LOVE’S KINDNESS

…Love is kind… - 1 Corinthians 13:4b (NIV)
…Love cares more for others than for self – 1 Corinthians 13:4b (Message)

We are still meditating on what love is: LOVE is KIND. Love demonstrates itself in kindness. Kindness relates closely with ‘patience’ here as it does in Galatians 5:22, where both are listed as part of the fruit of the spirit. PATIENCE could be regarded as the PASSIVE side of love, while KINDNESS is the ACTIVE side. Kindness is a dynamic, outward action. It is such that when you see it, you know it. Love is always kind, caring and considerate toward other people. A person who is not kind is simply unloving.

KINDNESS must be in SPEECH and in DEED. We are commanded to bless, speak well of, and pray for those who curse or persecute us, rather than curse them (Luke 6: 28; Rom.12:14). We are to DO GOOD to those who hate us and “be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good” (Matthew 5:44; Rom.12:21). Love would watch the language it directs toward others. In love, we show kindness towards those who may not be kind towards us.

KINDNESS is also translated as either “GENTLENESS” or “GOODNESS.” Although kindness is generally soft and gentle, loving kindness approves of correction and rebuke which are designed to produce good fruit. Love deals kindly, but firmly, with others. The Lord Jesus demonstrated that kindness sometimes takes the form of righteous rebuke (Luke 13: 15-17). God’s kindness, though sometimes firm or tough, is intended to lead us to repentance (Romans 2:4).

However, true love manifests kindness without making a show or a public announcement of it. You do not need to blow a trumpet in front of your kindness:

“Be especially careful when you are trying to be good so that you don’t make a performance out of it. It might be good theatre, but the God who made you won’t be applauding. When you do something for someone else, don’t call attention to yourself…acting compassionate as long as someone is watching, playing to the crowds. They get applause, true, but that’s all they get. When you help someone out, don’t think about how it looks. Just do it – quietly and unobtrusively. That is the way your God, who conceived you in LOVE, working behind the scenes, helps you out” (Matthew 6: 1-4 Message).

Kindness is one measuring cup of love that can hardly be faulted. Henry Drummond said:
“I shall pass through this world but once. Any good thing that I can do, therefore, or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer it or neglect, for I shall not pass this way again.”