Paul’s Reason for Boasting

¹² We would not dare put ourselves in the same class with, or compare ourselves to, those who recommend themselves. Whenever they measure themselves by their own standards or compare themselves among themselves, they show how foolish they are. ¹³ We will not boast about what cannot be evaluated. Instead, we will stay within the field that God assigned us, so as to reach even you. ¹⁴ For it is not as though we were overstepping our limits when we came to you. We were the first to reach you with the gospel of the Messiah.^{[a] 15} We are not boasting about work done by others that cannot be evaluated. On the contrary, we cherish the hope that your faith may continue to grow and enlarge our sphere of action among you until it overflows. ¹⁶ Then we can preach the gospel in the regions far beyond you without boasting about things already accomplished by someone else.

¹⁷ “The person who boasts should boast in the Lord.”^{[b] 18} It is not the person who commends himself who is approved, but the person whom the Lord commends.