May I remind us all that Jesus was homeless after he left his job and the majority of the people in his culture thought he was crazy and they were scared of him. He was an outcast, sure he had a faithful group of followers, but the majority of people thought they were nuts too. “As you did to one of the least of these, you did it to me.”
We continue our exploration of the fruit of the Spirit today. First we had Love, which was represented by strawberries, then Joy rep by watermelon, peace was cherries, and patience was blueberries. I didn’t mention the blueberries last week but I chose them because Denise always had to wait patiently for blueberries to come into season back in BC, she loves them and would talk about them all spring.
Why don’t we read our scripture together again…
Today we’re covering kindness, and the fruit I chose for this week is raspberries because they spread everywhere and this is what we hope kindness will do as well. Acts of kindness should spread from one person to another until kindness takes everything over.
The word Kindness comes from the Greek “chrestos” (chraystos) “to make oneself useful to another, make things easier, smoother”. It is a spirit of care for others, a desire to make someone else’s life easier, a carrying of burdens.
If you’re like me it may have been confusing to distinguish between kindness, goodness, and even gentleness. Two of these words are even different in the King James version.
These are related words but let me offer a way to differentiate them. Kindness refers more to how we treat people and acts that we do to make other’s lives easier or better. Goodness is related to righteousness and refers more to our character and doing what is right, and gentleness is related to meekness and describes our conduct as submissive to the will of God versus our own, not necessarily passive, but also not head strong. We’ll talk about these in coming weeks.
Let’s see what the Bible says about kindness.
Kindness is… first of all
I. A Characteristic of God (1 Co 13:4, Rom 11:22, Eph 2:4-7, Ti 3:4)
The Lord is good and steadfast in His loving kindness. We see this all over Scripture even when he is showing His wrath. Nowhere more than in the Psalms. If you look at Psalms 26, 36, 63 amoung others you’ll hear about God’s kindness and steadfastness.
God is love and according to 1 Corinthians 13, and love is patient and Kind, the last two fruit we covered. Romans 11:22 speaking to us the Gentiles says, “Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off.”
God is both kind and severe. Both are in His nature, and which we receive from him depends at least to some degree on our behaviour and belief. He wants us to be steadfast in our kindness.
Ephesians 2:4-7 shows that His kindness is manifest in Jesus, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— 6and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”
Again in Titus 3:4, “But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Saviour appeared…” See Jesus is God’s goodness and loving kindness who appeared in the world.
Kindness is:
II. A Command to Every Believer (Eph 4:32, 2Tim 2:24, Col 3:12, Mi 6:8, Zech 7:9)
2 Timothy 2:24 commands that the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone. In Ephesians 4:32 Paul tells us to put away all the bitterness and other negative stuff and “be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as Christ forgave you.”
In Colossians 3:12 we are told to put to death what is earthly in us and put on compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. The prophets had something to say as well. Micah says that the Lord requires us to do justice and to love kindness.
Listen to what Charles Swindoll says about this passage from Micah: read from pg 330
And God says to Zechariah to show kindness to one another and do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor.
As we have defined kindness, we are all commanded to make ourselves useful to others, and make an effort to make other people’s lives easier and more enjoyable. Have you ever dreaded a task only to have someone come help you? Is that not a great feeling? Have you ever felt all alone only to have someone visit you unexpectedly and it made your day?
Kindness is also:
III. In Contrast to a Bitter Spirit (Rom 2, Eph 4:31-32, Acts 8:21-23)
Bitterness comes from a heart that is not right before God as we see in Acts 8:21-23 “You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. 22Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. 23For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity."
Romans 3 tells us that bitterness is a primary characteristic of an unregenerate person, and Hebrews 12:15 says it causes destruction and defilement. Earlier in Ephesians 4 Paul said to put away all bitterness because he knows that bitterness blocks kindness and is a disease of the heart. There is no bitterness in a heart that is fully inhabited by the Holy Spirit, because it is not part of God’s nature. God gives us the Spirit but we need to put away the things like bitterness that block the Spirit from manifesting in us.
Kindness is:
IV. Being Considerate of All People (Lk 6:27, Php 2:3, Jas 3:17, Ti 3:1-2)
Titus 3:1-2 “Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, 2to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all people.”
Philippians 2:3, “count others more significant than yourselves.”
IN Luke 6 “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.” Are you kidding me? How on earth are we supposed pull that off? It sounds so against our human nature. How are we supposed to bear this spiritual fruit while we are still in this world? Doesn’t God want us to have a good life here too?
I have to admit that part of me gets angry when I hear these things, because Jesus makes it sound so simple, but it seems near impossible to do. Another part of me thinks this stuff is unrealistic, no wonder people don’t want to be Christians, it’s too hard. But there is a deeper part of me that says “yeah” that is how its supposed to be. Never once does Jesus say being a Christian is easy, in fact he says the opposite many times. My heart knows this is the right way, but I often feel so useless to pull it off.
Do you see though that this is exactly what God wants us to experience? We can’t do it, certainly not all the time, so if we can’t, we have to let him do it through us, which involves complete yielding to the Spirit. When I think about it this way, I’m not sure I have ever been completely yielded to the Holy Spirit. God wants to do impossible things through us, because if we can do it ourselves, who gets the glory? To some degree I think that is what it means to be a true Christian, that we attempt the impossible so that God can be seen.
We were talking at our elders meeting about what does the church, and Christian people have that the unchurched would desperately want. Salvation doesn’t seem to mean much to those who don’t believe they need to be saved. Everything seems to be possible by human means in our modern age, but one thing that has gotten worse is relationships. Kindness and consideration have practically disappeared in our world, especially amoung strangers. I don’t think many people even consciously know or care that they don’t have good relationships. It’s so easy to just go from one to another as they meet our desires.
