Stop Being A Nice Christian

Nice/nīs/adjective 1.pleasant; agreeable; satisfactory. “We had a nice time.”

Yes, I know that kindness is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). And no, I am not advocating that being a jerk online, or in person, is the way to go. But I do want to suggest that God is calling each one of us to much more than merely being nice.

It seems to me that being nice can actually be motivated by a fear of man.

We are afraid to speak up, so we are nice.

We want to fit in, so we are nice.

We know our convictions are counter-cultural, so we are nice.

We want people to like us, so we are nice.

In John 15:18-19 we read these words from Jesus:

18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

Jesus knew that there would be times when we as Christians would be rejected and hated because of our beliefs in the Word of God.

Here is a sobering thought, we could live our whole life never creating waves and being nice and have zero gospel impact in the lives of the people all around us.

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When was the last time that you clearly and boldly articulated the gospel to a person that needs to know Jesus? When was the last time you took a stand for the truth in the middle of a conversation that was about gender and sexuality? When was the last time you graciously confronted a brother or sister in Christ due to the fact that they were engaged in a sinful lifestyle (Galatians 6:1)?

Let’s not be ruled by the fear of man and be willing to speak truth to a world that desperately needs to hear it.