Opening Prayer: Lord, we have much to learn about Kindness - Your Kindness - help us to look beyond the surface to see the depth of the Fruit of Kindness. Amen!
INTRODUCTION: I don't know about you, but I was raised to be kind & considerate toward others. So when I got to Kindness I thought I had this one handled, after all it's a lot easier than Patience any day isn't it? But hold on a second, there's more to this Kindness than I realized - it's more than simply smiling and being nice to strangers (like the clerk at the grocery store). True Kindness requires sacrifice, meditating on this has challenged my thinking & caused me to pause & examine my heart.
PRINCIPLE: The Fruit of Kindness is a form of Sacrifice.
Our book mentions two mindsets regarding compassion:
- What will happen to me if I...?
- What will happen to them if I don't...?
The second mindset is the mindset of Kindness, it looks compassionately at another & responds, it demonstrates Mercy. Hosea 6:6 tells us God desires Mercy over the sacrifices of burnt offerings - implying Mercy is the higher form of Sacrifice.
I. Kindness: God Reaching Out
As with all these Spiritual Fruits, we see Kindness expressed by God; also, like God's Patience seemed to be related to God's Grace, God's Kindness seems to be related to God's Mercy.
In Kindness God put in place a plan of redemption, the first we see of it in Scripture is in the Garden just after the Fall. In Genesis 3:14-15 we find the first prophecy regarding Messiah, that he would be wounded but would deal the fatal blow to the enemy of God. But God's plan of redemption was in place even before that, before the fall, in fact before He created man He had a plan to redeem man & bring all things in Heaven & Earth to unity under Christ (Ephesians 1:3-10).
How did God accomplish His plan of redemption? Sacrifice, no small sacrifice, the Perfect Lamb - Jesus Himself - quite frankly this is a sacrifice that goes far beyond our human understanding, a sacrifice made at great cost to God Himself. Only God was able to pay the redemption price for mankind, and God willingly paid that price - that is Mercy & that is Kindness in it's purest form.
PRINCIPLE: God's Kindness draws people to Repentance
God's demonstrated His Kindness toward us in paying the price to redeem us, if we accept this gift of His Kindness we receive His Mercy & and are pardoned for our sin, escaping the penalty for sin we so dearly deserve. Romans 5:8 tells us that while we were still sinners Christ died for us - this is the Kindness of God expressed to man.
II. Kindness: Grow In Compassion
Since in God's Kindness He demonstrated His Mercy to me, I ought to respond in appreciation by expressing God's Mercy to others.
Our book spoke about the characteristics of Kindness, and it boiled down to Kindness being expressed by Compassion in Action, and how it is Powerful because goes against the normal "dog-eat-dog" competitiveness of the world. It went on to say that many in this world consider Kindness to be a form of weakness, as opposed to callousness & insensitivity which are seen as strengths. I had a hard time with this thinking about the world as a whole, because I know kind people who are not believers - so I think perhaps this needs more thought. I think that perhaps the Spiritual Fruit of Kindness isn't just compassion in action, but rather compassion even when we don't want to be compassionate (or don't feel compassionate). Perhaps the Fruit of Kindness is more specifically Kindness at a cost to the one being Kind, and motivated by gratitude toward God.
Who should we demonstrate compassion to? To family, friends, neighbors, our community, and even the world. Should we demonstrate compassion to those who don't deserve it? Yes!! We didn't deserve God's Kindness & He chose to be kind to us. We should respond in gratitude toward God, and by the power of His Holy Spirit live lives of Kindness toward others.
PRINCIPLE: The Fruit of Kindness flows from a heart filled with Gratitude toward God.
This goes beyond smiling at the clerk at the grocery store. This is smiling at the clerk & taking the time to ask how she's doing, looking her in the eye & showing you really care. And this is doing so after she's delayed you by making mistakes, made you late for an appointment, overcharged you, etc. In fact it may be taking it so far as specifically choosing that clerk the next time, knowing you may get delayed again (or deal with more mistakes), because you want to go out of your way to reach out to her as God went out of His way to reach out to you.
