Fruit of the Spirit: Week Six
And the Fruit of the Spirit is Kindness, Goodness, and Gentleness.
We are combining these three in one lesson because they are three different sides of one triangle. They describe the WHAT, WHY and HOW of Love. They are the result of Joy and Peace, and the labor of Patience. They stem from a life of cultivated Faithfulness and Self Control, which we will talk about next week. Here is how it looks broken out:
With What, Why, and How do I Love my brother?
With Kind words, Good intentions, and Gentle manners.
If Joy and Peace describe my life, my actions will be Kind, Good, and Gentle.
When Patience is at work, his work can be described as Kind, Good, and Gentle.
If I am faithful to God and His Word, and am able to control my thoughts and actions, I will be Kind to all, Good in the forgiving eyes of God, and Gentle with those around me.
These three fruits describe the action, motive, and execution (the what, why, and how) of our relations with people around us. This becomes a simple way to hold our actions accountable, and examine them according to the standard of Scripture. Whenever you do anything to anybody, you should ask yourself, Is what I am doing Kind in a Christian Sense? Are my reasons Good (in a Godly moral sense)? Is how I am going to proceed with this action Gentle, in a Christ-like manner? If the answers to these questions are honestly, in the sight of God Almighty, yes, then it is a good bet that you are not sinning in doing what you are doing. If however, you answer no to just one of the questions, it is a good bet that one, you are sinning, and two, the answer is no to the other questions as well. In other words, you are either being Kind, Good, and Gentle together, or not at all. You cannot be Kind, and not Good or Gentle. In not being Good, you are not being Kind. And so on. They mutually indwell one another, a packaged deal, a three for one. However, these words can be oversimplified if we are not careful. Our modern age of sentimentalism has turned kindness into niceness, goodness into traditional values-ness, and gentleness into weakness. So lets define further these three fruits, and see how they come out in Scripture.
The What: Kindness
A sampling of Kindness in Scripture
Gen 19:19 Behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have shown me great kindness in saving my life. But I cannot escape to the hills, lest the disaster overtake me and I die. Behold, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one. Let me escape there--is it not a little one?--and my life will be saved!" He said to him, "Behold, I grant you this favor also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken.
Rth 3:9 He said, "Who are you?" And she answered, "I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer." And he said, "May you be blessed by the LORD, my daughter. You have made this last kindness greater than the first in that you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich.
2 Sa 9:1 And David said, "Is there still anyone left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake?" Now there was a servant of the house of Saul whose name was Ziba, and they called him to David. And the king said to him, "Are you Ziba?" And he said, "I am your servant." And the king said, "Is there not still someone of the house of Saul, that I may show the kindness of God to him?" Ziba said to the king, "There is still a son of Jonathan; he is crippled in his feet." The king said to him, "Where is he?" And Ziba said to the king, "He is in the house of Machir the son of Ammiel, at Lo-debar." Then King David sent and brought him from the house of Machir the son of Ammiel, at Lo-debar. And Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan, son of Saul, came to David and fell on his face and paid homage. And David said, "Mephibosheth!" And he answered, "Behold, I am your servant." And David said to him, "Do not fear, for I will show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan, and I will restore to you all the land of Saul your father, and you shall eat at my table always."
Psa 141:5 Let a righteous man strike me--it is a kindness; let him rebuke me--it is oil for my head; let my head not refuse it.
Tit 3:4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
The gist of all these passages is redemption and salvation. Christ is the ultimate Kindness. He is God’s kindness to us. Kindness therefore means an action done without regard to the state of the receiving party. Kindness is the Samaritan on the road to Jericho, beholding a Jew, beaten on the way, and disregarding all protocol and cultural dos and don’ts, picks him up and cares for him. Kindness is giving to another without a thought to whether or not they are deserving of what you give them. God gave Christ to us, while we were yet Sinners. This is divine kindness, giving to another in their sin.
Kindness, defined by redemption, means much more than simply being nice. You are nice to two different groups of people. One group is those who like you, and it is easy to be nice. Scripture says, “What is that, for even sinners do so.” The other group is those who don’t like you, and you have to be nice, despite inward feelings of apathy, bitterness, or even outright hatred. Kindness on the other hand has the prerequisite of love. Love requires the destruction of apathy, bitterness and hatred. Love is inward and outward, else it is not love. Kindness comes out of love, is that hands of love, and that means comes from a heart of love, whether or not the people you are kind to like you. Kindness must be genuine or else it is not kindness, it is outward appearance which is niceness. An empty shell, devoid of all truth.
