Series: Believe Be Like Jesus Message: Kindness and Goodness May 29, 2016 [slide 1] The 2000 movie Pay It Forward featured a seventh grade student named Trevor and his alcoholic mother and deadbeat dad. Trevor s grandmother lives in her station wagon, and his best friend gets picked on repeatedly by one of the school bullies. One day Trevor s Social Studies teacher gives them an assignment to do something to change the world. While the other classmates roll their eyes, Trevor feels inspired, and he gets the idea to do something good and big for three people who really need it with the understanding that each one would do the same for three more. If you have seen the movie you know that tragedy strikes. But unbeknownst to Trevor, his idea of goodness and kindness wonderfully impacts his teacher, his mother, his grandmother, his classmates, and many others. The movie ends with crowds of people and lines of cars showing up to his house to pay him tribute. 13. The Apostle Paul places kindness near the top of his list of love s attributes in 1 Corinthians 4 Love is kind. If love is kind, then we can know for certain that God, who is love, is also kind. God s kindness can be seen in Jesus whose mission was to change the world. And change the world through kindness is exactly what Jesus did. He turned water into wine at a wedding feast in Cana. He forgave a woman caught in the act of adultery in the temple courts. He drove a legion of demons out of a man and into a herd of pigs in the Gerasenes. And he taught that love drives our kindness to be good to others, even to our own enemies, in the story of the Good Samaritan. The beauty of kindness and goodness combined together into one goes way beyond the external beauty we might see in the vastness of the Grand Canyon or the rolling waves of the ocean or even the brilliant colors of a sunset from a mountaintop. The beauty of kindness and 1
goodness comes from an inner moral character that grows up in the heart of the person who believes in Jesus. The Holy Spirit develops us to become as kind as we can possibly be. Kindness defines who we are and should be our default position, while goodness defines how we act toward other people. And you can t have one without the other. You can t do good to others unless you are kind in heart. And so because God is kind to us, we can be kind to others. Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:32, [slide 2] 32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. And prior to this passage just a couple of chapters over, Paul wrote, [slide 3] 2:6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. What you don t hear in the English you certainly can t miss in the Greek. The word for kind is χρηστος; the word of Christ is χριστος. With just one letter different you can t hear this admonition in the original language without connecting kindness with Christ. According to Paul you cannot be the recipient of the kindness of Christ without paying it forward to others be kind to one another. God has been immeasurably kind to you and me, which means we owe him everything. And some, with that thought, do their best to try to pay him back. They try to fill their schedules with more and more church activities, and they try to work hard by going from one service project to another, and they try to do their best by being right about everything almost as if they are working off some kind of penance. But in the midst of their trying they forget kindness. 2
We can do a lot of things in an unkind way, but that s not what Jesus wants. Instead of working and trying to pay him back, Jesus asks us to pay his kindness forward. Mark Twain once said, Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. And Jesus taught us that it s easy to be kind to those who are kind to us, but true love is show in being kind to everyone. A kind person being kind to another kind person is kind, but it won t change the world unless we extend our kindness to everyone. Listen to these words from Titus 3. [slide 4] 3 At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. 4 But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. God knows us better than anyone, yet he did not withhold his kindness toward us. If you are part of the us, then God has been kind to you. A man walked up to the large glass doors of a corporate building at the same time a female executive approached. He opened the door and stepped back, smiling as he motioned for her to walk in ahead of him. She stopped, glared at him, and blurted out, You re only opening the door for me because I m a woman, aren t you? The man smiled and calmly replied, No, ma am. I m opening the door for you because I am a gentleman. He was letting her know that his actions were determined not by her gender but by his nature. Such is the Biblical brand of kindness and goodness. It acts as it is no matter the circumstances. So are we kind of good people, or are we kind and good people? In the famous list of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5, we find that the Holy Spirit develops within us the fruit of goodness and kindness. These two refer to the outward acts toward others that are first generated from an inner moral sense of what is right and what is best. 3
