Articles
Try A Little Kindness
The wise writer tells us, in the NKJV translation of Proverbs 19:22, “What is desired in a man is kindness.” I don’t know of anyone who would disagree with that. I have never met anyone who wanted others to treat them unkindly. The problem with us, though, is that what we want in others, we do not always practice ourselves.
I am sure we all realize the world in which we live can be quite unkind at times; quite often, actually. If you have ever read the comments section of any web page, you know there is a lot of hostility out there, and often it is directed at total strangers. If you remember your teen and even pre-teen years [or are now living them], you know kids can be cruel, too. The sad fact is, people can be unkind in so many ways, and this atmosphere of unkindness in which our children are being raised is having some tragic effects and consequences on individuals and society, as a whole.
The answer, of course, is living as God would have us live — but no one wants to hear that. The fiercest critics of religion like to tout the claim that religion is responsible for more wars and deaths worldwide than any other factor [unsubstantiated, of course, but they make the claim anyway], but the reality is, whatever crimes were committed or deaths were caused by wars in the name of religion or God, in particular, were done contrary to His express will, and not because the perpetrators were faithfully following His word. The means of achieving a peaceful and peace-loving world, and the way to be a society that is known for its kindness, rather than cruelty, is by faithfully following God’s revealed will. If you doubt, please read on.
Love Your Neighbor. In giving to the Israelites the Law that would guide them up to the time of the Christ, God outlined the way of life they should have lived, in relation to their fellow man. Among those commandments was one that lay at the heart of many other laws: “you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev. 19:18). Unfortunately, many Israelites took this to mean “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy,” as Jesus noted in Matthew 5:43. Many Israelites also came to define their “neighbor” as a fellow Jew, and one they happened to like, but Jesus clarified God’s true meaning in the telling of the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37): Your neighbor is everyone.
That necessarily means you are to love someone who doesn’t have the same political views you do; it means you must love someone whose skin color is not the same as yours; it means you are to love someone who has more education than you do, or less education than you do; it means you are to love those whom you like and the ones you don’t like so much. Be kind.
Love Your Enemies. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus clarified many misconceptions the people had about what God demanded of them, and much of their misconceptions came from their religious teachers, who were teaching them more of human traditions and wisdom than they were teaching the actual words of God and the meaning and proper application of those words. One thing he said must have been shocking, at first hearing, but completely logical when you understand who God is and what He has done for us: “love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you” (Matt. 5:44). Love your enemies?!?! Who does that?
Well, God did. Jesus did. Let us not forget that Paul wrote that it was “when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son” (Rom. 5:10); we were not friends of God when Jesus sent His Son to die for the sins of mankind. We were God’s enemies. We were the enemies of Jesus Christ. How so?
Paul also noted, in this same letter to the brethren in Rome, “the carnal mind is enmity against God” (Rom. 8:7), and since we all “once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air…in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind” (Eph. 2:2, 3) before we obeyed Christ, then that means we were all once His enemies.
Yet, even though all of mankind was counted as His enemies, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). It should not be surprising, then, that when we find we are to love one another as Christ loved us (John 15:12), that means we are to love our enemies.
So, today, this means we love those who don’t look like us, who don’t like us, and who would like to remove us from the face of the earth. Imagine what this world would be like if, instead of arming ourselves to the teeth with weapons of warfare, we actually spent time working on fulfilling this command! Be kind.
Treat Others Like You Want To Be Treated. I know most of us have heard some form of what we call ‘The Golden Rule,’ but let’s hear the words of Jesus once again: “Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets” (Matt. 7:12). Before we go further, I would like to point out that Jesus once said all the Law and the prophets hung on the two great commandments of loving God with all your heart, and loving your neighbor as yourself (cf. Matt. 22:37-40), so, in effect, treating others how you want to be treated means we are to love them.
Now, with that said, I believe this is the foundational principle that is absent from the lives of so many today. Many people, when wronged, want vengeance on those who have wronged them, and do not think how they would want to be treated if the roles were reversed. [We would want mercy!] Many people are so intent on gaining an advantage over their fellow man, rather than loving them, that we seem to have lost the ability to think about how we should treat others, and think only of what we feel in the heat of the moment.
When we are wronged, instead of allowing our emotions guide our actions, we should once again look to the example of our Lord and our heavenly Father, and we should “be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you” (Eph. 4:32). Instead of vengeance, kindness. Instead of angry retorts and insults, kindness. Be kind.
I know there are many injustices in this world; I know there is inequity; I know there is cruelty; I know there is a lot of spite and hate; but I also know that, as Martin Luther King said it, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” The proper response to hate is not hate, but love. Instead of adding to the hate, change the direction of your life and the lives of those around you by returning hate with love. Or, as Paul put it, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom. 12:21).
If we would all follow these simple, but powerful guidelines, the world would be a much different — much better — place, would it not? This week, let us be different, and let us do differently. Let us show the world God’s way to live. — Steven Harper