Kindness, again defined by redemption, also means the death of sin, and of the natural man. At the heart of the Kindness of God toward us is death. But not the kind that stays dead. Death that leads to new life means the death of Death itself. This is inevitably painful, for death means change, and death brings change. Therefore kindness is often excruciatingly painful. Remember Psalm 141:5: Let a righteous man strike me--it is a kindness; let him rebuke me--it is oil for my head; let my head not refuse it. Discipline is hard, and hurts. But it is kindness, for the end result is godliness. True kindness builds up, and edifies.
The difference between kindness and its false counterpart niceness is simple, but it requires wisdom to understand it. Kindness hurts in order to do something; niceness does nothing, and thereby hurts. Kindness boldly addresses issues, dealing with sin; niceness silently runs away, abdicating responsibility. Kindness offends sensibilities that need to be offended, bringing life out of death; niceness is sensitive to offending, and therefore allows death to fester, and grow hard.
The Why: Goodness
The motivation behind every action we do, needs to be described as holy. If it is not holy, it is selfish and God despises it. The works become as filthy rags and stink. This means living life selflessly. This is impossible to do outside of God’s salvation and redemption in Christ, and the sanctification and purification of the Holy Spirit. The trap here is falling into what has become known as Traditional Values. ‘Traditional values’ (TV) is the moral code of the 1950’s and the false counterpart of Goodness, or Holiness. What does it mean to hold to TV? The common tag line of this lifestyle is “Don’t smoke, don’t chew, don’t run with girls that do.” It is not doing anything that resembles, however faintly, what the world does. The world smokes, therefore I wont. At the heart of TV is legalism, for TV means fulfilling the law, for the sake of the law. This makes it antithetical to Scripture. We set up laws that are nowhere found in Scripture, to keep us from doing things that people in Scripture righteously do. Upholding Traditional Values is not holiness. It is a man made standard, and therefore man-centered. Which brings us back to the original premise: if it is not holy, it is selfish. If it is holy, it is by definition, self-less. So what is our motivation for doing anything? Is it because we want something in return? Do you give your brother a cookie, in order to receive a cookie? Or do you give your brother a cookie, in order to give your brother a cookie? If the end result is so that you get something, whatever you did, however generous and helpful it was, it is selfish and God hates it. But if you give in order to give, no matter how small or insignificant it is, God loves it and rewards it. But we don’t give in order to give in order to receive a reward. That is testing God, and “We shall not put the Lord our God to the test.” God is wise, and sees the heart and the inward thought of man. Psalm 51:6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Are your actions done in truth, inwardly? Are they done with an expectation to receive back? If so they are an evil, and you are no better than the natural man you put to death in Christ. But God is kind, and teaches us to act selflessly, for we reflect Him, and He is Holy, and wholly Good.
The How: Gentleness
Tit 3:1 Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show humility toward all people.
In our modern era that is fixated on power, those in power will use intimidation in order to stay in power. Tyranny (roughness, violence) is strong; gentleness is weak. Scripture says otherwise. Psalm 37:11 But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace. Mat 5:5 "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” Those who insist on true power loose true power. Those who do not seek power, because they recognize the terrible responsibilities it brings, are given it against their wishes. Humble love is incredibly powerful. Those who grasp lose; those who do not grasp, are given.
Gentleness is comprised of three things: patience, humility, and meekness. A gentle person is patient with others, letting love cover multitudes of sin, is humble, putting others first, and is meek, not in any way selfishly demanding. This might seem like weakness. It might seem like doormat theology. But Christ is called gentle, and meek, and He is by no means weak. His gentleness is strength, and leads people to salvation. This does not mean that every situation calls for silence. Christ shows us this in His response to the Pharisees. This is gentleness, and therefore causes us to rethink how gentleness acts. Patience does not mean never confronting. Humility does not mean never dealing with sin in a direct way. Meekness does not mean never demanding obedience. This is how gentleness has come to mean weakness, because these aspects have been forgotten. But they are essential to what gentleness is. They are essential to Godliness.
The false counterpart to Gentleness is pride. In pride we respond hastily, because our needs require attention, arrogantly, because our toes are being stepped on, and selfishly, because our goals deserve recognition. Pride is evil, and a vestige of the old man.
All Together Now
This is how our actions need to be described: as kind, not nice, good, not selfish, and as gentle, not prideful. If our What is Nice, and our Why is Selfish, and our How is Prideful, then the old man is still at work, and God is not being honored. Love is replaced by Hate; Joy and Peace turn into depression and anxiety; faithfulness and self-control are nowhere to be found. But a life in which every action is held to the standards of Kindness, Goodness, and Gentleness, is a life rich with God’s blessing. This is at the core of being remade in the image of Christ. We were first created in the image of God. We are re-created in the image of His Son. This is how we love. This is how the love of Christ is spread to the four corners of the earth. This is how we honor God, and give Him thanks.
