(this was a sermon centered on the “Fruit of the Spirit" in Galatians 5:22-23a)
Open: A Sunday school teacher was telling her class the story of the Good Samaritan, in which a man was beaten, robbed and left for dead. She described the situation in vivid detail so her students would catch the drama. Then, she asked the class: "If you saw a person lying on the roadside, all wounded and bleeding, what would you do?"
A thoughtful little girl broke the hushed silence, “I think I’d throw up.”
APPLY: When most of think about the story of the Good Samaritan, that’s not generally the first thing that comes to our minds. Perhaps that’s because we focus less on the man in the ditch than on the Samaritan that helped him.
The Good Samaritan is a “feel good” story. It’s a story of a good man helping someone along the road. It’s a story of kindness and mercy. And we’d all like to think we’d behave just like the Samaritan did in Jesus’ story.
ILLUS: In my files I have a number of stories of Churches and College campuses where the leaders experimented with having a man sit near their church building or on their campus dressed in ragged clothes like a tramp or a pan-handler... and giving the appearance of man down on his luck.
In each incident, people passed by the man without paying him a second thought. Nobody seemed to care enough to even ask him about his situation.
As I studied the Scriptures dealing with kindness I was shocked with what I found. I found the Bible teaches us that God’s concept of kindness does not come easily to us. We do not naturally exhibit God’s type of kindness.
Romans 3:12 tells us “All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good (literally “kindness” – the same word found in Galatians 5:22), not even one."
Thus, the Bible teaches us that there is no one who naturally does kind things. In fact, Christians are urged to constantly seek to be kinder in their lives.
Colossians 3:12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
I. Now, that’s not to say that many people in this world doesn’t do kind things. It’s just that the world doesn’t think about kindness the same way God does.
For example: Jesus gave us a rule of thumb on how to be kind to others. It’s called the Golden Rule. Does anybody remember what the Golden rule says???
“Do to others as you would have them do to you.” Luke 6:31
Did you realize that Jesus wasn’t the first to say something like this???
* 500 years before Jesus, Confucius said "Do not unto others what you would not wish done to yourself."
* The Buddhists (which predated Jesus) also said “Putting oneself in the place of others, kill not, nor cause to kill.”
* In the Old Testament Apocrypha in the book Tobit: "Do not do to anyone what you yourself hate."
* Rabbi Hillel (20 B.C.): "What is hateful to you, do not do to anyone else. This is the whole law; all the rest is only commentary"
Now, ALL of these authorities pre-dated Jesus. And if we didn’t look real close at them, most people would think they said what Jesus did… but that’s where most people would be wrong.
Look again:
Confucius said “DO NOT unto others”
The Buddhists said: “Kill NOT”
Tobit said “DO NOT DO to anyone what you’d hate”
And Rabbi Hillil said “WHAT IS HATEFUL TO YOU…” don’t do that
But notice how Jesus differed from all these great philosophers and religious teachers…
They said “DON’T”
Jesus said “DO”
“DO to others as you would have them do to you.” Luke 6:31
That is the significant difference between God’s concept to of KINDNESS.. and the world’s
ILLUS: An evangelist told of the time when he was a boy he came home one day to find his mother sitting at the table with an old tramp. Apparently she had gone shopping, met the tramp along the way, and invited him home for a warm meal.
During the conversation the tramp said, "I wish there were more people like you in the world."
Whereupon his mother replied, "Oh, there are. But you must look for them."
The old man simply shook his head, saying. "But, lady, I didn’t need to look for you… you looked for me."
The world figures kindness is just going about your own business and not hurting anybody.
God’s kindness is the type that goes looking for you.
II. But… aren’t there people who DO good things for others? Who go "looking" for people to help?
Of course there are. And they aren’t even necessarily Christians or religious people.
I mean, there were all those people who joined the Peace Corp. And there were all those brave men and women that helped out with Katrina and with other natural disasters across the world.
Just today, I read in Readers’ Digest about a group of Doctors who have gone to Pakistan to help earthquake victims there. They have often had to treat their patients without adequate medical supplies and surgeries have even had to have been performed on tarps laid out on the ground under the open sky.
