Love is Long-Suffering: Love is Kind (1 Corinthians Sermon 47)

So I would like to ask that you turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 13. Andy already read the text for us and we’re gonna continue our journey through this incredible chapter we’ve already seen. As Paul says at the end of Chapter 12, introducing chapter 13, that love is the most excellent way, love really is the summation of everything that God wants to do in the soul of a Christian, and heart of a Christian, it’s the most excellent virtue. We’ve also seen last week that even the most excellent gifts and abilities and ministries are worthless if they’re not done in love, and Paul uses the most extreme language, the tongue of men and of angels, of having the gift of prophecy and fathoming all mysteries and being able to have all knowledge, but having not love, or somebody who gives of himself even to the point of being burned or gives everything he owns to the poor, if it’s not done in love, it’s worthless, it’s nothing, and so we saw that last week.

Now, these strong assertions were necessary, because the Corinthian church for all of their giftedness, for all of their ability, it seems were not a very loving people. They were prideful, and they were bickering and faction-ridden and even some were taking others to court. But honestly, the real issue here as we come to 1 Corinthians 13 is not the ancient Corinthian church. Those people all died a little less than two millennia ago, and that local church long, long ago, the lamp stand was removed from that church, and so that the local church ended. What we have instead are the timeless words that the Holy Spirit moved the apostle Paul to write that stand over every generation of Christians, has stood over 20 centuries of Christians to teach us what love is. So the real issue is not what were the Corinthians like, but what are we like? And frankly, for each of us individually, as we come to it, it’s what am I like? What am I like? That’s the point of all the sermons that I plan to preach and that I’m going to preach today in 1 Corinthians 13.

And for you as those that are listening, the point will not be how good is the sermon, or how excellent are my illustrations or how tight is my logic or my eloquence or my delivery, how excellent is all of that, or how clear or any of that. None of that is the issue, the real issue is, what is the Holy Spirit saying to me personally? About my own heart and my own life? What is going on in my life? What is going on in my heart? The Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write these words so that we could look into the perfect mirror of this chapter and learn what love really is. So honestly, the kind of love described in this chapter is really supernatural, it’s beyond anything that we can do consistently day after day, minute after minute, now I wanna say there’s nothing particularly miraculous about any detail of it, it’s not like Paul is saying, love is patient, love walks on water, love flies like a peregrine falcon, love cooks dinner for its family every night, a mixture of common place things and then supernatural things we could never do. It’s not like that at all.

Actually, every bit of this chapter is both natural and supernatural. It is natural in that we can do any of it some time, we can do it in short stretches, but we can’t seem to carry it off day after day, minute after minute for the whole of our lives, and the reason for that is we’ve learned in Romans 7 is indwelling sin, sin living in me. As Paul talks about, the very thing that I hate, I do, but the thing I want to do, I do not do. And if that doesn’t perfectly describe the problem that thoughtful Christian readers have as they read 1 Corinthians 13, I don’t know what else does. We’ve got this problem of indwelling sin that makes us radically unloving people, so our only hope is the gospel of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, and the fruit of the Spirit is love, and all of these virtues flow from that.

Now, as I mentioned last week, I’m not feeling any compulsion to hurry through this chapter, you may say, Pastor, you’re not even doing a full verse today, just “love is patient, love is kind.” We’re not even getting through verse four, but I don’t want to hurry because of the power of this chapter. And as I said last week, I’m gonna be leaning on Jonathan Edwards’ excellent work on the 16 lectures he did on 1 Corinthians 13, which is grouped together in a book called Charity and Its Fruits and it’s public domain. I commend it to you. And I’m leaning on him this morning as I look at the first two aspects, love is patient, love is kind.

Now, as I was driving in this morning, I was just thinking about this chapter, and thinking about love is patient, love is kind, and it occurred to me, I’ve been wrestling with 1 Corinthians 13 now for weeks, and it’s been very difficult actually for me. It’s been somewhat painful, but there’s also a certain delight, and I wanna commend that, and I’m gonna keep talking about this over the next number of weeks, because I think the Holy Spirit has given me a key to understanding what’s going on with 1 Corinthians 13. And that is this dual phrase of “painful delight”, painful delight. It is painful. As I read, love is patient, love is kind to see how impatient and unkind I really am day after day, that’s been painful, it is painful, but then the delight is threefold. First of all, that there is evidence through the Holy Spirit that I’m alive in Christ because it does bring me pain to not be loving, and I actually do see some evidence of supernatural love being worked in me by the Holy Spirit, so that’s the first level of delight.

The second level of delight is hope for the rest of my life. I believe that as I apply the lessons from 1 Corinthians 13, week after week, I will become a more loving person. It will improve my marriage, my parenting, my pastoring, everything in my life, so I have great hope that the rest of my life can be much more richly colored by love, and in this particular case, I can become a much more patient and a much kinder person as I study this through the power of the Holy Spirit. And then finally, ultimately, eternal hope, the delight of knowing that some day I will be perfected in love, I will be in Heaven perfectly loving now, I won’t need long-suffering in heaven, I won’t need patience in heaven. But I will be perfectly kind in heaven and all of the other positive attributes will be at work in my life, and so that’s what I wanna commend to you. As we begin this journey, I’ll mention this again, God willing, in future weeks. This painful delight.

I. What Does It Mean to Be Long-Suffering?

So let’s look this morning at these two aspects, love is patient, and then love is kind… Now, the word patient, the Greek word behind the word patient is well translated long-suffering, makrothumia, it means to suffer a long time. Long-suffering, now, we don’t use the word long-suffering much, and so we generally just go with love is patient, but what it means is to patiently endure injuries of every kind. Alistair Begg put it this way, “Love has a long fuse.” A long fuse… not a short fuse, it takes a long time for a patient person, a loving person to blow up, to blow his stack. It specifically has to do with patience with other people, and even more specifically, patience with other sinful people. We won’t need to be patient in heaven. No one will task our patience in heaven, not at all, but here on earth, we need it because people are sinful in our lives. Chrysostom said about this text and about the patience, a man who has been wronged and easily has it in his power to avenge himself and refuses to do it, so that’s his take on long-suffering. Ultimately, of course, Jesus Christ is the best picture of this. As it says in 1 Peter 2:23, “When they hurled their insults at Him, He did not retaliate. When He suffered, He made no threats.” And so that’s Jesus’ level of patience. We’ll talk more about this as well.

