18 For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.
ONLY God Commends!!
Marketing your business is about as natural for entrepreneurs as breathing. Promoting yourself is something we humans do, constantly. We like to promote, proclaim and premiere our accomplishments. Graduation parties are for others to come to praise the graduate. When we have a retirement party we come to give recognition to the retiree. When we celebrate a sports victory or championship we sing the praises of the athlete(s). After a great athletic accomplishment, athletes like to beat their chest to show everyone how great they are. Cameras like to close in on the celebrating their personal efforts. These type of “commending” of ourselves is NOT being said as wrong, by Paul in the above verse. Paul is not saying these things are sinful. He is saying that they are not eternal. Solomon tells us the same thing. He says giving ourselves praise is not wise:
Proverbs 27:2 (ESV Strong's)
2 Let another praise you, and not your own mouth;
a stranger, and not your own lips.
We are to pursue eternal acceptance from God. Man’s praise does nothing for us. In fact, it causes us to act differently in life and not Godly in life. Note, again Solomon:
Proverbs 29:25 (ESV Strong's)
25 The fear of man lays a snare,
but whoever trusts in the LORD is safe.
Early, to this same church in Corinth, Paul wrote this:
1 Corinthians 4:3-4 (ESV Strong's)
3 But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. 4 For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me.
We are to pursue God’s approval. We need to pray, in faith, that God will produce acceptance in us.
No comments:
Post a Comment