“Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips.” (Proverbs 27:2, ESV)
Did you know that for many web sites, you can purchase “likes” or good reviews? Did you know that there are thousands of workers whose only purpose is to promote a company or product on social media twenty-four hours a day? Even the press secretary for the White House distorts the truth, twists facts, and manipulates circumstances to promote the president and his agenda. There are so many places today where PR workers (Public Relations) consider their job is to promote their employer at all costs, even when the employer is wrong or evil or has been found breaking laws or manipulating the truth. All these modern-day practices are based on the notion that self-promotion is paramount for success with any venture.
Self-promotion is an objective where a person or corporate entity or group uses social media or public sources of information to manipulate the “word on the street” in their favor. When you have a new product on the market or are starting a new business, promoting that endeavor may make the difference between making a living and going bankrupt. Self-promotion is different. It seeks to control how others view the truth. Instead of letting people review your product and comment on it freely, self-promotion types might pay for a good review or silence any negative results on the product. Self-promotion seeks to make yourself or your product more virtuous, perfect, beautiful, successful, or note-worthy. In truth, self-promotion is simply a human endeavor intended to hide the truth about reality in order to accentuate and over-exaggerate all the perceived positives. It skews reality.
There are even computer programs that are specifically made for self-promotion. Photoshop is picture altering software that was designed to help people alter a digital photo to make the subject look better, more enticing, or more perfect. Businesses use Photoshop all the time to remove blemishes from models or make a baked good look more delicious. It is used to cover up mistakes and hide flaws.
After reviewing pictures from a dating app, a man contacted a woman to meet with her. She responded positively. They were to meet at Starbucks for coffee. When the man arrived, he sat at a table and waited for the woman to arrive. After a half an hour, he decided that he was stood up and left. When he contacted the woman via the dating app and complained, she responded that he had been the one to miss the date. At that point, both assumed they had met at the wrong Starbucks. In fact, they had both altered their photographs so much using Photoshop that neither one recognized their date even though they were seated twenty feet away from each other!
There are so many examples of people using self-promotion to alter reality. Beauty magazines retouch almost every picture, removing fatty bulges and skin blemishes from actresses and adding chiseled features to actors. Corporations pay reporters to alter their stories, so their business appear more profitable and help raise stock prices. YouTube algorithms often block certain negative movies and reactions from being seen, even hiding the “thumbs down” numbers from users. Disney works with reviewing sites to alter their movie ratings. Surgeons do liposuction surgery and face-lifts to make people appear younger or healthier. Self-promotion goes on everywhere it seems. From personal pages on Facebook to resumes at work, self-promotion is all the rage.
However, there are times when self-promotion not only alters reality, but it can also come back to bite you.
“A recent news release told of a Charlotte, North Carolina, woman who set a world record while playing a convenience store video game. After standing in front of the game for fourteen hours and scoring an unprecedented seven and a half million points on the game called “Tapper,” the woman was pleased to see a TV crew arriving to record her efforts for posterity. She continued to play while the crew, alerted by her fiancé, prepared to shoot. However, she was appalled to see the video screen suddenly go blank. While setting up their lights, the camera team had accidentally unplugged the game, thus bringing her bid for ten million points to an untimely end! The effort to publicize her achievement became the agent of her ultimate failure.” (10,000 Sermon Illustrations; 2002)
In the same way that the self-promotion backfired for the video game player from Charlotte, self-promotion can backfire on you. Let’s be honest, self-promotion is often just an attempt to deceive others. It is a form of manipulation that attempts to skew impressions or quell negative opinions. However, there are times when negativity can be a good impetus for change. Stopping that needed negativity can block creativity. Also, people who use self-promotion can delude themselves into believing the hype, overexaggerating their own worth, filling them with prideful arrogance.
The biblical book of Proverbs is full of many teachings about the dangers of pride and arrogance and the blessings of faithful humility. A perfect example is given in Proverbs 11:2, which states that “When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.” Proverbs 16:18 clearly adds that “Pride goes before destruction”. Proverbs 16:5 shows God’s point of view as it relates to human pride when it clarifies: “The LORD detests all the proud of heart.” Humility is seen in Proverbs as both a virtue and a sign of holiness.
The scripture for today considers self-promotion in the same vein as pridefulness. It gives this wisdom to the person who loves God: “Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips. (Proverbs 27:2). This verse is the Bible’s way of saying that the types of self-promotion designed for self-praise is not holy. If another praises your work or value or beauty or faith, that is wonderful if accepted with humility. Self-promotion is often just a prideful endeavor that leads to alienation from God if it is used for selfish purposes.
What would the world be like if businesses were honest about the worth and value of their products? How might the dating scene be helped if people told the truth about who they are and how they look? How much better would our world be if people spoke the truth in love, rather than hiding behind photoshopped photos, keyboard likes, and self-aggrandizement?
In the 1970’s, Karen Carpenter was known all over the world for her beautiful voice and amazing songs. She had many adoring fans and positive reviews. At one interview by a reporter, Karen Carpenter was asked about her weight. She responded how she didn’t like how she looked in pictures in magazines. A close friend of Karen’s thought she looked chubby in some of the pictures. A couple of others close to Karen agreed. These comments pushed Karen Carpenter over the edge. She began to secretly throw up after eating to lose weight. Even when she weighed only 115 lbs., she saw herself as grossly overweight. Soon, she would not allow even one ounce of fat to remain on her body. She slipped into a disease caused Anorexia Nervosa. This made her malnourished, which destroyed her health. She died in 1983 at only 32 years old, weighing less than 80 lbs. And, she still considered herself fat.
Self-promotion can lead to so many negative self-images, it is a surprise that most people don’t become sick like Karen Carpenter. When self-promotion is even successful, it can lead to much suffering in the public eye or the self-delusion of one’s worth. It lies to the world and to the person. It redefines reality and success in damaging ways. It downplays the need for God while inflating human opinion.
