A Sermon on Colossians 3:12-17 has been lightly edited.
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If you have your Bibles, please turn with me in them to the book of Colossians, Paul’s letter to the church in Colossae. We are in Colossians chapter 3, and we will briefly look at verses 12 through 17. We’re going to focus on Paul’s call to put on kindness that he has there in verse 12, but we’ll briefly expound the first couple verses before we move into what kindness is.
So as we consider that, let us begin reading in Colossians chapter 3, beginning in verse 12.
“Put on then as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another, and if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you are called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
Let’s pray. Father God, we do thank you for these words from Paul that remind us of what you have done for us. You have chosen us. You have set us apart as holy, and you have loved us. So Lord, as we consider kindness today, we do ask that you would change our hearts and help us to grow more and more in the fear and love of you. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
INTRODUCTION
I know for the last several sermons in this particular series on the fruit of the spirit, I have you have heard me say that Paul never calls us to do something until he tells us what has already been done for us.
And in this passage today, we actually see Paul saying that as he opens with calling us God’s chosen ones, God’s holy ones, and God’s beloved ones. We were chosen from before the foundation of the world in Christ Jesus through the work and shed blood of Jesus. We have been set apart as holy. We are saints of the most high God. And because we are united to Christ and God loves Jesus, he loves us. And that is the foundation for all of the fruit of the spirit.
Jesus has manifested all nine of those characteristics that we’re looking at under the umbrella of holiness, under the umbrella of the fruit of the spirit. And because we are united to him, we are united to those characteristics as well. But those are not the only characteristics of holiness that Paul gives us.
We have a whole list of things here in this particular passage, some which overlap the fruit of the spirit, others which would are different from that particular list. Patience, we have seen. Today we are going to look at kindness. We’ve talked about peace. We’ve talked about love, but we see here humility as well. We see forgiveness as a fruit of the spirit. We see teaching, admonishing, and encouraging as the fruit of the spirit and also a thanksgiving, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
And so this list of the fruit of the spirit that we are looking at is in many ways an incomplete list. It is a summary list of how we are to grow in holiness. But whether it’s the nine fruit of the spirit, which we will specifically look at, or any of the other characteristics of holiness that Paul talks to us about, it is important for us to remember that through our union with Christ, those things are ours.
They belong to us. We are loving. We are peaceful. We are joyful. We are meek. We are humble. We are patient. We are kind. We are fill in the blanks because we are united to Christ in his love, in his joy, in his peace.
Today we are going to focus on the fruit of the spirit, which is called kindness. And before we look at examples of God’s kindness in the Old Testament, before we look at examples of Jesus’ kindness from the New Testament, and before we consider what it means to grow in kindness, I think it’d be good to answer the question, “What is kindness?” Because I think it’s something that we often get wrong in our world and in our thought. Our world today oftentimes confuses niceness and kindness.
And yes, being nice is part of being kind, but I think being kind goes far further than merely being nice. Our culture today defines niceness simply by saying, you know what, stand up for your truth, do your own thing, just don’t offend anybody. And we miss a lot of kindness if we merely defined kindness as “Don’t let other people be offended by your actions.”
Because sometimes, as we’ll see through this, kindness will offend. Sometimes as we see, as we go through what kindness is, kindness is going to push back on behaviors in our life and is going to cause us discomfort at times, because it is kind to confront someone in their sin. It is unkind-It might be nice-but it is unkind to leave somebody wallowing in their sin and in their misery before God.
Just to summarize, though, kindness is the golden rule. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Matthew tells us that this is part of Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7. He says, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. And the operative word there is “do.” Kindness is active.
James, in James chapter two, as he’s talking about faith, he gives the example of people who come to church hungry and underclothed, cold because they don’t have enough to clothe themselves. And James says, “If you look at them, you notice their hunger, you notice their lack of clothing during the wintertime, and you just look at them and say, hey, go be warm, well fed. Have a great day. I’ll see you next week.” You might be being nice, but you’re not being kind. Kindness is active.
Kindness takes a situation and it moves into it to fix or to bring that situation to a resolution. But much like patience, kindness also has an aspect of we do that for those who do not deserve it. It’s easy when we’re walking down the street or sitting in our home and somebody knocks on the door or rings the doorbell and comes at you with this spiel of what they need a $20 bill from you for.
