⁸ Finally, all of you be of one mind, sympathetic, lovers of your fellow believers, compassionate, and modest in your opinion of yourselves. (1 Peter 3:8, CEB)

The Common English Bible uses the language to stretch out the word “humble,” which is what other translations use. It’s a good call.

I brush by “humble.” I am struck by the phrase, “modest in your opinion of yourselves.”

This is a world of self-promotion. When I am in a group of people who are asked to introduce themselves, it is rare to get that done in a few minutes. Most in a small circle have to pour out their accomplishments or why they are qualified to be in this particular circle, etc.

“Branding” is the watchword of the day. You would think we were in Texas ranch country the way that word is thrown around so much.

Publishers won’t look at your manuscript unless you have a “platform.” You have to get out there and get your audience.

And then we read a verse that says, in essence, be modest in your opinion of yourself.

Good luck with that one.

It’s so easy for me to fall into the pattern of self-promotion these days. But there are times when it really does grate on me. It was not how I was raised.

I can remember in college being on a missions trip. A college friend and I were riding in a pastor’s car and the pastor looked straight at me and asked, “Are you a good preacher?”

The question caught me completely off-guard, but even when I recovered in my mind, I thought, “How in the world do I answer that one?”

My friend chimed in from the back seat after an awkward silence and said to the pastor, “The Bible says to let another man’s lips praise thee.” (We were still in the King James era at the time.) He then went on to give the pastor his opinion of my preaching.

These days, I am afraid I’m a little quick to answer a similar question, and I don’t know that it’s a good thing.

How do we live in this biblical tension with today’s self-promoting world?