15. kindness
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Slides to accompany the podcast found here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/47879/381716-christian-experience-of-god from the series: The Christian Experience of God #15 - Kindness
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15. kindness
- 1. Welcome to Grace “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” Psalm 139:13-14
- 2. Galatians 5:22 - Kindness • Introduction
- 3. Galatians 5:22 - Kindness • Introduction χρηστ τηςό
- 4. Galatians 5:22 - Kindness • Introduction χρηστ τηςό • Kindness in the Old Testament – LXX: χρηστ τηςό
- 5. Galatians 5:22 - Kindness • Introduction χρηστ τηςό • Kindness in the Old Testament – LXX: χρηστ τηςό • Psalm 25:7 ff. “Do not remember the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to your love remember me, for you, Lord, are good. 8 Good and upright is the Lord; therefore he instructs sinners in his ways. 9 He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way. 10 All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful toward those who keep the demands of his covenant. 11 For the sake of your name, Lord, forgive my iniquity, though it is great.”
- 6. Galatians 5:22 - Kindness • Introduction χρηστ τηςό • Kindness in the Old Testament – LXX: χρηστ τηςό • Psalm 25:7 ff. • Psalm 31:21 “Praise be to the Lord, for he showed me the wonders of his love when I was in a city under siege.”
- 7. Galatians 5:22 - Kindness • Introduction χρηστ τηςό • Kindness in the Old Testament – LXX: χρηστ τηςό • Psalm 25:7 ff. • Psalm 31:21 • Jeremiah 31:11 “‘This is what the Lord says: “You say about this place, ‘It is a desolate waste, without people or animals.’ Yet in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem that are deserted, inhabited by neither people nor animals, there will be heard once more 11 the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, and the voices of those who bring thank offerings to the house of the Lord, saying, ‘Give thanks to the Lord Almighty, for the Lord is good; his love endures for ever.’”
- 8. Galatians 5:22 - Kindness • Introduction χρηστ τηςό • Kindness in the Old Testament – LXX: χρηστ τηςό • Psalm 25:7 ff. • Psalm 31:21 • Jeremiah 31:11 • Kindness in the New Testament- χρηστ τηςό
- 9. Galatians 5:22 - Kindness • Introduction χρηστ τηςό • Kindness in the Old Testament – LXX: χρηστ τηςό • Psalm 25:7 ff. • Psalm 31:21 • Jeremiah 31:11 • Kindness in the New Testament- χρηστ τηςό • Gospels
- 10. Luke 6:32-36 ‘If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full.35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
- 11. Galatians 5:22 - Kindness • Introduction χρηστ τηςό • Kindness in the Old Testament – LXX: χρηστ τηςό • Psalm 25:7 ff. • Psalm 31:21 • Jeremiah 31:11 • Kindness in the New Testament- χρηστ τηςό • Gospels • Paul • Romans 2:4 • Ephesians 2:7 • Titus 3:4 •
- 12. Galatians 5:22 - Kindness • Introduction χρηστ τηςό • Kindness in the Old Testament – LXX: χρηστ τηςό • Psalm 25:7 ff. • Psalm 31:21 • Jeremiah 31:11 • Kindness in the New Testament- χρηστ τηςό • Gospels • Paul • Kindness as the fruit of the Spirit
- 13. Matthew 11:28-30 “‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.’ γ ρ ζυγ ς μουὁ ὰ ό χρηστ ςὸ
- 14. Galatians 5:22 - Kindness • Introduction χρηστ τηςό • Kindness in the Old Testament – LXX: χρηστ τηςό • Psalm 25:7 ff. • Psalm 31:21 • Jeremiah 31:11 • Kindness in the New Testament- χρηστ τηςό • Gospels • Paul • Kindness as the fruit of the Spirit • Conclusion
Editor's Notes
- Here’s a strange thing. There are values and there are qualities in this world that most people, most of the time, value and think of as important. They certainly SAY these things are really good and really important qualities. But you try DOING those things … especially in the workplace … and it can be an utterly different story. Outside work or the world of commerce or wherever you spend your time, most people will set kindness at a significant value. But you try DOING that in the world you inhabit and you’ll find there’s a PRICE to pay for that. And that’s the way it is. This is a thing of great importance and significant value, but you DO pay a price for it. For the Christian it’s MORE even than that … it is a leading characteristic of our God and it is the fruit of His indwelling Spirit that grows on us as we walk with Him (so long as we DO walk with Him), as well as being part of the living sacrifice we make in following Him in view of His mercy. Now … that is how it works, because it’s in the Old Testament that we first encounter kindness as an attribute of God … And the LXX translates using the same word we have here …
- So Strong’s Concordance goes like this:“χρηστότης1) moral goodness, integrity 2) benignity, kindness” So much for a dictionary definition – hard to distinguish from at least the next word and possibly several others in this list! So then, as with many words you need to look at how it actually gets used in Scripture …
- The Old Testament shows us God is kind. Now, that may come as a bit of a surprise, but the OT show us the God Who is both the righteous Judge of the ends of the earth and also kind. In the Psalm book – the songs of the spiritual experience of God’s OT people – God’s kindness is a constant theme, so …
- There’s no loss of the sense of God’s justice. There’s no loss of the psalmist’s responsibility to God for his own sin. He is loving and faithful to those who live as His covenant people. Now that awareness of the loving kindness of God … the word is Hesed (חסד ) … is going to grow and develop but at this point it is clearly ‘lovingkindness’ – God’s covenant love for His people. So also in Psalm 31:19 …
- That word ‘Love’ there is the word for God’s Covenant Love (חסד) which works out as ‘kindness’ … God relates lovingly to His covenant people which works out as He shows covenant faithfulness and kindness to them. But it’s not just in the poetry of the Old Testament, you find it also in places like Jeremiah 31:11 …
- That word ‘loving kindness’, ‘covenant love’ occurs again here and it describes God’s kindness, the outcome of His love, towards His people. In all these cases the LXX translates that covenant love of God towards His people as ‘kindness’. As you can see, it is often very specific, very tangible, very tangible and often arises against the background of enduring human sin and failure.
