Lloyd-Jones: Christians are Mistaking “Niceness” for Grace

“Christian people are mistaking natural qualities — niceness, a veneer of politeness — for true Christian grace. It seems that we are no longer capable of differentiating between the two. How often today is affability mistaken for saintliness! ‘What a gracious man he is,’ they say. What they really mean is this: he never criticizes and he agrees with everybody and everything. I know of nothing more dangerous than that. These so-called gracious men are, of course, altogether nicer than John the Baptist or the Apostle Paul! I do not hesitate to go further — they are very much nicer than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself who strongly denounced the Pharisees!

Affability is not saintliness. An intellectual and oral flabbiness coupled with a pleasant disposition is not synonymous with graciousness and with the possession of grace!”

— Martyn Lloyd-Jones