Now, Edwards in his lecture on this section of 1 Corinthians 13, talks about the various injuries that commonly happen to people in this world, and that’s why we will need long-suffering, the myriad ways that we injure one another. That we hurt one another. My purpose here is not to give you an extensive catalog of all of those ways, but to give you or remind you of the flavor of what our life is like in this world. So for example, there are injuries in business dealings and financial dealings, injuries connected with money and business. People in this world are constantly defrauding one another in so many ways, people withhold payment when they should give it, or they renege on contractual agreements, or they do shoddy workmanship on a job. Money, we’re told in the New Testament is a root of all kinds of evil, and it is a great mark of Christian maturity, of our sanctification, it’s put on display when we care more about horizontally about other people’s souls than about our money. But this idea of love is long-suffering can happen in reference to money and business, or injuries in reputation, this has to do with the damage we do to each other’s reputation, people slander each other, people tear each other down with their words. They do character assassination. They spread gossip and poisonous innuendo. A lot of this happens these days on social media, such a venting place for people to do this kind of character assassination and pour poison into the souls of others concerning individuals.

Then there are injuries to our bodies, physical injuries. It can happen ever since Cain killed his brother Abel. Jesus linked anger to murder, and so frequently an angry heart can lead to attacks, physical attacks that can happen. Attacks on your possessions, attacks on your body, even to the point of serious injury or even death. Or it could be injuries from authority figures, people have positions of power, in our lives or in society. It could be elected officials, government officials, could be police, those with that kind of authority, could be a boss, it could be a coach, it could be a teacher, professor, somebody with authority, and they have the ability to make your life miserable. They can lord it over you, they can abuse you physically or verbally, materially. Some governments enact laws against our Christian brothers and sisters that make it impossible for them to gather, to meet together without fear. They arrest pastors and drag them off, physical assaults from authority figures.

Then there are injuries that happen with neighbors, perhaps they like to play loud music or shoot firearms at odd hours. Our neighbors in Japan, I remember, had a habit of burning their garbage at a certain time every day, and the wind always seemed to blow toward us, and so it was interesting, it’s just a unique smell, burning garbage, and then our clothes would smell like it, etcetera. Or perhaps in your neighborhood, it’s a crotchety old man who yells, “Get off my lawn!” at your kids. I’ve actually felt that myself, I remember years ago, some of our neighbors took a diagonal journey across the street to go fishing in the lake, and I felt that welling up inside. It’s like, “Do you really wanna be the get-off-my-lawn neighbor? But that’s the kind of thing that can happen in neighborhoods,. Maybe your neighbor has a dog that barks all night. We used to live near what I called the “metronome dog” that used to bark like.…well, I won’t imitate it, but a very rhythmic barking that was annoying. Or maybe you live in an apartment complex and people cook with certain ingredients that make the entire building smell like that ingredient for the rest of the day.

Most especially we look at injuries from family members. We are in such close quarters with each other, and especially with this sheltering at home, we can be in each other’s grill, in each other’s space. And there are things that can happen, husband to wife, wife to husband, parent to child, child to parent, brothers, sisters, siblings, and we can annoy each other and irritate each other, and there can be injuries, we use that word, but just things that are annoying or bothersome, etcetera. And then move it out to extended family, aunts and uncles, cousins, things happen, and we have this historical memory of when this happened or that happened, and there can be injuries.

So all of these are things that happen in life. And they require Christians to be long-suffering. They set you up in a situation where you need to bear patiently that issue, what does it mean then to be long-suffering? Well, it means to bear the injury meekly and humbly, and to not seek retaliation at all, to not seek revenge, there are so many things that we can do to get revenge, there’s so many movies and books and different things out in popular culture, they’re basically based on revenge, it’s a very common plot development where at the beginning of the movie, some villain does something villainous, and at that point, it’s almost like in the movie, all bets are off, that person is fair game for revenge, and it’s just a whole story of revenge.

There are so many of these, there are vigilante stories where somebody will take justice, the matters of justice right into their own hands and they become the investigator, the jury, judge and executioner in that, and we actually can even celebrate it because of the evil done by the villain in the story, but to be long-suffering means to forgo any of that. To forgo any revenge or retaliation, to choose not to slander your neighbor back, get them back to subtly attack their character or use innuendo, to not get back at the coworker who backstabbed you and kept you from getting the promotion, to not get back at them, to be long-suffering means to forgo the right to treat your neighbor as they’ve treated you, or to repay a family member for the way that they’ve treated you, even if it’s a small offense. They were irritable and rude with you, and therefore you’re gonna be irritable and rude with them. That’s not long-suffering. Sometimes we can be passive aggressive and exact payback in that respect, so basically to not harbor in any respect, any spirit, bitter spirit of retaliation or revenge, not only do you not enact revenge in real life, you don’t even fantasize about it.

In your mind and heart, you don’t cherish any thoughts or use any creativity or thinking about ways you could get your revenge, you drop the matter entirely, you forgive as the Lord has forgiven you, you treat the person as if the injury had never occurred, and you maintain a loving spirit toward that person. This is the fundamental aspect of love, you desire horizontally, that person’s blessedness still, despite what’s happened, actually, perhaps even more because of what’s happened, you really yearn for them to know the forgiveness that only God can give and you really would love to spend eternity with that person in heaven, you have that eternal perspective. You don’t lose the quietness and the tranquility of your own heart before God, their injury toward you hasn’t done anything toward, vertically toward your being spirit-filled with God, and then also horizontally as well, and so you actually have a supernatural attitude, like Paul said earlier in the lawsuits passage, “So why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated than go to court?” So that’s what long suffering looks like.

