This is what the Lord says:

Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches, but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the Lord.”

‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭9‬:‭23‬-‭24‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Modesty was once the rule of polite society.

While others might occasionally compliment our strengths or abilities, rarely would you find one obnoxiously boasting of his own achievements.

Wisdom informs us that our greatest strengths, however, pale in significance to the one who endows us with them.

Beauty, wealth, strength or courage are finite and temporary gifts, easily lost and faded over time.

1 Corinthians 1:31: Therefore, just as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.

To have achieved the knowledge of God, his nature and purpose is a far greater human attribute for those who dare living beyond the temporal.

Those whose vision remains clouded by the present experience a finite world without God and without ability to imagine their potential self worth as anything beyond present assets and abilities.

Breaking down the implications of this verse isn’t really the heady subject it may seem.

But there are so many lost in the cult of self-love and aggrandizement, fed by heaping helpings of likes and follows, particularly in social media.

Their value is dangerously limited by how well they can leverage the gift over the giver, missing the bigger picture and the point entirely.