Psalms 16:2 and 31:1-3.

My Shepherd met me floundering about in His green pastures in search of Him. He directed my mind to a thought He impressed on my heart yesterday: Must Christians always be nice and friendly? So He laid me down in Matthew 23. The question is addressed throughout the chapter, so I’ll present here only one sample:

Matthew 23:27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.

Matthew 23:28 Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

Was Jesus being “nice”? Most Christians would be very uncomfortable, some would gasp, others might even faint, and many would become angry at one of Jesus’ exchanges with the hypocrites of his day. Was He being “nice”?

Today, the word nice means to give pleasure or satisfaction, in an effort to attract a pleasant or favorable response. Webster’s (1913) traces the word’s roots to the Latin term nescius, meaning ignorant. Webster’s 1828 edition traces the word to the Saxon nesc, or knesc, meaning “sweetmeats, dainties.” Both include both meanings, but 1828 begins with the idea of delicacy, whereas 1913 begins with the idea of ignorance or foolishness.

“Be nice,” so far as I can find, is not numbered among Christian virtues. Of course, Christians should not be crude, or rude, or unkind: “Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man” (Colossians 4:6). But we must remain within the guardrailes of truth: “Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another” (Ephesians 4:25).

Along the still waters, I reflected on Jesus’ speech to the Pharisees and scribes, and could not help but think of His highest motivating principle: “Love.”

He said, “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten” (Revelation 3:19a). The right response to His scathing rebuke against the hypocrites is this: “Be zealous therefore, and repent” (Revelation 3:19b).

Being “nice” can be the cruelest thing a Christian could be to the worldlings. More often, it is not in service to the needs and interests of the sinner; it is usually a selfish act, in service to their own desires.

Christians should always be motivated primarily by love for our neighbors. Love is sometimes most sincerely expressed in rebuke and reproof. At all times, we must be truthful.

Jesus pointed to specific behaviors and reproved them: devouring widow’s houses, and making long prayers to be seen of men, and warned them that they would receive the “greater condemnation” (Matthew 23:14). They “won a soul” to their faith and made him “twofold more the child of hell” than themselves (Matthew 23:15). He called them “fools and blind” (Matthew 23:17-19). He called the “blind guides” that “strain at a gnat and swallow a camel” (Matthew 23:24). He called them “serpents,” a “generation of vipers,” and warned them, “How can ye escape the damnation of hell?” (Matthew 23:33). And more!

Sometimes, the most loving and truthful thing you can say to someone behaving like a blithering idiot is, you’re acting, or talking like a blithering idiot. Hopefully, they will “be zealous … and repent.”

Are Christians supposed to be “nice”? Only if you can include the example of Jesus in what you mean by the word.

In the valley, I remembered how Paul felt about being required to rebuke and reprove those he loved (See 1 Corinthians 4:21 and 2 Corinthians 2:1-4). His perspective was that God would humble him to reprove and rebuke: “And lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed” (2 Corinthians 12:21). No Christian can rightly address the sinner or the saint who does not do so bearing his cross: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23).  Today, most Christians would think the Christian harsh, cruel, and even mean who would speak to hypocrites they way Jesus did. But, beloved, we are not called to be “nice.” But we are called to love one another, and our neighbor, too.

At the table, Jesus anointed my head with His oil and filled my cup with His grace. We walked together into the harvest. When I checked, I noticed goodness and mercy following close.

Praying for revival! 🙏

Going live later, probably this evening.

I’ll send the link before I go on.