The Fruit of the Spirit: Kindness

Written By Melvin Jones

So far, we have examined four of the aspects of the Fruit of the Spirit. And just to remind you, we are looking at the fruit as a single entity, with nine qualities. It's similar to saying that the fruit of the grape vine is small, round, purple, juicy, sweet, etc. So far we have seen that the Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, and patience. These, for starters, are what the Fruit of the Spirit "looks" like. And over the last three articles, we have looked at love, joy, peace and patience and tried, at least on an elementary level, to see what the fruit looks like in the life of the believer.

The fifth aspect or quality of the Fruit is kindness. And as with most of the qualities, it's easy to confuse this quality with how the world defines kindness. Most people think of kindness as what we feel when we rescue a turtle from a road so it won't get squashed. Or we think of giving a couple of bucks to a homeless man or woman. We may even, at times, see it as giving someone our seat on the bus or subway train. But all these fall far short of what God is talking about when he speaks of kindness. As nice as they are, none of them require God's work in our lives. None of them require us to depend on God's spirit to do them. So as before, I ask: If the things I talked about are not examples of kindness, then what is?

For a moment, let's take a look at Jesus Christ, the One to whose image we are being conformed. Ephesians 4:31-32 says: Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.

On my own, this is a tall order. God commands us to put away all the things we like to wallow in when we have been offended - bitterness, wrath and anger. Then He forbids us to engage in the activities we so love - clamor and slander. If left to my own devices, once I am offended, I will kick up a fuss, whine and cry, and try to make people think the worst of the person who has offended me.

And God forbid that the person who has offended me should get in trouble of any kind. That is simply my opportunity to feel justified in the way I feel toward this person. After all, if they insist on making my life miserable, then it serves them right that their lives should be messed up too. Now I can sit back and really enjoy their misery.

Unfortunately, God commands us to do otherwise. Remember what I said earlier about God requiring more of us than we can supply on our own? He does the same thing when it comes to kindness. Let's take a look at Romans Chapter 12, verses 19 through 20: Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay," says the Lord. "But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head."

In other words, if that person who has offended me should require my help, I am to help them. And I get the idea that I am to help them cheerfully and generously, not gritting my teeth and wishing they would go away. After all, when we were enemies of God (Romans 5:10 - we were enemies of God), God sacrificed His Son, why should he expect any less from us? In fact, looking again at Romans 12, He says that we are to "Bless those who persecute you; bless and curse not."

Here, Paul is talking about people who are actively and consciously mistreating us. Notice that he doesn't say "And don't say anything bad about them." Instead, God requires something more aggressive from us. He tells us that we are to bless this person.

Can I do that on my own? Certainly not. Is it reasonable? Not by the world's standard. But it is the example set by Christ when, in the midst of the crucifixion, He asked His Father to forgive His executors. Stephen, when he was being stoned, did the same thing. He forgave his tormentors. Now God asks each of us to do the exact same thing. But He doesn't just give us a command and then leave us to our own devices. His Spirit empowers us. And, if we are willing to obedient to His word, His Spirit convicts us when we are not being kind.

While this particular aspect of the Fruit of the Spirit seems like the most innocuous, this one actually calls for us to have Christ's attitude not just with our husband or wife, but to have His attitude toward those who are yet the enemies of God.