THERE'S NO FREEDOM OF SPEECH IN HEAVEN

Free speech is a huge issue today, huge to the point that it's being questioned and, in some cases, opposed if it's deemed, "hate speech." Universities ban certain speakers from their campuses if their views are not deemed politically correct. In addition, there are those whose speech is censored if someone deems himself offended by it, thus "offensive" is defined subjectively by the hearer. Our American heritage from the Bill of Rights is staunchly opposed to such encroachments.

But did you know that there's no freedom of speech in heaven--no boasting.

Eph. 2:8-9 declares: "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast." Elsewhere, Paul writes, "For the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith."  

"For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God" (Romans 4:2). "But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, 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,  so that no man may boast before God" (I Cor. 1:27-29). 

Jeremiah 9:23-24: but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, 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,  so that no man may boast before God."

Do you get the idea? God hates boasting.

THE FIRST BOAST IN THE UNIVERSE


Lucifer was the first to boast, and, interestingly enough, his bragging concerned five things he planned to do:

‘I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne above the stars of God,
And I will sit on the mount of assembly
In the recesses of the north.
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.’

PAUL'S PROPENSITY

Paul had an area of weakness in his sin nature: a propensity to brag. This bent toward bragging was a serious matter, so serious that God blocked it and Paul was honest about what God did. He describes it in II Corinthians 12:7: "Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself!" That's what bragging is, it's "exalting myself," and wasn't that what Satan did? Bragging is such a serious affront to God that its prevention necessitated a thorn in the flesh for Paul.

IT'S OURS TOO

We are so curved in on ourselves, bragging wasn't only Paul's problem; it's ours. To listen to some preachers/missionaries/evangelists, everyone they come in contact with trusts Christ as Savior or finds himself "put down" by his keen intellect. Then there are those who never let us forget that they overcame smoking or some other bad habit; they incessantly tell us of the riches they accumulated because they were such good Christians that they tithed the gross and not the net. (Yet, truth be told, their largess came in spite of their tithing.)

IT'S ALL OVER THE PLACE

Every political campaign is one boast after another. This candidate is gong to "Bring us together.Another is going to "Make America Great Again," Then that one will bring "Hope and Change." The next one is going to send us to college and make others pay our tuition. There's an old saying for someone who overestimates himself: "He believes all his geese are swans."

Our sports heroes sorely lack a Lou Gehrig humility. It's catching. Those we make our pop culture heroes tear down their barns to build bigger and more impressive ones; they buy a new car or two every time they change their socks. Their want their possessions to do the bragging for them. Their conspicuous consumptions are their silent boasts.

THE BOWER BIRD

The male bower bird is so desperate for female attention that he builds an elaborate nest with incredible skill, featuring incredible colors. The birds use trash and garbage to create beautiful works of art. They choose objects of brilliant blues and whites, things colorful with which to build their bower.

All of this is to attract attention and it works. Such is the human race with it's innate desire to say, "Hey! Look at me! And while you're looking, I'll tell you all about me." It reminds me of the author who was going on and on about his accomplishments and his plans. Finally, he said to his friend, "Well, that's enough about me. What do you think about my latest book?"

NO IMMUNITY

No one of us is immune. I was once in the home of a very fine Christian man, a preacher/speaker/writer well-known in Christian circles and whenever I was with him (very rarely), I always enjoyed his company and his keen wit. Once, while visiting with him in his home, he asked me a really, really strange question: "Would you like to see the place where I mail my books from?" (I silently pardoned his ending a sentence with a preposition.)

I had given him no hint that I was interested in his postal affairs; they seemed mundane and inane to me anyway. Matters of the USPS aren't of consequence to me.

I wondered why I needed to see the place of mailing, but agreed. So we made our way through the house into his garage. Sure enough, there were the books he'd written and the postage meter on which he weighed the packages and by which he affixed the proper postage. His garage was his post office, but that wasn't a big deal to me, or anyone else, most likely. Yawn.

But I suspect that's not what he really wanted me to see in that garage because in the garage from which he mailed the books was his car, a "Car" with a capital C. But what a person drives is wasted on me--I don't know anything about cars and I don't care anything about cars (except when mine has a problem). They mean nothing to me, so it was a wasted trip into the garage.

I think he wanted me to see his new BMW convertible (or whatever it was) so it could be a silent brag, one that exalted its owner. It didn't work because he didn't know how little attention I pay to automotive trinkets, his or anyone's. (But I would pay maximum attention had he taken me into his garage and shown me Mickey Mantle's autographed bat or Roger Staubach's cleats!) 

Like I said, he was a mighty fine fellow and a true servant of the Lord, but he, like we all, have that inbred bower bird tendency to exalt ourselves or certainly, at the very least, we crave to do so.

God will not allow boasting in heaven. (Without our sin natures, we won't even think of such a thing.) His plan of salvation won't allow it--we just receive by faith, without cost to us, the free gift of the work of His Son for us.

Instead of self-exaltation, we can practice today what we'll be doing in heaven by following the psalmist who wrote: "My soul will make its boast in the Lord." And the words of the wise man, "Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; A stranger, and not your own lips."