Christians aren’t called to be “nice” people.
Sounds controversial, but would you agree?
We can often reduce the fruit of the Spirit, or the marks of someone following Jesus, down to just being nice. You know, being polite, smiling, not disagreeing, not saying anything that might make someone uncomfortable.
But “nice” isn’t actually a biblical category. The word “nice” isn’t even in the Bible!
When I was at Bible College, one of my lecturers told our class that whenever he met up with men from his church, he would always ask about three areas of life: grog, girls, and greed. From his experience, most men struggled to honour God in at least one of these.
From my own experience, the one people are most uncomfortable talking about is greed. Many will readily share their struggles with alcohol or lust, but few will open up about how they are seeking to honour God with their money and possessions. A retired pastor once told me that in decades of ministry, he had heard confessions of almost every sin under the sun (even murder!) but never once had someone come to him seeking help with greed.
We’ve just returned from a holiday in Sydney, where we caught up with some dear friends from the church we left when we moved to Wellington to plant City on a Hill. It was wonderful to be reminded of the things we had asked them to pray for all those years ago. And even more encouraging was to see their joy as we shared what God has done in answer to those very prayers.
God has been very good to us as a family and as a church whānau.
But it got me thinking about the subtle difference between God’s goodness and his faithfulness.
Do you want to grow deeper in your relationship with God and with others?
One of the simplest and most powerful ways is to read the Bible one-to-one with another brother or sister in Christ. For me, some of my deepest and most lasting friendships, spanning years and even countries, began with a regular catch-up over God’s Word.
This shouldn’t surprise us, because it is through the Word of God that the living God speaks to us and transforms us by his Spirit. As 2 Timothy 3:16 reminds us:
You know that feeling of standing on the edge of cold water? You know it will be good for you once you’re in… but when you’re warm and dry, it’s hard to take the plunge.
That’s a little how I felt before our sermon series on the Holy Spirit. As I shared at the Q&A Night, I was apprehensive. Nervous about how it might land in our church, and whether it might stir up unnecessary conflict or division.
