Last week we studied the meaning of Scriptural kindness.
Learning to operate in fruit of the Spirit kindness is a major factor in the
success of spreading the Gospel. It doesn't take supernatural power to be
kind to those "deserving" of kindness — those who are themselves
kind. It is also the nature of most decent individuals to be kind to the
downtrodden in life. We may not always excel in this area, but it is our
natural desire.
We started in Colossians 3:5 and forward. We are still being renewed and are always in
the process. This alone will help us to
have more patience and kindness toward others.
Look on your own at Romans 12:2 (we are renewed by changing our way of
thinking) and Hebrews 10:14 (we were already made perfect by the sacrifice but
we are BEING made Holy). It is important
to note that God sees us the same, since He sees us all through Christ, and
that we have to CLOTHE ourselves with patience and kindness…we don’t naturally
have it. Part of patience and kindness
is forgiveness (remember God forgave us while we were yet sinners). This means REALLY letting it go and letting
God deal with the heart issue behind their sin (instead of waiting for God to “get
even with them”).
God is concerned with the heart. He is not looking to punish
our sins. He wants to help us overcome our sins. There are people who are
"unredeemable" but God is the one who knows that — not you. We must
find ways to look at people as God does — beyond the faults and into the heart.
Most unkind people are acting that way because of heart issues that only God
can fix.
In Luke 10 Jesus shares a parable about a man who had been
robbed and beaten and left on the side of the road. A priest and a Levite
(temple worker) walked right past him and did nothing. Contrary to what we
expect, one who not only went and cared for the man, but also went above and
beyond the call, was a Samaritan. When
Jesus chooses to make a Samaritan the hero of the story, He makes a profound
point. The Samaritans were vehemently hated by the Jews based on a story that
goes all the way back to the Old Testament in 2 Kings 17. They were seen as
half-breeds and illegitimate children of God. In fact, Jesus had just had a
run-in with them in the previous chapter — which makes His choice to use them
in His parable all the more illustrative of Biblical kindness. Additionally in
John 4, Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus used kindness by waiting for her to
tell Him rather than calling her out on all the junk in her life. This results in many people believing in
Him. She is also the first person Jesus
told He was the Messiah.
In the end, we find that there is a deep need for the world
to see kindness operating both within the church (because we can be so unkind
to fellow believers simply because we have theological differences) and in the
world. The sinners of the world (those who do not yet know Christ) need us to
spend a little less time pointing out their sin (they already know what we
think!) and more time showing kindness and extending grace. This doesn’t mean we say sin is okay, but
that we show the heart of Jesus about their sin. God sees the reason behind the sin and wants
to deal with that.
Grace teaches us to say no to ungodliness — not overzealous
Christians screaming "you're a sinner." Extend to others the same
grace that God has extended to you. Let grace do its work. This is illustrated
in Proverbs 3:3. We must bind both truth AND kindness around our necks. We seem
to have no problem bringing the "truth" about sin, but we must also
join it with kindness. We never want to approve of sin, but we do love people
through it. THEN we will have favor in
the eyes of God and man.
To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/ and click on online media. To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee, visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.
To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/ and click on online media. To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee, visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.
