Other World Kindness
We are considering the components of the fruit which is to develop in our lives by way of our walk with Christ. This week we come to the component of kindness. Galatians 5: 22-26 “ But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.”
We have to remind ourselves that the fruit we are to experience and which others are to see growing in our lives (as well as each component of that fruit) is to be more than that which comes through ordinary human development and experience. The fruit which God is developing in our lives is extraordinary in nature. It could not exist except that we have chosen to walk with God and have simultaneously allowed Him to bring His character into our lives.
Kindness that is to be seen in the lives of Christ followers is to be more than that which is seen in the good but unbelieving public. Kindness is the compassion which we are to have towards others. It is the feeling of goodwill or the desire that good happen in the lives of others by way of our action or assistance.
I suspect that for most of us the real test as it regards kindness is not whether the desire for good for others exists but rather for whom it exists and whether that group of people for whom we wish well is a growing list. It is not hard for us to wish our friends and family well. That comes naturally or at least more naturally. The more difficult kindness to experience is to see ourselves extending kindness to those who do not like us or who even hate us.
We often find that we have bought into the principle that we are to fight fire with fire or to repay in kind. Treat others as they have treated you. Yet the effect of God in our lives is to change us from the inside out so that we begin to care for those who even hate us.
When Jesus asked His Father to forgive those who were crucifying Him (Luke 23:34), we know that Christ spoke from His heart. When Stephen prayed that God would not hold the sin of murder against his murderers (Acts 7:60), he spoke with the kindness which comes from walking with Christ.
The real evidence of the kindness component of the fruit of the Spirit rising to Godly levels in our lives is to see our desire for good to come into the life of our enemies or those who are active in their hate for us. It is to act as Christ and Stephen did in the most difficult of circumstances. It is to repay acts of hatred perpetrated against us with acts of benevolence. It is to act for the benefit of others even as they act against our interests.
When others see this kind of action on our part aimed at the unloving and difficult persons of our world, they will act as is we have just arrived from outer space. In fact, the thought that we are from a different planet is not so far from reality. We are to be transformed by heaven rather than formed according to the pattern of this world. In that way, we are to become “other” world creatures engaging in “other” world activities and one of the significant ways in which we can exhibit this “other” worldliness is to be kind towards all men and women, even those who do not act kindly towards us.
So when was the last time you felt God prompt you to act kindly towards an enemy or someone who does not like you? When was the last time you anonymously blessed an enemy?
Enter into the experience of Other World Kindness.
eMullins