“You drop the matter entirely, you forgive as the Lord has forgiven you, you treat the person as if the injury had never occurred, and you maintain a loving spirit toward that person. This is the fundamental aspect of love,”

This is why it’s called long-suffering, ’cause we bear the injury over a long time. We bear it, we carry that injury for a long time, I don’t even need to remember and keep a record of wrongs we will get to that later, but the point is that we are willing to bear this and put up with it, not even just a small injury sometime, but sometimes even a very great one, one that’s changed your whole life to be willing to bear that wrong for a long time. This takes supernatural endurance. So many situations in my pastoral ministry have come up where this has been what the circumstances call for. It might be an unregenerate spouse, and the regenerate, the Christian spouse, has to bear for a long time and pray for a long time, and love and cherish for a long time and put up with a lot of things. Or you could think about Christian parents of a wayward son or daughter that’s living maybe an alternate lifestyle, and every occasion, every holiday, they bring their sin and all of its effects into the family and bring so much distress, and there’s just so much that you have to be long-suffering for.

II. How Does Christian Love Enable Us to Be Long-Suffering?

So how does our Christianity, how does the gospel set us up for being long-suffering? I think we should look vertically at the first great commandment, love for God, and then horizontally at the second great commandment, love for our neighbor, and the way that Jonathan Edwards sets it up. He says, We are equipped through our Christian faith to fulfill the law and to love God and that love for God enables us to be long-suffering, and then our love for horizontally for our neighbor enables us to be long-suffering, first love for God and for Christ enables us to be long-suffering because we want to imitate God, if we love him we wanna be like him. Fundamentally, as he said, “Be holy because I am holy”, you could just take that out and say, Be long-suffering, because I am long-suffering, we see the virtue of it, we see the beauty of it, that God actually is incredibly long- suffering.

Think about when he made the promise to Abraham of the promised land, and he made the prophecy about what would happen, how the Jews would be in Egypt, and he said in the fourth generation turned out to be almost half a millennia later, your descendants will come back here, under Joshua, because the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure. For 500 years, God was long-suffering toward the wickedness of the Canaanites and all of their evil religion and their immorality. He bore it for 500 years. Or think about God’s patience with the Jewish nation. We see all the catalog of idolatries and all their sins and in the ways they violated the Mosaic Law, and how even in the New Testament, when Christ came, most of them didn’t believe. And how it says, powerfully in Romans 10:21, concerning Israel, God says, “All day long, I’ve held out My hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.” That story is one of God’s incredible long-suffering toward Israel, and we wanna imitate that, we wanna be like God.

Secondly, our love for God gives us gratitude to God and that gratitude for the way he’s patient with us, he’s been long-suffering with us, and the more you realize that the more you say, “How can I not be long-suffering toward others?” Has God not put up with much from you? Be honest. As you look in the Word that your conscience speaks, when you look back at your own life, even up to this very day, has God not been patient with you? Is He not patient every day? We have been stubborn, we have defied Him, we have resisted him, we have disobeyed him, we have sinned in many areas, but we’ve sinned in some areas again and again through habitual sin, and God has been so patient. And so just out of gratitude to God, we want to be long-suffering toward one another. Love for God also makes us extremely humble. It humbles us to know the grace of God, and it severs the tap root of that wicked pride that says, I don’t deserve the injury you’re giving me, I don’t deserve to be treated like that.

“We have been stubborn, we have defied Him, we have resisted him, we have disobeyed him, we have sinned in many areas, but we’ve sinned in some areas again and again through habitual sin, and God has been so patient. And so just out of gratitude to God, we want to be long-suffering toward one another.”

But then when you realize the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, and we’re supposed to play the role of that tax collector, that stood off at a distance and beat his breast and would not even look up to Heaven, but said, “Be merciful to me, oh God, a sinner.” And Jesus said that man went home justified. Not the other one. We realize how could we be prideful toward God or toward any other person. And so it enables us to be long-suffering because it severs the tap root of that pride that says, “I don’t deserve to be treated like you’re treating me.” Also, it gives us wisdom, we are able to see, love for God enables to see God’s hand in the bad treatment we’re getting. God actually wants us to go through some of that bad treatment, those afflictions, those persecutions, those oppositions, to help us grow in our sanctification. We’re supposed to consider it pure joy whenever we face trials of many kinds. The Apostle Paul never forgot who he was before his conversion, he never forgot that he was the chief of sinners, that he didn’t deserve to be called an apostle because he persecuted the church of God, he never forgot that.

But he also realized that God was using these light and momentary afflictions to further the Gospel and to prepare him for glory that doesn’t even, isn’t worth comparing with the afflictions we go through, so we are able to see God’s wisdom in bringing these injuries to us, we need them. And then finally, love for God gives us a perspective of where we’re heading. We are going to heaven. We’re gonna spend eternity in the new heaven, new earth, we’re gonna spend eternity in the new Jerusalem. We are going to swim in an ocean of happiness. What is the injury you’re going through compared to that? Is it not a particle, a dust on the scales of eternity? Doesn’t our love for God give us an eternal perspective, enabling us to soar above the clouds of the injury, whatever it is, no matter how severe, to soar above it and see eternity and see beyond it? I love what it says in Hebrews 13:6, “So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?’” So honestly, what can another human being do to you in reference to your eternal reward and your eternal inheritance in heaven? Nothing, there’s nothing they can do. And so it just gives us that vertical love for God, enables us to be long-suffering.

Also our horizontal love for our neighbor enables us to be long-suffering, too. We are able to see our neighbor in light of eternity, and if we are genuinely loving toward that neighbor, whether a Christian or non-Christian, just another human being, we genuinely want their blessedness, we genuinely want them to be eternally blessed, we would love to spend eternity with that person in Heaven. I remember I was witnessing on an airplane with a guy, I never met him before. And it says in 2 Corinthians, “As though God Himself were making His appeal through us, we implore you, be reconciled to God.” And so I was sharing the gospel, actually got to the point of, to some degree, begging him to come to Christ, we had an hour-long conversation, and my heart was filled with one desire. I had one desire, and that is, I wanted to spend eternity with this total stranger in Heaven. Now that had to be the work of the Holy Spirit in my heart. I didn’t know this guy at all.

