Monday, June 20, 2011

Nice Isn't Good Enough

There’s a difference between nice people and good people. Often, when people say that a person is a good person, what they actually mean is that they are nice people. A lot of people are friendly. A lot of people will do nice things for you. It wouldn’t surprise you if someone said they visited an unmarried couple who are living in the same house and while visiting them he had an enjoyable time talking to them over a delicious meal. And yet, the Bible tells us that the lifestyle of these people is not good. In fact, it tells us that fornicators don’t go to heaven.

The sad truth is that there are a lot of nice people who are on their way to hell. The day will come when they will stand before God and all they will have to show for a reason for him to let them into heaven is that they were nice people. They will have done nice things for other people. But God will look at them and tell them that the requirement isn’t that they be nice, but that they be good.

We like nice people and we assume they are good people. That is not always the case. But good people tend to be nice people. So be nice, but more importantly, be good.