It’s easy to think in your mind, “Well, you know what, if you’d have just made better choices, you would not be in this situation. I don’t think you deserve that $20 that’s in my pocket.” And honestly, maybe the $20 is not the right thing to give them.
Maybe there’s a different way to be kind to them that will at least offer a more permanent solution to their difficulty, a more permanent solution to the struggle that they are going through. But oftentimes the temptation is just to go ahead and close the door in their face simply because, well, you’re here because you made a bad choice and that’s not my problem.
Kindness is action. It is caring action. It is loving attention to the needs of another person, even if and when they do not deserve it. And we’ll see as we go through this, that you and I don’t deserve God’s kindness and yet he has showered it upon us.
The last part of this very, very long introduction that I want us to think about as well is the difference between duty and desire. Our world, as it thinks about being nice, it thinks about being nice because we owe it to people that have not been historic. We owe it to people to be nice who have not been nice to historically throughout their lives or throughout their demographic’s history in the world.
So it is a duty for us to be nice because other people weren’t nice to them in the past. And you know what? There is something to duty. It is our duty to be kind to people. As Christians, God has said, be kind to other people.
But more than just a command, in being united to Christ, God has planted within us the seed of a desire to want to be kind to other people. And if you find yourself looking at people that need your kindness and you find yourself looking in your heart and saying, “You know what? I just really don’t want to be kind to those people,” that’s something to be repented of.
And that’s something to ask God to grow that seed of desire in my heart so that I want to be kind to other people. And so as we consider kindness today, we’re going to look at the kindness of God in the Old Testament.
We’re going to look at the kindness of Jesus as given to us in the New Testament in the context of being interrupted. And then we’ll look at some ways that we can grow in kindness. And hopefully we will see that those of us who claim to know kindness incarnate, Jesus who took on flesh also took upon himself kindness. We are called to grow in kindness.
GOD’S KINDNESS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
So first, the kindness of God in the Old Testament. Now, if you have the King James version of the Bible and you were to turn with me to Psalm 143, verses seven and eight in the ESV, it says this.
“Answer me quickly, O Lord, my spirit fails. Hide not your face from me, lest I be like those who go down to the pit. Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love for in you I trust.”
That word in the ESV “steadfast love” oftentimes in the King James version has been translated “loving-kindness.” And it’s a word that has a very, very broad meaning. Steadfast love is one way that it is translated. Mercy is another way that it’s translated. Loving kindness, as I’ve mentioned already, is another way that it’s translated.
And it’s translated so many different ways in different translations because it just has such a broad meaning, a broad scope of meaning. And it’s a word, for what it’s worth, if you’d like to write down the Hebrew word, it’s a Hebrew word called hesed, H-E-S-E-D is how we transliterate it.
And when God is described as loving, lovingly kind, or having steadfast love, or merciful with this particular word, it is always in context of the covenant. That relationship defining document that God gave to his people that says, this is what I’ve done for you. This is how I expect you to live. This is what I promise to do for you if you obey. This is what I promise to do to you if you disobey. And this is going to last forever. This is going to last into eternity.
And it is within the context of those covenant promises that God is described with the word loving kindness, or steadfast love, or mercy. God’s loving kindness is his thoughtful love and action.
It is his faithfulness to his covenant promises, even when his people are faithless. Paul in 2 Timothy describes God as being faithful, even when we are faithless.
God’s loving kindness is his careful attention to our needs and his loving generosity in providing those needs.
When God was establishing his covenant with his people, they were in the wilderness and he was taking them to a land that God described as a land flowing with milk and honey. Now think about it. There were so many cows, so many vibrant and lively cows, and so few people in the land of Canaan that the cows were just dripping with milk to such an extent that there were rivers of milk flowing throughout the land of Canaan.
The same with honey. The honeycombs were so full and overflowing the bees could not consume all the honey that was there, that it was dripping out of the honeycomb and flowing like rivers through the promised land. God, out of his bountiful generosity, promised to take care of his people.
And yet in less than a month after he gave them that promise and after he gave them that law, Aaron forms the golden calf and they have a pagan worship ritual at the base of the mountain. And so what did God do? Well, he took them to the promised land. Yes, there was some punishment. Yes, there was some discipline for their sin, but he still took them to the promised land. Forty years of rebellion and complaining, he still took them to the promised land.