And it wasn’t weird. The guy said, “Why do you care so much?” I said, “Well, honestly, I’d like to spend eternity with you in heaven. We’re gonna land in about half an hour, probably I’ll never see you again, but that’s the truth.” And so I think what happens is the Holy Spirit expands us horizontally to include other human beings created in the image of God and makes us want to see them blessed both in time and in eternity.

That’s what love does. Think about what Stephen did when they were stoning him to death, and he said, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin, do not hold this sin against them.” Just like Jesus, when he said, he said, “Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing.” And so as Jesus’s heart expanded out, it included the thief on the cross and won him over, so that the thief said, “Remember me when you come in your kingdom.” “Today, you’ll be with me in paradise.” So also Stephen’s heart moved out and he couldn’t know it, but his life, his arguments from scripture and his demeanor and his prayer, I believe were instrumental in winning Saul of Tarsus to faith in Christ.

And so it just goes out horizontally. Lord, don’t hold this sin against them. Oh God, would you forgive them? God would you love them? So Christian, long-suffering is the mark of a great work of grace in the human soul toward neighbor. It is the consummation of the second great commandment, to be able to turn the other cheek, humbly, to be able to accept wrongs, to be willing to be persecuted. Even some of our brothers and sisters, even savagely persecuted. We think about in East Africa, where roving bands of fanatical Muslims have hunted down our Christian brothers and sisters and killed them with machetes, etcetera, It’s remarkable how much grace and love has been shown through those Christians to win some of those Muslims to faith in Christ. This goes on all over the world, but then think of the rewards that you have. If you’re able to love your persecutor, you’re able to bless those who bless you. And Jesus said, “If you only love those who love you, what reward will you get? But if you’re able to love your persecuting enemy, great is your reward in heaven.” Jesus said in Matthew 5, so let me just stop at this issue of long-suffering and just apply it immediately, what you need to do as you listen to this is evaluate your own heart and life. Are you long-suffering? Are you patient when wronged or do you tend to have a short fuse, and you tend to fly off the handle? And I think all of us I know will come up short of where we’d like to be. Some of us come up very short, you know that this is a big problem in your life, you fly off the handle regularly, you have a very short fuse, this is a part of your.…but just ask God to show you the dimensions of this sin of being so radically impatient when wronged and ask Him to work this in you by His grace, we can take these words and bring them up to God in prayer and see Him work in us.

“So Christian, long-suffering is the mark of a great work of grace in the human soul toward neighbor. It is the consummation of the second great commandment, to be able to turn the other cheek, humbly, to be able to accept wrongs, to be willing to be persecuted.”

III. What Does It Mean to Be Kind?

So the second part is kind. Love is patient, love is kind. What does it mean to be kind? So I think long-suffering, the way I look at it is in a sports or way like football, where long-suffering is playing defense. And then being kind or kindness is putting points on the board. It’s offense, so we’re gonna play defense when wronged, when attacked, and then we’re gonna move out in kindness and goodness and love. The word is linked to goodness, to freely doing good for other people. It may have to do with goodness done to the bodies of other people, kindness may be shown physically to alleviate pain and suffering or to bless physically in some way, or it may have to do spiritually. It may have to do with evangelism. Sharing the gospel is an act of kindness. Giving a word of biblical encouragement is an act of kindness. So it’s moving out doing good works to bless other people, that’s what kindness really is.

Think about the Good Samaritan, the parable of the Good Samaritan, where this man is beaten up on the road to Jericho and the priest and Levite just ignore him and walk by, but the Good Samaritan goes over and shows him kindness. He cares for his wounds, he picks him up, he carries him on his donkey to a hotel or an inn where the innkeeper can care for him, he pays for it, and whatever is needed, he does just as Jesus said to the sheep and not to the goats. “I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger, and you invited me in. I needed clothes and you clothed me. I was sick and you came and visited me, I was in prison, you looked after me.” All of these are acts of kindness, and it’s done from a demeanor of delight, of gentle delight, when you think of kindness, you think of a demeanor as well as the action, it’s not just what is done, but how it’s done, and it’s done… I think I picture gentleness, tenderness and a certain measure of delight. God loves a cheerful giver, not somebody who gives reluctantly or under compulsion, person’s happy to do this good deed for you, that’s with kindness. You get a sense that the other person is enjoying doing this for you, they really delight in doing this for you, there’s a certain level of that.

Now, biblically there are so many examples of this. My mind goes to Joseph. After Jacob died, and Joseph’s brothers had done him so wrong, some of them wanted to kill him. Threw him in a pit. Sold him as a slave. It was about as bad as it can get. But by this point, Joseph had developed a supernatural perspective on what God was doing in all of this. Now, after Jacob died, his brothers were terrified of his Egyptian power base, of the incredible power that Joseph had, he could have killed them. And they knew it. And so in Genesis 50:18-21, it says, “His brothers came and threw themselves down before Him, ‘We are your slaves,’ they said. But Joseph said to them, ‘Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me. You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.’” Or, intended for good, “‘to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.’l Now, here’s the key, listen to this. “So then, don’t be afraid, I will provide for you and for your children. And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.” That right there is why I’m sharing this text. He had the supernatural perspective of what God was doing to get just so beyond what his brothers had done to him. So he was patient, long-suffering, but then he went out in kindness. And first and foremost, he not only did not retaliate, he physically cared for them. He blessed them, set them up at houses, made sure they had enough to eat all that, but it wasn’t just that, it was how he did it, he reassured them and spoke kindly to them, he actually had a heart, a genuine heart of affection for them. It’s incredible. So you could just take that and say, “Oh God, make me that kind of a person.”

