Everybody knows that Christians shouldn’t boast, right? Some people are so leery of boasting that they hide the gifts God has given them in the mistaken notion that God will be pleased with their humility. But that’s just as bad as seeking every opportunity to grab the limelight, because God can’t use you with your brakes locked. On the other hand, showing off at every conceivable opportunity, rubbing other people’s noses in your skills or accomplishments, fame or money or lineage or looks, is a kind of attention-deficit disorder displaying a serious problem in your relationship with God.
First of all, God declares in no uncertain terms that he will not share his glory with anyone else. [Is 42:8] So taking credit for what God has given you is, in effect, stealing from God. But secondly, it displays a real insecurity about where your worth actually comes from. Being God’s adopted child should matter more to any of us than being a headliner, even if it’s in the biggest show in town. I don’t know that Abraham ever boasted, but the Jewish people certainly did - in their descent from Abraham. Perhaps it was because the Romans looked down on them, perhaps it was because they were afraid of losing their national and religious identity to the lure of a seductive pagan culture...
Does anybody here remember having seen the old classic Three Musketeers movie, the one from the 70's with Michael York as D’Artagnan? Do you remember how touchy he was about his honor, and how ready he was to defend it with his sword? And of course he got insulted rather often, because he was an awkward country boy in shabby clothes riding in on an absolutely ludicrous yellow horse, just arrived in the big city of Paris from the poor rural province of Gascony. It was kind of like being an Iowa farm boy at a charity ball in New York.
Anyway, as you might expect, D’Artagnan - and practically everybody else from Gascony - overcompensated like crazy for their insecurity. As a matter of fact, the dictionary lists “Gascon” as a synonym for braggart. But we Christians shouldn’t suffer from that kind of insecurity. Because we know that God cares if we’re here or not; in fact he put us here. And we - each one of us - matters so much that he died for us.
And as much as other things in our society have changed, I think that bragging is still a symptom of insecurity. Bragging is a way to make sure we get the respect, the recognition we crave from the people around us. It’s a way of saying, “I’M HERE! PAY ATTENTION TO ME! I MATTER! I AM SOMEBODY!” But you only need to do it when there’s an empty place inside that says “Nobody cares if you’re here or not, and you really don’t matter after all.”
But here we are, with Paul just having completed a long chapter explaining how everything we have is a gift and we aren’t supposed to boast about any of it, and what do we see? Paul’s telling us to boast. Well, he doesn’t actually command us to boast, but he says that he does and implies that we as fellow Christians have the right to do the same. He says “we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings...” [Rom 2b-3a] So what’s going on? What’s he trying to tell us?
Are we supposed to go about saying to other people, “nya nya nya nya nya nya, I’m going to heaven and you’re not?” I don’t think so. Or are we supposed to go about comparing trials, and saying, “I’m more spiritual than you are because I’ve suffered more?” I can just see a kind of schedule of benefits, you know, x number of points for cancer, x number for a job loss, x number for divorce, etc. There’s also the danger, in most denominations, on both ends of the theological spectrum, from the Confessing Church movement to the More Light churches, feeling that they are not quite as sinful than the people on the other side of the great divide. Which is not what Paul said at the beginning of this great letter - that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” [Ro 3:23]
Paul is not talking about anything related to self-esteem at all. His concern is that we should assign value to the things in our lives that really matter. And he is telling us is that instead of looking to the things the world values, seeking recognition from our neighbors and rivals, we should instead take pride in the things God has given us - even when the world might think we’re absolutely nuts.
So do you know somebody who boasts of driving a Mercedes? Someone who won a beauty pageant? Someone who can do the mile in 5 minutes? Someone who has all the right political views? Someone with perfect children? What are you proud of? Paul had many things to be proud of before his conversion; he lists them in his letter to the Philippians: “If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.” [Phil 3:4-6] But that’s not what Paul is boasting about these days. Now the most important thing in Paul’s life is his “hope of sharing the glory of God.”
Well, I can understand that. But then he goes on to tell us to boast in our sufferings! That’s a little harder to swallow, isn’t it. But not if you’ve ever known a really dedicated athlete, you know, one who trains hard and actually gives up things for the sake of improving his or her performance. My sister is a runner, and she keeps a record of her training. And she comes in after a training run sweaty and dirty and tired. Looks like suffering to me. And you know what? The first thing she does is enter her time and distance in her log. She’s proud of it.
