People who are uncomfortable around us even before they know any thing about us are experiencing the conviction of Christ in us. They think its us, but its Christ in us.
Have you noticed that even family members will make up stories about you based on that uncomfortable feeling they have, not based on facts.
When you are bold for Christ you become a target for daring to presume to know truth. Since most people are not sure of what they believe, they are easily manipulated into believing things that are false. Perhaps because their ego is stroked by flattery first before they hear the guess of others who seek to undermine their targets support system.
Those who are stroked by flattery will believe everything that is said to them about the person who makes them uncomfortable. Flattery disarms all sense of evaluation of what is said.
Proverbs 29:5
"A man who flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet."
Proverbs 28:23
"Whoever rebukes a man will afterward find more favor than he who flatters with his tongue."
Job 32:21-22
"I will not show partiality to any man or use flattery toward any person. For I do not know how to flatter, else my Maker would soon take me away."
The tactic of a gossip is to flatter the one they are speaking to before laying on the gossip about another person. Building pride and superiority in the one who hears the gossip makes it more likely they will believe the gossip.
WATCH OUT FOR THOSE WHO FLATTER TO GAIN ADVANTAGE.
When there is favoritism there is always flattery and gossip present.
Romans 16:18
"For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive."
Jude 1:16
"These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires; they are loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage."
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