I remember I once went to a restaurant, and I noticed this woman’s bright pink shirt (she was a fellow patron of the restaurant) that said “Be nice y’all”-God. Now, I read the Bible every day, well, nearly every day. I have read from Genesis to Revelation more times than I can count, and while I have seen God say many things through the Prophets, and through Jesus Christ, His Son, I have never seen God say, “Be Nice.” Let me define that word “nice” before I move on. Modern conventions would have it be “don’t do anything to stir the pot, don’t say anything offensive, keep your opinions to yourself even if I openly and blatantly misrepresent or contradict it.” This word “nice” has been used to gaslight and pressure Christians in to keeping quiet about their faith, even as everyone else is allowed to do and say as they please.
While God does say “As far as it is from you live at peace with everyone,” (Romans 12) and Jesus teaches us to love our enemies and pray for our persecutors, we’re also told to live unashamed of the Gospel (Romans 1:16, elsewhere), and to live as lights in the world (Philippians 2). Jesus, the Apostles, and believers from Stephen on up have been murdered for boldly proclaiming the Gospel, which is offensive to the religious and non-religious alike. The Gospel, which states that the absolute and total goodness of God demands justice, that we are all sinners who have rebelled against God’s goodness, and that we all deserve death, is offensive. It’s offensive because it states we cannot fix ourselves, and that Jesus’ life, death, burial and resurrection are the only things that can save us, and that to get in on it, we MUST follow Jesus, repent and die to ourselves, and be born again.
The world finds this offensive because those living in darkness desire to be okay in and of themselves. They want to be the saviors (which is why they are always going on crusades to save something or someone) and cannot stand the idea of accountability to the Creator of all things. The message of the Gospel is gruesome and bloody, and begins with our sin, continues with Jesus’ brutal death and wonderful resurrection, and culminates with our own death, burial and resurrection through Jesus Christ. There’s nothing “nice” about it. We are not told to be nice and quiet, but to make disciples, to proclaim the Gospel, and to do the work of the Kingdom. Stop worrying about what others think, and get in to what God has mandated.
Isaiah 59
Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save,
or his ear dull, that it cannot hear;
but your iniquities have made a separation
between you and your God,
and your sins have hidden his face from you
so that he does not hear.
For your hands are defiled with blood
and your fingers with iniquity;
your lips have spoken lies;
your tongue mutters wickedness.
No one enters suit justly;
no one goes to law honestly;
they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies,
they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.
They hatch adders’ eggs;
they weave the spider’s web;
he who eats their eggs dies,
and from one that is crushed a viper is hatched.
Their webs will not serve as clothing;
men will not cover themselves with what they make.
Their works are works of iniquity,
and deeds of violence are in their hands.
Their feet run to evil,
and they are swift to shed innocent blood;
their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity;
desolation and destruction are in their highways.
The way of peace they do not know,
and there is no justice in their paths;
they have made their roads crooked;
no one who treads on them knows peace.
Therefore justice is far from us,
and righteousness does not overtake us;
we hope for light, and behold, darkness,
and for brightness, but we walk in gloom.
We grope for the wall like the blind;
we grope like those who have no eyes;
we stumble at noon as in the twilight,
among those in full vigor we are like dead men.
We all growl like bears;
we moan and moan like doves;
we hope for justice, but there is none;
for salvation, but it is far from us.
For our transgressions are multiplied before you,
and our sins testify against us;
for our transgressions are with us,
and we know our iniquities:
transgressing, and denying the Lord,
and turning back from following our God,
speaking oppression and revolt,
conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words.
Justice is turned back,
and righteousness stands far away;
for truth has stumbled in the public squares,
and uprightness cannot enter.
Truth is lacking,
and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.
The Lord saw it, and it displeased him
that there was no justice.
He saw that there was no man,
and wondered that there was no one to intercede;
then his own arm brought him salvation,
and his righteousness upheld him.
He put on righteousness as a breastplate,
and a helmet of salvation on his head;
he put on garments of vengeance for clothing,
and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak.
According to their deeds, so will he repay,
wrath to his adversaries, repayment to his enemies;
to the coastlands he will render repayment.
So they shall fear the name of the Lord from the west,
and his glory from the rising of the sun;
for he will come like a rushing stream,
which the wind of the Lord drives.
“And a Redeemer will come to Zion,
to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,” declares the Lord.
“And as for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the Lord: “My Spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of your offspring, or out of the mouth of your children’s offspring,” says the Lord, “from this time forth and forevermore.”
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