Ephesians 5:8 tells us, "For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light!" This verse gives us a contrast between who we used to be and who we are after we accept Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior. God’s love comes into our hearts and into our lives in a powerful way. As children of light, we have an obligation to let His love rule our actions, attitudes, and behaviors. God’s love gives us new life through the born-again experience, and this new life is expressed as we follow the example of Jesus Christ. Romans 5:18(NLT) says, “Yes, Adam's one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ's one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone.” When we understand this powerful truth, our next steps are to continually line up our thoughts, feelings, attitudes and behaviors to match the reality of the newness we have received!
We are to walk in the light, and this light is God's love that was shed abroad to us and in us through Jesus Christ. In order to walk in the light of God's love, we have to know His nature. One important part of God's nature and love is kindness. In the New Testament, 1Corinthians 13 is often referred to as the “Love” chapter. It’s frequently read during wedding ceremonies, and most of us have probably heard countless sermons on it. This chapter is teaching us about God’s love, and we shouldn’t confuse His love with our brand of love. Before we made Jesus Christ the Lord of our lives, we thought we had a lock on the subject of love, many of us think we can write a book on it, but our version of love doesn’t come close to matching the love of God in Christ. The brand of love that most individuals have is based on conditions and limitations. We love those who love us back, and if they do things to upset us, many of us withdraw our love from them altogether. This isn’t how God’s love operates.
God loves us unconditionally. John 3:16 tells us that He loves the world so much that He gave His only begotten Son so that we would not perish in darkness but have the gift of eternal life. Nothing compares to God’s level of generosity and what He has accomplished for us through Jesus Christ. He gave His Son to die for us when we were at our worse. This allows us to witness the Father’s amazing grace. We didn’t deserve His gift of salvation, but He has given it to us through Christ anyway.
The kindness that God has demonstrated to us through Jesus Christ is immeasurable, and in 1Corinthians 13:4, He gives us a clue about why His love behaves the way it does. He tells us that His love is patient and kind. As His sons and daughters, He commands us to imitate Him, and this means we are to love the way that He does. We must learn to love others without all the conditions or limitations we sometimes put on them. If we did not have the Holy Spirit living inside us, we would not be able to love God’s way, but because of what Jesus Christ has done for us, we can!
Love responds to kindness. This is the way our Heavenly Father set it up. He woos us with kindness, and He has designed things in such a way that love endlessly boomerangs through kindness; this is a very important truth to comprehend. The kindness we demonstrate to others helps us to avoid negative situations and consequences, and this is huge. Love is a choice. It’s a decision that each of us must make, and we must do so based on our commitment to honor God. Love requires us to go above and beyond, and when we love this way, we should know that we are setting ourselves up for the goodness of God’s blessings. What we put out there has to boomerang back to us, and that goes for good or bad. Kindness bestows a blessing because it guarantees that kindness will be returned to us.
Romans 1:28-32(NLT) shows us how people operate when the love of God in Christ isn’t in their hearts: “29 Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. 30 They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. 31
They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. 32 They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.” This passage paints a terrible picture of those that refuse to allow the love of God in their hearts, but many believers in the Lord Jesus Christ operate this way as well, and that is truly sad.
Romans 2:1 tells us not to get puffed up, because the truth is that some believers behave just as badly as those who do not live in Christ. Rather than condemning others, we should show kindness to everyone, because that is what God has shown us through His Son, Jesus Christ. Romans 2:4(NLT) says, “Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?” All of us need to repent of our sins, and we need to do it as often and as authentically as we can, with genuine sorrow for the way in which we have grieved the Holy Spirit and offended Heavenly Father. When we think of God’s tremendous kindness, and how He has spared our lives and gave His Son for us, we should want to turn from sin against Him. This is what He hopes we will do.
A hard heart isn’t pliable or flexible to the Will of God. It’s stony ground and good seed can’t take root there. Jesus Christ demonstrated this through the parable he taught in Mark 4:16 about those that hear the Good News but fall away from it, because they don’t allow his love to take root in their hearts. We shouldn’t let this be said of us. Our hearts must be full of faith in God, so that we trust Him, and His Word more than we do anything else. He tells us to be kind to others, and He means what He says. Being kind is how we live and represent His light continually.
People today are not as patient, pleasant, loving, or kind as they once were. Road rage, violent behavior in stores and shopping malls and all the hateful isms of prejudice are on the rise, and simple courtesies seem to be a thing of the past. Some folks are on the hunt for opportunities to unload their pent-up frustrations on others, and you might experience this. Our old way is to meet them toe-to-toe, to give them the same negative attitude and words that we feel they deserve, but this is not kindness. It’s not the love of God that is demonstrated by a person that has renewed their minds to His Word. We can choose to be kind and not cause the vicious cycle of heated words and hateful behavior to continue.
Ephesians 2:7(NLT) lets us in on the outcome of the Father’s plan. It says, “So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.” This gives us a snapshot of what’s to come. The same way we view the Great Cloud of Witnesses in Hebrews 11 as those who had a fully persuaded faith in God, He will point to us as the recipients of His immeasurable grace and kindness through Jesus Christ. This should be our motivation daily to live through God’s love and to demonstrate to others the kindness He has shown to us all.■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
"Kindness is a Set-up for the Blessings of God”, written for victoryinjesuschrist.life. Copyright© 2022. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
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