If you thought long and hard enough about it you could find example after example of good decent people doing wonderful things for people in need.
But even here there is a difference… Look at Luke 6:27-36
Right in the middle of this passage is where we find the “Golden Rule”. I want us to look at the Golden Rule in its context:
"But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.
Do to others as you would have them do to you.
“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ do that.
And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ lend to ‘sinners,’ expecting to be repaid in full.
But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because HE IS KIND to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”
Notice – when Jesus talked about the Golden Rule, He was NOT just telling His followers just how to treat other people. He was telling them how to treat their enemies.
… the ones who hated them
… the ones who cursed them
… the ones who mistreated them
That doesn’t come naturally to most of us.
We can be nice to just about anybody… except that jerk down the street
As one person once said: “It’s easy to be an angel when nobody is ruffling your feathers.”
God’s type of Kindness is the kind that reaches out to the mean-spirited of this world.
ILLUS: Years ago, I was serving in a congregation where a man literally hated me. Actually, he was a very unhappy man who felt that the church had slighted him years before, and I was simply the focus of his inner rage. At one point he left the church in order to show his disdain for my ministry, but found that that only served to isolate him even more from the church. So, several months later, he decided to make a grand re-entry. He wanted to make a show of how much he disliked me and to glower at me throughout the worship service. This grand entry was telegraphed to the church by his friends so that he could have the maximum impact when he arrived. Granted, it was all fairly petty, but I knew that if the situation wasn’t handled properly, it could create more difficulties than the congregation already faced.
Now, I didn’t dislike this man. I didn’t want to hurt him. In fact, he had done many things in the past that I openly admired. But I knew what he was doing wrong, so I prayed about the matter for several days. At one point I had one of those rare experiences that I refer to as being “nudged” by God. Into my mind came Jesus’ “Golden Rule”. And a question came to my mind “What do you want this man to do to you?”
Well, I wanted him to come up, shake my hand, and tell me he liked me.
The next Sunday, the angry man came into the church with his small cadre of friends beside him. As he was about to take a seat in a pew, I approached him. So, he started to move to another part of the sanctuary. But I just kept coming… and he kept moving. I swear I chased him half way across that building. But eventually, I cornered him enough to reach across to him and extend my hand. I smiled, and welcomed him back to church.
I wish I could say that this action solved his anger toward me, but it didn’t. However, it did defuse what could have been a very explosive situation at the time.
Remember the story of the Good Samaritan? Can anyone tell me the nationality of the man lying in the ditch who’d been so badly?
He was a Jew!
The man who showed compassion to this Jew was a Samaritan.
Jews and Samaritans were not good neighbors. They hated each other. They called each other names and avoided one another whenever possible. If a Jew and Samaritan were going down the same side of the street, one of them would pass over to the other side just to avoid talking to the other.
Jesus deliberately used the parable of Samaritan helping his enemy as the example of how we ought to love our neighbors.
ILLUS: A young factory worker noticed one day that a valuable tool was missing from his toolbox. Later he recognized it in the toolbox of a fellow employee. The young man was the only Christian in the shop, and he wanted to have a good testimony for Christ. So he went to the man and said, "I see you have one of my tools, but you may keep it if you need it." Then he went on with his work and put the incident out of his mind.
During the next 2 weeks, the person who had taken the tool tried to soothe his conscience. First he offered the young man something of equal value, then he offered to help him on some home projects, and finally he slipped some money into his coat pocket.
Eventually, the co-workers became good friends, and the one-time tool thief admitted he couldn’t resist the man’s kindness.
Kindness is probably the most effective tool we Christians have in our toolbox. It significant impact on the people around us… because it isn’t a “natural” response to mistreatment. It is so important to God for us to polish this tool and use it effectively, that the Bible teaches us that no matter how we are treated – kindness is to be our watchword.
Ephesians 4:32 “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”
III. Now, you’d think that being a Church-goer would inoculate you against being unkind.
But in the story of the Good Samaritan – it’s the religious people who ignore the man in the ditch.
