The Difference Between Being Nice and Being Loving

I've often heard that there is no difference between these two. Honestly, if you looked at Christendom, you see a lot of nice people... However, there are situations which reveal a dramatic diffence, as I will soon demonstrate.

There is a scene, in my favorite movie "Les Miserables," where the new head of police crosses the line, in how he handles justice in a particular case. Now our hero, Jean Valjean, who happens to be mayor of this town, finds out about this, and comes to the rescue of the woman being prosecuted. Here is a textbook example of the difference between being loving and being nice. The police officer and Valjean go toe-to-toe, until the officer says "she will not go free as long as I'm in charge," to which Valjean's response is classic- "in that case, under article 77 you are relieved of duty until tomorrow morning. LEAVE! NOW!" Now, notice what he DIDN'T do. He did not try to appease everyone. A nice person may very well have buckled in that situation, because there was no grey area, no way to satisfy both parties. A love-oriented person, is not afraid to choose a side, for love's sake, and stay the course out of love's sake, and won't care about stepping on someone else's toes, knowing they are standing where they should stand. A nice person, though, needs to be liked by everyone, and may struggle to make a decision which might upset some people or someone. In that moment, Jean Valjean didn't care whether the officer liked him or not, and actually probably earned a little bit of respect for standing up for his convictions. It's really a backbone thing. It is true there are situations where compromise is useful- I'm not saying compromise is always bad. Clearly, though, sometimes compromise is no good... sometimes you just have to take a stand. You have to decide that you care more about a cause or a person in need of protection than about making everyone happy. Jesus demonstrated this when he cleared the temple of the sales people, because that area was where gentiles were supposed to be able to meet with God. He loved the gentiles, so he went to bat for them. This is what I mean- to love someone enough to fight someone else to protect the one you loved. This is what love really means. Go and do likewise.