Kindness

Today’s message is very simply entitled “Kindness.” Are you a kind person?

The Pharisees of Jesus day were very religious, but they were not kind. Their attitude toward other people was condescending, arrogant, and condemning. This attitude came out in John 7. Jesus was at the temple teaching during the Feast of Tabernacles. The Jewish leaders sent the temple guards to arrest Jesus and bring Him to them. But the guards came back without Jesus. When asked why they had not arrested Jesus, they replied, “No man ever spoke like this Man!”i Jesus was not only speaking with spiritual authority, but He was also working miracles. And many people were believing in Him. The Jewish leaders then compared themselves with the common people. They told these temple guards that none of them had believed in Jesus, and then said, “But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed" (7:49). They dismissed the common people as ignorant and cursed.

What a contrast that was with Jesus’s attitude toward the common people. Instead of despising and dismissing them, Jesus’s heart went out to them in compassion. Matt. 14:14 says, “And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick.”

Notice how Jesus’s attitude toward the people resulted in acts of kindness. He was moved with compassion “and healed their sick.” He brought relief to their suffering. The scribes and Pharisees brought no relief to the people’s suffering. They conducted religious services. But they did not act in kindness toward the people.

We cannot talk about kindness without first addressing the heart-attitude toward people. Jesus looked on the same crowd as the Pharisees but saw something very different in them. Mark 6:34 says Jesus was moved with compassion toward the multitudes “because they were like sheep not having a shepherd.” He saw them in the context of their need. Several times in the gospels when Jesus fed people or healed people, we are told He did it out of compassion toward them.

We see this contrast between Jesus’s attitude toward people and that of the Pharisee in John 8. There the Pharisees brought a woman caught in the act of adultery to Jesus. John tells us their motive was to entrap Jesus. But they came with a condemning attitude toward the woman. There was nothing redemptive in their hearts toward her. They reminded Jesus that the Law demanded that she be stoned. Jesus did not answer them but simply wrote on the ground. As they continued to press Him Jesus answered them, “"He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first" (8:7). Then as Jesus continued to write on the ground, the Holy Spirit convicted the conscience of each accuser and they left one-by-one until only Jesus and the woman remained. John 8:10-11 completes the story, “When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, ‘Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?’ 11 She said, ‘No one, Lord.’ And Jesus said to her, ‘Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.’” The Pharisees were there accusing and condemning her. Jesus was there freeing her from her bondage. She was not free to continue in her sin. She was free to live above it: “go and sin no more.”

The kindness that you and I show toward other people begins with an attitude of compassion toward them. It’s not an attitude that says, “Go, and continue in your sin.” It is an attitude that says, “Be free from the bondage of sin and all its destructive influence on your life: go, and sin no more.”

WHAT SHOULD KINDNESS LOOK LIKE IN OUR LIVES?

It should be manifested in our speech. The way we talk about one another and unbelievers should reflect kindness. Col. 4:6 instructs, “Let your speech always be with grace.” Season all that you say with a generous dose of kindness toward others. Our tongues can get us in a lot of trouble when we are not gracious in all our conversations. The person who wrote this brief poem had learned the lesson well.

“I’m careful of the words I say,

to keep them soft and sweet.

I never know from day to day

which ones I’ll have to eat.”ii

In Proverbs 31 we are given the description of a godly woman. One of her characteristics is stated in verse 26: “She opens her mouth with wisdom, And on her tongue is the law of kindness.” On her tongue is the law of kindness. Ladies, is that a good description of your speech? We should not limit the question to ladies for that law of kindness should be under the tongue of each and every one of us.