As with the other parts of the fruit of the Spirit, kindness concerns how we behave in our relationships with other people. I will use a famous story from scripture that perfectly demonstrates what it is:
"A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he travelled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.' Luke 10: 30b-35
I had some insight into kindness and I think it boils down to seeing someone in need and then doing what you can to meet that need and if possible exceed what the person required. This is what the Good Samaritan did in the story. The man needed someone to treat his wounds and then a place to recover; the Samaritan provides this but what is more he also gives money for any extra costs the Jewish man may incur. This is kindness. I don’t know if anymore needs to be said about it. So I will get down to how we can put it into action. We simply take a look at our world and anywhere you look you will see someone in need. In fact I’m making it sound like you need to go outside to find needy people; people need you in your very house. It’s so easy to focus on our own needs and want other people to show us a little kindness but why don’t we all aim to model that kindness for others? ‘Treat others as you wish to be treated yourself’ this is one of the only points that most of the World’s major religions agree on. If everyone sought to meet everyone else’s needs then no one would be needy. We each posses something that someone else needs it may be material provision, a skill that can benefit them or it may simply be companionship.
The Samaritan decides to take action after this key point in the passage “when he saw him, he took pity on him.” This is no simple emotion that wishes someone well but then does not follow through into any action to actually make them better. This type of pity is talked about later in the New Testament it is one we are all too familiar with the type that wishes the world would be better as long as it is not us who has to do the work of making it better:
“If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” 1 John 3:17-18
This then must be kindness. Sure it is not called by that name but think about the actual meaning of the word kindness for a second. If you looked it up in a thesaurus you would come across similar words that describe the same thing, altruism, benevolence, charity. It’s all to do with giving to meet a need. That’s the core of it but as we see in the story the Samaritan goes beyond what is needed he pays for any extra expenses the injured Israelite may have racked up. This idea of kindness stems very clearly to me from grace. Grace is God meeting our need and then blessing us on top of it; the icing of the cake, that extra touch of goodness that we just don’t see in the world too often. We see glimpses of it on special occasions, maybe within romantic couplings someone will go the extra mile but this Samaritan does it for an enemy!
I have looked into this idea in my blog on Peace. Peace is making enemies into friends and kindness is one of the vehicles of that transition. It does not tell us in the passage how the Israelite reacted to being treated in such a way by his enemy as usual Jesus leaves this to his audience. He is subtly asking them. What would you do if you were treated like this by an enemy? Could you treat them in the same way? He touches upon this in a discussion which leads up to the telling of this parable.
Luke 10
On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
"What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?"
He answered: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbour as yourself.'
"You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live."
Who is my neighbour? That is the question the law expert asks probably expecting Jesus to say ‘your fellow Jew’ but Jesus points out that every single person is our neighbour even our sworn enemies. For the Jews one of their enemies was the Samaritans. Today it is hard for us to understand the intolerance that existed between these two people groups so instead we could look at groups closer to our time, who for reasons of race, religion, social position etc do not get along and cast them in the two roles in the parable. It is very easy to look around the world today and see division you don’t even have to look outside of your country, there is division even within our own neighbourhoods; asylum seekers are segregated from the communities they come to live in, anyone who lives on a council estate lives cut off from others, so many of our elderly live alone and the poor are often without support because the squalid state they live in offends richer people who could help them. I could go on but I won’t I’m sure you can think of groups within your own communities. It isn’t always because of straight forward prejudice either. Many of us feel something should be done for all these needy people but we expect someone else to be kind to them. Jesus doesn’t give us that option. He says very clearly at the end of the passage.
"Go and do likewise."
I realise this may sound very discouraging. There is so much need out there and how can we meet it all. Don’t worry about that because the fact is, we can’t! We’ll need help in reaching out in kindness to others. We need others to join us in doing it, Often you’ll need resources or just simple encouragement. When faced with people who have become hopeless it can be hard not to become hopeless yourself but God reassures us that he will take our little efforts and bring in a great harvest. We are doing the work of the Kingdom of heaven:
"The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches."
He told them still another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough." Matt 13:31b-33
Each little act is a drop in the bucket, a drop of rain on parched land, the first little trickle from a dam that is fit to burst. The alternative is that we leave these charitable works to others but “who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?" Esther 4:14. You can omit the royal (Unless you are royalty!) but the basic point is that God has likely placed you in your neighbourhood because you have what it takes to meet a particular need and fulfil a special purpose. My advice is to commit to prayer, ask your pastor or any Church leaders what there community outreach is available in the area, if there is nothing connected to the particular need you have noticed then start something! The most important thing is to pray, pray, pray and then go be Good Samaritans.
