Fruit of the Spirit - Kindness (2)

The singular fruit, as compared with the plural works, suggests that the effect of the Spirit’s inworking is one harmonious whole, while carnality tends to multitudinousness, distraction, chaos.

There are no true virtues and good affections without the grace of regeneration.

Galatians 5:22- 23 is a portrait of Christ.

Kindness = χρηστότης chrēstotēs = the quality of being helpful or beneficial, goodness, kindness, generosity of humans.

The quality of being warmhearted, considerate, humane, gentle, and sympathetic.

Kindness is an active, busy virtue.

It is the thoughtful insight, the delicate tact, the gentle ministering hand of charity.

1 Corinthians 13:4 (NIV84)

4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

Ephesians 4:17–5:5 (NIV84)

17So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.

18They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.

19Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.

20You, however, did not come to know Christ that way.

21Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus.

22You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;

23to be made new in the attitude of your minds;

24and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

25Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body.

26“In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry,

27and do not give the devil a foothold.

28He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need.

29Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

30And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

31Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.

32Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

5:1Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children

2and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

3But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.

4Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.

5For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a man is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

V. 32, Kind = love, the fundamental Christian virtue, but in the special form of forgiveness.

Be kind = gently pleasant; soft and mild (and pleasant); not harsh, stern, or severe.

We must display spiritual graces instead of soul-destroying grudges.

Wuest translated the beginning of this verse as, “And be becoming kind.”

We might not be able to achieve the kind of total revolution of inner disposition demanded by the Holy Spirit all at once.

God makes allowance for us to learn and practice, even though we already have the indwelling Holy Spirit to provide the energizing power needed for change.

God does demand that here and now—right away—we start putting away the old nature and putting on the new.

Colossians 3:12–14 (NIV84)

12Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

13Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

14And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

The elect of God are holy and dearly loved.

Verse 12 was not a mandate or command for the believer to become holy and thereby are dearly loved; it was a description of God’s elect. The imperative or mandate of verse 12 starts with the word clothe.

See that your manner of life is fitting in accordance with that kind of life the elect of God should live.

As God’s elect (God’s choice of certain from among mankind who were as saved individuals), we have been made holy (set apart for God) and are dearly loved by God.

Holy = ἅγιος hagios = separate from common condition and use; dedicated.

God chose believers out of the mainstream of mankind and drew them to Himself. They are different from the world. When believers fail to act differently from the world, they violate the very purpose of their calling.

Dearly loved = ἀγαπάω agapaō = to love, value, esteem, feel or manifest generous concern for, be faithful towards; to delight in, to set store upon.

That believers are beloved of God means they are objects of His special love. Election is not a cold, fatalistic doctrine. On the contrary, it is based in God’s incomprehensible love for His elect.

Ephesians 1:3–14 (NIV84)

3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

4For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love

5he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—

6to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.

7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace

8that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.

9And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ,

10to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.

11In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will,

12in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.

13And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit,

14who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.

The Bible speaks of three kinds of election:

One is God’s theocratic election of Israel. “You are a holy people to the Lord your God,” Moses told Israel in the desert of Sinai; “the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth” (Deut. 7:6).

That election had no bearing on personal salvation. “They are not all Israel who are descended from Israel,” Paul explains; “neither are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants” (Rom. 9:6–7).

Racial descent from Abraham as father of the Hebrew people did not mean spiritual descent from him as father of the faithful (Rom. 4:11).

A second kind of election is vocational.

The Lord called out the tribe of Levi to be His priests, but Levites were not thereby guaranteed salvation.

Jesus called twelve men to be apostles but only eleven of them to salvation.

After Paul came to Christ because of God’s election to salvation, God then chose him in another way to be His special apostle to the Gentiles (Acts 9:15; Rom. 1:5).

The third kind of election is salvational, the kind of which Paul is speaking in our present text.

John 6:44 (NIV84)

44"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.

John 6:65 (HCSB)

65He said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to Me unless it is granted to him by the Father.”

V. 4, God chose us to be holy and blameless in his sight. We are holy and blameless because God chose us to be that way and not because we became holy and blameless through our own efforts.

Just as we’ve been made holy and dearly loved (Colossians 3:12).

V. 5, God predestined us to be adopted as his sons; our adoption came not as a result of our effort, but through God’s choosing us to be adopted.

