Kindness: Amazing Fruit

Because God is kind, His people can also be kind. His nature can be reproduced in ours. Bearing the fruit of the Spirit is a process whereby the old, sinful nature is replaced with the character traits, which belong to a Holy God. Because the Spirit of God indwells us, the sinful tendency to be unfeeling and uncaring begins to be overcome by the power of love.

Jesus Christ was the master at that sort of thing. He would reach out to people when there was no reason why he should. He became involved in the lives of people who did not deserve his attention. He befriended the lonely and the unlovely. He built relationships with powerless and unimportant people. By means of his manner, he won the hearts of men and women to God.

​Do we imitate Christ in our dealings with people? It is one thing to be indignant and tell someone off who has offended you; it is something else again to be gracious with that person and to win him or her with kindness. If more of us would learn to live in kindness, the world would be a happier and brighter place for all. Churches would be at peace. Families would be healed. Individual lives could be positive influences in a frequently negative world. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you (Ephesians 4:32).

---

Clark Tatum