III. Kindness: Get Over Yourself
Kindness that is sacrificial puts others first, it's loving our Neighbor as ourself (Mark 12:31), it's laying our life down for the sake of another (John 15:13). What does it mean to be kind by putting others first?
- Be Kind when it's inconvenient - Jesus demonstrated this when He & His disciples needed rest. Jesus had compassion on the crowd that followed as they were exhausted & attempted to get away to rest, He saw them as sheep without a shepherd, and He took the time to minister to their needs. (Mark 6:30-34)
- Be Kind at personal cost - Even if it means being misunderstood (like Peter & John in Acts 4). Be like King David, make sure your Sacrifice is yours - be ready to pay the full price (1 Chronicles 21:24)
- Be Kind despite the behavior or attitude of the one receiving Kindness - remember that even the disciples were petty in their attitudes (Luke 9:46 & John 13:3-5), God wants you to be kind even to those who harm you (Romans 12:20).
- Be Kind irregardless of a person's status or position - whatever we do for the "least of these" is like doing for the Lord (Matthew 25: 34-40) and will be rewarded by God.
But it's more than just being sacrificial, we must get our "self" out of the way, we must guard our hearts & beware of our motivation. Philippians 2:3 tells us "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves." Matthew 6:1-4 warns us not to make public our acts of Kindness so that our reward will be from God rather than man. Finally, Jesus words are even harder for us, He tells us that we must deny ourselves & take up our cross & follow Him (Matthew 16:24) - to be Kind and Selfless as He is.
PRINCIPLE: Kindness toward others is a Love Gift to God.
In Matthew 25:35-40 (mentioned earlier) we also learn that showing kindness (meeting needs) to others is equivalent to showing kindness to the Lord Himself.
CONCLUSION: I've shared with you in the past how I've learned some of these lessons as I'm preparing to teach them, and Kindness was no exception. So though I risk loosing the reward of Kindness that God worked through me because I'm going to share it with you, I thought that it was a price I'm willing to pay in order to share an example with you - in case it might spur you on toward Kindness.
Last week, on the one day of the week I specifically set aside to work on the lecture portion of this lesson, I thought I would have most of the day to work undisturbed. My husband had been home sick for a few days, and had spent those days in bed sleeping, so I expected the same on Thursday (a.k.a. Lesson Day). God has a sense of humor, as I was trying to work on this lesson Jeff announced that he thought he should see a doctor. Right away I sensed that God was giving me the chance to demonstrate Kindness. I wanted to be selfish & say "this is my day I dedicate to the Lord's work", but Kindness is the Lord's work... hmmm... So, I asked if he wanted me to drive him to the Doctor - he wanted that, and he wanted me to go in with him. Jeff set up the appointment but I knew he hadn't eaten yet that morning & I wanted him to eat before we left, so knowing he had a sore throat & hadn't been wanting to eat much I decided to show Kindness & offered to make him some of my pancakes (a favorite of his) - and of course he said yes... which of course took additional time & made more work for me. So he ate, we went to the doctor, got diagnosed with a Sinus Infection & the doctor called in a prescription for an Antibiotic to our local pharmacy. As we were leaving the doctor's office I knew the Kind thing to do & did it - I drove Jeff home & then went to the pharmacy to wait for his prescription to be filled (it took an hour)... At this point I had lost a few hours worth of study time and these lessons take several hours to put together, but I knew I had learned more about Kindness - I didn't do it perfectly, but I did it - I was Kind despite my desire to be at home working on my studies. Afterward I did ask God to help order my mind to pull together this lesson on Kindness - and in His Kindness God did just that. I had been willing to be Kind at a cost, but I appreciate that God minimized the cost for me.
We never know what impact our Kindness may have on another, we should be looking for opportunities to be Kind in little ways as well as big, to people near & far, to those we feel love for & those we don't, and in this way build a legacy of God's Love.
Closing Prayer: Lord you have been Kind to us, you have been Merciful, and you've Redeemed us - and we didn't deserve it. Help us to be Kind in response to your Kindness - even for people we don't feel deserve it - help us to do this out of love & thankfulness to You. Amen!
