In my last post, I talked about one of the nine fruits of the Spirit which was joy. In this post, I am going to discuss a different fruit of the Spirit, which is kindness. We are told in Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things, there is no law.”. So we know that kindness is one of the fruits of the Spirit. In order to walk in the Spirit, we must be kind to others, even when it can seem difficult. We must also be reminded of Galatians 5:16-17 which says, “ But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.”. God does not want us to pick and choose from the fruits of the Spirit, he wants us to apply all of them.
Being kind can be both easy and hard to do. If it means being kind to someone you love, then it should be easy. We often find it difficult to be kind to those who give us a hard time. 1 Peter 3:9 says, “Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.”. We will have people in our lives who might annoy us or make our job difficult. When dealing with these people we must remind ourselves that God loves that person just as much as he loves us. The same Jesus that died for you died for them also. Ephesians 4:32 says, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”.
The fruits of the Spirit are characteristics that followers of Christ should apply to their lives. The opposite of a kind person is a cruel person. Proverbs 11:17 says, “A man who is kind benefits himself, but a cruel man hurts himself.”. There are many ways that we can be kind to others, and there are many opportunities to accomplish this. Galatians 6:10 tells us, “So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.”. Additionally Proverbs 19:17 tells us, “Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed.”. God will repay us for our good deeds and even our bad deeds. Galatians 6:7 tells us, “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.”.
As you go through your day try to take one opportunity to be kind to someone and act on it. It can be a simple gesture of kindness. By applying kindness and the other eight fruits of the Spirit, we avoid ourselves from walking in the flesh. I don’t know about you but I would rather walk in the Spirit with God, than of the flesh of this dark world. There will be times that we fall short of kindness and the other fruits of the Spirit. When this happens we must turn to God who is our strength to help better us in our weakness. 1 Chronicles 16:11 says, “Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!”. If you are struggling to be kind to others, seek God more every day, and try simple deeds of kindness each day.