“He had the supernatural perspective of what God was doing to get just so beyond what his brothers had done to him. So he was patient, long-suffering, but then he went out in kindness. And first and foremost, he not only did not retaliate, he physically cared for them. “

Or again, take the story of Boaz in the way that he treated Ruth. Remember Ruth was a Moabitess, she was a widow, and she came back with her mother-in-law to Israel, foreign land for her, and she goes out to glean, that’s what poor people did, if they wanted some food. They’d go out into the fields and get some extra grain that was laying around in the ground. She could have gone anywhere, but she ends up at Boaz’s field, and this is what happened. Second chapter, Ruth 2:8-13 says, “So Boaz said to Ruth, ‘My daughter, listen to me, don’t go and glean in another field and don’t go away from here. Stay here with my servant girls. Watch the field where the men are harvesting, and follow along after the girls. I’ve told the men not to touch you, and whenever you’re thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have filled’.” Wow. “At this, she bowed down with her face to the ground, She exclaimed, ‘Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you even notice me, a foreigner?’”

Now here comes the kindness. Boaz replied, “I have been told all about what you’ve done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with the people you did not know before. May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.” So not only does he provide for her, makes sure she has enough to eat, and at the end of this encounter, he gives her a bunch of grain to take back to her mother-in-law, he lavishes goodness on her. But it’s how he does it, it’s that he elevates her, speaks respectfully to her, find something he can encourage in her. She’s blown away. And then she says in verse 13, “May I continue to find favor in your eyes, my lord. You have given me comfort and have spoken kindly to your servant, though I do not have the standing of one of your servant girls.” So as you read that, doesn’t that stimulate in you the desire to be that kind of a person, not just to be certain the person’s cared for, but that you elevate them, you encourage them, you speak words of honor to them and treat them with that gentleness and that kindness?

Jesus did this every day. Think of what it was like to be a broken-hearted or disease-ridden or suffering sinner around Jesus, never was there one who is gentler and kinder and more tender-hearted to broken-hearted sinners. So many stories in Jesus’s life. How did he treat the sinner, the woman who was washing Jesus’s feet with her tears and drying them with her hair? At one point he just shuts out the Pharisee host that he’s eating dinner, he shuts everyone out, focuses on her. And says, “Take heart, daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace.” He just focused on her and gives her love and tenderness, forgiveness.

Or think about the widow at Nain in Luke chapter 7, is coming out and grieving bitterly. She’s a widow and she’s burying that day her only son, and Jesus goes right to her. And looks at her and says, “Don’t cry.” That just moves me, is the first thing is toward the grieving woman and says, “Don’t cry,” and then He raises this son from the bier, from the dead. So there’s this tenderness, this sweetness, this kindness that you see. Mothers show it all the time to their children, you think about a little five-year-old, he skins his knee, what he wants is mommy, he goes running and she’s gonna pick him up and she’s gonna cuddle him and she’s gonna stroke his hair off his forehead and kiss away his tears, and she’s going to bind the wound on the knee, and it’s just that’s what… You just know that kind of mothering is the essential word is kindness, she’s showing kindness. There’s so many examples of this in life.

I think I thought about this and when I went and researched it. I said, “Yeah, that’s amazing.” Tim Tebow, the quarterback and now baseball player, has just developed ministries of kindness that you should research, it’s remarkable. I had heard this story about how he took a special needs young woman, a teenage young woman out to a prom, got a limo, dressed up in a tux, did this a number of years ago, and now it’s developed into a whole ministry that he and his wife do. And it’s called The Night to Shine, they do for special needs kids and set them up, making them feel precious, making them feel special. Well, it’s just one small part of the kind of kindness that Tim Tebow has been doing in the name of Christ for years. When he was the starting quarterback for the Denver Broncos, and he led them to their first playoff victory. And this is in 2012, in seven years. Every game when he was starting quarterback for the Broncos, he chose someone that was going through a trial, suffering. It could be a teenage boy or girl, could be an older man, whatever brought them to the Broncos game and just showed them the day of their life. And in the hour that followed that incredible victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers, when the world was going crazy over Tim Tebow, and there were 9,000 tweets per second for that hour, he was spending that hour with….Bailey Knaub was her name, a young girl, teenage girl who had been through 73 surgeries, and he was just totally focused on her after the game, for the hour after the game. “Did you get enough to eat? Did you have a great time?” “Yes, sir.” Incredible. And so it wasn’t just what he did, it’s how he did it.

I picture the “not just what you do, but how you do it” from a scene in the movie, Ben-Hur, the old Ben-Hur movie with Charlton Heston. And Charlton Heston is condemned to the galley, to become a galley slave, and then condemned really to die as a galley slave. Then he’s marched by foot across the desert to the port city, and they’re not.…he’s dying, probably literally dying of thirst, and he collapses to the ground. They’re at a well, and all of the prisoners are being given water by the soldiers, and they’re throwing gorges with water at him and they’re just trying to get drops of water, but the guard is singling Charlton Heston and saying, “No water for him.” Jesus in the story, before he had begun his public ministry, comes over and Heston’s on the ground. He picks up his head, he takes the water and washes his face with it tenderly, and then lifts his head, pours the water into his mouth. It isn’t just giving the water, the Roman soldiers were doing that, but they’re throwing it at him. Jesus did it with these tender hands of love and literally saved his life in the story, he later comes around and comes to faith in Christ. So this is the act of kindness. It’s not just what you do, but it’s how you do it.

IV. How Does Christian Love Enable Us to Be Kind?

Now, how does our Christianity enable us to be kind? Well, first of all, we see the kindness of God to us. As Titus says, “When the kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us not because of good deeds we have done, but because of his washing of rebirth and renewal through the Holy Spirit, the kindness of God in saving us.” And then he puts the spirit of kindness, the Holy Spirit, who’s depicted as a dove coming down from heaven, he puts the spirit of kindness in us so that we do good works, we yearn to do good works in such a way that it will bless other people. So again, this is a matter for looking in the mirror of God’s Word and asking your conscience, “Am I a kind person? Would the people around me say that I’m characterized by good deeds, a river of good deeds done with a gentleness and under light?”

