1 Corinthians 13:4 NASBS
Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant,
According to the Bible, boasting is taking credit for oneself in an exaggerated manner, as if the accomplishments were done on one’s own strength rather than through the grace and favor of the Lord.
The definition of the word arrogant in the Thayer Dictionary of the Bible is:
– to inflate
– blow up
– to cause to swell up
– to puff up
– make proud
– to be puffed up
– to bear one’s self loftily
– be proud
The Thayer’s Definition for boast or brag is:
– to boast oneself
– a self-display
– employing rhetorical embellishments in extolling oneself excessively
Paul teaches that boasting is inappropriate, and if we are going to boast of anything, it should be in the Lord. To put it another way, no one should go through life acting as if everything they do or obtain is the result of their own particular power, goodness, and wealth. We shouldn’t be boastful or arrogant, puffing ourselves up to show how good, strong, and capable we are in ourselves, and we shouldn’t overstate our capabilities. Love is not like that at all. Love does not boast about itself, nor does it become inflated by overconfidence.
We shouldn’t become boastful because it hurts the principle of unity and leads us to challenge and envy one another.
The Bible says that the wicked is boastful and boasting is evil. It destroys unity and leads to envy and competition. A boastful heart is often filled with pride, arrogance, and rage. The boastful speaks with insolent pride and won’t stand before the Lord, because He rejects the proud but gives grace to the humble. By Grace we have been saved, not our deeds, so that we won’t boast to the Lord.
Paul also explains that when we boast about things that correspond to God and His purposes, we are participating in what he calls “a boasting that conforms to the kingdom, and that’s the type of boasting we are called to have. For example, Paul boasts about being crucified for this world (Galatians 2:20 and 6:14), about God’s power manifesting in his weaknesses (2 Corinthians 12:9-11), about considering losing everything a gain so that he can know Him, and experience the power of Jesus’ resurrection (Philippians 3:1-10).
Jeremiah 9:23-24 NASBS
Thus says the LORD, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the LORD.
Blessings
Extra resources and Bible verses on the meaning of being boastful and arrogant in the Bible:
To boast is tremendously frowned upon in the Bible because it says that the boastful:
– Will not stand before God’s eyes (Psalm 5:5)
– We shouldn’t boast in pride our let arrogance come out of our mouth. (1 Samuel 2:3)
– The wicked is boastful (Psalm 10:3)
– We shouldn’t boast or trust in our own capacity to solve our problems but in the Lord (some boast in horses but I boast in the Lord – Psalm 20:7)
– The humble rejoices with boasting in the Lord (Psalm 34:2)
– The boastful self-exalts and speaks with insolent pride, lifting his horn. (Psalm 75:4-5)
– An overly boastful heart is often accompanied by traits such as excessive pride, arrogance, and rage. They are all members of the same extended family. (Isaiah 16:6)
– A person should not be boastful about their wisdom, might or riches. Instead, they should boast in knowing and understanding the Lord, that He exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the LORD. (Jeremiah 9:23-24).
– Being boastful in this context is strongly associated with trusting one’s own riches and strengths and is referred to as backsliding and sliding away for trusting one’s own power. (Jeremiah 49:4)
– We see Daniel describing a boastful horn of an apocalyptic beast, and that alone is a very powerful stigmatization of the word boastful. The beast in Daniel’s vision ends up being slain and destroyed and thrown into the fire. (Daniel 7:11)
– Being boastful and arrogant is one of many acts that, when practiced sincerely and without remorse for having sinned against God, will render a person worthy of death.
Romans 1:32 NKJV
who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.
Galatians 5:26 NASBS – Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.
– It is not through our own deeds that we have been saved, but rather through God’s grace. Nobody has the right to boast in front of God. Nobody can exalt themselves before Him. (Ephesians 2:8-10)
– Boast in arrogance is evil. The boastful pride of life is not from the Father but from the world. (James 4:16 – 1 John 2:16)
Bible verses about Boasting and Arrogance that were used to create this article:
Psalm 5:5 NASBS
The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes; You hate all who do iniquity.
1 Samuel 2:1-5 NASBS
[1] Then Hannah prayed and said, “My heart exults in the LORD; My horn is exalted in the LORD, My mouth speaks boldly against my enemies, Because I rejoice in Your salvation. [2] “There is no one holy like the LORD, Indeed, there is no one besides You, Nor is there any rock like our God. [3] “Boast no more so very proudly, Do not let arrogance come out of your mouth; For the LORD is a God of knowledge, And with Him actions are weighed. [4] “The bows of the mighty are shattered, But the feeble gird on strength. [5] “Those who were full hire themselves out for bread, But those who were hungry cease to hunger. Even the barren gives birth to seven, But she who has many children languishes.
Psalm 10:3 NASBS
For the wicked boasts of his heart’s desire, And the greedy man curses and spurns the LORD.
Psalm 20:7 NASBS
Some boast in chariots and some in horses, But we will boast in the name of the LORD, our God.
Psalm 34:2 NASBS
My soul will make its boast in the LORD; The humble will hear it and rejoice.
Psalm 75:4-7 NASBS
“I said to the boastful, ‘Do not boast,’ And to the wicked, ‘Do not lift up the horn; [5] Do not lift up your horn on high, Do not speak with insolent pride.’” [6] For not from the east, nor from the west, Nor from the desert comes exaltation; [7] But God is the Judge; He puts down one and exalts another.
Isaiah 16:6 NASBS
We have heard of the pride of Moab, an excessive pride; Even of his arrogance, pride, and fury; His idle boasts are false.
Jeremiah 9:23-24 NASBS
Thus says the LORD, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the LORD.
Jeremiah 49:4 NASBS
“How boastful you are about the valleys! Your valley is flowing away, O backsliding daughter Who trusts in her treasures, saying, ‘Who will come against me?’
Daniel 7:11 NASBS
Then I kept looking because of the sound of the boastful words which the horn was speaking; I kept looking until the beast was slain, and its body was destroyed and given to the burning fire.
Romans 1:30 NASBS
slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,
Romans 15:17 NASBS – Therefore in Christ Jesus I have found reason for boasting in things pertaining to God.
1 Corinthians 1:28-31 NASBS
[28] and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, [29] so that no man may boast before God. [30] But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, [31] so that, just as it is written, “Let HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD.”
1 Corinthians 5:6 NASBS
Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?
2 Corinthians 10:17 NASBS
But he WHO BOASTS IS TO BOAST IN THE LORD.
2 Corinthians 12:9 NASBS
And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
Galatians 5:26 NASBS
Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.
Galatians 6:14 NASBS
But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
Ephesians 2:8-10 NASBS
[8] For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; [9] not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. [10] For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
2 Timothy 3:2 NASBS – For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,
James 4:14-17 NASBS
[14] Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. [15] Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” [16] But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. [17] Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.
1 John 2:16 NASBS
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.
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