Fruit of the Spirit ~ Kindness

That the fruit of God’s spirit matures and develops within us as we stay connected to God is one of the underlying truths we have seen over and over again as we have been studying the fruit of God’s spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience and kindness are not developed on our own – they grow and mature in us as we stay in relationship with God. Another theme that we have seen emerging throughout this study is that none of these character traits stand alone. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control are all connected to one another. The love of God leads to joy, and love and joy lead us to a place of peace and if we are truly at peace in any and all situations then will we be patient with those around us, so we see how all the fruit of God’s spirit are interconnected and we see this with kindness as well. Kindness is always connected to love. The word for kindness in Galatians 5:22 is crestotes and whenever that word is used in the Greek, it is always related to love. In 1 Corinthians 13:4 it says, love is patient, love is kind. So we see how kindness as one of the fruits of God’s spirit is directly connected to love, but the love is not sentimentality or emotion because the word crestotes actually means serviceable or useful.

Kindness means being useful, it’s a love that is put into actions that specifically help others. Many times when we think of the word kindness, we think of just being nice. A number of years ago there was a lot of talk about random acts of kindness where people were encouraged to just do nice things for others. Maybe you would put extra money in a parking meter – or pay the toll for the person behind you at the toll booth. While those ideas and gestures are nice, I’m not sure they meet the biblical definition of kindness because we can never judge the real usefulness of those random acts. For example, you can put money in a parking meter, but what if the person is on their way out? Or you can pay for the person behind you in line but maybe the real need is for the person in the other line. Random acts of kindness are great, they are nice and they help develop a culture of giving to others, but that’s not the kindness or the love in action we are talking about as one of the fruits of God’s spirit. This kindness – this reaching out in love seeks to make a real and useful difference in the life of someone in need. And the motivation for us to be kind comes from God himself. In 1 John 4:8 it says God is love, but God is really loving kindness because God’s love reaches out to help us. God’s love offers practical help to us in times of need. So God is not only love – God is kind. Look at Ephesians 2:4-7.

The first thing we see here is that kindness and love are connected. It is because of God’s great love for us that he made us alive with Christ even though we were dead. It is because God loves us that he sends Jesus to us, and Jesus is a useful gift because he is the one who saves us from sin and death. The gift of Jesus does something for us, it changes our lives. In Paul’s letter to Titus he also says, (Titus 3:4) when the loving kindness of God appeared, he saved us – and again, the way God saves us is through Jesus Christ. So God is love, but his love is patient and kind and if we are allowing the spirit of God to flow through us then we will also become more and more kind but what specifically does this kindness look like in our lives? Jesus shows us what kindness looks like in the story of the Good Samaritan - Luke 10:25-37.

The first thing we need to do if we want to deepen our kindness toward others is to take a good look around us and identify the needs we see in people. Everyone who walked along the road from Jerusalem to Jericho saw the needs of the injured man. The priest and the Levite and the Samaritan all saw that the man was bleeding and in need of help. The first step in developing a kind heart is to stop looking at ourselves all the time, to stop looking at our own problems and our own wants and needs and start looking at the needs of people around us. What needs do we see around us today? What needs do our physical neighbors have? What needs do we see in the people who live next door or down the street? What needs do we see in the community around us? If kindness begins by seeing the needs of the people around us and we can’t see those needs, then we need to ask God to help us see them and the people who have them. Too often we get caught up in our own problems, big or small, and so it’s hard to see the needs of others, and sometimes the needs around us are so great and complex, that we just tune them out because we don’t even know where to start, but if we want to be kind then we need to open our eyes and see the needs of God’s people who are all around us.

While kindness starts by seeing the needs in others, seeing the needs is not enough. The priest and the Levite both saw the need of the injured man along the side of the road, but neither one was willing to stop and get involved. The priest and the Levite weren’t kind because they weren’t useful, they didn’t do anything to help the man. Kindness requires us to stop what we are doing, put aside our own life and agenda to get involved. To call ourselves men and women of faith means that we are willing to make the conscious choice to get involved in meeting the needs of others. Look at James 2:14-17. So faith without works is dead. If we want to be people of faith we have to be kind and get involved in meeting the needs we see around us. If we don’t make the choice to get involved, not only do we lack faith – we also lack love, both a love for people and a love for God, look at 1 John 3:17-18.

