Pay it Forward
Notes
Transcript
The Secular view of Kindness
The Secular view of Kindness
How the secular world views kindness
We all agree it is a quality. An attribute of a person.
Psychology today article by Karyn Hall
Just start by “Open(ing) your eyes”
Definition:
“A willingness to full-heartedly celebrate someone else’s success.”
“About telling the truth in a gentle way when doing so is helpful to the other person.”
“includes being kind to yourself.”
She concludes:
“Perhaps kindness is a value that could add more satisfaction to and strengthen your relationships.”
Problem: In an attempt to get people to focus on others, it still ends up being motivated by your own well being. It ends up still being about you.
Institutes in Character Website on kindness:
“Kindness is being nice to others.”
“Kindness is being generous with others, giving your time, money, and talent to support those who are in need.”
3 traits of altruistic personalities :
“Empathy, Moral Reasoning, & Social Responsibility”
What is the underlying problem in both of these definitions?
They both assume a person has the ability to be kind. Now, people do have the ability to do kind acts. But, without the genuine source it will always be riddled with sin and selfishness. The first definition by Karyn Hall has as its motivation our own happy relationships. It ends up being about me. The second one assumes that people are morally good. The biblical view of humanity and the definition of kindness are different.
The Biblical View of Kindness
The Biblical View of Kindness
What is the biblical definition of kindness?
We know the definition by looking at God himself, who is Kind.
It is an attribute of God. It is also translated as “steadfast love” “goodness” “loyalty”
Covenant context: God extends his grace, seen in his kindness for his people who he made a covenant with to save.
17 The Lord is righteous in all his ways
and kind in all his works.
Kindness then flows from God, who is gracious, loving and merciful. We understand this based off of who we are and what we actually deserve.
6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” 8 And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. 9 And he said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.”
Toward Israel
4 I led them with cords of kindness,
with the bands of love,
and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws,
and I bent down to them and fed them.
It is usually associated with God’s grace toward his people, and continues in the NT.
22 Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off.
It is clearly visible in His Son Jesus Christ
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Jesus and the woman at the well John 4:1-45
Jesus and Lazarus (He wept with his sisters) John 11:28-44
Jesus death on the cross for the world.
4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared,
So, Kindness has as its source our heavenly Father. It is visible to us through the person of Jesus Christ. It is a fruit of the Spirit: A benefit for us by being a child of God. So, kindness does not come from within us, it comes from the HS as a gift.
But, it is something that proves to us that we are a child of God.
Tree imagery.
Fruit comes from a tree.
As Christians we have been ingrafted into this tree. God’s kingdom is like this tree that we have been ingrafted into and fruit then is the product.
17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, 18 do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. 19 Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” 20 That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. 22 Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. 23 And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. 24 For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree.
Then we are expected to be like the tree planted by the water in Psalm 1.
God then produces this fruit in us, called kindness, for his own glory.
Our understanding of this kindness is that it is to glorify God as the tree is an imagery of his kingdom.
One quality of a Christian is kindness.
It is an expectation of God’s people. We are to bear fruit. We are to be a useful member of God’s kingdom.
17 A man who is kind benefits himself,
but a cruel man hurts himself.
8 He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?
12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,
Our motivation is one of service to God
1 Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. 2 For he says,
“In a favorable time I listened to you,
and in a day of salvation I have helped you.”
Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. 3 We put no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, 4 but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, 5 beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; 6 by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; 7 by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; 8 through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; 9 as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; 10 as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.
Kindness is a quality that brings honor to God, because it is his work.
42 And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 43 But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
This is the difference between a Christian understanding and the secular understanding of kindness.
What do we do with this understanding?
What do we do with this understanding?
Now, that we see the biblical definition and understanding of Kindness, what are we to do?
There are two take aways from this:
We are called to respond to the world with kindness.
We live in a world that is filled with unkindness.
People are yelling at each other in the streets, on the TV, on the radio. The world lacks kindness at this point. Part of this is because we have left it to each man to determine what kindness is, and we assume that men are morally and ethically good.
But, we are not. We are in need of an outside source to work kindness in us.
Only the fruit of the HS working in us can produce kindness.
In this world we must respond with kindness. We must be different to the world. If our definition and understanding is different then we must respond with true biblical kindness.
We do this because we are servants of King Jesus who has saved us.
The Christian does them however so that God alone receives the glory.
a letter to Diognetus
http://www.vatican.va/spirit/documents/spirit_20010522_diogneto_en.html
What is your reason for being kind?
Those who cared for us during COVID?
The world says you do this so that you “pay it forward”
The secular world had the movie “pay it forward” you should do good and kind deeds because someone has done them fro you. Or so you can have them done for you in the future.
God says you do this so that he receives the glory.
What the world should see can be found in a 1st century letter written about Christians entitled “Letter to Diognetus”
They live in the flesh, but they are not governed by the desires of the flesh. They pass their days upon earth, but they are citizens of heaven. Obedient to the laws, they yet live on a level that transcends the law. Christians love all men, but all men persecute them. Condemned because they are not understood, they are put to death, but raised to life again. They live in poverty, but enrich many; they are totally destitute, but possess an abundance of everything. They suffer dishonor, but that is their glory. They are defamed, but vindicated. A blessing is their answer to abuse, deference their response to insult. For the good they do they receive the punishment of malefactors, but even then they, rejoice, as though receiving the gift of life. They are attacked by the Jews as aliens, they are persecuted by the Greeks, yet no one can explain the reason for this hatred.
When the world persecutes us: we respond with Kindness.
2) When we fail to respond with kindness we are to turn to Jesus who stands ready to forgive us.
Contrary to the world, when you mess up there is no grace and mercy. It is the reason we see people afraid to stand up for what is right. It is the reason the world is miserable. It is the reason people end their own lives in suicide.
Yet, as Christians we know we can turn to Jesus and know our sins are forgiven.
Maybe you failed even today to be kind to someone. Maybe, it was your spouse, your fellow church goer, your pastor, etc . . .
Seek forgiveness and seek to grow in Christ, in your sanctification, because unlike the secular world, we know that God has shown grace and mercy to us, his loving kindness, through Jesus Christ. This is the gospel in which we rest, until he returns.
Jesus Paid it all:
Verse 2 - Lord, now indeed I find your power, and yours alone, can change the leper’s spots, and melt the heart of stone.
Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe; sin had left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow.
Let us be a people of kindness, and let us lean on Jesus to sanctify us, depending completely on him so that the Father is glorified in all that we say and all that we do.