Then the Pharisees met together to plot how to trap Jesus into saying something for which He could be arrested. They sent some of their disciples, along with the supporters of Herod, to meet with Him. “Teacher,” they said, “we know how honest You are. You teach the way of God truthfully. You are impartial and don’t play favorites. Now tell us what You think about this: Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” But Jesus knew their evil motives. “You hypocrites!” He said. “Why are you trying to trap Me?” (Matthew 22:15-18)
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In my book When Sheep Bite, I call flattery the sneaky bite. Jesus was certainly aware when people crossed the line from compliment to flattery, and wise leaders will do the same. In the chapter on flattery, I wrote—
You may be thinking, “Wait a minute! I thought we were talking about the bites of the sheep in this section. How is flattery a ‘bite’?”
Let me explain by first giving you the dictionary definition for flattery so that we can distinguish it from a compliment. A compliment is an expression of praise or admiration. Flattery is marked by its excessive or insincere praise. …
Flattery crosses a line.
The compliment become flattery when the words begin to sound like, “This is the best sermon I have ever heard,” or “Everyone in the world who needs counseling should come to you,” or “No one could have done what you did for our family.” Flattery begins to put the shepherd on a pedestal. …
So we need to guard our hearts against the desire to hear compliments from the sheep we serve. If our heart is in this posture, we can easily slide into self-pity if we don’t get the recognition we think we deserve. Then when the sycophantic flatterers come along, and we’re parched for praise, we will quickly lap up everything they are doling out. As a result, we are now listening for a voice other than our Master to say, “Well done,” and we can all too easily slide into a people-pleasing lifestyle.
Learn more about the sneaky bite of flattery, as well as the biblical way to handle all of the other ways that sheep bite their shepherd. Pick up a copy of When Sheep Bite today.
