Love is Kind

We appreciate Charlie leading our singing this morning, and as you may remember, he is one of the students at the Southwest School of Bible Studies, and he just finished his third quarter. It’s hard to believe it’s going by so quickly. And so he’ll have one more quarter, and then he’ll be a second year student. We’re supporting him, and we appreciate his efforts, and we’re thankful that he led our singing this morning as well.

So, if you have a chance to say hello to Charlie this morning, say hi to him, get to know him, and understand that he’s working to further the gospel by studying there at the school. We’re happy this morning to continue our series of thoughts on the topic, Love Is.

And this comes from 1 Corinthians chapter 13, and verses 4 through 8, where the Apostle Paul tells us about what love is. And this morning, we’re going to be looking at the topic, Love is Kind, because it’s the next one in the list here.

And maybe you remember these verses. A lot of people have them up on their walls in their homes. I’ve seen them in many places, and these are great verses for us to know and to remember and to practice on a daily basis.

But here’s what the Apostle Paul writes about love. Love suffers long and is kind. Love does not envy. Love does not parade itself. Is not puffed up. Does not behave rudely. Does not seek its own. Is not provoked. Thinks no evil. Does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. Bears all things. Believes all things. Hopes all things. Endures all things. Love never fails.

And so as we look at this list of the qualities of love that we want to have within our lives and that the Bible is teaching us that we need to have within our lives, let’s think this morning about love being kind.

Now when we look at the word for kind in the New Testament, it’s translated from several different Greek words. Sometimes the word philanthropia is translated kind. It has the idea of love of mankind. Sometimes the word Philadelphia is translated brotherly kindness, and it has the notion of brotherly love or loving the brethren.

Another Greek word, krestotes, means goodness, honesty, uprightness, or good-heartedness. You know, being kind toward others involves that good-heartedness that we, a lot of times, love to see in other people when we greet them. And then one of the Old Testament words, sometimes translated loving kindness, specifically as applied to God, is chesed. And it means covenant faithfulness, loving kindness, steadfast love, and sometimes translated mercy.

And so all of these words can be translated into our English kind, the word for kind. And so the word kind in the Bible has a lot of thought to it. It has a lot of meaning to it. It’s very full. And so it can be a challenge to wrestle out all of these different ideas and concepts.

But when we think about kindness, we want to make an important distinction that being nice and being kind are not necessarily the same things. Niceties come from politeness, etiquette, or manners, that is, social customs, and a person who’s being nice can certainly be kind, But kindness doesn’t necessarily equal being nice to someone. Kindness is rooted in moral goodness, love, and mercy.

And I’ll just give you a relatable example, right? It is not nice for a doctor to stick your baby with a needle. If you’ve ever taken your baby to the doctor’s office and had the baby stuck with a needle, you’ll know it’s not nice, but it is kind.

That is, it is intended for that baby’s good, for his or her well-being, and it is a kind thing. So just because something is nice doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s kind, And just because it’s kind doesn’t necessarily mean that it is nice. It could be that some kind things are nice things, and some nice things are kind things, but it doesn’t always have to be.

But let’s look at how love is kind. And first of all, we want to note that God is kind. Love is kind because God is kind and God is love. And we see in the scriptures that God is abundant in kindness. In Nehemiah 9, in verse 17, it says, but you are a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abundant in kindness, and did not forsake them. So God is abundant In kindness, Psalm 117, verse 2 says, “…for His merciful kindness is great toward us, and the truth of the Lord endures forever.” So God’s kindness is great, and He is so faithful and steadfast, and He loves us tremendously, and He wants good things for us.

And God’s kindness is and brings comfort to us. Psalm 119 and verse 76 says, Let I pray your merciful kindness be for my comfort according to your word to your servant. And if we regard God correctly, then we will understand that His kindness is for our comfort.

And we will note also that His kindness is for His people. And God recognizes that kindness is something that He wants to show to us. For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from you, nor shall my covenant of peace be removed, says the And kindness here has reference to God’s loving faithfulness and His covenant mercy that He shows toward His people. He is always engaged. He always wants to have a relationship with us. He always wants to be involved in our lives.

And that’s what covenant faithfulness is. And we can see that in a lot of ways. You know, Paul would talk about the relationship between husband and wife in Ephesians chapter 5, and he would say, and this is the relationship of Christ with His church, you know.

And that gives us some depth and some understanding of how God wants His relationship with His people to be. And so God’s kindness is for His people. And God’s kindness is a reason for us to repent. When we think about God’s kindness, God’s goodness, you know, we should be turning toward God. We should be longing for God. We should be desiring to be with Him. Joel 2 and verse 13, there the prophet writes, “…so rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and He relents from doing harm.”

