Good Boasting

Read Galatians 6:1-10

As we sat around the card table, playing a family favorite game, one person got up and quit. "You're way too competitive and I hate all the rules!" I'd played the game this way my whole life, so her complaint didn't make sense to me. But the next day, I realized the constant flow of criticism for minor mistakes had squeezed all the joy out of the game for her. The way we played cards is a lighter version of how the church in Galatia practiced their spirituality. The people who considered themselves "spiritual" had mastered the system of keeping the rules. So, it was easy for them to correct others and they couldn't see how harsh this felt to those who couldn't keep up. It led to a two-track community: the self-appointed spiritual people and the second-class failures. Even though they talked about grace, the spiritual competition revealed they were fooling themselves. These weren't etiquette mistakes, but a pattern of sinning against each other when someone was caught in sin. If we read this text as a how-to manual, then we'll try to grind it out, run up the score, or keep this extra set of rules. But Paul is repeatedly saying: no, not that way! You can't mock God. There's no way to do God's work without God. Instead of becoming more and more religious, open your lives to the Holy Spirit. Whatever we do, whether it's our own growth as a follower of Jesus or helping someone else with their struggle, we do it all by depending on the Holy Spirit. So when this sowing inevitably leads to reaping, we thank God for the outcome. It's fruit, not achievement. When the Holy Spirit is alive in us, our boasting becomes good boasting. God made us to boast, to be proud, to hold our heads high. We twist this built-in desire so we're boasting about being better than others (or lamenting that others are ahead of us). But when we stop playing the religious game, we boast in doing the work God has called us to do. This kind of boasting is self-forgetful, grateful, surprised, pure, and joyful. We don't need to prove we're doing better than someone else to feel good about faithfully imitating Christ in our own lives. That's what "the law of Christ" looks like in a Spirit-filled community. Just as he descended to carry the burden we couldn't, we humble ourselves to help one another grow to maturity. Instead of seeing ourselves as a community of beginners and experts, we're a family that supports each other. Instead of competing for status, our relationships are marked by gentleness and care. We probably still judge each other and compete with one another for religious status because we can't help it. But even so, the Spirit stays involved in our lives, knitting us together as we work for the good of others and especially for fellow followers of Jesus.