Fruit Of The Spirit ... Kindness

January 28, 2016

Kindness is one of the fruit that is pretty straight forward. We can look at someones behavior and rightly discern kindness. The lesson this week will look at some verses in the bible so we can tell what God says kindness is and where He says it comes from. Since this is pretty obvious we will spend only one week on this and next week we will be discussing meekness.

" If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink; for so you will heap coals of fire on his head, and the Lord will reward you. "     Proverbs   25 : 21-22
The coals spoken of here are not coals of judgement meant to harm or condemn, but coals of kindness meant to melt the hard heart of the non-believer by deeds of kindness. In the New Testament Jesus teaches the same lesson when He talks about loving your enemy and praying for them.

" For if you love those who love you, what reward have you ? Do not even the tax collectors do the same ? And if you greet your brethren , what do you do more than others ? For do not even the tax collectors do so ?        Matthew   5 : 46-47
When Jesus died on the cross He died for each person and all people !!! The lesson Jesus is teaching here is that we should follow His example and not the example of Satan. When He is referring to the tax collectors, the most hated people in Israel, this refers to Satan. The law that non-believers follow is to be kind and greet only people of their kind... not to all people. What Jesus is teaching is to be kind to ALL people. The righteous and the unrighteous, the good and the bad, the believers and the non-believers.

" To him who is afflicted, kindness should be shown by his friend, even though he forsakes the fear of the Almighty. "          Job   6 : 14
In the story of Job, he has lost everything and his friends come to "comfort" him. They all take turns telling Job that God is punishing him for sin. Job searches his soul and concludes he has not sinned, yet his friends continue to condemn him for sinning. In this verse Job is saying that even if he did sin, shouldn't his "friends" at least show kindness and stop accusing him of sinning ?  This is where the saying comes from (or at least should have) that we are to hate the sin and not the sinner. Job's friends should not have accused him but should have comforted him in his time of need. We as well meaning Christians should also learn this lesson !!

I was recently witness to the break up of a church because well meaning people were ( preachers) accusing and threatening people in the church congregation for living in sin. They should have taken a lesson from Job and comforted them and led them away from sin by leading them to Jesus instead of being righteous in their own minds and judging.....which is God's job not ours. Join us next week as we look at meekness. If you would like to know more about us or what we do, you can find us at www.prayerboxministry.org.