The fruit of the Spirit: Kindness
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness … (Galatians 5:22)
My mum sent all of her seven children to Sunday School. The one I used to go to with my sisters decided to close for the summer. To this day, I do not know how my mum found the Brethren assembly on the high street in the area where we lived. But the very next week we were packed off to what was to become my spiritual home. I think it was the week afterwards that I found myself with my sisters in the home of Mr Norman Packer and his lovely wife, Isobel, for tea. There was so much cake we thought we’d gone to heaven! Though I did not know it then, I was experiencing the kindness of God in the hearts of His people. The kindness of Mr and Mrs Packer and their fellow believers gently and gradually led me to the Saviour and to know the wonder of the kindness of God. I owe my mum a great debt.
Paul writes about the kindness of God in his letter to Titus: “For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But when the kindness and the love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:3-5).
As recipients of God’s kindness, we are encouraged to demonstrate it towards each other, “And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32). Kindness witnesses to the fact that we are the children of God and the disciples of the Lord Jesus. In Matthew 11:30 the Lord says, “My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” The word “easy” could be translated “kindly”: it is the same word as in Ephesians 4:32. We see the kindness of God in the Person of Christ.
Kindness expresses a compassionate and tender heart with a readiness to act sacrificially for the good of others. It is interesting that Luke records, in Acts 28:2, the kindness of the people of Malta following Paul’s shipwreck, when he writes: “And the natives showed us unusual kindness; for they kindled a fire and made us all welcome, because of the rain that was falling and because of the cold.” John’s Gospel speaks of the Lord Jesus as the Son of God. It starts in eternity with the glory of His deity and His power as Creator. And it finishes on the shores of Galilee where the resurrected Saviour made a fire and cooked breakfast for His disciples, who had been toiling all night and caught nothing, until He guided their nets. John did not give us these details to expand the narrative, but to show us the kindness of God. In Matthew 10:42 the Lord recognises kindness in the giving of a cup of cold water. He values what we overlook.
I doubt I would be writing these words today were it not for the kindness of the Christian men and women I have mentioned. That kindness drew me to Christ. It is not in the vastness of the universe alone but also in the smallest detail of creation that the greatness and glory of God is manifested. We can talk eloquently about the love of God, but its reality is seen in the small, simple but powerful acts of kindness shown by those who know the heart of God.
