Our Beliefs : Sermons : Sermon Archive - 2005 : July 24, 2005

Theme: The Fruit of the Spirit -- Kindness

Church year occasion: Pentecost 10

Ernest Gordon was a British army officer captured by the Japanese during World War II. In his prison camp, men lived like animals, and it was every man for himself. But one day, a Japanese guard discovered that a shovel was missing. When no one confessed to stealing it, he screamed, "All die! All die!" and raised his rifle to shoot the first man in line. At that instant, an enlisted man stepped forward and said, "I did it." So the guard shot him. But that evening, when the tools were counted again, they discovered that a mistake had been made. No shovel was missing.

After that incident, attitudes in the camp began to change. Instead of caring only for themselves, prisoners began looking out for each other. The transformation was so complete that when they were freed at the end of the war, the prisoners actually treated their sadistic guards with kindness, and not with revenge.

This story shows us the essence of kindness, the fruit of the Spirit we will are looking at today. The essence of kindness is not looking out for oneself, but looking out for the well-being of others -- even at a very high cost.

There is no better place to look to find this loving, living kindness than in the life of Jesus, who showed us perfect kindness. We see him taking little children into his arms and blessing them. We see him moving quietly among the sick and healing anyone who came to him. Once, after spending an exhausting day like that, he still took the time feed well over 5000 people simply because they needed his help, and because he had compassion on them. Today we heard how he healed the daughter of a woman who wasn't Jewish. His kindness embraced child and adult, Jew and Gentile, believer and unbeliever, high-born official or the dregs of society.

But, of course, his kindness didn't just extend to people on a physical level, which cost the Son of God time and energy. God's kindness especially extended to us spiritually, which cost the Son of God his life. Had God only thought of himself, he would never have left heaven, never gone to Bethlehem or traveled 33 years up the road to Jerusalem and the cross and the grave. But he was kind to an extent that we can't even fathom. Think about it -- why in the world would God suffer and die for sinners like you and me who were God's enemies by nature, who despised him by nature, who had nothing to offer him but rejection and rebellion? That's why God's kindness to us is so mind-numbing. Listen to how Paul describes God's kindness to us in Titus 3:3-5: "At one time we...were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. 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." In Romans, Paul said it simply this way: "Christ died for the ungodly." (Romans 5:6)

No one has to teach us to think only of ourselves and be unkind to others. It's all too easy, and we do it quite well. But it's also sinful and shows we deserve God's anger. But instead of anger, he shows us kindness. To this day, his kindness forgives our unkindness and accepts us as his loved children. His kindness removes our guilt and permits us to be at peace with God and within ourselves. And then on top of it he gives us all kinds of other spiritual and physical blessings -- our bodies, every sock and shoe, every sweater or suit, every pair of pants we own is a proof of his kindness. The family we have, our job, the economy we have, the country we live in, the high standard of living are all proofs of God's unlimited and unrelenting kindness. That kindness flows to us a thousand different times in a thousand different ways. What's sad is that we can very often forget that all these things come from God's kindness to us and not from ourselves.

Since this quality of kindness is so pronounced and evident in our God and Savior, it comes as no surprise that it is one of the fruits of the Spirit God wants to be evident in our lives. Let's remember, however, that kindness is not the exclusive property of Christians. You don't have to be Christian to be kind. Anyone can be kind.

But there are two main differences between Christian kindness and un-Christian kindness. One is pointed out by Jesus in Luke 6: "If you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked."

Returning kindness to those who are kind to us is not all that difficult. It's rather human to do that. If Betty is nice to Connie, Connie will naturally be nice back, and sometimes Connie or Betty might go out of their way to be nice first. Christian kindness which is a fruit of the Spirit is vastly different. Jesus showed us the first difference. Christian kindness shows kindness to the unkind; service to the selfish; and concern to the cranky and grouchy. Kindness which is from God will love our enemies, bless those who curse us, do good to those who hate us and pray for those who make life miserable for us. God is kind to the good and bad, godly and ungodly, Christian and non-Christian. He asks us to be the same.

Naturally, that calls for courage. It means that some of those to whom we show kindness will respond with a kick in the teeth. But when God goes to work in our lives, we give up our little game of tit for tat, of giving only when we get something back. Those days are gone. Selfishness and greed are no longer the catalysts of our lives. God's love for us is the thing that makes us tick.

That is the second main difference between the kindness that is shown by any unbeliever as opposed to the kindness shown by a child of God -- it's the result, whether we consciously think about it or not, of God's loving kindness to us. God came into this world to save sinners. That means God is in the people business. And that means we are to be in the people business, too, even if it is time-consuming and inconvenient -- which is will always be. But is it unimportant and unnecessary? Never. It will cost us to be kind to people, to call someone who's lonely, visit a woman who can't get out of her apartment, do little favors for them, run their errands to the grocery store or wherever, to pray for someone who is facing serious temptation or trial, time that we could have used on ourselves; money that we could have used on ourselves. But it's God's way of doing things.

Paul says, "Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander along with every form of malice." (Ephesians 4:31) Those are normal human reactions to others. Kindness is not a normal human reaction. Even children of God need to be encouraged constantly in this matter. Paul does encourage: "Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you." (Ephesians 4:32) That's a big order. Where in the world do we get the power to be kind like that? We don't. We get it from God -- "just as in Christ God forgave you."

One evening an old Cherokee chief told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, "My son, the battle is between two wolves. One is Evil. It is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority and ego. The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith." The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked, "Grandfather, which wolf wins?" The old Cherokee chief simply replied, "The one you feed."

When you hear the words of Christ speak to your heart and when you see his unbridled kindness to you, especially as you look on a lone form on a cross outside of Jerusalem suffering for your sins so you could have heaven, you are feeding the Good that the Holy Spirit has placed in your heart. Remembering Christ's kindness to us will make our kindness to others grow. And it will show.

Often we think of great acts of kindness as being the kind that turn heads and gain recognition -- like Javon Walker's agent who saved a drowning boy last week by giving him CPR. People took notice of that act of kindness, and in spite of not being anyone's favorite person in Packerland, some Packer fans might even be tempted to like him. But the kindness God wants from us isn't the big news stories that will make people come up to us and shake our hand or ask for our autograph when we walk into a room. We won't get Kathy Mykleby from Channel 12 News on our doorstep when we have that nice word to say to someone we might not even know, or when we take time to visit that acquaintance in the nursing home, or when we don't retaliate in anger when our friend (or even our spouse) treats us very rudely. But we will have our heavenly Father smiling in heaven.