In Theologian Robert A. Peterson’s book, Adopted by God, a woman named Lisa writes:

Adoption is attractive to me because it is the perfect antidote to legalism.… [Legalism] was the driving force in my life. I kept trying to be good enough for God but despaired at how impossible the task was. At the very heart I was afraid of one thing. At some point I would do something terrible and consequently lose my salvation. Although the church I was raised in preached assurance of salvation, I often wondered if I believed it mostly because I wanted it to be true. The confusion came from the fact that although the churches I attended said they believed in the assurance of salvation, they preached a list of things one had to do to be a “good Christian.” I got the feeling that if you failed in any of those areas you probably were not saved to begin with.

The study of adoption has clarified the confusion I once felt. Adoption is a legal procedure which secures a child’s identity in a new family.… God didn’t choose to be our foster parent. We don’t get kicked out of the family because of our behavior. We don’t have to worry day to day whether or not we are good enough to be part of the family. In his infinite kindness, God made us a permanent part of his family.… Nothing can undo the legal procedure that binds me to Christ. He died to redeem me. He signed the adoption papers, so to speak, with his blood. Nothing can cancel the work he did for me. I am free from the fear of falling away. Hallelujah!9

Ephesians 2:1–6 (ESV)

1And you were dead in the trespasses and sins

2in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—

3among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

4But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,

5even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—

6and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

V. 1, dead in your trespasses and sins. In indicates the realm or sphere in which unregenerate sinners exist.

They are not dead because of sinful acts that have been committed but because of their sinful nature.

One of the first indications of physical death is the body’s inability to respond to stimulus, no matter what it might be. A dead person cannot react. He no longer responds to light, sound, smell, taste, pain, or anything else. He is totally insensitive.

That is the way of spiritual death as well. A person who is spiritually dead has no life by which he can respond to spiritual things, much less live a spiritual life.

No amount of love, care, and words of affection from God can draw a response.

A spiritually dead person is alienated from God and therefore alienated from life. He has no capacity to respond.

The great Scottish commentator John Eadie said, “It is a case of death walking.”

Men apart from God are spiritual zombies, the walking dead who do not know they are dead. They go through the motions of life, but they do not possess it.

Salvation is a gift and does not come as a result of anything in the receiver.

Throughout history people have varied greatly in their levels of human goodness and wickedness. But in relation to achieving God’s holiness they are equal failures. That is why the good, helpful, kind, considerate, self-giving person needs salvation as much as the multiple murderer on death row. The person who is a good parent, loving spouse, honest worker, and civic humanitarian needs Jesus Christ to save him from the eternal condemnation of hell as much as the skid row drunk or the heartless terrorist.

They do not lead equally sinful lives, but they are equally in the state of sin, equally separated from God and from spiritual life.

Ephesians 2:7 (NIV84)

7in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

Albert Speer was once interviewed about his last book on ABC’s “Good Morning, America.” Speer was the Hitler confidant whose technological genius was credited with keeping Nazi factories humming throughout World War II. In another era he might have been one of the world’s industrial giants. He was the only one of twenty-four war criminals tried in Nuremburg who admitted his guilt. Speer spent twenty years in Spandau prison.

The interviewer referred to a passage in one of Speer’s earlier writings: “You have said the guilt can never be forgiven or shouldn’t be. Do you still feel that way?” The look of pathos on Speer’s face was wrenching as he responded, “I served a sentence of twenty years, and I could say, ‘I’m a free man, my conscience has been cleared by serving the whole time as punishment.’ But I can’t do that. I still carry the burden of what happened to millions of people during Hitler’s lifetime, and I can’t get rid of it. This new book is part of my atoning, of clearing my conscience.” The interviewer pressed the point. “You really don’t think you’ll be able to clear it totally?” Speer shook his head. “I don’t think it will be possible.”

For thirty-five years Speer had accepted complete responsibility for his crime. His writings were filled with contrition and warnings to others to avoid his moral sin. He desperately sought expiation. All to no avail.7

The riches of God are his kindness and mercy provided through the blood of Christ, which has redeemed us from the debt of our sin. But the riches do not merely cancel debt; they also are so vast as to provide us the rights and privileges of the household of heaven. We may even call our God “our Father.”

