Love Is Kind (I Cor 13:4)

Kindness means “graciousness, well-disposed, or useful.” Kindness is showing generosity. Being kind is putting yourself at the disposal of others. It is going the 2^nd mile and the 3^rd and the 4^th. Matthew 5:40-41 illustrates this kindness, “And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.”

A kind person is even willing to get walked on and all over, if it means it will, in some way, benefit others. Kindness is a desire to see others be happy.

Someone who is kind is certainly patient with people, but they are different virtues. Patience will take anything from anyone else and not retaliate; kindness will give something to one who deserves retaliation. Patience may be viewed as an inward mindset; while kindness is clearly outward and obvious.  

Jesus who, in kindness, said He’d remove the burdens we carry and give us peace in turmoil – “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matt 11:29-30). That is kindness.

It was certainly kind of God to offer salvation and pour out the riches of His grace upon us (Tit 3:4-6). In I Peter 2:2-3, Peter tells us, “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation – if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good [or better translated “kind”].”

Christians are to be kind and gracious. One of the earliest descriptions of Christians in the 1^st few centuries following Acts came from the Roman world who describes Christians as kind.

Jerry Bridges writes, “Our natural inclination is to show kindness only to those for whom we have some natural affinity – family, friends, likable neighbors. But God shows kindness to those who are most despicable – the ungrateful and wicked. Have you ever tried to be kind to someone who was ungrateful? Unless God’s grace was working in your heart in a significant way, your reaction to his ingratitude may well have been, ‘I’ll never do anything for him again!’ But God doesn’t turn His back on the ungrateful. … We need to develop a kind disposition, to be sensitive to others and truly desire their happiness.” (The Practice of Godliness, pg. 191)

Love is kind.