Be careful of all forms of pride and arrogance and self-promotion. They are deadly to the spiritual life. They destroy relationships, even a healthy relationship with God.
Self-promotion is an objective where a person or corporate entity or group uses social media or public sources of information to manipulate the “word on the street” in their favor. When you have a new product on the market or are starting a new business, promoting that endeavor may make the difference between making a living and going bankrupt. Self-promotion is different. It seeks to control how others view the truth. Instead of letting people review your product and comment on it freely, self-promotion types might pay for a good review or silence any negative results on the product. Self-promotion seeks to make yourself or your product more virtuous, perfect, beautiful, successful, or note-worthy. In truth, self-promotion is simply a human endeavor intended to hide the truth about reality in order to accentuate and over-exaggerate all the perceived positives. It skews reality.
There are even computer programs that are specifically made for self-promotion. Photoshop is picture altering software that was designed to help people alter a digital photo to make the subject look better, more enticing, or more perfect. Businesses use Photoshop all the time to remove blemishes from models or make a baked good look more delicious. It is used to cover up mistakes and hide flaws.
After reviewing pictures from a dating app, a man contacted a woman to meet with her. She responded positively. They were to meet at Starbucks for coffee. When the man arrived, he sat at a table and waited for the woman to arrive. After a half an hour, he decided that he was stood up and left. When he contacted the woman via the dating app and complained, she responded that he had been the one to miss the date. At that point, both assumed they had met at the wrong Starbucks. In fact, they had both altered their photographs so much using Photoshop that neither one recognized their date even though they were seated twenty feet away from each other!
There are so many examples of people using self-promotion to alter reality. Beauty magazines retouch almost every picture, removing fatty bulges and skin blemishes from actresses and adding chiseled features to actors. Corporations pay reporters to alter their stories, so their business appear more profitable and help raise stock prices. YouTube algorithms often block certain negative movies and reactions from being seen, even hiding the “thumbs down” numbers from users. Disney works with reviewing sites to alter their movie ratings. Surgeons do liposuction surgery and face-lifts to make people appear younger or healthier. Self-promotion goes on everywhere it seems. From personal pages on Facebook to resumes at work, self-promotion is all the rage.
However, there are times when self-promotion not only alters reality, but it can also come back to bite you.
“A recent news release told of a Charlotte, North Carolina, woman who set a world record while playing a convenience store video game. After standing in front of the game for fourteen hours and scoring an unprecedented seven and a half million points on the game called “Tapper,” the woman was pleased to see a TV crew arriving to record her efforts for posterity. She continued to play while the crew, alerted by her fiancé, prepared to shoot. However, she was appalled to see the video screen suddenly go blank. While setting up their lights, the camera team had accidentally unplugged the game, thus bringing her bid for ten million points to an untimely end! The effort to publicize her achievement became the agent of her ultimate failure.” (10,000 Sermon Illustrations; 2002)
In the same way that the self-promotion backfired for the video game player from Charlotte, self-promotion can backfire on you. Let’s be honest, self-promotion is often just an attempt to deceive others. It is a form of manipulation that attempts to skew impressions or quell negative opinions. However, there are times when negativity can be a good impetus for change. Stopping that needed negativity can block creativity. Also, people who use self-promotion can delude themselves into believing the hype, overexaggerating their own worth, filling them with prideful arrogance.
The biblical book of Proverbs is full of many teachings about the dangers of pride and arrogance and the blessings of faithful humility. A perfect example is given in Proverbs 11:2, which states that “When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.” Proverbs 16:18 clearly adds that “Pride goes before destruction”. Proverbs 16:5 shows God’s point of view as it relates to human pride when it clarifies: “The LORD detests all the proud of heart.” Humility is seen in Proverbs as both a virtue and a sign of holiness.
The scripture for today considers self-promotion in the same vein as pridefulness. It gives this wisdom to the person who loves God: “Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips. (Proverbs 27:2). This verse is the Bible’s way of saying that the types of self-promotion designed for self-praise is not holy. If another praises your work or value or beauty or faith, that is wonderful if accepted with humility. Self-promotion is often just a prideful endeavor that leads to alienation from God if it is used for selfish purposes.
What would the world be like if businesses were honest about the worth and value of their products? How might the dating scene be helped if people told the truth about who they are and how they look? How much better would our world be if people spoke the truth in love, rather than hiding behind photoshopped photos, keyboard likes, and self-aggrandizement?
In the 1970’s, Karen Carpenter was known all over the world for her beautiful voice and amazing songs. She had many adoring fans and positive reviews. At one interview by a reporter, Karen Carpenter was asked about her weight. She responded how she didn’t like how she looked in pictures in magazines. A close friend of Karen’s thought she looked chubby in some of the pictures. A couple of others close to Karen agreed. These comments pushed Karen Carpenter over the edge. She began to secretly throw up after eating to lose weight. Even when she weighed only 115 lbs., she saw herself as grossly overweight. Soon, she would not allow even one ounce of fat to remain on her body. She slipped into a disease caused Anorexia Nervosa. This made her malnourished, which destroyed her health. She died in 1983 at only 32 years old, weighing less than 80 lbs. And, she still considered herself fat.
Self-promotion can lead to so many negative self-images, it is a surprise that most people don’t become sick like Karen Carpenter. When self-promotion is even successful, it can lead to much suffering in the public eye or the self-delusion of one’s worth. It lies to the world and to the person. It redefines reality and success in damaging ways. It downplays the need for God while inflating human opinion.
Be careful of all forms of pride and arrogance and self-promotion. They are deadly to the spiritual life. They destroy relationships, even a healthy relationship with God.