"Now you be nice to your sister.” “Make sure you play nice tonight.”
“He is such a nice young man.” As human beings, it seems that we are
drawn to niceness. We like nice people and encourage people to behave in
nice ways. We dislike people who aren’t nice or who don’t behave in
nice ways. We teach our children to be nice and juxtapose niceness with a
host of vices: grumpiness, cruelty, mean-spiritedness.
In Galatians 5, Paul contrasts the qualities of fleshly, worldly people
with the qualities of Spirit-filled, godly people. He lists the fruit
of the Spirit, those character traits that ought to mark God’s people,
saying, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such
things there is no law” (vv. 22–23). Conspicuously absent from Paul’s
list is niceness. Kindness is there; patience and gentleness too. But
not niceness.
Why isn’t niceness a fruit of the Spirit? Because niceness is a hollow
trait that a human can generate even without the inner working of the
Holy Spirit. Niceness may require some force of will in the face of
disagreement or controversy. It may require restraint. But it does not
require an inward transformation.
True love, true joy, true faithfulness and gentleness—these are all
qualities for which we are completely dependent upon the Holy Spirit’s
work in conforming us to the image of Christ through the Word of God. As
we immerse ourselves in God’s Word, as we carefully seek God and His
will through the Bible, the Holy Spirit gradually but surely grants us
these qualities in growing measure. Now we are able to love—truly
love—whereas before we could only hate and brood and love selfishly; now
we are able to display patience whereas before we would always explode
with anger or perhaps simply simmer with anger; now we are able to be
gentle whereas before we were so consistently harsh.
But niceness? Niceness doesn’t require that work of the Spirit. In
fact, niceness is often a clever ruse Satan employs to fool us into
following ungodly leaders. Be careful around nice people. Evil and
ungodly men often rely upon niceness to cover their sin. Where Christians
can be fast and blunt in defending the truth, unbelievers—and
especially unbelievers claiming to be Christians—can look good in
contrast. They can seem so nice as they nicely undermine the very
foundations of the Christian faith.
Their smiles, their soft words, their sympathetic questions, their
niceness—these are all tools designed to mask their opposition to God.
It is not bad to be nice. It is not an evil trait. But it is far better
to strive for the higher qualities, the Spirit-given qualities of love,
joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and
self-control. Against such things there is no law, because such
Spirit-given qualities cannot be faked forever.
No comments:
Post a Comment