15 You know that the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaia, and they have devoted themselves to the service of the Lord’s people. I urge you, brothers and sisters, 16 to submit to such people and to everyone who joins in the work and labors at it. 17 I was glad when Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus arrived, because they have supplied what was lacking from you. 18 For they refreshed my spirit and yours also. Such men deserve recognition. -1 Corinthians 16:15-18
We live in a culture of self-promotion. You have to promote yourself to get into college. You have to promote yourself during try-outs to make it to a sports team. You have to promote yourself to be elected to an officers position in a club. The list goes on and on and on.
And because we live in such a self-promoting culture, one way we promote ourselves is by putting others down. We gossip about other people’s failures or we’re secretly or not so secretly glad when they fall into misfortune.
One of the things that bother me as a Young Life leader is how so many guys put each other down to try to one up one another. They claim that they are dissing each other because they are close and its a sign of intimacy. But I suspect that underneath it, there is a modicum of self-promotion. That deep down it’s our way of masking our insecurities by dissing others.
The Apostle Paul here is super confident in his identity in Christ and so he has no need to put anyone down. In fact, here in this passage he urges us to lift others up with praise. “Such men deserve recognition.”
We’re always so quick to criticize people, but when was the last time we praised someone. “Hey, you did awesome in that game.” Or, “Hey, your sharing was fire.” Or, “Nice job on your part of the project.” Or, “You’re really improving in League.”
Your words have power. Are you using your words to build up or to tear down? That all depends on how much you identify with Christ.
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