holy boasting, Paul wants to rid us of all “unholy boasting.”  So he begins:  Consider your call, brothers.  Not many of you were wise from a human point of view, not many of you were powerful, and not many of you were born with high status. (v. 26)  Paul is not trying to insult the Corinthians.  But he is trying to dislodge something that was quite common in Roman culture, and even present to a degree in the Corinthian congregation.  Paul wanted to puncture pomposity and pride!  Roman culture was a rigid class system.  At the top you had patricians.  Then the plebians.  Then you had equestrians, then freedmen, then slaves.  And your social class came with “access.”  Only patricians could be senators.  Patricians owned the best land.  All of culture swung on “who you are.”  So if you were “somebody” you let people know you were “somebody”! Hence, the fictitious Captain Gloriosus announcing, “Stand aside, everyone!  I take large steps.”

This type of boasting comes naturally for us since the Fall into sin.  There was not a shred of pride or boasting in Adam and Eve when they were perfect.  They lived only to magnify and glorify God!  But look what happens to fallen humankind.  Genesis 4 introduces us to a guy named Lamach.  And Lamach said to his two wives, Adah and Zillah, listen to me; wives of Lamech, hear my words.  I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for injuring me.  If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times! (Genesis 4:23-24)  Lamech was proud.  He thought he was “all that.”  One can see Lamech announce, “Stand aside!  I take large steps!”  Lamech is not the only one.  Sin makes us all bloated and engorged with pride.

Nowhere is pride more dangerous than when it comes to spiritual matters.  Believing that we are “good enough” for God.  Believing that in a way, God is quite lucky to have us in his kingdom.  Looking at other human beings and believing that we are more worthy and deserving of God’s Kingdom than they.  Believing that I have something to offer God.  Believing that I have something that impresses God.  This is the pride Paul wants to drive out of us!

Paul doesn’t want us to “ooh” and “ahh” at the members of the Kingdom – at ourselves!  He wants us to “ooh” and “ahh” at the grace of the King!  Paul says, “Corinthians, look at your membership directory!  You’re ordinary people!”  We might do the same.  People of Lord of Love, look at your membership directory.  What do we see?  Does it look like the attendees at a Mensa International convention?  To be in Mensa your IQ must be in the top 2% of the population.  Are we society’s power brokers and high rollers?  Have any of you been featured on the show “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous”?  Any of you have world leaders in your contacts?  No?  What do we find as we look at our congregation?  Just us!  You and me.  Most of us falling into the “average” category by most metrics.

So what’s so great about you?  Christ!  You have a great Savior!  Consider who you are and what you have in Christ.  Paul says Christ has become for us wisdom (v. 30).  Who cares if you are not a member of Mensa International!  In Jesus Christ, you are wise unto salvation through faith in Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 3:15).  Who cares if you do not clothe and cover yourself every day with the coolest logos and trendiest designs!  Christ has become for you righteousness (v. 30).  His holy life and his holy blood have become this beautiful robe that covers you.  It completely covers your sin and pride; it is all God can see when he looks at you!  And I would rather appear before God covered in the blood and righteousness of Jesus than the newest Nike’s or an Armani suit!  Christ has become for you sanctification (v. 30-31).  Christ is what motivates and empowers radiant decency in your life!  And Christ is your redemption (v. 30-31).  “Redemption” is paying a ransom to set something free.  I ask you, what is the most valuable thing you have?  May I say to you that it is your very life, your body and soul?  The value of your body and soul was set, affixed at Calvary’s cross when the Son of God gave his life for yours.  Don’t you ever say you are a “nothing” and a “nobody”!  Not when you have been redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus!

So let our lives be marked by a “holy boasting”!  Not silly bugle-blowing about ourselves; that is only so much noise.  But let us make much of Christ and all he has done for us!  Or, as Paul says, Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord! 

Amen.