Kindness
Can you imagine would life would look like if we couldn’t speak with one another? No wonder the people at the tower of Babel spread out and went crazy. Without language, chaos would ensue, and we couldn’t come to any collective goals with one another, let alone have meaningful relationships. Language is a gift from God. It is the tool that helps us to receive and disseminate information, to accomplish tasks, and to have relationships with one another and with God. Through language, things truly come to life. Books are made. Speeches are given. God created the world. The creative element of language is truly remarkable. In this moment I am creating a document, and you know my heart, my convictions, and my flaws because of it. In the same way, the Bible helps us to know God’s heart, his commands, and also the flaws of people throughout history. The written word is clear, by our words, we can either create and build up, (Ephesians 4:29) or we can also destroy (James 3). Our words flow out of what’s in our heart (Luke 6:45), and for us to create beautifully and godly things with our words, we first need a pure heart that is led by the Holy Spirit of God. If we want genuine fruit from the Holy Spirit to fall from us, we need the genuine kindness of God within us.
What are words that you’ve spoken that have cut people deeply?
What are words that people have spoken to you that have built you up?
I don’t mean to bore you, but a little linguistics lesson is necessary before we study what the fruit of kindness actually is and looks like in a believer’s life. Applying the semantics and pragmatics to our Bible study will help us to know what God wants us to know. Below is a chart that describes both of these concepts.
Here are a few things to keep in mind when interpreting Scripture:
-When we read the Bible wisely, we can truly know God’s heart without a doubt. (1 John 5:13)
-His words can cut through hearts and show us who people really are. (Hebrews 4:12)
-The devil often uses words as weapons against us, changing meanings for his purposes.
-We use God’s Word as a weapon against Satan and his demons.
-We must handle the weapon of the Word carefully (2 Tim 2:15), cutting down the enemy, not believers.
Let’s take a deeper look at this fruit and discuss what happens when it is coming out of us.
What is kindness?
When someone is being kind, what kind of things are they doing? They are being gentle right? They are being patient with you right? They are loving you well, and not thinking of themselves right? Kindness, like goodness, is a fruit that somewhat embodies all of the fruits, because of the over-arching nature of the word. There are some distinguishing characteristics of this word, though, and as I’ve already hinted at above, kindness flows out of a genuine heart. The fruit of kindness is something that should be produced in the deepest, most intimate parts of our soul.
The word that is used in the original Greek is, Chrestotes, and it is often understood as “moral goodness”, or “integrity.” There are a few spots in the New Testament where this word is translated as ‘goodness’, (which will be the next listed fruit in the order that Paul chose) but is mostly translated as ‘kindness’ in most English translation. The fact that the words for kindness and goodness are used interchangeably in the New Testament somewhat exposes that the list of spiritual fruits in Galatians 5:22-23 is likely a quick list off the top of the author’s head. Does this make the individual words in the list irrelevant? Of course not, but it’s important to keep both pragmatics and semantics in mind when reading that list. Pragmatically, Paul is giving a quick glimpse of who God is and what we should look like as His people. Semantically, he (through inspiration of the Holy Spirit) chose these specific Greek words to highlight a unique trait of God’s character.
As far as definitions go for kindness, let’s first look to the internet, because everything is always accurate on the internet ;) Google says this about kindness: “the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate.” That’s pretty good honestly. To take it a little that perspective a little deeper, I would emphasize the word “being” there. Kindness isn’t something you do, it’s something that you are.
Anyone can be nice right? I’ll pick on salesmen for a sec. A nice salesman can be your friend when he’s trying to sell you something, but he’s acting nice as a means to an end. A kind salesman on the other hand, cares about your needs and does his best to meet them. We can all do this in one way or another can’t we?
What is a way that you were being nice to someone recently, but not kind?
What what have been a more kind thing to do in that situation?
How do we produce more kindness in our lives?
Supernatural gift vs natural
God is genuinely kind. His heart is full of love for us. His heart is kind, and through His Holy Spirit, we can be reflections of that kindness is this not-so-kind world of ours. As God’s people, we need more of His genuine kindness in our hearts, and not the projected, fake goodness that we are so used to. In order to take hold of God’s kindness and produce more of it, we must first realize that kindness is a supernatural thing, it is not something that we can emulate in our flesh.
I’ve said it over and over again in this series, and I’ll say it again. All of these traits can not be produced apart from God. No one is kind apart from God intervening with His Holy Spirit. The flesh and the Enemy can produce great counterfeits of kindness, but they will never reflect God’s true kindness. Kindness is supernatural. Here are a few things you can do to gauge whether you are operating within the flesh or the Spirit - the supernatural or the natural.
Check your motives:
Catch yourself, and ask “why am I doing/saying this?” Do you only do nice things to look good? Or so that only you get something out of a situation? This is not kind. Use the prayer of David in Psalm 139 as a guide
“Search my heart, Oh God, and point out anything in me that offends you” - Psalm 139:23
Are there any sins in your heart that you’ve been covering up, or excusing?
Covering up your selfish intentions can hinder kindness from living through you. Self-evaluation and repentance go together, and if we want the Holy Spirit to produce genuine kindness in us, we have to be genuine about our current state and make a change.
Be proactive, not reactive:
Kindness can change hearts. Being proactively kind, and not just nice when things aren’t going your way, can help influence others to change. When your heart is selfish, you are nice to people to control them for your own agenda. When your heart is kind, you can steer people towards God’s agenda, and change their heart in the process. Check this Scripture out..
“Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness (chrestotes), forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?” - Romans 2:4
God’s kind heart is what leads us to repentance - to true transformation. When we see how genuinely kind God is, it reveals how desperate we are in comparison. When we are proactively kind, who knows the tremendous impact that we can have on people’s souls.
Resemble Jesus
We bear the marks of Jesus Christ (Galatians 6:17), we have been marked with His seal of the Holy Spirit (Romans 1:13), and we have the right to be called the children of God (John 1:12). If all that is true, we should actually look like Jesus right? Those old bracelets from the 90’s were on to something. We should ask ourselves often - What would Jesus do? Then after we think about what He would do, we should act in obedience. Paul says this of Jesus in his letter to Titus:
“But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior,” - Titus 3:4-6
The kindness of God was seen through Jesus. Jesus is the embodiment of what it means to be kind. We can see his heart, and the way that he behaved throughout the Bible. When we study the gospels and see how he acted in kindness, we then have benchmarks for what the fruit of kindness looks like in real life. If we know Jesus well through prayer and the Word, we need to take the step of obedience to resemble Him inwardly, not just outwardly.
God is a pretty successful heart surgeon, and He’s got some transplants under His belt. He can give you a genuine heart of kindness and take away your old heart, but you’ve got to be willing to show up and let Him do His work. Pray that God will give you a heart like His own, and that His kindness will flow out of you and bring life to those around you.
