The Bible is full of encouragement for us to be thankful people. We are, in fact, to live our lives in an atmosphere of thanksgiving. There are many references to expressing thanks to others and to the Lord. The Bible refers to flattery as vain and corrupting. The dictionary defines flattery as excessive or insincere praise .
Flattery is often political in nature.
People butter others up in order to selfishly get something from them or obtain an advantage over them. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people. In this passage, Paul warns the early church to watch out for trouble makers within their ranks.