Are you a nice person? Would others consider you nice? I continue to see people that confuse the whole of Christian living as being nice. There is NO commandment in scripture to be nice. As Christians we are to walk in love, integrity, service and humility, But we are never told we must be nice.
Nice [nahys] -adjective : 1. pleasing, agreeable; delightful. 2. amiably pleasant
I grew up being told to be "nice" my entire childhood. This left me at times not being who God had me to be as well as just caving under any external pressure I might have run into. In Paul Coughlin's book, No More Christian Nice Guy, I was reminded that we are not called to be "agreeable" all the time. He also the damage that "niceness" causes to relationships, families and the Christian Church. Jesus Christ himself came to not be "nice" but to bring change. Scripture says that the Christian faith is an offence to unbelievers. If it's not...some thing's wrong. You are not called to make everyone happy, to never disagree with someone or be politically correct. Now for those of you that can't read nuance, let me also say that you're not called by Jesus to be a jerk! That is not what this is about. It's about living out the Christian faith in a authentic fashion without being a pansy in the process. I highly recommend this book!
Not Nice,
Nathan
