Flattery

Flattery is defined as the act of praising someone excessively, often from an insincere motivation. The one flattering another may want something from another person, so they think flattering them will “soften them up.” The person who flatters has no capacity for love, so they must flatter in order to gain approbation. Patronizing or flattering stimulates ones approbation lust.

The motivation to flatter is mental attitude sin plus the desire to have the details of life. This produces self-induced misery. The word “flatters” in Proverbs 28:23 is in the causative hiphil stem in the Hebrew and means to smooth, to flatter, or to flirt.

“He who rebukes a man will afterward find more favor Than he who flatters with the tongue.”  (Proverbs 28:23, NASB)

Flattery is human viewpoint designed to gain happiness through the details of life and approbation lust. Bible doctrine is permanent. Flattery is temporary. The believer who lives on flattery is enslaved by it. Believers cannot ever be sustained or helped by flattery.