So how can we say we love God if we aren’t willing to help others? How can we say love others if we aren’t willing to help them? Both James and John say that the help we offer needs to be practical and useful. It’s doing something to make a real difference in someone else’s life. One expression of kindness we can all participate in is in how we speak to others. In Ephesians 4:29 it says, let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is USEFUL for building up as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. Maybe the people in need around us are simply those who need a kind word, a word that will be useful in building up their self-esteem or self worth. With so many people struggling with jobs and finances, maybe the most useful thing is to simply offer an encouraging word. Maybe it’s wending a card or letter to someone in need. We can not underestimate the power of our word, written or spoken. They can tear people down or be useful in building people up. Proverbs 12:25 says anxiety weighs down the human heart, but a kind word, cheers it up. If you have ever gotten a phone call at the right moment, or a note at the right time – you know the power of kind words.

Kindness can also be forgiveness, look again at Ephesians 4:32, be kind to one another, forgiving one another as God in Christ has forgiven you. Again, this shows us that part of the motivation for us to be kind is the kindness and love God has shown to us. God has forgiven us and so we need to be kind and forgive others. We commit ourselves to this act of kindness each week when we pray together because part of the Lord’s prayer clearly says, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who have trespassed, or sinned against us. Forgiveness isn’t always something we feel; many times it simply has to be a choice that we make.

Kindness is also seen in how we are willing to give our material goods to others. Let’s go back to the story of the Good Samaritan; look at all the ways the Samaritan was willing to give his material goods to the man was injured. He didn’t just give his time, he took his own clothes and used them as bandages for the man. He placed the man on his own donkey to get him to the nearest inn. He gave the innkeeper his own money to care for the man and even opened a line of credit to meet any future needs he might have and he did it all without thinking about or expecting anything in return. Look at Luke 6:35-36. Jesus again links love and kindness together by showing that love is seen in how we are willing to give to others, and they way we are to give is generously and without expecting anything in return.

While many people may want to say that this kind of sacrificial giving just doesn’t make any sense, I believe that it not only makes perfect sense, but it is the kind of giving that helps us experience the real power and spirit and life of God. In some ways, we only find the power of God when we are willing to go beyond conventional wisdom and give beyond what we think we can give. It’s only when we are willing to move beyond what we can do on our own that we begin to experience the power of God. If we only give in ways that make sense to us and if we only give what is comfortable for us and what makes sense to us, then we can never really prove the power of God or experience the love of God. But when we move into those unknown places of risk and sacrifice, when we step out and love others after the radical example of Jesus, giving beyond what we can give and forgiving those who have sinned against us, we begin to find the life God has for us. How might God be calling us to show kindness in ways that seem totally impossible? What are the needs that God is showing us that seem beyond our ability to get involved? Those might be just the places where God wants you to offer not your kindness but his kindness.

So kindness requires us to see the needs, stop and get involved and be willing to give generously, sacrificially and without thought of repayment or reward. But kindness also calls us to work on building relationships where love and kindness can continue to flow. Look at how the story of the Good Samaritan ends, Luke 10:35. When I come back… it’s not if I come back – the man is coming back. Real kindness is not seen in random acts – they are relational. Real kindness works to build relationships with one another. Too often in the church when we reach out to help we simply send out our money to people and places in need, but we never take the time to really get involved in building relationships with those people. One of the great things about going to SD was that we got to meet people. We were able to listen to their stories, reach out to them with handshakes and hugs, we could laugh with them, cry with them and even pray with them. I guess a question for us to consider is whether or not there is value in us building ongoing relationships with those we reach out to help.

I think it would be wonderful for us as a church to think about building an ongoing relationship with another church or community in need that we would not only be able to help once or twice, but commit ourselves to in loving kindness. Maybe it is partnering with a UM church in Sierra Leone, or raising up a missionary from our own congregation that we send to a community in need, or even building relationships with people in need right around here, but real kindness is not randomly helping those in need, it also needs to build relationships in which we can share the love and grace of Jesus Christ over a period of time. Random acts of kindness are nice and they have their place, but the kindness that comes from the spirit of God is useful, sacrificial, risky and relational. Loving kindness is only possible through the strength and power of God and when we offer it to those in need around us – it will not only make a difference in their lives, it will change our lives as well.