We are combining these three in one lesson because they are three different sides of one triangle. They describe the WHAT, WHY and HOW of Love. They are the result of Joy and Peace, and the labor of Patience. They stem from a life of cultivated Faithfulness and Self Control, which we will talk about next week. Here is how it looks broken out:
With What, Why, and How do I Love my brother?
With Kind words, Good intentions, and Gentle manners.
If Joy and Peace describe my life, my actions will be Kind, Good, and Gentle.
When Patience is at work, his work can be described as Kind, Good, and Gentle.
If I am faithful to God and His Word, and am able to control my thoughts and actions, I will be Kind to all, Good in the forgiving eyes of God, and Gentle with those around me.
These three fruits describe the action, motive, and execution (the what, why, and how) of our relations with people around us. This becomes a simple way to hold our actions accountable, and examine them according to the standard of Scripture. Whenever you do anything to anybody, you should ask yourself, Is what I am doing Kind in a Christian Sense? Are my reasons Good (in a Godly moral sense)? Is how I am going to proceed with this action Gentle, in a Christ-like manner? If the answers to these questions are honestly, in the sight of God Almighty, yes, then it is a good bet that you are not sinning in doing what you are doing. If however, you answer no to just one of the questions, it is a good bet that one, you are sinning, and two, the answer is no to the other questions as well. In other words, you are either being Kind, Good, and Gentle together, or not at all. You cannot be Kind, and not Good or Gentle. In not being Good, you are not being Kind. And so on. They mutually indwell one another, a packaged deal, a three for one. However, these words can be oversimplified if we are not careful. Our modern age of sentimentalism has turned kindness into niceness, goodness into traditional values-ness, and gentleness into weakness. So lets define further these three fruits, and see how they come out in Scripture.
The What: Kindness
A sampling of Kindness in Scripture
Gen 19:19 Behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have shown me great kindness in saving my life. But I cannot escape to the hills, lest the disaster overtake me and I die. Behold, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one. Let me escape there--is it not a little one?--and my life will be saved!" He said to him, "Behold, I grant you this favor also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken.
Rth 3:9 He said, "Who are you?" And she answered, "I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer." And he said, "May you be blessed by the LORD, my daughter. You have made this last kindness greater than the first in that you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich.
2 Sa 9:1 And David said, "Is there still anyone left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake?" Now there was a servant of the house of Saul whose name was Ziba, and they called him to David. And the king said to him, "Are you Ziba?" And he said, "I am your servant." And the king said, "Is there not still someone of the house of Saul, that I may show the kindness of God to him?" Ziba said to the king, "There is still a son of Jonathan; he is crippled in his feet." The king said to him, "Where is he?" And Ziba said to the king, "He is in the house of Machir the son of Ammiel, at Lo-debar." Then King David sent and brought him from the house of Machir the son of Ammiel, at Lo-debar. And Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan, son of Saul, came to David and fell on his face and paid homage. And David said, "Mephibosheth!" And he answered, "Behold, I am your servant." And David said to him, "Do not fear, for I will show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan, and I will restore to you all the land of Saul your father, and you shall eat at my table always."
Psa 141:5 Let a righteous man strike me--it is a kindness; let him rebuke me--it is oil for my head; let my head not refuse it.
Tit 3:4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
The gist of all these passages is redemption and salvation. Christ is the ultimate Kindness. He is God’s kindness to us. Kindness therefore means an action done without regard to the state of the receiving party. Kindness is the Samaritan on the road to Jericho, beholding a Jew, beaten on the way, and disregarding all protocol and cultural dos and don’ts, picks him up and cares for him. Kindness is giving to another without a thought to whether or not they are deserving of what you give them. God gave Christ to us, while we were yet Sinners. This is divine kindness, giving to another in their sin.
Kindness, defined by redemption, means much more than simply being nice. You are nice to two different groups of people. One group is those who like you, and it is easy to be nice. Scripture says, “What is that, for even sinners do so.” The other group is those who don’t like you, and you have to be nice, despite inward feelings of apathy, bitterness, or even outright hatred. Kindness on the other hand has the prerequisite of love. Love requires the destruction of apathy, bitterness and hatred. Love is inward and outward, else it is not love. Kindness comes out of love, is that hands of love, and that means comes from a heart of love, whether or not the people you are kind to like you. Kindness must be genuine or else it is not kindness, it is outward appearance which is niceness. An empty shell, devoid of all truth.