A thousand years of idolatry and rebellion, and he kept them in the promised land. And even after they were exiled to Babylon, even after a half-hearted repentance, he restored them to the promised land.
JESUS’ KINDNESS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
God shows his kindness to his people in the Old Testament. But God also shows his kindness to his people in the New Testament through the work of Jesus.
And this is where I come up with the term kindness incarnate. In Titus chapter three, we read these words from Paul, verses four and five. He says,
“But when the goodness and loving kindness of God, our savior appeared…”
You know, at Christmas time, we talk about John one, that verse where it says that the word took on flesh and dwells among us. Well, the word also took on kindness. He became kindness embodied. He became kindness incarnate.
And as we read through the Gospels, some of his most spectacular acts of kindness came in moments of interruption. How do you act when you were interrupted?
In Matthew eight, one through four, we’re told the story of Jesus healing the leper. Jesus was on the road. He’s traveling from one place to another. And this outcast of society who was outcast because he had a contagious disease, but that contagious disease also kept him from the worship of God.
This man that everybody else shunned comes up to Jesus and says, “Lord, if you will, you can heal me. Lord, if you want to, Lord, if you’re willing, I know that you can heal me.” And in a world where everybody else just kind of step back and said, “Hey, keep your distance. I don’t want to get sick,” Jesus walked forward, placed his hand on him and says, “I will. Be clean, be healed.”
In Mark chapter six, verses 30 through 44, Jesus is tired and he needs a break. So he goes up to the top of the mountain to get a little rest, to get a little recuperation, to get a little bit of time in prayer with his father. And 5000 men with their wives and children show up wanting teaching from him. Does he run? Does he hide? Does he say, “Just leave me alone? I need a minute or two.”
No, he teaches them. And then when the disciples are like, okay, this is getting really inconvenient for us. Can we just send them away? Jesus says, no, let’s feed them. We have the miracle of the feeding of the 5000.
And in the ultimate moment of inconvenience and interruption, as Jesus is hanging upon the cross, he says, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” And in this moment, Jesus links kindness to forgiveness and mercy.
Your salvation, your hope before God, your union with Christ came through that glorious moment on the cross. When the ultimate inconvenience, the ultimate interruption, the execution of the perfect son of God occurred and he took God’s wrath for you. A wrath that you and I deserve. And yet he took so that we might have the grace and the life and the glory that he deserves.
The triune God is a kind God. And yes, sometimes that kindness hurts. Sometimes that kindness confronts. Sometimes that kindness comes to us and says, “You are stuck in this pattern of sin and I am not willing to leave you there. You’re going to have to go through the fire to get out of it. But I’m right there with you, walking with you. Well, dragging you through it” (I was looking for the right word, but that’s the right word.) “Dragging you through the fire so that you might be holy, so that you might feel the love of God, so that you might know the goodness of being set apart and holy before God.”
David. Second Samuel chapter nine, verses one through seven. David goes to his advisors and he says, is there anybody left from the family of Saul that I can show kindness to? The family of Saul. Saul, the man who tried to kill him multiple times. Saul’s family who tried to set up another throne even after Saul was dead and David had been anointed king.
A family that had committed treason against David. A family who deserved David’s judgment and wrath. And yet David goes to the son of Jonathan, the grandson of Saul, Mephibosheth, who was crippled because of an injury, an accident in his youth.
And he says, “You will sit at my side at my table. You will feast with me. You will live in my house as though you were one of my family and I will take care of you.”
It was a little discipline in that after Absalom’s rebellion, but there was restoration even after that. David kept his promise to take care of Mephibosheth until he died.
Brothers and sisters, you and I do not deserve to sit at the table with God. And yet the psalmist says in the presence of God or in the presence of my enemies, he prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
CULTIVATING KINDNESS
We are called to be kind to each other. We are called to be kind to the people of the world.
So how do we cultivate kindness? How do we grow kindness in our lives? Now, I know I said earlier that kindness is ours because we are united to Jesus. It is a fruit of the spirit. It grows because of the work of God and the spirit in our lives.
But we are also called to cultivate it. It’s that Philippians 2,:12-13 paradox of God is working holiness in our lives, but we’re called to work out that holiness as we go about our daily life. So how can we start being kind? I want to give us four questions to think about on a regular basis that will help us to grow in kindness.
