Another law thread

[Drich]

Have I praised myself here? If so where?

Which brings us full circle. How can I teach from a position of humility if i am so proud as to hide myself from you in what I call "The Emporor's new cloths?" I must humble myself before God and you people to serve. Unfortunatly where I need to serve Here requires alot of humility, something I am offering to teach by example.

Boasting about your humility is a form of pride. Here you are claiming to have a lot of humility, so much so that you would serve as a good example to those here. (Which, by the way, makes this self refuting. If you boast about your humility, you obviously aren't that humble. It's like a friend of mine used to say about being a lady. "If you have to tell someone you are one, then you aren't.")

In addition, you regularly boast of defeating or shutting down others whom you claim are, to their eyes, greater than you. Cinjin in this thread and myself in another. In this you resemble our new Muslim friend who regularly posts, "Response: Debunked, as usual," regardless of whether he's done any debunking, then, or ever. You seem to tell us how well you're doing and how poorly your antagonists are doing at every opportunity; I've never seen somebody gloat so much about his rhetorical victories as you do.

Pride in of itself is not a sin. For Paul often boasts or speaks of his pride in How God works in his life and the life of others. He even goes so far as to relish his own weaknesses and short commings, because it gives him an oppertunity to boast about how God is working in his life. The boasting is not the issue. It is when one takes God's glory for himself that a sin is committed.

I think Context not content is what makes a statement sinfully proud or boastful. For example If one is describing the mechanics of how one is doing something whether the description is complmentry or not, is not an exercise in personal Pride. My intention was meant to inform, and even challenge you to put my claim to the test. It was not meant to be an advert on how great I am. (which is what turns this action into a sin)

As far as "shutting down someone greater than I" I was trying to mirror Pauls relishing of his own weakness, and celibration of how God used his weakness to show case His power and authority. For example if Cinjin is correct and I am an uneducated fool (to which I admited that I should have never graduated high school on a 4th grade reading and compersion level, confirming his claim) then one should ask why isn't he able to refute a simple minded man's arguement? Why does he always default to the simple person's personal short commings rather than tear apart the arguement? Or If the arguement is beyond the ablity of the uneducated person, then one should ask where do these arguements come from? Again I even go so far as to take myself out of the picture. The glory here not being mine, but to the God who has provided me with the discernment to answer your questions.

Scriptural examples of what i am trying to do here:

In 2 cor 11:16-33 Paul boasts of all he has endured in the name of God. This verse sums up why:
30 If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. 31 The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is to be praised forever, knows that I am not lying.

which brings me to the verse that inspired this round of boasting:
2Cor 12:6 Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, 7 or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Again I boast not of my own ablities but what God has done for me. You know more than anyone here my limits and depth of education. Honestly I sometimes dread having to address your arguements line by line. For out of everyone here, save one maybe two others I find myself at a loss, at the end of my ablities to answer or debate if i am not 100% (which was the final nail in the coffin last year for me which required that i take a break.) That said, I the face of the humbling failure I met against our last great debate still take the time to boast of my weakness, so that God maybe further elevated in what does indeed get accomplished here despite my short commings.