James 3:3; Proverbs 15:2,4; Psalm 94:4
The tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things.
The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright: but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness…A wholesome tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit.
How long shall they utter and speak hard things? and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves?
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): He who praises himself writes himself down as a fool in capital letters…First of all, because it is extremely foolish to boast at all. Boasting never makes a man any the greater in the esteem of others, nor does it improve the real state of his body or soul. Let a man brag as he will, he is none the greater for his bragging, no, he is the less, for men invariably think the worse of him!
CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): “Praise,” says an old expositor, “is a comely garment. But though thyself doth wear it, another must put it on, or else it will never sit well about thee. Praise is sweet music, but it is never tuneable in thine own mouth. If it cometh from the mouth of another, it soundeth most tuneably in the ears of all that hear it. Praise is a rich treasure, but it will never make thee rich, unless another tell the same.” Indeed—except as the vindication of our character, or as our Master’s honour connected with it, may require—nothing so degrades a man with his fellow-men, as setting out his own praise. For though every man is his own flatterer, yet men usually know how to estimate pride in others, while they cherish it in themselves.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): When men lift up themselves in pride and vain glory they are justly laughed at for their folly.
C. H. SPURGEON: Generally your boaster has nothing in him of true grit. The more of the solid there is in a man, the less does he act the balloon.
THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): The greatest boasters are usually the greatest cowards.
MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546): Pride leads them on to belittle the work of other men and to applaud their own.
JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Self-love makes men unreasonable, and ever teacheth them to turn the glass to see themselves bigger, others lesser, than they are.
MARTIN LUTHER: By men’s boasting of what they have done, they become nothing else but dregs.
ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): “Vain talkers”—Empty boasters of knowledge, rights, and particular privileges; all noise, empty parade, and no work. A bragging man, who does not fulfill his promises, is like clouds which appear to be laden with vapour, and like the wind which, though it blow from a rainy quarter, brings no moistness with it. So the vain boaster; he is big with promise, but performs nothing.
WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): Least doers are the greatest boasters.
C. H. SPURGEON: A boaster and a liar are much about the same thing—these proverbs are but specimens of many just observations upon the vice of bragging. It would be hard to tell where a boast ends and a lie begins: it is like the distinction between a snake and its tail. Boasters are hardly conscious of their own falsehoods, for they have talked themselves into believing their own bombast.
CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Ungodly men love to boast of themselves…Rather than pass unnoticed, the ungodly will boast of their iniquities and excesses.
H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): The fool condemns himself with his own mouth by his vain boasting.
ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): It is insanity which evokes wonder, as well as sin which deserves rebuke.
C. H. SPURGEON: “I said unto the fools, Deal not foolishly,” Psalm 75:4. The Lord bids the boasters boast not, and commands the mad oppressors to stay their folly. If the wicked were not insane, they would even now hear in their consciences the still small voice bidding them cease from evil, and forbear their pride. “And to the wicked, Lift not up the horn. Lift not up your horn on high: speak not with a stiff neck,” Psalm 75:4,5. He bids the ungodly stay their haughtiness. The horn was the emblem of boastful power; only the foolish, like wild and savage beasts, will lift it high. For their abounding pride there is a double rebuke. Would to God that all proud men would obey the word here given them.
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): “The foolish shall not stand in thy sight,” Psalm 5:5. By the “foolish” are meant not such who are so in a natural, but in a moral sense—wicked and ungodly men. The word used comes from a root which signifies to “praise;” and may design such as are praisers of themselves, proud boasters; who are elated with their own excellencies, with their wisdom, strength, honours, riches, and righteousness, and treat all others with contempt.
C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): It is all vanity.
C. H. SPURGEON: There is many a man without the fear of God who blusters and bullies as if everybody had to be his slave…Big boasters should heed the word of the wise man, “Let not him that girds on his harness boast himself as he that takes it off,” 1 Kings 20:11.
JOHN TRAPP: God delights to cross such vain boasters, and to confute their confidences.
JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision,” Psalm 2:4. He has them perfectly under his control, holds them in a chain when they think themselves most at liberty, appoints the bounds beyond which they cannot pass, and can in a moment check them, and make them feel his hook and bridle, when in the height of their career.
C. H. SPURGEON: Impudence before God is madness. The out-stretched neck of insolent pride is sure to provoke His axe. Those who carry their heads high shall find that they will be lifted yet higher, as Haman was upon the gallows which he had prepared for the righteous man.
CHARLES BRIDGES: “Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth,” Proverbs 27:1. How awfully has boasting been put to shame! Abner promised a kingdom, but could not ensure his life for an hour, 2 Samuel 3. Haman plumed himself upon the prospect of the queen’s banquet, but was hanged like a dog before night, Esther 5:12; 7:1-10.
C. H. MACKINTOSH: What an end to all human pride and boasting!
JOHN NEWTON: Let us beware of boasting.
JOHN TRAPP: Virtue is no braggart.
C. H. SPURGEON: We do not like boasters, but we would encourage every child of God to boast in the Lord as much as he pleases. “My soul shall make her boast in the LORD,” Psalm 34:2.—We may boast of the Lord, in Himself, His manifestations of Himself, His relationship to us, our interest in Him, and our expectations from Him.
SIR RICHARD BAKER (1568-1644): Can any boasting be greater than to say, “I can do all things?” Yet in this boasting there is humility when I add, “in Christ that strengtheneth me,” Philippians 4:13. For though God likes not boasting, yet He likes this boasting, which arrogates nothing to ourselves, but ascribes all to Him.
MATTHEW HENRY: It is not vainglory to glory in the Lord.
