Mamie Adams always went to a certain branch post office in her town
because the postal employees there were always friendly. One day, she went there to buy stamps and the lines were very long. Someone told her that there was no need to wait in line...because there was a stamp machine in the lobby. "I know," said Mamie, ’but the machine won’t ask me about my arthritis."
A beautiful woman married a very ugly man...and one day, a friend asked her how someone so beautiful could marry someone so ugly. She replied, "He never once has said anything to hurt my feelings." Kindness makes a person attractive.
“The Fruit of the Spirit is Kindness.” “One day a student asked anthropologist Margaret Mead for the earliest sign of civilization in a given culture. The student expected the answer to be a clay pot or perhaps a fish hook or grinding stone. Her answer was, “a healed femur.’ Mead explained that no healed femurs are found where the law of the jungle, survival of the fittest reigns. A healed femur shows that someone cared. Someone had to do that injured person’s hunting and gathering until the leg healed. The evidence of compassion is the first sign of civilization.” God’s Word often calls us to the ministry of kindness. As Christians we can make a difference in the lives of others by being kind.
You see, it is not enough to simply express feelings of sympathy for those who hurt; a kind disciple sees the hurt, the pain, the distress, the discomfort of others and takes action to alleviate it. A kind Christian is not satisfied by simply offering words of encouragement; he or she takes action and helps. Kindness “furnishes what is needed.”
The reason that people are looking to find "kinder and gentler"...is because, there is a great lack of kindness in our world today. And there is a need for "kinder and gentler Christians". You would think that could just go without saying...but I’ve been around some so-called Christians who were rude...abrupt...discourteous...
hurtful...and uncaring about the feelings of others. Kindness is a fruit of the Spirit...
If we call ourselves Christians...and the Holy Spirit resides in our hearts...
then kindness is a fruit that grows...and is produced in the life of the Christian.
When you think of kindness, chances are that one of the first names that comes to mind is Mister Rogers. A year or two before Fred Roger’s death someone in Philadelphia, where he lived, stole his car. The news media got a hold of the story and before long all the local TV stations were broadcasting the story. Thousands of Philadelphia citizens saw the story, including the thief who stole the car. This criminal had dealt with his own share of difficult times, but he knew that when he was small Fred Rogers had been a positive influence on him. Within 48 hours the car was back in the spot where he left it, along with a note saying "If we’d known it was yours, we never would have taken it!"
Kindness may be one of the most underrated fruits. More people have been brought into the church by the kindness of real Christian love than by all the theological arguments in the world. How many times in your life have you felt discouraged or felt like everything was against you only to be met by someone who was willing to show kindness to you. I wonder how many lives have been changed by someone showing the fruit of kindness. It has been said that "Kindness is a language the dumb can speak and the deaf can hear and understand."
As with all the other Fruit of the Spirit, kindness is rooted in the character of God. One of the greatest promises in the Old Testament is the one shared by the Psalmist in Psalm 145:8, “The LORD is gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger and rich in love.”
If you are familiar with computers and the internet, you understand the principle of links. A link is “a relationship or connection that exists between people or things.” If you are surfing the World Wide Web, you may come to a particular site that gives you links to other related sites of interest. All you have to do is “click” on a particular link, and you will go to the related site.
There are many Christian attributes that are linked or related to kindness, and one we often find is compassion. The Lord is kind, or in the words of the Psalmist, “the Lord is compassionate in that He is “slow to anger and rich in love.” The purpose of God’s kindness is to lead people to repent, to bring sinners back to Him.
The Lord is kind; the Lord is compassionate in that He draws repentant sinners back into fellowship with Him. God’s kindness is unlimited; He is friendly even to His enemies, and Jesus commands us to do likewise in Luke 6:35-36, “But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. (Can you do that?) Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”
Because God is kind to the ungrateful and wicked, we are called to show His same mercy to them as well. By the power of the Holy Spirit ministering through us, we can be kind even when our kindness is neither acknowledged nor appreciated.
Jesus is the personification of kindness. Remember kindness and compassion are so often linked with each other. The NT has three basic words for compassion, but the word most often used, and the only one used for expressing the compassion of Jesus, has a unique history. Originally it meant the “inner parts of the body.” It referred to the “center of human emotions,” particularly to pity, compassion, and love.
Jesus was always reaching out to anyone who hurt, was in pain, experienced distress or discomfort. He always relieved their suffering and turned their lives around. He always responded with compassion. He reached out His hand in compassion to heal a leper who nobody else would dare touch. When the 5,000 that He fed first came to Him, Matthew tells us Jesus “had compassion on them and healed their sick” [Matthew 14:14], while Mark says He “had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd” [Mark 6:34].
When He returned from the Mount of Transfiguration with Peter, James, and John, He encountered a Father who had brought His demon possessed son to the other nine disciples for healing. The Father made a simple request of Jesus, “Take pity on us, or show compassion for us, and help us” [Mark 9:22]. When he was leaving Jericho one day, two blind men cried out to Him, and “He had compassion on them and touched their eyes” [Matthew 20:34]. In Luke 7:13 we see Jesus’ unending compassion in His meeting with the Widow of Nain, who was on her way to bury her only son: “When the LORD saw her, His heart went out to her, and He said, ‘Don’t cry.’”
