RUCKSACK ILLUSTRATION, EARLIER IN THE SERVICE.
Narrator: ‘Today, Sam, Gifty, Vanessa and Cyril are going camping. Vanessa and Cyril are very excited about it. Vanessa gets to work packing two rucksacks. She is very thoughtful; she doesn’t want Cyril’s rucksack to be too heavy for him. She chooses a small rucksack. Then she chooses some things to put in it. A whistle. A torch. A map. A box of matches. Vanessa lifts the rucksack and feels how heavy it is. ‘That isn’t too heavy’, she says to herself. ‘Cyril will be able to carry that.’
Cyril comes. Vanessa gives him the rucksack.
Narrator: ‘Is that OK for you?’ Vanessa asks. ‘Not too heavy?’
Cyril: ‘It’s fine.’
Narrator: 'Vanessa picks up the other rucksack. It’s really heavy! It’s difficult to lift.'
Along comes, Sam, Vanessa’s dad.
Sam, to Vanessa: ‘That looks like a heavy rucksack. Can I take it for you?’
Vanessa: ‘It’s not so bad.’
Vanessa collapses.
Sam: ‘Come on. Let me take it.’
Vanessa gives Sam the rucksack.
Cast walk off, then come back and bow.
VIDEO, EARLIER IN THE SERVICE
Random Acts of Kindness / Kindness Can be the Norm. It’s only about a minute long.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYnWsAoGRPE
***
TALK
Today we’re continuing our mini-series on the fruit of the Spirit. Two weeks ago, we looked at the first three fruit: love, joy and peace. This week, we’re looking at two more fruit: patience and kindness. I was going to look at three, but there’s more than enough to think about with just two.
Let’s remember at the outset that Paul calls these ‘the fruit of the SPIRIT.’ These qualities develop as the Holy Spirit works in us. We can’t produce them by ourselves. But we can work with the Holy Spirit!
PATIENCE
Our first word is patience. The word in Greek has the idea of enduring in the face of fierce or difficult circumstances.
How should we be patient? A great starting place is to think how God is patient.
God is VERY patient towards us. The apostle Paul was a leader of the early church. But before he became a Christian, he persecuted the church. Probably, when he looked back at the time before he accepted Jesus as his Lord, he thought, ‘How DID God put up with me? How was God so patient?’
But Paul saw a purpose in God’s patience with him. He wrote: ‘Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost [sinner] Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life [1 Timothy 1:16, NASB].
The fact that Paul was persecuting the church gave Jesus the opportunity to demonstrate his perfect patience. By being so patient with Paul, the foremost sinner, Jesus showed that his patience stretches to everyone. No one gets to the point where Jesus’ patience runs out. Jesus’ perfect patience means his door is always open to everyone.
Jesus’ patience is a tough act to follow! But God wants us to be like Jesus. God has predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son [Romans 8:29]. When we put our faith in Jesus, God gave us his Holy Spirit. Now, the Holy Spirit is seeking to develop Christlike patience in us.
There are lots of areas in which we need to be patient but I thought I’d mention three.
PATIENT IN LIFE
There’s a book with the title, ‘Lord, Give Me Patience, and Give It to Me Right Now!’ I’d like to quote a short section:
‘The things that matter most take time, effort, patience, sacrifice, discipline, and deep commitment. Too much, too soon, too easily – is the perfect formula for frustration, heartache, and mediocrity. When we get too easily and reach too quickly, we tend to appreciate too lightly. To be sure, some things you can get immediately by pushing buttons or paying money down or by pulling out a plastic card. But the great things, the real values, do not come that way; they have to be grown and cultivated. You can get a sports car or a flat-screen TV with a quick down payment, but character, morality, integrity, maturity, spiritual strength—these you have to wait for, work for, want intensely, commit to, and cultivate and grow slowly but surely.’
The author, James Moore, is spot on. Lots of things can be done very quickly. But really valuable things don’t come quickly. If you are parents of grown-up children, think how long they took to grow and mature into the people they are now. Things that are valuable take time. We have to be patient.
PATIENT IN MINISTRY
The same is true of Christian ministry. Paul wrote, ‘And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up’ [Galatians 6:9]. In Christian ministry we have to be patient.
A couple of years ago we planted an apple tree in our garden. It’s still very small, but it’s growing. In the spring, the tree flowers. Then some tiny apples start to appear. The apples grow, VERY slowly, and by September or October, if we’re lucky, we’ll have some apples. But in about June, some of the apples fall off! It looks alarming! What’s happening? But it’s completely normal. Gardeners call it the ‘June drop’.
Christian ministry can be like that apple tree. Growth can seem slow and sometimes it might seem to be going backwards. But if we don’t grow weary and give up then in due season we will reap. Christian ministry demands patience.
PATIENT WITH OTHER CHRISTIANS
My third example of where we need patience is in dealing with other Christians. People ANYWHERE can try our patience. But here I’m focusing on Christians. Christians are saints but they aren’t always very saintly! Paul tells us ‘to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, WITH PATIENCE, BEARING WITH ONE ANOTHER IN LOVE.’ Why does Paul say, ‘bearing with one another’? Sometimes, Christians are difficult to get along with. That’s the reality. ‘Bearing with one another’ means ‘putting up with one another’ or ‘enduring one another.’ Getting along with other Christians often demands patience.
There are other areas in which we need to be patient. But these three areas: being patient in life, patient in ministry and patient with other Christians, are more than enough for us to work on.
KINDNESS
How do we understand kindness? Most people today understand kindness to mean being friendly, caring, compassionate, considerate. Those things are certainly part of kindness.