That’s what kindness is. Is that happening in my life? And again, it’s gonna be that “painful delight,” we’re gonna see the pain of how unkind we frequently are, but hopefully we’re also gonna see evidence that God has worked some kindness in us, but we want more, and so we have hope. We look ahead for the rest of our lives and say, I could be an incredibly kind person the rest of my life in the spirit of this text. And not only that, when I get to heaven, I’m gonna be perfected. In the spirit of kindness, I will spend eternity in perfect love in heaven. So I want to give you a sense of the pain of the conviction. I want you to see the ways that you’ve been unkind. I wanna see it in my life, so that we can hate that sin and move away from it, and then in hope say yes, but I know that I’m alive, ’cause I feel the pain. I know I’m alive because there’s evidence of fruit too, but boy, I want more, I wanna put the sin to death, the unkindness to death, and now I wanna start living more and more as I’ve never done before. Living for the glory of God and goodness in other people’s lives.

Now, if you having clicked in here today are not a Christian, I’m so glad that you have come to this livestream, and what I want you to do is I want you to feel the attraction of the kindness of Jesus, our Savior, the kindness of God. Let me read this text again. This is Titus 3:3-6, “At one time we were….we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived, and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures, we lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God, our Savior appeared, he saved us not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy, He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ, our Savior.” I’m pleading with you like I did to that guy on the plane, come to Christ, swim in the ocean of His kindness. Understand how long-suffering he’s been to you and just swim in the grace and the mercy. Jesus died on the cross for all of our sins of un-lovingness. He died on the cross for that ’cause we were foolish and deceived and hating one another, but Jesus took all of that on Himself and died, and on the third day, God raised Him to life, and He gives us the spirit of a new resurrected life by which we can be long-suffering, patient with each other, and by which we can show kindness to one another. Close with me in prayer.

Father, we thank you for the word of God. I thank you for the pain, and I thank you for the delight. And God, I pray that You would continue to work both of these aspects in us. Show us our sinfulness, show us our impatience. The fact that we’re not very long-suffering, we don’t put up with much, show us our unkindness and then turn it all around. Lord, make us incredibly patient with other sinners as You’ve been patient toward us, and then Lord open up the fountain of our hearts that we would just have a river of good deeds of kindness shown to the people in our lives. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

1 Corinthians 13:4 Love is long-suffering, love is kind.

We have already seen in 1 Corinthians 13 that love is “the most excellent way, and that even the most excellent gifts and actions without love are worthless, completely empty of eternal virtue and will result in no eternal reward. Love is the crowning characteristic of our salvation.

Paul establishes these facts with some of the most astonishing assertions ever made… using extreme, hyperbolic language

1 Corinthians 13:1-3 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

These strong assertions were necessary for the Corinthians, because for all their giftedness, they were not a very loving people. But the real issue here is not the ancient Corinthian church… those people all died a little less than two millennia ago, and that local church has long since died away. The real issue is not so much “What were the Corinthians like?” but “What are WE like?” or more to the point, “What am I like?” The point of all the sermons I will preach on this, the greatest chapter on love in the Bible, is not “How good is this sermon?” or “How excellent are my illustrations?” or my logic, or my eloquence, or my delivery… it is not whether you like the sermon, or found it engaging… the question is “What is the Holy Spirit saying to me personally about my own life… my own heart?” The Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write these words so that every generation of Christians could look in the mirror of God’s word and see how we need to be healed of our lovelessness… because honestly, the kind of love described in this chapter is SUPERNATURAL… beyond anything any of us can do consistently, day after day, minute after minute…

There is nothing particularly miraculous about any detail of it… it’s not like it’s saying “Love is patient, love walks on water, love flies like a peregrine falcon, love cooks dinner every night for the family…” a strange mixture of normal and supernatural actions. Actually every bit of this chapter is BOTH normal and supernatural… we can be loving in very short stretches, but the sin nature in us is so strong that we daily get swept away into disobedience

As Paul said:

Romans 7:15-20 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do– this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

We can understand what love is, but we cannot seem to carry it out day after day

This chapter is given to us to show us what we ought to pray for, for the Lord to work these things in us by the Holy Spirit

For the “fruit of the Spirit” is LOVE

Now, I feel no compulsion to hurry through this magnificent chapter.

As I said last week, my greatest mentor on this chapter is Jonathan Edwards, whose collection of sixteen lectures on this one brief chapter is entitled Charity and Its Fruits

I want to lean on him as I unfold this morning just the first two descriptions of love in 1 Corinthians 13:4

“Love is long-suffering, love is kind”

I.   What Does It Mean to Be Long-Suffering?

A.   To Patiently Endure Injuries of Every Kind

Alistair Begg… “Love has a long fuse”… it takes a long time to blow up… specifically has to do with patience with other people, not merely circumstances

Chrysostom: a man who has been wronged, and easily has it in his power to avenge himself and refuses to do so

Ultimately, Christ is the best picture of this…

1 Peter 2:23 When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats.

Like God himself… Christ could have made short work of his enemies!!

Exodus 9:15 For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth.

B.   Various Injuries Cataloged

The myriad ways that people injure one another in this world is staggering and beyond a comprehensive cataloging

My only purpose here is to give you a flavor of the kind of world we live in, and why it is necessary for Christians to develop a love that is supernaturally LONG-SUFFERING

1.   Injuries in business/financial dealings

a.   People in this world are constantly defrauding one another in many ways

b.   People withhold payment, or renege on agreements, or do shoddy workmanship on a job for which they were hired

c.   People steal, and embezzle, and break contracts, and hire high- priced lawyers to win in court

d.   Mechanics and merchants and plumbers and electricians overcharge

e.   Money is at the root of ALL KINDS OF EVIL in this world, and more injuries than we can relate

f.   Christian long-suffering is on display when we put our own sanctification and our witness and the glory of God above money

