1 Corinthians 1:31 Meaning and Explanation
“That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.”
King James Version (KJV)
This study note uses an AI-assisted editorial workflow with source, duplication, and quality checks. See how verse explanations are prepared.
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →Boasting rarely announces itself. It hides in a resume, in the way we describe our congregation, in the quiet comparisons running while someone else talks. Paul has spent a chapter dismantling a church's pride in its favorite teachers and its own cleverness. The closing line supplies what remains, and it arrives as an invitation with a direction attached.
The chapter ends with a quotation from the prophets: all boasting belongs to God. Whatever wisdom, standing, or rescue we have came to us in Christ, so the credit travels back to its source.
The Context of 1 Corinthians 1:31
This is the last verse of the chapter and the capstone of Paul's opening argument. Word had reached him from the house of Chloe that the Corinthian believers were splitting into parties named for Paul, Apollos, and Cephas. He answers by describing the preaching of the cross, which the world counts foolish and weak. He then points to the congregation itself, made up of people who were not many wise, mighty, or noble by ordinary reckoning. God chose them, Paul says, so that no flesh should glory in His presence. Verse 31 quotes Scripture to seal the point.
What Does 1 Corinthians 1:31 Mean?
'According as it is written' signals that Paul is reaching for an existing word, which arrives compressed and almost proverbial. 'He that glorieth' names a real person doing a real thing; the impulse to boast is simply assumed. What follows redirects it. 'Let him glory in the Lord' gives permission and a target in the same breath. The verb rendered 'glory' means to exult, to take loud satisfaction in something. Paul leaves that energy intact and moves its object. Verse 30 has already listed what is now worth exulting over: wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, all of them held in Christ Jesus and given from God.
The quotation comes from Jeremiah 9:24, where the Lord weighs three human grounds of confidence against knowing Him. Paul compresses that oracle into a single clause and applies it to a Greek city obsessed with rhetorical skill and social rank. The move is deliberate. Corinth prized eloquence, and the congregation had begun to grade apostles the way an audience grades speakers. By ending with a prophet's words, Paul shows the cross doing something the Scriptures had long taught God to do: He works through what looks small so that the glory lands where it belongs. The pattern runs from Gideon's shrunken army to a manger.
Christ stands at the center of this sentence, since verse 30 has just said that believers are in Him and that He is made unto us wisdom from God. The phrase 'in the Lord' therefore has content. Glorying in the Lord means rejoicing in a person who was crucified in weakness and raised in power, and in everything that reaches us through Him. That protects the boast from becoming a fresh kind of self-congratulation about being humble. The eye stays on Christ. Praise offered this way costs nothing to share, since it never depends on comparing our gifts with someone else's.
1 Corinthians 1:31 in the Original Language
kauchastho (καυχάσθω), 'glory' -- let him boast or exult. The word describes speaking with open pride in something, the way people praise a hometown or a craft. Paul keeps the loud confidence and fixes its object on the Lord.
Bible Verses Related to 1 Corinthians 1:31
“Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches:”
- Jeremiah 9:23
“But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.”
- 2 Corinthians 10:17
“But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:”
- 1 Corinthians 1:30
“But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”
- Galatians 6:14
Where 1 Corinthians 1:31 Echoes in Scripture
Paul returns to the same line in 2 Corinthians 10:17, where he is defending his ministry against critics who measure themselves by themselves. Quoting it twice shows how load-bearing it was for him. The original stands in Jeremiah 9:23, which names wisdom, might, and riches as the usual objects of human boasting and sets knowing the Lord in their place. Paul assumes his Greek readers will feel the weight of a prophet's sentence.
How to Apply 1 Corinthians 1:31 Today
A practical way to live this is to change the subject of our praise. When something goes well at work, in a family, or in a congregation, we can name aloud the help we received and the God who supplied it. When we introduce ourselves, we can resist ranking. Party spirit in Corinth grew from people attaching their identity to a favorite name; the same instinct still gathers around leaders, styles, and causes. Glorying in the Lord loosens that grip. It also steadies us in seasons when there is little left to boast about, since the object of our joy stays constant.
Reflection & Prayer
Where have we been quietly keeping score, and what would change if the score no longer mattered? A prayer: Father, You have given us everything worth having in Your Son. Teach us to speak of Him with the gladness we usually save for ourselves, and let our joy rest somewhere that cannot be taken away. Amen.