The first is, “Where can I give a smile or a word of appreciation?” You know, if I walk around any length of time around people and Michelle’s with me, she’ll reach up every now and then and she’ll just kind of rub that spot right there in the middle of my forehead because it’s getting all crinkly because I’m getting a little frustrated with just people, okay, and I’m getting this stern, angry look upon my face. I’m not really, well, I might be stern. I’m not really angry, but, you know, I’m walking around looking like, you know, I’ve been, I don’t know, sucking on lemons all day or something like that.
But we need to shift our focus from that to who needs a smile, who needs a word of encouragement in their life.
The second question we need to ask, and it’s a two-part question, and it’s related to something I mentioned earlier, but “What will I do if I meet someone in need? Am I prepared in advance to lend a hand if possible?”
I know, personally, one of the things I struggle with when somebody comes up to ask me for something is to, you know, you look at, you’ve been told all your life, you know, to be wise as a serpent and you’re just thinking about, okay, is this person giving me a story? Is this person really in need? Am I just being conned in this moment?
And all these thoughts start going around in my head and I just freeze up. I’m like, I don’t know. I don’t know. Here, take a dollar. Leave me alone.
But have we thought through the responses that we are going to give to somebody if they come to us in need? And it may not just be a monetary need. Somebody might just need a few moments of our time to sit and to talk and to know that they are appreciated. Are you prepared in advance for those interruptions that are going to come into your life?
Thirdly, be asking yourself, “Who can I thank today at home, in shops, or while traveling?” You know, whenever you go to the coffee shop, whenever you go to a convenience store, whenever you go to a restaurant, you know, how are you treating those people who are paid to serve you? When you’re in the home, husbands, how are you treating your wife? Are you treating them kindly? Wives, how are you treating your husbands? Or your children, or your grandchildren, or whoever is there? Are you thinking about ways that you can be kind to them? That you can affirm them, that you can thank them, that you can lift them up?
And fourthly, who can I show the kindness of the Lord to? And this comes within the church, sometimes lending that word of encouragement, that word of prayer, sometimes lending that word of confronting people in their sin or in their conflict. After you’ve done the work of searching your heart and repenting on your own, but wading into that situation.
Outside the church, outside the body of Christ, it comes through having a greater awareness of what awaits people if we try to be nice to them and not offend them with the gospel. Too often we are nice because we don’t want people to be weighed down by their sin, we don’t want people to think that we’re exclusive or absolutist or any of those things. And so in our efforts to be nice, we let people saunter off to hell without a warning.
CONCLUSION
So we’ve seen the kindness of God in the Old Testament, the kindness of Jesus in the new, and we’ve learned a little bit on how to grow in kindness. The early church historian Tertullian told an account of a particular area in the Roman Empire where the members of the Roman Empire, the pagans, thought they were kind of insulting the church by changing the letters of the word Christian just a little bit. And yet in changing those letters, trying to insult the people of God, they ended up calling them something else, which they took upon themselves as a badge.
Instead of being called the Christ-like people, they were calling them the “kindness people” as an insult. And yet the church went, yeah, we are the kindness people. They moved beyond niceness and they moved into kindness where they were acting on behalf of other people within the community that needed help, that needed a leg up.
Female babies would be thrown in the trash heap in the Roman Empire because sons were wanted. And so the church would go to the trash heap and pick up the babies and care for them. One Roman emperor even said in his writings that he had to begin a welfare program within the empire during his time because the Christians were making him look bad.
They were so well taking care of the poor that the pagans were coming and saying, why should we follow you, the emperor, when the Christians are doing all the good work, the kind work in the empire? And so he had to add a welfare program to the empire.
When we talk about these aspects of justice, welfare, protection of life, the spreading of the gospel, we are not talking about liberal versus conservative. We’re talking about the kindness that God calls us to versus ignoring the gospel.
Welfare program is not the gospel. The gospel is “God saves sinners.” But once you embrace that message that God saves sinners, there should be a kindness that is rooted within your heart, that sees the pain, that sees the difficulties that others are in, and there should be a desire to help.
And so we are reminded through the gift of kindness that those of us who claim to follow the one who put on kindness and dwelt among us must also grow in kindness. Let’s pray. To the God above, we do thank you for the gifts that you have given to us in Jesus, and we ask that you would grow that kindness in us that was so evident in him. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
As you go this week, take this blessing with you:
“May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.”
He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.”
Amen! Come Lord Jesus.
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