2.   Injuries in reputation

a.   People slander each other, tearing people down with their words

b.   They do character assassination, spreading gossip and poisonous innuendo

c.   More commonly, people just exaggerate the faults of others in recounting a story about this or that

d.   People judge each other’s motives, and put their harsh judgments into words

e.   People can use insults, verbal assaults, and other harsh words to pour poison into our ears and severely wound our hearts

f.   Beyond such overt verbal assaults, there is mockery, sarcasm, and irony that is designed to cut a person down so that the speaker may be elevated

3.   Injuries in evil thoughts

a.   So also people harbor bitter and evil thoughts about others and it causes them to act in malice for years and years

b.   These bitter thoughts are clear from facial expressions and body language, and while they may not result in more overt acts of injury, just the communication by these non-verbal cues “I don’t like you! You’re not welcome here! I hate you!” is extremely painful to bear

4.   Injuries to our bodies

a.   Of course, since the time of Cain’s murder of his brother Abel, bitter attitudes toward others has often broken out into actual physical assault

b.   People may attack you, your person, your possessions, your loved ones… even to the point of permanent injury or death

c.   Some injuries to the body are not intentional, but still very painful… as in a car accident, or any other kind of accidental injury

d.   A person might just be consistently clumsy, stepping on your toes literally or figuratively day after day

5.   Injuries from authority figures

a.   Some people use their positions of authority to do us harm

b.   It could be a government official, a police officer, a boss, a coach, a teacher or professor… someone with genuine authority and the ability to make your life miserable

c.   And they lord it over you, abuse you physically or verbally, or materially

d.   They enact laws that restrict you or other Christians… unjust laws that make life as a Christian very difficult

6.   Injuries from neighbors

a.   Perhaps they like to play loud music, or shoot firearms at odd hours

b.   Our neighbor in Japan used to burn garbage and the wind would blow the stench in our direction day after day

c.   Maybe it’s a crotchedy old man who yells “Get off my lawn” at your kids

d.   Maybe your neighbor has a dog that barks all hours of the night

e.   Perhaps you live in an apartment complex, and they cook with ingredients that stink up the whole building

7.   Injuries from family members

a.   Those closest to us can be the ones that can get under our skin the most

b.   Husbands with wives, and wives with husbands… the injuries I have in mind are not so much those in an abusive relationship— those issues are in another category

c.   But just the daily annoyances that can develop in a marriage

d.   So also the injuries from parent to child and from child to parent… we can act so unloving to each other, with a long track record of insults and injuries that happen at home

e.   We always seem to hurt the most the ones we are closest to

C.   What Does It Mean to Be Long-Suffering?

1.   To bear the injury meekly, humbly

2.   To not seek retaliation/revenge at all

a.   And there are so many things that we can do to get revenge

b.   So many movies out there are REVENGE movies… paying an individual back for the wrongs they have done

c.   This is actually a standard plot technique… early in the movie, the villain does something villainous, and the rest of the movie is the story of the righteous revenge by the hero

d.   There are vigilante stories, in which the hero sees an injustice and takes matters entirely into his own hands… he becomes, jury, judge, and executioner and dispatches the villain to the great satisfaction of the audience

e.   But to be LONG-SUFFERING means to forego any revenge or retaliation… to choose not to slander the neighbor, or the co- worker who backtsabbbed you in the office and caused you not to get the promotion

f.   To be LONG-SUFFERING means to forgo the right to treat your neighbor as they have treated you; to repay your spouse for all the rude comments; even to forego giving her or him the silent treatment… to be passive-aggressive

3.   To not harbor any bitter spirit of retaliation/revenge

a.   Not only do you not enact revenge in real life, you don’t even fantasize about it in your mind and heart

b.   You don’t cherish thoughts of getting the person back for the injury they have done to you

c.   You drop the matter entirely, forgiving as the Lord has forgiven you; you treat the person as if the injury had never occurred

4.   To maintain a loving spirit in the heart… no interruption of that spirit

5.   To not lose the quietness and peacefulness of our spirits

6.   To be willing to suffer much to maintain peace in the relationships

1 Corinthians 6:7 Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?

Ephesians 4:3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

D.   Why Is It Called “Long-Suffering”?

1.   Because of the scope and magnitude of the willingness to be wronged

2.   Bearing not only a small injury, but even a very great one

3.   And to bear it not for a short period of time, but for an extremely long duration

4.   It takes supernatural endurance

Think of a Christian wife who has been praying for years for a non- Christian husband. He is not abusive, he is generally a decent man… but he is not a Christian, does not want to go to church or pray with her, or train the children in the faith. He has bad habits that a Christian would not have—language, drink, the movies he watches, the live he is living… she has prayed for him for years, year after year. She must be LONG-SUFFERING

Or again, the Christian parents of a wayward daughter who is living an “alternate lifestyle.” She has been a source of almost incalculable grief to her parents—snarky comments, open insults, family occasions ruined, affronts to their standards and sensibilities… a constant stream of injuries to have to bear

II.   How Does Christian Love Enable Us to Be Long-Suffering?

A.   Love for God and for Christ Enables Us to Be Long-Suffering

1.   God is extremely long-suffering… and our love for God makes us want to imitate him… to be like him!

Exodus 34:6-7 “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.

Genesis 15:16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure

Romans 2:4 Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?

Romans 10:21 But concerning Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.”

2.   Gratitude to God for his patience toward us enables us to be long- suffering to others

a.   God has been so incredibly patient with us, dear friends

b.   He has been LONG-SUFFERING with us, and put up with our repeated sins in besetting areas; our sins are more numerous than the hairs of our heads, and God has covered them again and again with his grace

c.   We have been stubborn and defied him and resisted him and disobeyed him; we have sinned in some areas more times than we can count; we have made promises to God and broken them; we have tested his patience all our lives

d.   We should be long-suffering to others just out of thankfulness to the God who has been so long-suffering to us!

3.   Love for God makes us extremely humble; and arrogance is the root of much retaliation and loss of love when injured

a.   We will talk more in future weeks about how love is humble… not haughty or arrogant

b.   But this has slayed the prideful root of my intolerance for others… the root is a wicked PRIDE that says “I don’t deserve to be treated like this!!”

c.   Our Christian faith is an honest stance before God that says this:

Luke 18:13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

d.   How can forgiven sinners like us not be long-suffering toward other sinners? How can we be prideful and say “I don’t deserve these injuries you are giving me?”