You know, a lot of times people are afraid of God and they don’t know what to do. And then when we understand that God is kind, that God is good, it encourages us to come back to Him. It encourages us to have that relationship that God wants us to have with Him.

And we grow deeper in our relationship with God when we realize His goodness and His kindness is for us and that everything He does is structured in such a way to develop us and to help us to be better people. That’s what God’s kindness is all about.

And God’s kindness sent Jesus. In Ephesians 2 and verse 7, it says, “…that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” And you see, that is the greatest manifestation of God’s kindness, sending Jesus Christ and having Him come to this earth to teach us who God is And what God’s will for our lives is and how to live our lives. And then for Jesus to die on the cross for us so that we can have forgiveness and hope. That’s God’s great kindness. And He sent Jesus because of that. And God’s chosen then must be kind.

When we think about our relationship with God and that we’re to imitate God within our lives, that so much means that we need to employ kindness. Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering, Colossians 3 and verse 12 teaches us.

In our relationship with God, God has been kind with us, and therefore we need to be kind as well. And when we think about kindness, let’s think about people who are kind. You know, love is kind. And there were some great people in the Bible who loved other people and demonstrated what love was by showing kindness.

One of the great lessons of kindness, I think, comes from the book of Ruth, where we see a kindness demonstrated between individual people in that book. Think about Boaz and Ruth, and as it’s recorded in Ruth chapter 3, in verse 10, When Naomi said to her daughter, “‘Blessed be he of the Lord, who has not forsaken His kindness to the living and the dead.'” And Naomi said to her, “‘This man is a relation of ours, one of our close relatives.'” Then he said, “‘Blessed are you of the Lord, my daughter, for you have shown more kindness at the end than at the beginning, in that you did not go after young men, whether poor or rich.'” And so kindness was shown through God’s provision A law whereby Ruth could then marry into Naomi’s family and have children who were then heirs to Naomi’s family.

And then Boaz was kind because he recognized that provision of the law and he exercised that provision in his life. And we see that Ruth was also kind because she could have gone after any man that she wanted. She didn’t do that. She was faithful to Naomi, and as a result, she demonstrated kindness within her life. Look at 2 Samuel chapter 9 and verse 1.

Now David said, “…Is there still anyone who is left of the house of Saul that I may show kindness for Jonathan’s sake?” And maybe you remember there that David was remembering his great relationship with Jonathan, and he was remembering his good friend, and he wanted to honor his good friend by showing kindness to one of the house of Saul.

And he chose Mephibosheth to whom to show kindness. And he took Mephibosheth into his own home and made him one of his own sons and showed great kindness to him as a result of his love for Jonathan. The worthy woman is one who shows kindness and who showed kindness. Proverbs 31, verse 26. She opens her mouth with wisdom, and on her tongue is the law of kindness. So Boaz, Ruth, David, the worthy woman, all of these demonstrate kindness in the Old Testament.

And kindness is the law, on her tongue is the law of kindness. And that shows that our tongues need to be in such a way so that they demonstrate kindness. The Apostle Paul was kind, and he recounted his ministry in 2 Corinthians 6 and verse 6 when he talked about how that those who were apostles and those who were ministers of the gospel We’re to be the people who could demonstrate that by purity, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by sincere love. And so kindness is something that the servant of God needs to employ within his life as he is preaching and teaching the gospel. And Paul certainly demonstrated that.

And then, of course, Jesus was someone who was kind and demonstrated kindness within His life. In Titus 3, verses 4 through 7, we read these words, “…but when the kindness and the love of God our Savior 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, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior, that having been justified by His grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

And so we have kindness shown to us through Jesus Christ, through the work that He did when He came to this earth and He went to the cross and He died there for our sins. That was kindness on His part. And love is kind. And Jesus was kind.

And so when we think about love being kind, we think about Jesus. And we think about all those others in the Bible who demonstrated kindness because they had a great teacher and a great example, and that is God Himself who was kind. Love is kind because God is kind. And we see love demonstrated in the Bible as being kind.

And now we want to ask the question, how to be kind? How can we be kind within our lives? First of all, we want to note that kindness is a quality of love. And so as we are loving other people, we can be kind to them. Love suffers long and is kind. We read earlier in 1 Corinthians 13 and verse 4.

