Kindness

 

 

the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate. (Dictionary.com)

 

Kindness has become a “thing” in our culture. A google search came up with 196,000,000 different references when I searched the word. Facebook has a couple of pages called, “Kindness is Everything.”

One of these groups is all about “women’s rights,” which I learned from their website, includes the freedom to kill a baby in order to “plan when a woman wants to start her family.” My interpretation of what they want in kindness is “don’t tell me my way is wrong.”

Other sites seem considerably less political and far more about encouraging people to “just be kind because we never know what someone else is facing.” (They actually have some memes on their page I can agree with.)

On social media it looks like  the general plea for kindness is so no one has to deal with the hard stuff like having their personal views challenged. They want everyone to be “kind” so hard words are not said and harsh words are eliminated.

Let me, the least contentious person you may meet, admit that I get it. But, right now so many things are worthy of discussion and because a discussion gets heated does not necessarily mean it’s unkind.

On sites in my internet search they pose questions and answer them. One suggests and answers the question, “Why is it important to be kind?” A typical first answer is that “it makes you feel good about yourself.” It continues with, “Doing things for other people helping them with maths or homework or anything it just makes you feel warm that you accomplished something. Kindness is a give and get thing a bit like respect. If you want respect you must give respect.”

Now, I agree that helping others and showing kindness helps us, too. But, if our primary concern is with how it makes “me” feel, are we truly going to consider what kindness the other person needs?

Psalm 141:5a says, “Let the righteous strike me; It shall be a kindness. And let him rebuke me; It shall be as excellent oil; Let my head not refuse it.”

I do not think that being stricken by the righteous or being rebuked would be considered kindness by most of the people calling for kindness today. But, as Christians, we know we sometimes need to speak the truth even if it hurts someone’s feelings.

As of this writing the riots in Portland, OR having been going on for 80 days. In an early effort to be kind and understanding about people’s need to “protest,” it went unchecked. The consequences are obvious and devastating.

Why, oh why, do we fail to apply God’s Word to these situations?  In the leadership’s “kindness” to the looters and rioters, they have very unkindly allowed the destruction of businesses, private homes and vehicles, and a few lives.

But, initially, they felt good about themselves.

On a more personal level we must be kind in a biblical way. Often this seems to be providing materially for someone’s physical needs (1 Kings 2:7; 1 Chronicles 18:2, Acts 28:2).  Other times it was the mercy shown to others (Job 6:14). But all the time, kindness deals with truth. True kindness is not concerned with affirming someone in her sin; it is concerned with her standing before God.

Being kind to others does not always make us feel good in the moment. It can be hard, physically and/or emotionally. Sometimes we have to say hard things that we suspect will be misunderstood in a culture who thinks we should be kind to others to make ourselves feel good.

If we want to do kindness right, we have to do it according to God’s Word. Freedom, peace, and joy come from His kind of kindness.