There is an old saying that goes, “It’s easy to keep from being a bore. Just praise the person you’re talking too!" This is an example of a secular proverb with which Christians are to take issue. While it might seem Innocuous at first, this "laying it on a bit thick" mentality is nothing more than flattery. Flattery may not appear in the Ten Commandments and most people today wouldn’t even consider it a sin. But a careful reading of the Bible gives a different perspective. It considers flattery a serious violation of God’s Law. In the Book of Romans 16:18, Paul identifies it as a tactic of false teachers saying, “By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people.” Proverbs 29:5 says that “A man who flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet.” While Proverbs 26:28 says, “a flattering mouth works ruin.”

Even though we may think it’s a minor thing, the Bible takes a dim view flattery. It has to do with God’s insistence upon our being honest with one another. We are simply not being truthful when we flatter someone. When we flatter others; not only does it deceive them but it demeans the praise that we give to God. It makes our praise of God questionable at best which displeases God to whom all praise is rightfully given. It is why James would write in chapter 3:10 – 11 of his book, “From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?” The obvious answer to the question is “no.”

As we enter the month of February, which we think of as “the month of love” because of the celebration of Valentine’s Day, let us speak only honest praise to one another, and give our highest praise to God the Father for his genuine love through his son, Jesus. And let us follow the admonition of Paul in Ephesians 4:15 as he says, “Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.”

Pastor Kit Stanich