And we’re kind by loving our brethren. We’re kind by loving those around us. We’re kind by loving our enemies. In Luke 6 and verse 35, Jesus says, “…but love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return. And your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, Why? For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. And we need to be kind to our enemies. And how do we do that? Again, there’s a difference between being kind and being nice. Okay? We must be kind. But niceness is not necessarily in the equation. You know, you’re not necessarily nice to your enemies all the time, but you can be kind to them.

All the time. And that’s an important thing. It’s an important distinction to make here. But we need to be kind to our enemies. Kindness is associated with forgiveness. And so as we are loving one another, being kind to one another, we’re going to forgive one another. How can we be kind? We can love other people. We can love our enemies. We can forgive our enemies and forgive one another.

We need to be kind to those who are ill and those who are bereaved. And this is one way that we can show kindness by going and visiting other folks and reaching out to those who have lost loved ones.

Job 6 and verse 14, Job says, “…to him who is afflicted, kindness should be shown by his friend, even though he forsakes the fear of the Almighty.” In other words, what Job is saying here is that even though someone might forsake God, if they’re sick or if they’re grieving, we can still be kind to them when they’re sick and when they’re grieving.

There’s no excuse to be rude to someone, even though they may forsake the fear of the Almighty. We want to be kind, even to those, especially to those who are brethren and who are sick and who are grieving. And so we can show kindness in times like that.

We can show kindness when we correct people, and a lot of times this is what we need to do when we are dealing with someone who’s gone astray or someone who is not acting correctly or appropriately. We need to show kindness and correct them in kindness.

Psalm 141, verse 5 says, “…Let the righteous strike me, it shall be a kindness. And let him rebuke me, it shall be as excellent oil. Let my head not refuse it.” And this is talking about receiving correction when we need to do that and recognizing that when someone else corrects us in a loving way, that is a kind thing to do.

It is kind to stop a child from putting his hand on a burner. It is kind to stop him from running out into the street full of busy cars, even though it may involve some urgent action on our part. That’s still kind, and it is still kind when we are dealing with our brethren who need urgent action in regard to their spiritual welfare as well.

It is kind to care for strangers and to show kindness to those who are strangers to us and maybe need a helping hand. In Acts chapter 28, verse 2, there Paul talks about the natives of the island on which they were shipwrecked, how they 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. And so there are sometimes situations where people are in need and by helping them with those needs, we show kindness to them. And that is something that we can employ within our lives as well.

How can we be kind? By caring for strangers and helping those who are in need. We can be kind when we give respect to the dead and you know there are those in this world who seemingly don’t have any respect for anyone else and they have no respect for the dead sometimes and sometimes that makes the news and it always seems to appall me when someone will know.

He will not show respect for the dead. In 2 Samuel chapter 2 and verse 5, David sent messengers to the men of Jabesh Gilead and said to them, You are blessed of the Lord, for you have shown this kindness to your Lord to Saul and have buried him.

And so they went and took the body of Saul after battle and buried it. And by doing that, that was showing a kindness. And so, taking care of and respecting the dead shows kindness, and we want to do that.

And then, as ministers of the Gospel, as we mentioned earlier in 2 Corinthians 6 and verse 6, we show kindness when we preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ in love. And that is something we want to do all the time. It’s something everyone should do as we’re teaching others about the message of Jesus Christ.

That is showing kindness to others. So how can we be kind? By loving people, loving our enemies, forgiving others, visiting people when they are ill or when they have sickness or in times of bereavement, offering correction to people when that is appropriate, caring for strangers, respecting the dead, and ministering the gospel.

All of those are ways to show kindness. So how can we do it? The Bible teaches us how, and that is up to us then to make those applications to our lives. So God is kind, and therefore kindness comes from God and His Spirit. And the Bible reveals to us then that love is kind.

We’ve talked about this morning God’s kindness, the kindness of people in the Bible, and how we can be kind as well. And God, as we mentioned, was kind to us when He sent His Son, Jesus, to die on the cross for our sins.

And when Jesus was raised from the dead, He told the apostles, Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be condemned. And so we echo those words of Jesus Christ who was kind to us this morning when we say to those who are here that if you need to become a child of God, you can do so this morning by hearing His word and believing it, repenting of sin, confessing Jesus as Lord, and being baptized for the forgiveness of sins.

It is kind to say that, and we want to say that, and we believe in the kindness of Jesus Christ, and we believe in the kindness of His plan for salvation, and so if there’s someone this morning who needs to respond to that plan, the kindness of Jesus, you can do so right now while together we stand and while we sing.

End of transcript. Thank you for reading along!