Galatians 5:22
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
This week’s "fruit" is kindness! I guess this is more of a specific fruit than the rest. Love, Joy and Peace are virtues that are really not related to each other, but I think that kindness is more like love. It’s a bit more specific than love, which is a broader term. Kindness is more like being warmhearted and sympathetic. Kindness does, however, come from love. It’s like taking love, and turning it into a more practical every-day thing.
I guess it is possible to have love and not be kind. The disciples didn't really have kindness when they wanted Jesus destroy the village they had been rejected at, or the time when they wanted to take the little children away from Jesus. They didn't really have kindness at that time, but I do think they had love. Jesus had love when He let the little children come to Him.
Many times we say that we love people, like a parent, a sibling or a friend, and we really do love them! But we fail to make that love for them practical. For example, we love our parents, right? But being kind to them is writing them a note, or doing something considerate for them. A lot of times I fail to do kind things to show our love for family, for example, in a practical way. I guess you could say that kindness is a step beyond love in many cases.
Ephesians 4:32
And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.
Kindness also deals a lot with being tender, like we see in the verse above. In this rotten world its way to "wimpy" to be tender, at least for a guy. Even for girls, to a certain point, it’s looked down at. I am reading a book which talks about the need for men to be tenderhearted. This world has formed our minds to make us think that guys can't cry and can't feel sorry for other people, and that any of these things would make us weak. Unfortunately that is totally against the Bible!
Today I saw a father playing with his boy in the playground. Now, at first glance I really thought it funny that a full-grown man would jump in a playground to play with his 4-year-old. And I saw him like sort of a chum for a minute, but then I realized this is what his child is going to remember later on in life. Looking back at it I see that this man was being kind, tender and loving with his kid! I am sure he might have felt a bit silly, but he didn't pay attention to that, he just kept playing with his son. What a great example for tenderness and kindness! I feel kind of guilty now. :P I am sure that story was given to me by God for this time! Let us imitate this father, to a certain point, and go beyond our passive, idle love and make it evident, to those people we care for, that we love them and show them kindness!
Here are some questions for you all to answer and share your thoughts with.
Any thoughts on kindness, or tenderness?
What ells do the scriptures say about kindness or tenderness?
Do you think the world looks down on kindness? How so?
I would LOVE to hear your thoughts! :D
-Jerry
I believe the world really does look down on kindness to a certain extent. Nowadays, no one will hold the door open for the person behind them, won't let a car pass them, and wouldn't be willing to let someone who's in a rush skip them at the supermarket. All these are opportunities to be kind, but in the fast-paced world we live in, people "don't have time" to stop and be kind to someone. It's the same with tenderness. Not many people are willing to stop and listen to someone's problems or praises. Again, they "don't have time". If you notice, a lot of reasons why people don't do things is because they're busy. They don't take the time to stop and actually enjoy something. They're like robots doing the same things day after day and therefore, don't have time for being kind.
ReplyDeleteI thought of 1 Corinthians 13:4 just now. Kindness isn't just an act of being nice, it's an act of love. If a person really loves someone, they'd be nice not only to them, but the people around them. Sadly, a lot of people are lacking love, thus we see the lack of kindness as well.
PS, you just made me feel guilty, too, for laughing at the man in the playground... :P
This is great stuff. The phrase "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" is one that echoes in my mind. Kindness can be defined in many different ways. Yet one specific definition I follow is, Kindness means going out of your way to show love.
ReplyDeleteI really like the story about the man and his boy. I often wonder why grown men and women would act so "strangely" (ex. the Wiggles), but yes,kindness plays an important role. :)
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