Kindness, a Fruit of the Spirit

I trust you had a blessed time celebrating the gift the Father gave when He sent Jesus, His Son, Emmanuel, God with us! May God reveal more and more of Himself, His purpose, and plan to us as we begin another year!

As we continue to study the fruit of the Spirit, we will repeat again that each fruit is a virtue of God which is bestowed on us by God’s Spirit. The fruit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and faithfulness (Galatians 5:22 NLT) is not something we can earn or purchase. Despite that, we must accept and act upon it. When the Holy Spirit comes to reside in us, at the time we accept Christ as our Savior, the fruit is there, however, fruit begins as a bud and grows into a mature fruit.

“Kindness” is the fruit we will study this week. Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance defines the Greek word, chrestotes, as goodness, to show one’s self mild, kindness, or gentleness. Help’s Word Studies on biblehub.com reads that (useful kindness) “refers to meeting real needs, in God’s way, in His timing (fashion).” Hence, we see kindness is a fruit of the Spirit. Most of the various Bible translations have translated the Greek word, chrestotes, as “kindness".

Merriam-Webster defines the word, ‘kind’ in this way: “of a sympathetic or helpful nature, gentle, affectionate , and loving kindess, then is the quality or state of being kind.”

I like the description of ‘kindness’ that is found on, kindnessiseverything.com. Kindness: “the sincere and voluntary use of one’s time, talent, and resources to better the lives of others, one’s own life, and the world through genuine acts of love, compassion, generosity, and service. Moreover, kindness involves choice because there are many alternatives to kindness.”

All Biblical kindness is rooted in love. 1 Corinthians 13:4a, “Love is patient and kind…”

1 John 4:16b reveals that all love is established by God as it states, “God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.”

Remember, by the goodness and nature of God, He provides seed of the fruit in us by the Holy Spirit. Then, we choose to allow that fruit to be stagnant, grow, or wither and die in us.

Among the qualities the Apostle Paul listed in 2 Corinthians 6, which proved he was “a true minister of God,” verse 6 reads, “We prove ourselves by… kindness.” When we have the Holy Spirit in us and choose to respond with kindness when facing difficult situations, it demonstrates to others, the presence of the Holy Spirit

Colossians 3:12, “Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.” As the chosen of God, we must ‘put on’ kindness. It is an action on our part. It requires us to choose to do it.

We see a number of examples of ‘kindness’ in Scriptures. Today, we will look at two of them.

Luke 10:25-37, “ One day an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking him this question: "Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?" 26 Jesus replied, "What does the law of Moses say? How do you read it?" 27 The man answered, "'You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.' And, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" 28 "Right!" Jesus told him. "Do this and you will live!" 29 The man wanted to justify his actions, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" 30 Jesus replied with a story: "A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road. 31 "By chance a priest came along. But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. 32 A Temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side. 33 "Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. 34 Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. 35 The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, 'Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I'll pay you the next time I'm here.' 36 "Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?" Jesus asked. 37 The man replied, "The one who showed him mercy." Then Jesus said, "Yes, now go and do the same."

2 Samuel 9:1-13, “One day David asked, "Is anyone in Saul's family still alive--anyone to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan's sake?" 2 He summoned a man named Ziba, who had been one of Saul's servants. "Are you Ziba?" the king asked. "Yes sir, I am," Ziba replied. 3 The king then asked him, "Is anyone still alive from Saul's family? If so, I want to show God's kindness to them." Ziba replied, "Yes, one of Jonathan's sons is still alive. He is crippled in both feet." 4 "Where is he?" the king asked. "In Lo-debar," Ziba told him, "at the home of Makir son of Ammiel." 5 So David sent for him and brought him from Makir's home. 6 His name was Mephibosheth; he was Jonathan's son and Saul's grandson. When he came to David, he bowed low to the ground in deep respect. David said, "Greetings, Mephibosheth." Mephibosheth replied, "I am your servant." 7 "Don't be afraid!" David said. "I intend to show kindness to you because of my promise to your father, Jonathan. I will give you all the property that once belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will eat here with me at the king's table!" 8 Mephibosheth bowed respectfully and exclaimed, "Who is your servant, that you should show such kindness to a dead dog like me?" 9 Then the king summoned Saul's servant Ziba and said, "I have given your master's grandson everything that belonged to Saul and his family. 10 You and your sons and servants are to farm the land for him to produce food for your master's household. But Mephibosheth, your master's grandson, will eat here at my table." (Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.) 11 Ziba replied, "Yes, my lord the king; I am your servant, and I will do all that you have commanded." And from that time on, Mephibosheth ate regularly at David's table, like one of the king's own sons. 12 Mephibosheth had a young son named Mica. From then on, all the members of Ziba's household were Mephibosheth's servants. 13 And Mephibosheth, who was crippled in both feet, lived in Jerusalem and ate regularly at the king's table.”

We are instructed to “be kind to everyone” in 2 Timothy 2:24 (NASB20), “The Lord's bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, skillful in teaching, patient when wronged,“ The Greek word for “kind” (gentle in the King James Version) in this verse is epios. Epios is translated as the word “kind” only this one time is Scripture. On Helps Word-studies, found on biblehub.com, we see that epios comes from the root word epos. Epos means: to speak. According to Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, this word is referring to “calming words that bring God’s order to a situation”. Epos refers to “gentle faith speaking and happens as we yield to God, such as are committed to handling matters according to His preferred will.” This indicates this ‘kindness’ is the fruit of the Spirit.

Let’s look at 2 Timothy 2:24 (NASB20) again, “The Lord's bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, skillful in teaching, patient when wronged,” A bondservant is one who gives himself up wholly to another’s will. If we have committed our lives to Christ as Lord and Savior, this verse reveals that we will speak words that bring God’s order to a situation even when wronged!

I believe many in the church today fall way short of the will of the Lord in this regard. We see evidence of this daily on social media and experience it often as we live out our lives. See, it does not matter how someone treats us, what they do to us, or what they say about us. We must never allow ourselves to take on a “getting revenge” mindset. We cannot choose to let hate drive hate. We are taught that as a bondservant of Christ, our kindness will include speaking words that bring God’s order to a situation (I’ll say it again) even when we are wronged. Ephesians 4:31 and 32, “Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. 32 Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.”

Know that there is no such thing as a ‘small’ act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end. There is a popular example of acts of kindness that has begun in our society today. There was a movie made in 2000 called, “Pay It Forward” which sparked the idea. Our local Christian radio station encourages listeners to perform what they are calling “Random Acts of Kindness.” A few weeks ago, my wife and I were the recipients of a random act of kindness. As we were going through the check out line at the grocery store, the gentleman in front of us paid for out groceries! As we were thanking him, he responded only with, “Pay it forward.” Receiving an act of kindness is sweet and yet humbling. Doing an act of kindness is rewarding because you know you were able to bless another.

Reader’s Digest published a list of things said by others about ‘kindness.’

“To error on the side of kindness is seldom an error.” Liz Armbruster

“You can accomplish by kindness what you cannot by force.” Pulilius Syrus

“How do we change the world? One random act of kindness at a time.” Morgan Freeman

“When I was young I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.” Abraham Joshua Heschel

Kindness as stirred by God’s Spirit will always win the day!

All Scripture, unless otherwise noted, is taken from the New Living Translation

NASB20 New American Standard Bible 2020