Read Matthew 25:31-46 – show kindness and you’d have served Christ!
How did Jesus distinguish the sheep from the goats? From the way they treat others. The tree shall be known by its fruits.
• He is not making them into sheep and goats. He is dividing them as He sees them.
• Believers of Christ will have the life of Christ in them; they will bear the Fruit of the Spirit, and it will show in their acts of kindness.
Jesus is by no means making a theological statement about salvation by the acts of kindness. We are not saved by good works; we’re saved by grace through faith in Jesus.
• And true faith shows. By its fruit I will know the tree. By your kind actions I will know you are my sheep!
• James says true faith can be seen - James 2:14-16, “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
The one who has Christ will display the character of Christ – and that’s KINDNESS.
• Kindness reveals a life that is transformed by Christ. Kindness reveals the love of God in our hearts. Kindness reveals the character of Christ in our lives.
• The kind acts I do did not make me kind; it is the other way around, I do kind acts because I’ve been made new by Christ.
• His sheep will do kind acts. The things we do reveal WHO we are.
• The Lord says: “When I see KINDNESS, I’ll know they are sheep. They are My sheep because they are just LIKE ME!”
When Jesus returns, He will not commend us for the knowledge we’ve acquired, the fame we have gotten, or the fortune we have gained, but by the kindness we’ve shown.
(1) Heed the Call to REFLECT GOD’S KINDNESS
Luke 6:36 “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”
God is kind. Right from the beginning, we see God’s kindness, in the Garden of Eden.
• When Adam and Eve sinned and hid from God, realising they were naked and in shame, Gen 3:21 “The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.”
• This was a gracious act of kindness on God’s part. It was significant because this was the first slaughter of an animal, and it points to the ultimate slaughter of the Lamb of God for the covering of man’s sin.
• God wants to remove the shame of sin and clothe us with the righteousness of Christ.
And then we saw the next sin – Cain killed his brother Abel in Gen 4. He was banished from the land and lived a life of a wanderer.
• But God showed His kindness to Cain when He put a mark on Cain “so that no one who found him would kill him”. (Gen 4:15).
We see God’s kindness flows through the pages of the Bible, particularly so towards His people Israel.
• Isa 54:8 “In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you," says the LORD your Redeemer.”
Our response to the poor, despised, afflicted, sick and in need, is a reflection of the character of Christ. It makes us truly like Him.
• This is how we show our love to Him in response to the love He shown to us, by our love for people, expressed through our acts of kindness.
• “For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.” (1 John 4:20)
• Whoever loves God must also love his brother (1 John 4:21). Kindness is God’s love in action.
(2) Make Efforts to CULTIVATE KINDNESS
Eph 4:32 “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”
We need to be reminded, because we are not born to be naturally kind-hearted; we GROW to become one. Kindness needs to be taught and caught and practiced.
• Sociologist Robert Wuthnow did a study of young volunteers who are involved in serving their community. He found out that performing acts of caring is more learned than innate.
• We need to learn it, practice it and we need to model it for our young.
There is this true story about a family that always prayed at the meal saying this, “Come Lord Jesus be our guest and let this food be a blessing to us.”
One day the smallest boy in the family looked up at dad and said, “Dad, every evening we ask Jesus to come and be our guest, but He never comes.”
His father said, “We can only wait for Him to appear!”
The little boy thought for a moment and said, “Well, then if we expect Him to come and have dinner with us, why don’t we set a place for Him at the table?”
Wanting to make the little boy happy, his mother set out extra silverware, a plate and a cup at the end of the table. Not long after the place was set, they heard a knock at the door. When the door was opened they saw a poor man who was hungry.
The little boy looked at his father and said, “Jesus could not come today but He sent this poor man in His place.” The man was invited in and he enjoyed a good meal.
The parents felt that this was a divine moment provided by the Lord. They shared about Jesus, what He just did and what He had done in their family. The poor homeless man accepted Christ into his heart and life.
