Ready for the ultimate kindness test? Here it is. To be kind to people all the time no matter what. Now it sure is easy to be kind to some people. The people who are loving, kind, good to us, polite, professional, sweet, gentle, tender, giving, generous, who share, who make sacrifices for us, who do a good job, who help and support us, who do their job well, who are plain old nice. But what about those people who are anything but? Do we have to be kind to them also? Yes! Remember the ultimate kindness test. To be kind to all no matter what! But why should we do this, and how can we possibly do this?
Why? God commands us to love others as ourselves and to be kind. Period. Enough said. We are to be kind in obedience to God. And He does not command us to love people and be kind to them when we feel like it. There are to be no conditions regarding kindness. God’s people are to be people of love and kindness, plain and simple!
But how can we be kind to all? Simple. Kindness is to be an act and expression of God’s love. And it is to be a fruit of His Holy Spirit who lives inside His followers and who supplies all the love we could possibly need! In other words, we can be loving and kind toward any and all people THROUGH THE LORD. He supplies the love and kindness we need for others!
What are we to do? Cry out to God! Pray to God! Look to Jesus! Look to the Bible! Abide in Jesus! In other words, trust in and rest in and put our hope and expectation in Him! And to humble ourselves before God and obey Him! To be filled with and led by and empowered by His Holy Spirit! Oh, cry out to God we must do! He will enable and equip and empower us to be kind! Praise God!
Let us pass this test. For Christ’s sake, in a world and day and age in which love and kindness can sometimes seem so lacking, let us show people the love and kindness of God! AMEN!
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23 NKJV
“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…” 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 NKJV