Unfortunately the church isn’t that much better at relationships, and I think this is what the unchurched are seeking. Are we showing the world outside these walls anything different, relationship-wise, that would cause an unchurched person to take notice and want what we have? I think it would be noticeable if we were always putting others ahead of ourselves. But remember how we began this series, there is no fruit unless we are abiding in the vine through constant prayer and being in His word. He will then enable us to do this difficult task.
Kindness is:
V. A Comfort to Those it Touches (2 Cor 1:3-7, 2:7, 7:6; Isa 49:13, 51:12; Mt 11:28)
I love comfort. Not just the physical comfort of a warm bed or favorite chair, being pain free. But also the inner comfort that comes from life being easy. In Matthew 11:28 Jesus says my yoke is easy. Remember one of the translations of the word kindness is to make easier. Well I understand this from the point of view of others being kind to me and making my life easier, but what about the requirements Jesus gives and being there for others? That yoke doesn’t seem so easy.
Let me read 2 Corinthians 1:3-7: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. 6 If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. 7Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.”
So there it is, saying that our comfort will come from God when we choose to suffer with and for him, and this then is the comfort we can give to others. Again if we don’t get it from God, we can’t give the kindness and comfort that he wants us to give. It’s the old saying, “you can’t give away what you don’t have.” These verses seem to be saying that the amount of comfort we get from God corresponds to the amount of affliction or suffering we experience for him.
A little further Paul, talking about the sinner in the church who has been disciplined by the breaking of fellowship, says we should now forgive and comfort that person so their sorrow will not be overwhelming. Then in chapter 7 Paul says they were terribly afflicted, “but God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus, and not only by his coming but also by the comfort with which he was comforted by you.”
See here Paul is saying that comfort comes both from God and from people. God sent Titus, and Titus carried the comfort that was given to him by the Corinthian congregation, which was given to the congregation by God.
God says to Isaiah “I, I am he who comforts you”, and Isaiah tells the people that “the Lord has comforted them and will have compassion on his afflicted.” God is full of these dichotomies. The healthy don’t need doctors, the unlovable need our love, My yoke is easy but there is a cost to being my disciple and a narrow, hard way to life that few find, and I think he is also saying that the comfortable don’t need His comfort.
He says, “Go out there and suffer for me, then you will receive my comfort, get a thorn in your side, and I will show you that my grace is sufficient for you. If you’re already comfortable, why do you need my comfort?”
God wants us to be uncomfortable as long as we are doing it for his purposes, like the mother in the video. I felt very uncomfortable when I was having a discussion with John the homeless fellow out front of the church. Cars were driving by, a police car stopped in the parking lot to have a look for a while, I wished he would come in so no one would see me talking to him. But at the same time I knew that God wanted me to help this person, so I stayed with him, focused on what Jesus would want me to do, and God comforted me, I suddenly didn’t care about any of that stuff and God blessed me and him.
Finally kindness is:
VI. Corrupted by Bad Company and Selfish Desire (1Co 15:33; Ti 1:15; 2Pe 1:3-4; Pr 4:24, 6:12)
Proverbs warns us a couple of times to avoid corrupt talk with others whether they are speaking or we are.
1 Corinthians 15:33, “Do not be deceived: Bad company ruins good morals.”
Titus 1:15, “To the pure all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; both their minds and their consciences are defiled.”
2 Peter 1:3-4 “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.”
Why do we hang out with the wrong people, most likely because they offer something we want, whether it be fun, money, acceptance, distraction. If we hang out with people we consider worse than us, we feel better about ourselves and don’t have to look at our own flaws.
But bad company is only bad company if we allow ourselves to do what they do, or we don’t have the power to be leaders instead of followers with them. God doesn’t say we are to avoid them completely, but if we are there to partake in the desires of the flesh, we shouldn’t be there. If we are there to be friends and help move them toward a better life, and we are not overly influenced by them, great.
Recovering addicts are often the best people to help other addicts, but it can also go the other way and the addict that hasn’t been using can be influenced by the one who is, and they both go down together.
Do you see how it is always selfish desire that corrupts kindness. It’s my time, it’s my money, I deserve good things, I deserve to be treated kindly, I want to hang out with whoever I want, and do whatever I want.
I struggle with selfishness everyday. I don’t feel like doing the dishes. I don’t feel like disciplining the kids. I wanted to use this time to do something else that gives me gratification. I don’t want to be inconvenienced.
Several years ago I was walking to work from the train back in BC. I pretty much set my own schedule so it didn’t matter if I was a little late. I was walking across a quiet intersection where there were a few broken bottles, with the really jagged pieces that would shred a tire.
A middle aged lady was out of her car picking the pieces up and moving them to the side of the road. I walked right across the sidewalk saying to myself, I would help, but I have to get to work. I was making an excuse so that I wasn’t inconvenienced. It would have taken about two minutes. I remember that bothering me all day, I was ashamed of myself and clearly it still bothers me.
Those are the opportunities God gives us, and he smiles about our obedience to those little things. Who knows what could have happened if I had taken the opportunity to be kind? Maybe nothing, maybe something unbelievable, maybe I just would have felt better for the rest of the day, but I’ll never know.
Take every opportunity you have to make someone else’s life easier, happier, this is a tangible Christian thing we can do. We don’t have to know the right thing to say, or verbally witness to them, just do something nice. It will please the other person, it will please you, and it will please God.