Jesus says, “… whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” (Matt 25:40) – He uses the phrase “the least of these” to describe them.
• They are the ones generally regarded as insignificant and useless; they are the neglected and ignored ones in society.
• They are the ones that cannot contribute to our economy; in fact, they are likely a burden to society. They cannot give; they can only take, because they are in need.
Mother Teresa was asked how many times she meets the Lord in a day. Her answer was, “I meet Jesus once in my morning devotions, and then for the rest of the day, in the faces of the needy people I serves.”
• She sees Jesus in the faces of the poor and dying sick that she ministers to in the streets of Calcutta.
It is not uncommon to have strangers walking into our church and asking for financial help. Each time someone walks in and asks for help, or tries to sell cards or pictures to get a donation, our founding pastor Rev Lau would surely give them something, without fail. She would not want anyone to go away empty-handed.
I would usually make some comments after they left. “But they could be cheats,” I said. “And some of the stuff that they are selling isn’t really worth that kind of price. They just jacked up the price to earn from you.”
She would always say, “It’s alright. They may really need the money. If they cheat us, they will have to answer to God. But if they are truly in dire straits and I did not help, then I’m answerable to God.”
Kindness needs to be cultivated. I’m still learning. It is not always easy helping people with no strings attached. It takes sacrifice; it takes a spirit of generosity.
• PM Lee mentioned at the Rally the possibility that some Singaporeans are getting less patient, less tolerant of one another. We interact less and become more self-centred and narrow-minded, and losing the kampong spirit of the past generations.
• Are we being influenced, more by our society and culture, than by Christ and His love? Am I a kinder person than I was before, because of Christ?
Elisabeth Elliot wrote a beautiful prayer, in “A Lamp for My Feet”:
“Lord, break the chains that hold me to myself; free me to be Your happy slave – that is, to be the happy foot washer of anyone today who needs his feet washed, his supper cooked, his faults overlooked, his work commended, his failure forgiven, his grieves consoled or his button sewed on. Let me not imagine that my love for You is very great if I am unwilling to do for a human being something very small.”
(3) Take Initiative to SHOW KINDNESS
While the sheep were commended for the kind acts they did, the goats were reprimanded for the kind acts they failed to do.
• Jesus expected such acts of kindness from those who truly believe Him. It is the natural outflow of a new life in Christ.
• He expected us to be keenly aware of such needs and respond to them promptly.
We are not to be passive, careless and ignorant of such needs (like the goats).
• We are instead called to be proactive, attentive and practical in meeting needs.
• In our modern lifestyle, it is easy to run the rat race and not notice who you pass by. But the Lord sees it as important.
So let’s be attentive to the needs that the Lord has brought to our attention, wherever we are.
He has His divine purpose. We meet it and we’ll be sharing the love of Christ. Frederick William Robertson (1816-1853): “One act of kindness will teach us more of the love of God than a thousand sermons…”
• Don’t miss God’s divine moments. Walk with kindness
• I read this poem by Adelaide Anne Proctor (1825-1864) in Streams in the Desert:
It isn’t the thing you do, dear,
It’s the thing you leave undone,
That gives you the bitter heartache
At the setting of the sun;
The tender word unspoken,
The letter you did not write,
The flower you might have sent, dear,
Are your haunting ghosts at night.
The stone you might have lifted
Out of your brother’s way,
The bit of heartfelt counsel
You were hurried too much to say;
The loving touch of the hand, dear,
The gentle and winsome tone,
That you had no time or thought for,
With troubles enough of your own.
These little acts of kindness
So easily out of mind,
These chances to be angels,
Which even mortals find—
They come in nights of silence,
To take away the grief,
When hope is faint and feeble,
And a drought has stopped belief.
For life is all too short, dear.
And sorrow is all too great,
To allow our slow compassion
That tarries until too late.
And it’s not the thing you do, dear,
It’s the thing you leave undone,
That gives you the bitter heartache
At the setting of the sun.
