Proverbs 27:2. Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips.
One of the great signs of emotional and spiritual immaturity is seeking your own praise. When you were young you constantly tried to get attention. Look at me. Watch this. Did you see what I did? I did it! You praised yourself in order to get praise from others. Hopefully, that has changed. Maybe it hasn’t.
Everybody seeks praise because everyone needs and desires glory. We want our lives to have meaning and purpose. God created us to receive such glory from him. As image bearers we were meant to receive and reflect his glory, his goodness, his beauty, his holiness and his justification. We were not meant, however, to generate our own glory. Like the moon reflecting the sun, we were made to glow with the glory of God. Therefore, just as our glory must come from outside of us, so must our praise.
When we let others praise us and not our own mouth, we are resting in the imago dei. Only God can praise himself, and that is only because he is a Trinity. When God exalts God, the three persons of the Trinity (Father, Son, Spirit) are acting in the least selfish, most loving way. When you praise God or praise a creation of God, you are now imaging God himself. How? By praising something other than yourself.
Simply put, the person who praises themselves is not wise. Why? Because they have forgotten the position God has placed them in – moon, not sun.
OK, enough theology, time to get practical. The problem is that those who have to praise themselves are sad and just plain annoying. Such self-centered glory seeking is not glorious at all. It’s pathetic. Literally. We should feel sorry for those who live and die for the praise of others. The problem with praising ourselves goes beyond just the self-righteousness of it all. The problem is that we usually have no idea how to accurately judge ourselves. Because of our pride and self-absorption, what Paul calls conceit (emptiness leading to provocation and envy) in Galatians 5, we struggle to even create a true standard for judging ourselves. Here’s how Paul describes it in 2 Corinthians:
2 Corinthians 10:12. Not that we dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are commending themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding.
Without understanding, or, we might say, without wisdom. That’s the condition caused by comparison. Sure, you can always find a reason to praise yourself if you compare yourself to others. Just like you can always find a reason to feel down on yourself if you compare yourself to others.
What really matters is what God thinks of you.
2 Corinthians 10:17-18. 17“Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” 18For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.
Who does the Lord commend? The one who is in Christ. The one who is united to the death of Christ and finds their glory and praise in the cross alone. I.e., the humble. Does that sound like you? It can and it must. There is no place for self-glorification in the gospel. Only the crucifying of the flesh and the resurrection of the Spirit of Christ in us.
You: In what ways do you tend to praise yourself, seek compliments, self-promote?
You in Christ: How does our union with Christ remove our need to praise ourselves?
Christ in you: Who can you praise today (not yourself)? Or, how can you turn any praise you receive back to God?
Pray: Father, you deserve all the praise. Jesus, you deserve all the honor. Let this be my default reaction when praise comes my way. Amen.
To Live is Christ 