THE UNACCEPTABLE BOAST!!!
You have to be careful about what you are boasting about. There is an unacceptable boast and there is a necessary boast.
It was the culture of the Pharisees to boast about how they and their disciples had kept the law.
See ROMANS 3:27
NIV: Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because of the law that requires faith.
It is unacceptable to boast about salvation as if you achieved it, you can't fully understand the sacrifice of Jesus and still boast in yourself, you were helped of God. The righteousness we have, comes from God, on a basis of faith.
We can love people without supporting their lifestyle, remember that whatever you have gained, was given to you as a gift. It is God at work in you.
Remember, your Spiritual Growth is a MIRACLE, so you love on others.
Your love must be palpable, that you are able to dislike a person's lifestyle but still love them, because you have no boast in yourself, but God working within you!
See GALATIANS 6:13-14
NIV: Not even those who are circumcised keep the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your circumcision in the flesh. May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
Our boast should be in Christ. God is able to bring us into perfection by his spirit. Galatians 3:3. So we boast in him, in his ability to fulfil his work in us, in his ability to keep us.
When God asks us to do something, we don't look around, we don't look for discouragements ,we look at his supply, we look at his word, glory! He is at work in us!
We must learn to stay in faith.
