"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
Quick Answer
To boast only in the Lord means refusing to find your ultimate pride in wisdom, strength, or wealth, and instead glorying in knowing God and what He has done (Jeremiah 9:23-24). Paul applies this to salvation itself, since we are saved by grace so that no one may boast before God (Ephesians 2:8-9), leaving Christ alone as the ground of our confidence (1 Corinthians 1:31).
The Ancient Temptation to Boast in Yourself
Every culture has its own list of boasting rights — intelligence, wealth, strength, beauty, connections, achievements. The temptation to find your significance in these things is ancient, and Scripture confronts it directly rather than pretending it is not a real pull. The question is not whether you will boast in something; it is what you will boast in.
God, through the prophet Jeremiah, gave His people a strikingly countercultural answer to that question.
Jeremiah’s Reordering of What Is Worth Boasting About
“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). Notice God does not forbid boasting altogether — He redirects it. The three things people most naturally boast in, wisdom, strength, and wealth, are dismissed, and knowing God takes their place.
To boast in the Lord, then, is not false modesty or refusing to acknowledge your gifts. It is recognizing that your gifts are gifts, and that knowing the God who gave them is worth more than any of them.
Why Salvation Leaves No Room for Self-Boasting
Paul roots this same principle at the very center of the gospel. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). If salvation depended even partly on your effort, you would have grounds to boast in yourself. Grace deliberately removes that ground, so that every believer stands before God on exactly the same footing — saved by mercy, not merit.
This is why Paul concludes elsewhere, echoing Jeremiah’s principle in a new key: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:31). Salvation itself is designed to humble every human boast except one.
Paul’s Own Practice: Boasting in Weakness
Paul’s own life shows what boasting in the Lord looks like in practice. When false teachers tried to impress the Corinthians with credentials, Paul could have matched them point for point, but instead he chose an unusual strategy: “I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me” (2 Corinthians 12:9). His thorn in the flesh, his hardships, his weakness — Paul boasted in these because they made God’s power, not his own, unmistakably visible.
That is a strange kind of boasting by worldly standards, but it is the logical outworking of Jeremiah 9:23-24 — if God alone deserves the glory, then even your weaknesses can become the platform for boasting in Him.
A Parable About Two Kinds of Boasting
Jesus told a parable aimed precisely at people “who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else” (Luke 18:9). A Pharisee stood and prayed, thanking God that he was not like other people — robbers, evildoers, adulterers, or even the tax collector nearby — and recited his own fasting and tithing as evidence of his standing (Luke 18:11-12). Meanwhile the tax collector would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said only, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner” (Luke 18:13).
Jesus’s verdict overturned every assumption in the room: “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted” (Luke 18:14). The Pharisee’s prayer was full of boasting — technically true boasting, since he probably did fast and tithe — but it was boasting in himself dressed up as gratitude. The tax collector had nothing to boast in but God’s mercy, and that is exactly what justified him.
What Boasting in the Lord Does Not Mean
Boasting only in the Lord does not mean false humility, refusing compliments awkwardly, or pretending you have no gifts or accomplishments. Scripture elsewhere commends diligence and celebrates good work (Proverbs 31:31). It also does not mean staying silent about what God has done in your life — testimony is a form of boasting in the Lord, and Scripture encourages it (Psalm 34:2).
What it does mean is holding your gifts loosely, giving credit where it belongs, and refusing to let any achievement become the true source of your identity or security before God.
Redirecting Your Pride Toward God
Practically, this starts with noticing what you naturally want people to know about you — your job, your intelligence, your looks, your children’s accomplishments — and asking whether those things have quietly become your real boast, even while you talk about God with your mouth.
Then it means practicing the redirection Jeremiah describes: when you are tempted to feel proud, turn that pride toward praising the God who gave you whatever you are proud of. He alone is worthy of ultimate boasting, and, remarkably, He delights in kindness, justice, and righteousness — which means boasting in Him always leads outward, toward loving other people, not just inward toward self-satisfaction.