If there was one thing that you wanted people to know about you what would it be? You can tell by what you boast about.
"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." Galatians 6:14
We tend to boast either intentionally or unintentionally about those things that we think are important. They are the things that we feel others must know about us. These things make us feel important. When we boast about something it usually is to communicate that this is a thing that we are particularly identified with and that we feel is important for others to know,
MAY
Galatians 6:14 Begins with the word May. Its use can be wishful thinking or resolve. It can mean to let something happen as if to create the circumstances that allow something to occur, or it can be to intentionally remove the obstacles from the path of this happening. In the context, it appears that the Apostle is speaking in a resolute manner.NEVER
Here, the word never gives the sense that he is resolved and committed to a course of action. This is the idea of not giving any opportunity to boasting in the wrong thing.
BOAST
We generally look down on boasting as being a shallow and self-absorbed activity. If the Apostle is boasting about himself that would be a correct conclusion; however, there is a sense of boasting that is not vain, when it is giving objective and correct information.CROSS
We in our modern times have romanticized the cross but in the days of the Roman Empire, it was a shameful and torturous death for the worst offenders. In Paul's day, no one would have worn a cross as a piece of jewelry- it was considered ugly.CRUCIFIED
The past tense of this is that something has happened. The apostle is declaring that he is dead to the world and the world is dead to him. Something that is dead has no ability to respond or react to its environment or to stimulation.THE WORLD HAS BEEN
Another past tense statement, where the Apostle is saying, "It is over," he sees the world, the kingdoms of man, as dead to him.
Since he is dead to the world, there is nothing in the world that has or stimulates the apostle: nothing draws his affections or attention.
His boasting is not about anything he has done but about an event that occurred by the hand of God. His message is that God has worked a marvel in his life to change him and his values; it was done through the death of Christ on the cross on his behalf.
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