“A PRIEST happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a LEVITE, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.” Luke 10:31-32
These were religious people. They were in the synagogue every Sabbath day. They faithfully gave a tithe of all they earned. They studied the Bible religiously. In fact, they probably had more Scripture memorized than most of us would ever hope to.
AND YET… they passed on the other side and ignored a man in need.
Being religious does not guarantee that you will be a nicer person. It is not a behavior that will “make” you kind. It can help…. but it won’t necessarily change how you and I behave.
In Galatians 5 we’re told that “the fruit of the SPIRIT is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness…” (Galatians 5:22)
What does that mean?
It means that the more of God’s Spirit we have in our lives…
… the more we will exhibit His joy
… the more His peace will rule in our lives
… the more patient we will be with each other
… and the kinder we will be to our enemies, and to those who mistreat us.
This is our gas gauge. This is how we know if we’re walking in His Spirit.
ILLUS: Last night, I was traveling with a friend to Amboy and I stopped by a gas station to fill my tank with gas. Why did I stop to fill up my tank? Was it because I enjoy paying $2.37 a gallon for gas? Of course not!
I stopped at that gas station because my gas gauge was informing me that if I didn’t – I wouldn’t make there and back. I was running on empty.
Galatians 5 is our gas gauge. It tell us how we can know if we’re running low on God’s Spirit. If we are lacking in any one of fruits of the Spirit, then we’ve a got a problem. We’re in need of more contact with God’s Spirit to refill our tank.
James Hudson Taylor said “If your father and mother, your sister and brother, if the very cat and dog in the house, are not happier for your being Christian, it is a question whether you really are”
How kind we are to others…
in what we SAY to them,
how we TREAT them,
and especially in how we THINK of them…
The kinder we are… the more like Christ we become.
Jesus loved the sinners who wanted to change
Jesus touched the ugly and the deformed that no one else wanted to touch.
Jesus showed compassion even for His enemies from the cross “Father forgive them…”
That’s the type of kindness and mercy God wants us to show others.
(pause…) As I was researching this sermon I found out something really neat I wanted to share with you this morning.
In the Greek
The word Christ is “ChrIstos”
And the word for Kindness is “ChrEstos”
There’s just one letter different.
One man commented that: “in the first century, the believers were so KIND that many people did not know whether their title was ‘follower of Christ,’ or ‘follower of kindness.’”
Being religious will not make us kind people
But when we walk in His Spirit… when we try to treat others the way Jesus treated us… then people will know who we belong to.
CLOSE: Shortly after the Korean War ended, a night watchman noticed a hungry boy seeking shelter on the streets. He said “Child go to yonder house and say to the one who answers, ‘John 3:16’” Even though the boy did not know what John 3:16 meant, he did as the watchman instructed.
He went to the house, and knocked on the door. He did not understand the strange words that fell from his lips “John 3:16,” but the lady smiled and invited him to come in out of the cold. The boy thought,
“I do not know what this John 3:16 is, but it sure makes a cold Korean boy warm.”
Seeing that boy was gaunt with hunger, the kind lady brought him a bowl of hot soup. And as he ate, the boy thought again,
“I do not know what this John 3:16 is, but it sure makes a hungry Korean boy full.”
After a nice bath and donning clean pajamas, he lay in a comfortable bed with tears flowing down his cheeks.
I do not know what this John 3:16 is,” he thought, “but it sure makes a strange lady love a lonely Korean boy.”
SERMONS IN THIS SERIES
The Unknown Quality of Love = Galatians 5:22-5:25
Plugging the Leak in your Joy = Galatians 5:22-5:25
The Prescription for Powerful Peace = Philippians 4:1-4:9
The Puzzle of Powerful Patience = Galatians 5:13-5:26
God’s Idea of Kindness = Luke 6:25-6:42
The Tree Of Goodness = Galatians 5:22-5:23
Getting A Booster Shot Of Faith = Galatians 5:22-5:23