There’s an organization called the ‘Random Acts of Kindness Foundation.’ They produced a poster suggesting 50 ways to be kind. For example, they suggest using a reusable grocery bag. Giving socks to a homeless person. Using a travel mug. Putting a bird feeder in your yard.
Those are all good things to do. There’s nothing wrong with any of them. But do you notice that they are all quite small things? They are things that wouldn’t cost us very much. Perhaps those suggestions reflect how we think of kindness. We see kindness as doing little things to make life better for someone. But the idea of kindness in the Bible goes a lot further than little things.
Let’s imagine we want to know how the Bible understands kindness. So, we think to ourselves, ‘Let’s find the word ‘kindness’ in our Bibles and see how people show kindness in the Bible!’
That’s a good idea. But it has a weakness. Paul, who wrote this list of fruit of the Spirit, wrote in Greek. He wrote the word kindness in Greek, and it’s translated ‘kindness’ here in Galatians 5.
But the word Paul wrote isn’t translated as kindness everywhere! What we really need to do is look for where that GREEK word is used. That may sound difficult but nowadays it’s quite easy. If you’re interested to know how, ask me afterwards.
Here are three examples of what we might find.
The first example is in Matthew 11. Jesus said, ‘Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest … For my yoke is EASY, and my burden is light’ [Matthew 11:28-30].
When Jesus says, ‘my yoke is EASY’, the Greek word is the word kind. Being kind means you don’t put heavy burdens on people. Vanessa was kind when she avoided giving Cyril too much to carry.
The second example is in Romans 3. I usually use the ESV, the English Standard Version. In that version, the verse says, ‘All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good’ [Romans 3:12].
When Paul says, ‘no one does GOOD’, the Greek word is the word that comes in Galatians 5, kindness. Some Bibles use that word. For example, in the New Revised Standard Version the verse reads, ‘All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; there is no one WHO SHOWS KINDNESS.’
When we read the verse this way we go ‘Wow!’ Why is everyone worthless? It isn’t because no one is good. It’s because no one shows kindness! Kindness is a really big deal. When we don’t show kindness we are collectively worthless!
What does NOT showing kindness look like? Paul describes such people. As I read these verses, notice how such people SPEAK and how they ACT.
‘Their THROAT is an open grave;
they use their TONGUES to deceive.
The venom of asps is under their LIPS.
Their MOUTH is full of curses and bitterness.
Their FEET are swift to shed blood;
in their paths are ruin and misery,
and the way of peace they have not known’ [Romans 3:13-17].
What are people who don’t show kindness like?
People who don’t show kindness hurt with their words. With their tongues they deceive. Their lips are poisonous. ‘The venom of asps is under their lips’, Paul writes.
And people who don’t show kindness hurt with their actions. ‘Their feet are swift to shed blood’, Paul writes.
People who don’t show kindness leave a trail of ruin and misery.
That is what NOT showing kindness is like. SHOWING kindness must be the opposite.
Using a reusable grocery bag is great. Giving socks to a homeless person is great. Putting a bird feeder in your yard is great. But what Paul is describing is different. The kind person is careful in what he says. He doesn’t wound with his words. And the kind person is careful in what she does. She is caring and considerate. Kind people don’t leave a trail of ruin and misery.
Let’s look at one more verse on kindness. I said at the beginning of this section that the idea of kindness in the Bible goes a lot further than most of our ideas of kindness.
Paul wrote, ‘Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you’ [Ephesians 4:32].
What Paul is asking of us is huge. Paul is calling us – as an expression of kindness – to forgive one another as God forgave us! How much has God forgiven us? He’s forgiven us everything! 100%! How was God able to forgive us? Because Christ took our sin on himself. That is the quality of kindness Paul is calling us to. In kindness, we are to forgive one another. As Christ has forgiven us. 100%.
God could forgive us because Christ took the burden of our sin and carried it himself. Perhaps that’s also an example of the kindness God wants us to show. Not only do we NOT place heavy burdens on other people, but we LIFT burdens off them and carry them ourselves. That’s what Jesus did for us. That’s what Sam did for Vanessa. And that’s what Paul calls us to do for each other. That’s at the heart of kindness. There’s a cost to kindness.
CONCLUSION
We’ve thought about two fruit of the Spirit: patience and kindness. This fruit doesn’t come easily. They are qualities that God has and that we don’t naturally have. This fruit appears as a result of God’s Spirit working in us. In the Parable of the Vine, Jesus uses the word ‘abide’ ten times! The branch has to abide in the vine. When it does, it produces fruit. The point of Jesus’ parable is that we have to abide in him. When we do, we produce fruit. We can’t produce this fruit by ourselves. So, let us abide with Jesus, walking with him, talking with him, making him the foundation of our lives. Let’s understand what the Holy Spirit wants to produce in us. Then, with his help, slowly but surely, the fruit of the Holy Spirit will appear in our lives.
PRAYER
Lord Jesus, please help us to abide in you, to remain in fellowship with you day by day. We know that the fruit of your Holy Spirit will not appear unless we do that.
Please help us to bear the kind of fruit which Paul describes. We know that this fruit is evidence of the fact that you are at work within us, and that when we produce this fruit, it brings glory to you.
Today, we have especially thought about the fruit of patience and kindness.
Help us, please, to be patient when the day brings tests and trials, when people are difficult, or when our work seems to be progressing so slowly.
Help us, please, to be kind in word and action. We pray that our words and our actions would lift people up and encourage them and not the opposite. Help us, please, to show kindness without expecting something in return.
We know, Lord, that our sinful nature does not want what your Holy Spirit wants. Please help us, not to argue with our sinful nature, or fight with it, but put it to death.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
All Bible quotations are from the ESV except where noted.
Talk given at Rosebery Park Baptist Church, Bournemouth, UK, morning service, 16th July 2023.