Kindness, again defined by redemption, also means the death of sin, and of the natural man. At the heart of the Kindness of God toward us is death. But not the kind that stays dead. Death that leads to new life means the death of Death itself. This is inevitably painful, for death means change, and death brings change. Therefore kindness is often excruciatingly painful. Remember Psalm 141:5: Let a righteous man strike me--it is a kindness; let him rebuke me--it is oil for my head; let my head not refuse it. Discipline is hard, and hurts. But it is kindness, for the end result is godliness. True kindness builds up, and edifies.
The difference between kindness and its false counterpart niceness is simple, but it requires wisdom to understand it. Kindness hurts in order to do something; niceness does nothing, and thereby hurts. Kindness boldly addresses issues, dealing with sin; niceness silently runs away, abdicating responsibility. Kindness offends sensibilities that need to be offended, bringing life out of death; niceness is sensitive to offending, and therefore allows death to fester, and grow hard.
The Why: Goodness
The motivation behind every action we do, needs to be described as holy. If it is not holy, it is selfish and God despises it. The works become as filthy rags and stink. This means living life selflessly. This is impossible to do outside of God’s salvation and redemption in Christ, and the sanctification and purification of the Holy Spirit. The trap here is falling into what has become known as Traditional Values. ‘Traditional values’ (TV) is the moral code of the 1950’s and the false counterpart of Goodness, or Holiness. What does it mean to hold to TV? The common tag line of this lifestyle is “Don’t smoke, don’t chew, don’t run with girls that do.” It is not doing anything that resembles, however faintly, what the world does. The world smokes, therefore I wont. At the heart of TV is legalism, for TV means fulfilling the law, for the sake of the law. This makes it antithetical to Scripture. We set up laws that are nowhere found in Scripture, to keep us from doing things that people in Scripture righteously do. Upholding Traditional Values is not holiness. It is a man made standard, and therefore man-centered. Which brings us back to the original premise: if it is not holy, it is selfish. If it is holy, it is by definition, self-less. So what is our motivation for doing anything? Is it because we want something in return? Do you give your brother a cookie, in order to receive a cookie? Or do you give your brother a cookie, in order to give your brother a cookie? If the end result is so that you get something, whatever you did, however generous and helpful it was, it is selfish and God hates it. But if you give in order to give, no matter how small or insignificant it is, God loves it and rewards it. But we don’t give in order to give in order to receive a reward. That is testing God, and “We shall not put the Lord our God to the test.” God is wise, and sees the heart and the inward thought of man. Psalm 51:6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Are your actions done in truth, inwardly? Are they done with an expectation to receive back? If so they are an evil, and you are no better than the natural man you put to death in Christ. But God is kind, and teaches us to act selflessly, for we reflect Him, and He is Holy, and wholly Good.
The How: Gentleness
Tit 3:1 Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show humility toward all people.
In our modern era that is fixated on power, those in power will use intimidation in order to stay in power. Tyranny (roughness, violence) is strong; gentleness is weak. Scripture says otherwise. Psalm 37:11 But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace. Mat 5:5 "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” Those who insist on true power loose true power. Those who do not seek power, because they recognize the terrible responsibilities it brings, are given it against their wishes. Humble love is incredibly powerful. Those who grasp lose; those who do not grasp, are given.
Gentleness is comprised of three things: patience, humility, and meekness. A gentle person is patient with others, letting love cover multitudes of sin, is humble, putting others first, and is meek, not in any way selfishly demanding. This might seem like weakness. It might seem like doormat theology. But Christ is called gentle, and meek, and He is by no means weak. His gentleness is strength, and leads people to salvation. This does not mean that every situation calls for silence. Christ shows us this in His response to the Pharisees. This is gentleness, and therefore causes us to rethink how gentleness acts. Patience does not mean never confronting. Humility does not mean never dealing with sin in a direct way. Meekness does not mean never demanding obedience. This is how gentleness has come to mean weakness, because these aspects have been forgotten. But they are essential to what gentleness is. They are essential to Godliness.
The false counterpart to Gentleness is pride. In pride we respond hastily, because our needs require attention, arrogantly, because our toes are being stepped on, and selfishly, because our goals deserve recognition. Pride is evil, and a vestige of the old man.
All Together Now
This is how our actions need to be described: as kind, not nice, good, not selfish, and as gentle, not prideful. If our What is Nice, and our Why is Selfish, and our How is Prideful, then the old man is still at work, and God is not being honored. Love is replaced by Hate; Joy and Peace turn into depression and anxiety; faithfulness and self-control are nowhere to be found. But a life in which every action is held to the standards of Kindness, Goodness, and Gentleness, is a life rich with God’s blessing. This is at the core of being remade in the image of Christ. We were first created in the image of God. We are re-created in the image of His Son. This is how we love. This is how the love of Christ is spread to the four corners of the earth. This is how we honor God, and give Him thanks.
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