About a year ago my son came home half singing/half making fun of the stupidest song (pre Rebbecca Black’s “It’s Friday” that is) he’d heard. It was, “I’m Awesome,” by Spose.
Now, before you make plans to have Nathan shipped off to Juvi—know that it was the clean version a friend had and he hadn’t even heard the unedited version—a rendition that goes south in exactly 4.6 seconds.
But I digress.
The main gist of this song is as follows…
“I’m drivin around in my mom’s ride
I’m awsome!
A quarter of my life gone by and
I met all my friends online
I’m awesome!!!
I will run away from a brawl
I’m awsome!
There’s no voice mail nobody called
I’m awsome!
and i talk to myself
on my facebook wall
you know my pants sag low (low)
even though (though) that went out of style
like ten years ago (go)
i got little biceps,
getting fatter in the middle
and lyrically i’m not the best
physically the opposite of randy
moss and yet so preposterous
feel the awesomeness the most obnoxious
i hide in my hood like i’m joining a cult
uh uhh
promoted and if you like this
it’s cuz my little sister wrote it…
I’M AWESOME!
It gets even worse, but you probably get the point…He’s not really awesome—actually, the polar opposite of awesome but that doesn’t keep him from bragging.
I see a lot of Christian leaders doing this today. Kind of sad when we are mostly known for the cheesiness (It’s a word now, baby!) of what we attempt.
- Cheesy movies
- Cheesy books
- Cheesy cloths
- Cheesy language
- Cheesy jewelry
It’s sad really. Christians ought to be the very best at everything—leading the way in culture instead of bringing up the rear in an apologetic attempt to set up our own culture that keeps all the good but none of the bad
It’s not working. But that doesn’t stop us from bragging like it is.
Now, contrast all of this with the attitude I saw from the apostle Paul in my quiet time this morning. I was reading in the book of 2 Corinthians chapter 12 and verses 1-10. You can read it here. The long and short of it is that Paul feels the compulsion to do something he absolutely detests—it’s something he almost always avoids at all costs.
He’s boasting.
Weird, huh?
But there it is nonetheless. And it’s actually the third morning in a row that I have been reading about Paul’s long list of qualifications and credentials. Why did he do this?
Because some false teachers were messing the church up. Unqualified, uneducated, unsaved, unawesome, greedy men who wanted fame and fortune and a little fiefdom of their own. They saw their best chance at this being local groups of believers, hungry to meet together and learn from anointed teachers of God. The problem was that false teachers had slipped in among the true teachers of the gospel on nothing more than slick speeches and a powerful presentations—and the people were getting more and more confused. After a couple decades of beatings, shipwrecks, poisoning, stonings, etc, the apostle Paul was lagging behind in the ‘presentation’ and ‘slick talk’ arenas. Add to this the fact that his physical appearance was, by then, slumped over and crippled and you have someone lacking all the necessary tools for a quick and shallow mega following.
In short, Paul was losing the people because he wasn’t what they considered AWESOME.
So he set off to make a case that he was much more qualified than these others who used mostly smoke and mirrors to win a following. To do this, he, well, bragged.
He boasted.
But what would you think if I told you every bit of what I just shared has almost nothing to do with what the Lord showed me today?
That’s right. The real point that glared at me (and has for the last 3 mornings) was how often Paul kept reiterating how much he absolutely abhorred the very boasting he felt compelled to do.
Look how many times he said so…
- 2 Cor. 10:2, “2 I beg you that when I come I may not have to be as bold as I expect to be toward some people who think that we live by the standards of this world.”
- Verse 7, “ 7 You are judging by appearances.[a] If anyone is confident that they belong to Christ, they should consider again that we belong to Christ just as much as they do.”
- Vs. 8-9 “So even if I boast somewhat freely about the authority the Lord gave us for building you up rather than tearing you down, I will not be ashamed of it. 9 I do not want to seem to be trying to frighten you with my letters.”
- V. 13, “13 We, however, will not boast beyond proper limits, but will confine our boasting to the sphere of service God himself has assigned to us, a sphere that also includes you.”
- 14, “14 We are not going too far in our boasting, as would be the case if we had not come to you, for we did get as far as you with the gospel of Christ.”
- 15, “…15 Neither do we go beyond our limits by boasting of work done by others.”
- 16, “For we do not want to boast about work already done in someone else’s territory.”
- 17, “But, “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”[b] 18 For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.”
I’m not going to list them all—but you need to know that the trend continues throughout the next 2 chapters—at least 11 times in chapter 11 and 9 more times in chapter 12. 31 times Paul feels compelled to tell us, the reader, that he hates boasting, detests all bragging and finds it counterproductive to the spreading of the gospel message and the building up of the Kingdom of God. I think a few words in verse 17 of chapter 11 sum it up best, “17 In this self-confident boasting I am not talking as the Lord would, but as a fool.”
31 times Paul shows his frustration about having to do this! 31 times he basically apologizes for going down a road he thought he’d never have to. Paul hated sharing his qualifications and only does so as a last resort in order to stem the tide of falling away he’d witnessed from believers in Corinth.
Contrast this to the era in which we find ourselves today. Today so called men of God brag for 45 minutes and sprinkle a little Jesus in for 5. Today, for many, bragging is far from a last resort–instead, it’s their first option that comes to mind…all the time.
Should we be concerned?
Absolutely.
Do we seriously believe something Paul thought was a bad idea is one of the best things we could possibly employ in the pulpit? If we do, we’re simply deceiving ourselves. Many today resemble more the ones Paul was trying to warn us against than they do true ministers of the gospel. So what should be our response?
Paul wrote that in here too. Verses 17-18 of chapter 10 say,
“17 But, “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”[b] 18 For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.”
But perhaps Paul said it best to the Galatians (who were being lead astray by similar false teachers) in Galatians 1:8,
“Let God’s curse fall on anyone, including us or even an angel from heaven, who preaches a different kind of Good News than the one we preached to you.”
“Hey, I’m a minister of the gospel, and I’m AWESOME!”
No you’re not, dude, don’t lie.