Kindness

Be kind to everyone (2 Timothy 2:24).

Absalom had it all. He was the most handsome man in the country. His father was a respected warrior and king. Being a prince of the royal family, Absalom had considerable money and influence. But it wasn’t enough. Absalom was jealous of his father King David; he wanted the throne of Israel for himself.

Absalom gathered 50 men to be his personal retinue. Every day, he would greet people coming to the palace and tell them that the king was too busy to see them, a sad state of affairs that would change if Absalom became the king. With lies and flattery, Absalom drew many Israelites to his side, enough so that he was able to stage a coup and take the throne for himself. King David had to flee for his life, and Absalom showed his hatred for his father by sleeping with David’s mistresses in a tent set up on the palace roof for all to see. Civil war followed, resulting in 20,000 casualties. Absalom’s life was ended when one of David’s men caught him momentarily unprotected and stabbed him repeatedly. Absalom’s jealousy resulted in governmental corruption, multiple rapes, thousands of deaths, and his own murder as he sought to escape the battlefield.

Our world needs more kindness and less envy. Children and teens bug their parents for designer clothes so they can be like the fashionable kids. Given a choice, most would rather be part of a clique than be looking in from the outside. In many neighborhoods, homeowners try to outdo each other, whether it be the beauty of their landscaping or the magnificence of their Christmas decorations. Upper management encourages employees to compete against each other for promotions and financial incentives. In professional team sports, everyone is a member of the squad, but some get more play time than others and star players make a much bigger salary. TV actors often threaten to quit if they don’t get the same billing or salary as a costar.

Where is the kindness? How many people take time to visit those confined to nursing homes or incarcerated in prison? How many people volunteer for charity work? How many people, when they see someone looking sad or lonely, will approach that stranger and strike up a conversation? How many people are willing to risk getting involved in another person’s life?

Our God is powerful and wise. He is holy and magnificent. But God’s most wonderful quality is His kindness. God is the king of the universe, yet He still reaches out to us, to miserable sinners who aren’t deserving of His notice. Heaven is the most wonderful place of all, yet the Son of God chose to leave it behind so He could be born in a shed used to feed and water animals. Holy angels eagerly waited to do His will, but Jesus surrounded Himself with sinful men and women who frequently had no idea what He was trying to teach them. Christ came to be our Savior, the most thankless job anyone has ever undertaken; He suffered and died for every sinner, yet most of humanity couldn’t care less about the awful sacrifice He made for them. Being a sinner is awful; sin makes our lives miserable with angry words, broken promises, unexpected disasters, and encroaching death. Because God curses sin, we live every day fearing His anger instead of rejoicing in His love. But Christ bore God’s curse for the sins we have committed. He could have stayed comfortably in heaven, but instead He showed us kindness by joining us in our pain so that He could repair the damage caused by sin.

That is what kindness is all about—a willingness to join others in their times of pain in order to help them deal with the hurt and get through it. Kindness is not afraid of discomfort or getting dirty; kindness wants to help other people, no matter what the cost. A kind man stops to help a stranded motorist, even if it is risky to approach a stranger. A kind woman is willing to visit a friend in the hospital, even if she is deathly afraid of germs. A kind person is willing to talk about anything, even uncomfortable topics like death, if it will help ease the mind of a troubled friend.

A kind person is not jealous of others. Jealousy keeps people at arm’s length from each other, because they are resentful of the good things in other people’s lives. Jealousy gets a thrill from seeing another person go through hard times and holds you back from offering to help. Jealousy is the opposite of kindness.

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus illustrates what it means to be kind. In His story, criminals assaulted a Jewish traveler, robbed him, and left him half-dead along the side of the road. Two churchmen walked by, one after the other, but neither of them could be bothered to get involved. It was a Samaritan, a man whose people disliked Jews for many reasons, who stopped and got his hands dirty by treating the injured man. The Samaritan inconvenienced himself further by taking the time to move the victim to an inn and spending money for a room while the man recovered. Through this parable, Jesus illustrates what it means to be kind.

Jesus wants us to be kind. He wants us to love other people so much that we are willing to get involved in their lives instead of keeping a safe distance. When you are kind, you are generous with your time, always willing to offer a helping hand or a sympathetic ear. You offer friendship to all sorts of people, without regard to the color of their skin or the amount of money in their billfolds. After all, Christ died for everyone; Paul says God does not show favoritism (Romans 2:11). Being kind means that you are willing to give others the benefit of the doubt instead of assuming the worst about them. When kindness fills your heart, you are willing to suffer hurt and inconvenience—if that is what it takes to bring comfort to others. That’s what Jesus did on the cross for us; to be kind is to be like Christ.

Ruth shows us what kindness looks like. Ruth was a native of Moab, a country that had strained relations with Israel. But Ruth got to know a family of Israelites personally when famine drove them out of their country into hers. Elimelech brought with him his wife Naomi and their two grown sons. Ruth was quite taken with one of the young men, and soon they were married. The other son found a wife among the Moabites as well.

However, tragedy struck the family over the next ten years; first Elimelech died, then both of his sons. Ruth, her mother-in-law and sister-in-law all ended up being widows without children. Then Naomi got word that the famine back home had ended. Since most of her friends and relatives were back in Israel, she made plans to go home. But when she announced her intentions, Ruth made a startling decision—she wanted to stay with her mother-in-law even if it meant going to live in a foreign country. She said, Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried (Ruth 1:16-17). Ruth’s devotion overcame Naomi’s objections, and the two went to live together in Bethlehem. Ruth went to work in the fields to support the two of them, and eventually got remarried. One of Ruth’s descendants would be Jesus.

Why is Ruth an example of kindness? Because she was willing to get involved in another person’s life, even when it meant hardship for her. Ruth could have returned home to live with her own mother; but she could not bear to abandon Naomi, a childless widow with no close family to help her. So Ruth went to a distant land where she didn’t know anybody, out of loving concern for her mother-in-law. And Ruth was not afraid to get her hands dirty on Naomi’s behalf; she worked in the fields as a common laborer to support them both.

We live in a dark and evil world. Jesus came among us to drive back the darkness with the light of His love. We help drive back the darkness of evil when we dare to show kindness to others.