It’s not Christian to be nice

Aug 26, 2016 by

by Jo Swinney, Christian Today:

Somewhere along the way, Christianity has got itself entangled with a soapy, soft, non-offensive concept: ‘niceness.’ The movement founded by a radical so offensive he got himself killed has a bunch of followers who smile at each other with creepy insincerity; deep, warm crinkles at the corners of our eyes as we say ‘God bless you’ to shopkeepers in the hope that our niceness will get them to church where more nice people will be there to welcome them.

Jesus did not ask us to be nice. True, it does his reputation harm if we are needlessly rude and obnoxious. Yes, being polite oils the wheels of social interaction very effectively. And who could object to genuine friendliness? The fruits of the Spirit include kindness, gentleness, and self-control. But they do not include niceness.

The Oxford English Dictionary gives various definitions for the word ‘nice’: giving pleasure or satisfaction, of a person: pleasant or attractive, good-natured. While there is nothing intrinsically wrong with being nice, allowing niceness to become a defining characteristic of those who profess to be Christians is not only wrong but jeopardises our ability to live the kind of lives – communal and individual – that Christ calls us to live.

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