Kindness

I love this fruit of the spirit. One of the more challenging qualities we're called to exhibit, we often forget why we are to possess things like love, joy & kindness in the first place. The "fruits of the Spirit" are the character of God produced in your life. And it's not a life for others to look at & see how good of a Christian you are. It's a life where others see God at work & all attention becomes focused on the Lord.

So, with the focus of living a life through the character of God, let's take a look at kindness. As mentioned before, this is definitely one of the more challenging qualities to show others. But we have such good reasons to show love & kindness to others! Let's check those out:

Treat Others How You Want Them to Treat You


Commonly known as The Golden Rule. Found in Matthew 7:12, too often I think we take this application & think about it in a negative light. For example, we think "I'm not going to make fun of that person because I don't want them to make fun of me." Instead, we should take a positive approach by thinking "I'm going to show love & kindness to that person because I want them to show love & kindness to me." Make sense? We need to be proactive in our kindness & treat others with this positive mindset.

Treat Others How God Has Treated You


God has shown us His ULTIMATE kindness. God has not settled short in showing us anything but His kindness to the fullest extent. God's kindness to us goes beyond understanding in how He sent His one & only son, Jesus, to die for our sins. To die on the cross. To take our place. To give us freedom. Hope. And eternal life.

And Romans 2:4 tells us it's "God's kindness that leads [us] to repentance." God's kindness draws us to Him. His kindness helps us realize how broken & sinful we are. His kindness shows us how desperate we are for the Savior. And His kindness leads us to salvation.

Are we showing that same kindness to others that God has shown us? Are we showing the love & kindness of God to bring others closer to Him? Are we leading others to God through our love & kindness so that they too might experience freedom & salvation?

Our kindness is just another example of God living in us. Kindness is just another piece of evidence we belong to Jesus & live a life worthy of calling ourselves a Christian. Go. Initiate kindness.

JV