Those whom Jesus touched in compassion and kindness would never be the same again. His personal touch of kindness was a turning point in their lives. Recall again the words of I Peter 2:21: “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in His steps.” That tells me that we must follow Jesus in personal acts of kindness in our relationships with others, even those who are our enemies and those who will not be grateful for our ministry.
The Lord wants to make a difference in our world today through our acts of kindness as Paul makes clear in Colossians 3:12-14, “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”
And it’s right there that we see the perfect formula for a God-centered church. If we truly love one another, and I mean truly love, not just say it, then we will have compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, toward one another. We then no longer will have the attitude of “us against them.” No longer will we have the attitude of “I go to my own group meeting. I don’t belong to yours and you don’t belong to mine.” No! We will no longer have that attitude. We will be what is foreign to many churches. We will be united.
Kindness is love in action. Kindness is not just an attitude in our heart or in our mind...it has to get out...it has to be expressed...kindness held inside is no kindness at all...it has to be let out.
If we are Christians...if the Holy Spirit resides in our hearts...then the FRUIT of the Spirit...will spring forth KINDNESS in our lives...Colossians 3:12 says to "clothe yourselves with kindness"...When you first get up in the morning...before you put on your shirt or pants...before you put on your shoes or your coat...put on kindness!
We’ve already seen that kindness is linked with compassion. All the Fruits of the Spirit are linked with each other. Paul links kindness with compassion, patience, humility, gentleness, forgiveness, and above all else, love. All the “Fruits of the Spirit” are inseparably cemented with each other by the “super glue” of love. As we follow “in His steps”, “as we walk in the power of the Holy Spirit,” we can be turning points in the lives of people who suffer pain, distress, discomfort. We can be the Holy Spirit’s change agents to ease human suffering and turn lives around.
True story of Joe Delaney and his eight-year-old son, Jared, who were playing catch in their backyard:
“Jared asked, ‘Dad, is there a God?’
“Joe replied that he went to church only a few times when he was a kid; he really had no idea.
“Jared ran into the house. ‘I’ll be right back!’ he yelled.
“Moments later he returned with a helium balloon from the circus, a pen, and an index card. ‘I’m going to send God an airmail message,’ Jared explained: ‘Dear God,’ he wrote, ‘if You are real, and You are there, send people who know you to Dad and me.’
“‘God, I hope You’re watching,’ Joe thought, as they watched the balloon and message sail away.
“Two days later, Joe and Jared pulled into a car wash sponsored by a church. When Joe asked, ‘How much?’ they answered, ‘It’s free. No strings attached. We just want to show God’s love in a practical way.’
“‘Are you guys Christians, the kind of Christians who believe in God?’ Joe asked.
“They answered, ‘Yes, we’re that kind of Christians.’ From that encounter, those church members led Joe to faith in Christ. Many people may be only one act of kindness from meeting a true Christian.”
People need to know they are valuable to God, people need to know they have enough value to us that we would extend kindness to them. Sometimes we want to do things for people who can repay us in kind: like Being nice to the boss to get a promotion; buying a candy bar from the neighbor kid, so they will buy popcorn from you during soccer season; babysitting for a friend so they will babysit for you. But God says to give to those who can’t give back, “and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous" (Luke 14:14). Sounds like a pretty good payday to me!
Be that kind of Christian, ask the Holy Spirit to show you one person with whom you can make a difference by sharing the kindness of Jesus. He will guide you in sharing His kindness, compassion, and love in practical ways that can turn people around for eternity. He will open your eyes to see a need, to care for that need, and to set that person on a new path in life. As Disciples of Jesus Christ we can make a difference in the lives of others by being kind.
One day, a man was hurrying to his car...because he was worried that the time had expired on his parking meter. As he approached it, he saw a slip of paper. His heart sunk, thinking he had gotten an expensive parking ticket. Instead, it was a note that said, "this was a random act of kindness, pass it on.”
Evidently someone had seen the meter was about to expire...so they slipped a quarter in the slot...and the owner of the car avoided a hefty parking ticket. Something so simple...only .25, and yet, so meaningful to that man. And not only that, but the person who helped him, I’m sure that he or she felt happy in knowing that they helped someone.
The song says:
“You got to try a little kindness.
Yes, show a little kindness;
Just shine your light for everyone to see;
And if you try a little kindness
Then you’ll overlook the blindness
Of narrow-minded people on the narrow-minded streets.”
• You never know when your kindness could change the life of another person.
• God wants His people to be kind.
• When we allow the Spirit to grow in our lives, we will be able to be kind to those around us.
And with Christ as our example...
and with the Holy Spirit providing the fruit of kindness in our hearts...
may it be expressed by random acts of kindness...
not just once...
not just twice...
but every day...
let’s put on kindness at the start of every day...
the world needs to see kinder and gentler Christians in action.
• The ultimate act of kindness was Jesus dying for you.
• Are you ready to accept that act of kindness?