God’s kindness and mercy were expressed in making us alive with Christ, when we were spiritually dead in our trespasses and sins, when we did not in the least deserve it.

God’s kindness and mercy did not end there.

They continue now and in the coming ages throughout eternity.

Titus 3:1–8 (NIV84)

1Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good,

2to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men.

3At 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.

4But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared,

5he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit,

6whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior,

7so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.

8This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.

What happened when God’s kindness and love appeared?

God saved us! Not because we did anything right, but solely because of His mercy!

Exodus 20:1–6 (NIV84)

1And God spoke all these words:

2“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

3“You shall have no other gods before me.

4“You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.

5You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,

6but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

God’s kindness extends forever to His elect!

Isaiah 30:15–18 (NIV84)

15This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.

16You said, ‘No, we will flee on horses.’ Therefore you will flee! You said, ‘We will ride off on swift horses.’ Therefore your pursuers will be swift!

17A thousand will flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you will all flee away, till you are left like a flagstaff on a mountaintop, like a banner on a hill.”

18Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!

God had offered Judah rest and quiet, which would result in their salvation and strength, if they repented and trusted in Him. Instead, they turned to Egypt for their help. They ended up exchanging salvation and strength for judgment, both of which came from God.

The choice is between trust in God and trust in some other form of human security.

They must turn back to him in “repentance” and “rest” in him (30:15). In quietly trusting him instead of frantically rushing around trying to solve their problems for themselves, they will find both “salvation” and “strength.”

But they refused.

When you have a firm trust and a quiet confidence in God and His sovereignty, the result is salvation and strength.

V. 18, God continues to wait for a generation that prefers quiet trust and strength to confidence in human schemes for salvation.

This is an expression of God’s kindness.

Romans 2:1–4 (NIV84)

1You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.

2Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth.

3So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment?

4Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?

Paul was addressing people, called moralizers. They were passing moral judgments on other people.

The preceding verses (1:18-32) addressed people who were shamelessly immoral. Now the emphasis was on the holier than thou people who so quickly and thoughtlessly passed judgment on others.

It is not judgment and condemnation from others that leads a person to repentance; it is the kindness of God.

Kindness = χρηστός chrēstos = gentle, benign, kind, obliging, gracious.

The quality of being warmhearted, considerate, humane, gentle, and sympathetic. – χρηστός – Lexham Research Lexicon of the Greek NT

For God’s kindness leads us towards repentance (4b). That is its goal. It is intended to give us space in which to repent, not to give us an excuse for sinning.

Matthew 20:1–16 (NIV84)

1“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard.

2He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.

3“About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing.

4He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’

5So they went. “He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing.

6About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’

7“ ‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered. “He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’

8“When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’

9“The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius.

10So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius.

11When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner.

12‘These men who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’

13“But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius?

14Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you.

15Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’

16“So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

The workers’ only hope for meeting their daily needs was for a landowner to come along and invite them to work. The reaction of the laborers who had worked all day makes sense to us. They worked longer, so they should have gotten more money. But this parable is about the values of the kingdom—it begins with “the kingdom of heaven is like”—not the values of the world. The landowner’s calculations were based not on the number of hours worked but on typical daily needs. All dayworkers’ needs are the same. The ones who didn’t have the opportunity to work all day still needed a full day’s pay. The kingdom of heaven is not about getting someone’s sweat but about giving someone bread.

Based on the parable’s pattern, what would the owner give a person invited to work at 5:30 p.m.? Or 5:45? A denarius. Why? Because the landowner’s concern was giving all the workers what they needed for the day.

The vital question is, why was the landowner looking for unhired workers at the last hour of the day? What good would they do him then?

Clearly, the reason is not about how much labor the landowner needed done but about how much support people needed to make it through the day.

The owner desired to give all the workers a chance to get what they needed. He wanted no one left without a chance, so much so that he kept looking for people long after they were useful to him.

At 5:59, the master could say, “Come get in the truck,” and he’d pay that laborer for a full day too. That’s what is right in this kingdom.

Even at 5:59:59, if a laborer had done nothing but lift his leg to hop in the truck as the six o’clock whistle blew, he’d get a full day’s wage! Isn’t that the kind of landowner you really want to work for?