“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!”
Galatians 5:22-23
Who is the kindest person you know? What makes them so kind? If you were to look up kindness in the dictionary would it surprise you to know it is a noun and not a verb? It did me. I’ve always thought of kindness as more of an action, but it’s much more than that, it’s something inside of us. It’s given to us by possession of the Holy Spirit. Sin has entered our hearts and because of that, we are not kind on our own. This is a character trait we must consciously nurture and grow.
In the Bible, kindness is used to refer to many characters. God possesses ultimate kindness (Psalm145:17), David showed kindness to the son of his best friend Jonathan (2 Samuel 9), Boaz showed kindness to Ruth (Ruth 2:8-10), and Rahab showed kindness to the spies (Joshua 2). There are many more examples, but just to name a few. The word kindness is also used as a command from God to His people. In Colossians 3, God calls us to “clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience” (verse 12).
Kindness is hard to show to all people, especially those more difficult to deal with. But time and again we are shown examples of kindness shown to strangers or even ones we wouldn’t necessarily get along with. We can learn so much from the characters mentioned above. They not only said kind words, but their actions of kindness spoke volumes. They showed compassion, acted selflessly, and most importantly, allowed them to see Christ reflected through their spirit.
I read this quote just this morning in my gratitude journaling app that’s a great reminder on this topic. The author is unknown, but reads “People can be so quiet about their pain, that you forget they are hurting. That is why it is so important to always be kind.” This is so true. We don’t always know what other people are going through or what kind of day they’ve had, so always show Christ in everything that you do.