Suffering hurts. That’s why it’s called suffering. But God calls us to look at it in a different way than the world does. As a matter of fact, Christianity offers something that no other world view can. . . The usual approaches to pain are to deny it, as the Buddhists do; avoid it, as the hedonists do; endure it, as the Stoics do, or deflect it, as almost everybody else tries to do: that is, make sure that someone else suffers instead. But Jesus Christ shows us that suffering transforms us. Suffering is part of the process of changing us into people fit for the kingdom of God. And there are three steps that we go through (or should I say grow through?) when you face suffering with the right attitude.
The first one is that you learn how to handle pressure. This is where Paul starts the progression of ideas, in v 3: “suffering produces perseverance.” The Greek word for perseverance means literally “to handle pressure.” Obviously suffering puts us under pressure, so Paul is saying, “Being under pressure gives you the ability to handle pressure.” And you know what? You cannot be successful in any field until you can handle pressure. Pressure - stress - is necessary for developing any kind of strength. It’s like working out with spiritual weights. How much can you bench-press?
A second benefit of suffering is that you develop character. Paul goes on to say, “Suffering produces perseverance; perseverance produces character.” [v. 3]
When I was house-shopping, I avoided the ones that were advertised as “having character.” Because that’s like saying a blind date has a “good personality.” You just know he or she won’t be winning any beauty contests. Most likely a house with character will look like it’s been through a lot, which may not be so good. But in a person. . . it’s another story. The word translated “character” can also be translated “proof.” You know, like 80–proof brandy: you just know it packs quite a punch! In people, it’s a particular kind of strength that has proved itself. A good friend of mine often says, facetiously, that she’s tired of character- building experiences, and I suppose we all do get tired of them, especially when they come thick and fast. But the kind of character that God builds into us during these times is Christ-like character, not just patience, but an enduring, reliable integrity, and that’s the only way we can get it. And wouldn’t that be something to be proud of? Except that the closer we get to that point, the less we need to boast at all. But still - it’s something to aspire to.
And the third benefit of suffering doesn’t actually happen as often as it should. Pau implies that suffering helps you develop optimism. Which may seem something of a paradox, because of course suffering can make people very negative, as pain uses up energy and it takes a certain amount of energy to be optimistic. And even people with strong faith go through periods of intense suffering when it is a struggle to hold fast to hope.
Now I know that you can’t be optimistic just out of a sheer effort of will. But many people don’t even try to do that. They focus on their problems, asking “Why Me?” or “How could God let this happen?” Or complaining, “It’s not fair,” and telling themselves negative things like, “I can’t go on” or “This is just too much,” instead of looking for evidence of God’s presence even in the midst of things, or asking God to take this opportunity to help them to become more Christ-like. Somewhere in the middle comes stoicism, enduring without complaint - and that does have a certain nobility - but in order for suffering to work its way through to optimism, you have to open up and let the Holy Spirit loose.
If you approach suffering with the right attitude, you will come out on the other end with a renewed sense of God’s faithfulness, a renewed conviction of God’s power and goodness. Paul’s progression moves from suffering to perseverance, from perseverance to character, and character to hope.
What is this hope that Paul promises to those who endure? Too often, we use it as a synonym for “wishful thinking.” For example, we may say, “I hope it doesn’t rain for the picnic,” or “I hope I get the job.” But at the same time we’re thinking, “But if it does, or if I don’t, there's nothing I can do about it.” That's not hope, not Biblical hope. Paul used the word to mean “facing life with confidence, knowing God is in control.” Biblical hope is about confidence in the final outcome.
Suffering - if it is given to God to transform - produces an attitude of confident optimism, because once you have suffered you realize that - as awful as what you are enduring may be - there are limits to the damage the trials you are suffering can do. They cannot separate you from God's love. They cannot destroy your happiness. They cannot keep you from living life to the fullest. . . unless, of course, you allow them to.
Because, you see, “hope does not disappoint us,” Paul says, “because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” [v. 5]
Hope does not disappoint us, because our hope is in God, not in ourselves, not in our circumstances, not in particular outcomes. Hope does not disappoint us because God has already proved to us that he can overcome all things, even death. God has already proved to us that he loves us enough to die for us even when we make mistakes, even when we fall, even when we fail. “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person-- though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.” [v. 8]
And isn’t He someone to brag about?