4.   Love for God enables us to see God’s hand in all the injuries we are experiencing

a.   God has a purpose in everything… and God uses the injuries and afflictions that happen in our lives to shape us and mold us and prepare us for heaven

b.   The Apostle Paul was harshly treated everywhere he went… he never forgot that he was the chief of sinners and did not deserve to be called an apostle because he persecuted the church of God and deserved to have been slaughtered on the Road to Damascus

c.   But he understood the sufferings of his life were actually part of God’s plan to advance the gospel and to prepare him for heaven

2 Corinthians 4:17-18 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal

5.   Love for God sets us infinitely above any earthly hurt anyone can ever do to us

a.   Consider for a moment how trivial are all our earthly injuries… in light of eternity, they are like a dust speck on the scales, like a flickering spark that is soon extinguished

b.   We are going to spend eternity in a heavenly home whose glory defies earthly description

Hebrews 13:6 So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?”

Matthew 6:20-21 store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

B.   Love for Our Neighbor Enables Us to Be Long-Suffering

1.   Love for neighbor means to see him in light of eternity… to earnestly desire his eternal blessedness and glory; this enables us to be long-suffering

Acts 7:59 – 8:1 While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 Then he fell on his knees and cried out,

“Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep. 8:1 And Saul was there, giving approval to his death.

Stephen’s heart was expanded to include his persecutors… the Holy Spirit was upon him, and he prayed even for those who were killing him, that the Lord might actually save them and forgive them

Saul of Tarsus was the fruit of his prayer. To bear patiently the injuries that others do to us means to desire their eternal blessedness in heaven

2.   Love for neighbor was perfectly displayed in the long-suffering of Jesus Christ

a.   Stephen’s prayer was really patterned after the perfect example of Jesus Christ

Luke 23:34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

b.   Christ bore patiently day after day the sinful opposition of his Jewish countrymen… they said he was demon-possessed; they said he was Mary’s bastard son by a Samaritan man; insulted him, opposed him, plotted to kill him; they hated everything about him

Hebrews 12:3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

3.   Christian long-suffering is the mark of a great work in the human soul

a.   When God the Spirit works this level of love in you, you are a mature Christian

b.   To be able to turn the other cheek humbly, to respond with kindness, to give a gentle answer that turns away wrath… this is true greatness, because it flows from the humility the Spirit alone can give

4.   Christian long-suffering has been amazingly displayed by other saints

a.   We’ve mentioned Stephen already… what about the other martyrs… like William Tyndale who died saying “Lord, open the King of England’s eyes”

b.   What about the Christian heroes and heroines in closed countries like China and Muslim lands and North Korea and behind the Iron Curtain in the days of the Cold War… bearing patiently so many insults and assaults with grace and dignity

5.   Christian long-suffering will be richly rewarded in heaven

Matthew 5:11-12 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

C.   Immediate Application

III.   What Does It Mean to Be Kind?

1 Corinthians 13:4 “Love is long-suffering, love is kind.”

A.   Long-Suffering is Love Playing Defense… Kindness is Love Moving Out in Action

B.   The Word: To Freely Do Good to Others

1.   It is a combination of a sweet, free, generous demeanor coupled with actual works given to meet a need

2.   It may have to do with goodness done to the souls of others, or to their bodies

3.   The kindness of the Good Samaritan is seen plainly in what he did for his body

Luke 10:33-35 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

4.   Or as Jesus said to the Sheep:

Matthew 25:35-36 I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

5.   To see a need and meet it

1 John 3:17-18 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

C.   Doing it FREELY, with Gentle Delight

1.   It is not stingy or selfish or grudging

2 Corinthians 9:7 Each one should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

2.   In kindness, there is a sense of the delight of the one giving… they enjoy it, yearn to do it, beg for the chance to serve in this way

3.   I think of two great examples of kindness in the Old Testament

a.   Joseph… who treated his brothers with amazing tenderness… despite all that they had done to him

Genesis 50:18-21 His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. “We are your slaves,” they said. 19 But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? 20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. 21 So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.

b.   Boaz, with Ruth

Ruth 2:8-13 So Boaz said to Ruth, “My daughter, listen to me. Don’t go and glean in another field and don’t go away from here. Stay here with my servant girls. 9 Watch the field where the men are harvesting, and follow along after the girls. I have told the men not to touch you. And whenever you are thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have filled.” 10 At this, she bowed down with her face to the ground. She exclaimed, “Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me– a foreigner?” 11 Boaz replied, “I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband– how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. 12 May the LORD repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.” 13 “May I continue to find favor in your eyes, my lord,” she said. “You have given me comfort and have spoken kindly to your servant– though I do not have the standing of one of your servant girls.”

D.   The Kindness of Christ

Luke 7:37-38 When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, 38 and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.

Luke 7:44-50 Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven– for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.” 48 Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” 49 The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” 50 Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

Luke 7:12-15 As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out– the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her. 13 When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, “Don’t cry.” 14 Then he went up and touched the coffin, and those carrying it stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” 15 The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.

There is a tenderness, a sweetness, a gentleness to kindness… it is seen in the healing touch of a mother to a five year old who has skinned his knee and goes running for his mommy; it is seen in the loving gentle way an elderly husband cares for his invalid wife of fifty years, helping her up in bed, feeding her soup, wiping her chin when she needs it.

Example: Tim Tebow, the Heisman-trophy winning quarterback, has been known for years for his many acts of kindness to special needs kids… he start

IV.   How Does Christian Love Enable Us to Be Kind?

A.   The Kindness of God to Us in Christ is a Limitless Motivation

Titus 3:4-6 But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior

B.   The Spirit of Kindness is In Us

1.   He is likened to a dove for his gentleness

2.   He persistently works kindness in us, to see a good thing to do and do it