- This wordχρηστότηςoccurs in the New Testament seven times. It’s used to describe the ‘goodness’ of things, then doing good to people actively.
- The first mention of the kindness of God in the NT arises in Luke 6:35 where a major element in the OT understanding of God’s kindness is fundamentally and very significantly transformed …
- Now THAT Is - in that culture - quite SCANDALOUS grace. To suggest that God is kind to the ungodly would be seen as making God Himself guilty by His association with them, as He showed kindness to the ungodly. But there’s the big change. That was the era of Law- this is the era of grace, God’s unmerited favour, contrary to what is deserved, shown not because of anything in the OBJECTS of this kindness, but because of something that exists in the One showing kindness. And THAT is what this fruit of the Spirit is, which grows in those living in fellowship with the Spirit of God.
- In Paul this term gets most of its Biblical use. It’s only used three times elsewhere but Paul uses it much more enthusiastically … In Romans 2:4 we learn that God’s kindness leads sinners towards repentance … not His judgement roared over them but His kindness shown to them in spite of themselves. It is the fruit of God’s Spirit at work in a life to grow this kindness shown to people in spite of them, and that kindness is a thing that leads people towards repentance. It feeds on Eph. 2:7’s incomparable riches of God’s grace, shown against the background of our lost-ness and sinfulness, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. That thought FEEDS human kindness when it’s grown as the fruit of His Spirit And it’s against a similar background in Titus 3:4 that after describing our previous lost state Paul declares “But when the love and kindness of God our Saviour appeared, He saved us.” Jerry Bridges:“It seems the Bible goes out of its way to portray the kindness of God in stark contrast to man’s total undeservedness.” If we are to become godly, growing the fruit of the Spirit, we must learn from Him to be kind to the godless and to the utterly underserving. Because THAT is what characterises HIS kindness. You see, we are naturally inclined to show kindness when we will gain by it, and we are naturally inclined to show kindness to those with whom we have some natural affinity … family, friends and likeable neighbours that you MIGHT describe as ‘our kind of people’. We tend to be kind to ‘our kind’. But God shows HIS kindness to those who are most despicable. And THAT (Colossians 3:12) is what we are to put on as a garment.“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”… but not as a legalistic duty, not as a work of the flesh, but as a fruit of our experience of God … the fruit of the life livedin the Spirit.There’s a fascinating hint of this already in the Gospels, in a very famous passage of Scripture …
- Now, obviously, it’s here in this list of the Fruits of the Spirit which we’ve been looking into while we consider the Christian’s experience of God. But the way Jesus calls us to go for this fruit is really interesting, and it looks like this …
- The yoke is used to carry burdens. The weight of discipleship to the Law was acknowledged to be a heavy weight to bear, but Jesus is saying that His yoke is (by contrast) EASY. How’s that? Because the Law was unkind to us but God in Christ and through the Gospel has been kind to us when we deserved the opposite of that. Because He has been kind to us we are inspired to be kind.Because His Spirit has taken up residence in those He has actually saved the power to show kindness the way HE has shown kindness does not come from us but from Him … our neurons send the signal, His bionics shift the weight.(I’m not sure that’s a complete analogy, but it’s getting there!) And that’s why this big challenge … to be kind to those who utterly don’t deserve it the way He is utterly kind to those who utterly don’t deserve it …is not a heavy but a ‘kindly’ challenge.
- So now we need to be very careful with this. What the world we live in tells us about kindness is that it is laudable but too costly if you do too much of it … and ‘too much of it’ seems often to be not much at all. What the Scriptures teach us is that what feels like ‘too much of it’ is exactly what’s been done for us, and that if we ARE believers, keeping in step with the Spirit, this thing kindness will grow on us as the fruit of our relationship with God and NOT as the burden of regulation. And THAT is the experience of the people of God. Have you a deep DESIRE to be that kind of kind?