We do what we do for others because inwardly we have decided that this is the right thing to do for the benefit of that person. Let s say you walk into your friend s home and see a bowl of enticing fruit on the dining room table. You re hankering for a juicy apple, so you grab one, bite into it, and promptly break a tooth. You realize that the fruit is artificial! Artificial fruit manufactured in a factory looks amazingly real by scale, color, and detail. But it is, by nature, fake food. Fake fruit has just one purpose to be on display. It s great to look at, but has no real personal value. There are times when an ulterior motive makes an act of kindness artificial. We can do something to look nice, to look good, and even to give the appearance of being harmless, but we may do it with the wrong motive. We might publicly compliment somebody, but maybe deep down we might want something in return. We might buy someone a gift, but our real goal may be to get that person to do something for us. Honest appearances can disguise highly dishonest motives. Some fruit is fake; they may appear to be kind, but they are not good. Artificial fruit will never taste good to the soul. If we bite into it, we will regret it. Real fruit, however, can look great, taste great, and provide nourishment and sustenance. [slide 5] So how do we provide the real fruit of goodness and kindness to others? First, [slide 6] Seek to BUILD UP others. This one should be pretty self-explanatory, but far too often I hear words of criticism and negativity springing from Christians lips far more than I hear words of encouragement and positivity. Mom used to say, If you can t say something nice, then don t say anything at all. Nothing hurts someone more than your negative words and criticisms. They hurt people s feelings, they create disunity, and they chase people out of the church. I would encourage you to find something nice to say, and go to that person and say it. Romans 14:19 says, 4
[slide 7] 19 So then, let us aim for harmony in the church and try to build each other up. (NLT) Second, [slide 8] seek RECONCILIATION, not RETALIATION. We live in a world today where it s easy to pay someone back for the wrong they did to us. If someone is nasty to me, then you better believe that I m going to be nasty back. But Jesus tells us to turn to them the other cheek. In Jesus day, when someone slapped another on the cheek, that person wasn t trying to physically hurt him, but to publicly insult him. So Jesus is telling us that when someone insults you, dive deep into your heart and consider how you might respond. The old you will want to retaliate, but the new refined you will bite your tongue, withstand the pressure of a comeback, and even allow that person to deliver another blow. 1 Thessalonians 5:15 says, [slide 9] 15 Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else. The Greek word for wrong is κακα. What an appropriate word, right? In a fallen world, kaka happens. But when κακα happens to us, we must reach deep within ourselves and refuse to return the κακα, and we seek to return good for evil. And look what happens when we do that. Romans 12:19-21: [slide 10] 19 Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God s wrath, for it is written, It is mine to avenge; I will repay, says the Lord. 20 On the contrary: If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head. 21 Do not be overcome by κακα, but overcome κακα with good. The greatest commandments are, Love God and Love your neighbor. You might say that there is a third greatest commandment that is very challenging and requires large doses of goodness and kindness. Jesus says in Luke chapter 6, 5
[slide 11] 6 27 Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. And then in verse 31 we have the Golden Rule. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you. The Holy Spirit will develop within you the fruit of goodness and kindness so that you can [slide 12] seek ways to LOVE your ENEMIES. Jesus gives us four tangible ways in which to do just that. 1. Do good to those who hate you. You might think this is counterintuitive, radical, and even revolutionary. But what might this mean to you with respect to relatives who have offended you, your boss who works you to the bone, or to those of a different race than you? 2. Bless those who curse you. To bless a person means to speak well of him, to be a good-finder, to wish a good and wholesome destiny upon him, and to want only good to happen to him. Instead of cussing back at your enemy who is cussing at you and flipping you the bird, just smile and wave and bless them. 3. Pray for those who mistreat you. Doing good to and blessing your enemies is tough enough, but now Jesus says we should pray for them. I have found that when I pray for a person, my attitude changes toward that person, and sometimes that person s heart also changes. Prayer is the most powerful weapon in our battle against evil that we have. We should make prayer the first thing we do instead of the last resort. 4. Treat others the way you want them to treat you the Golden Rule. It s not only a nice way to live; it s a transformative way to conduct your life. And many times it becomes contagious. The context of this passage comes from Matthew chapter 5. Listen to what Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount. 6
[slide 13] 43 You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. This revolutionary Kingdom principle doesn t need further explanation or proof that it works. We can all bring up impossible situations where there is no way it will work out. Your mind has probably been flooded with all sorts of exceptions to what Jesus is saying. But here s the problem. All of our exceptions are theoretical, not realities, until you actually practice this principle. Jesus and his principles need no further defense. Jesus and his principles require actions. Don t just tell people about Jesus; be Jesus to those you love and especially to those who don t love you. Love your enemies. Try it out and watch Jesus begin to work in them. Jesus way to eliminate your enemies is for you to love them. A.W. Tozer in The Pursuit of God said, [slide 14] Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers, meeting together, each one looking to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be [slide 15] This is the fruit of the Spirit on display in the fellowship of believers called the church. Kindness and goodness may be: a deed done; a word spoken; an action acknowledged a wrong confronted; an attitude changed; a critical thought not shared; an offense forgiven; a gift given; an apology accepted; a failure forgotten. Where does it start? With me today! 7