The Kindness of Christ

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things.

So far we have studied love, joy, peace, and patience. This morning we will look at kindness, as we try to understand how to take on more of the character of Christ as we live our daily lives.

This morning we’ll be studying the Bible in Luke 6...

Luke 6:27–36 CSB

27 “But I say to you who listen: Love your enemies, do what is good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 29 If anyone hits you on the cheek, offer the other also. And if anyone takes away your coat, don’t hold back your shirt either. 30 Give to everyone who asks you, and from someone who takes your things, don’t ask for them back. 31 Just as you want others to do for you, do the same for them. 32 If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. 33 If you do what is good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners to be repaid in full. 35 But love your enemies, do what is good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High. For he is gracious to the ungrateful and evil. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.

[pray]

We could go on. This passage continues with other lessons that expand on the concept. However, I think our selected text for today gets the point across and continuing would take us into more profound areas than we have time to explore today. I promise we’ll come back to this another time.

This passage is from a message that Jesus gave that has some remarkable similarities to the Sermon on the Mount. However, this sermon is called the Sermon on the Plain. It is either Luke’s retelling of the same event that we find in Matthew 5, with the word plain referring to a plateau within a mountainous area or Jesus gave similar messages in different locations. For our purposes here today, we are more interested in the content of the message rather than the location in which it was delivered.

While our theme here today is “kindness” and this word does not appear in this passage, I believe that this passage, with instruction from Jesus on how to live the Christian life, gives us some of the best insight into living with others in a way that our grandparents called, “the Christian way” and that would teach us how to live with the character of Christ’s kindness.

The word “kindness” in Greek...

New American Standard Hebrew-Aramaic and Greek Dictionaries: Updated Edition 5544 χρηστότης (chrēstotēs)

χρηστότης chrēstotēs; from 5543; goodness, excellence, uprightness:—good(1), kindness(9).

… is “a quality of being warmhearted, considerate, humane, gentle, and sympathetic.”

The word “goodness” in Greek, we’ll study in more detail next week...

New American Standard Hebrew-Aramaic and Greek Dictionaries: Updated Edition 19a ἀγαθουργέω (agathourgeō)

ἀγαθουργέω agathourgeō; contr. form of 14; to do good:—did good(1).

… and is “a quality of moral excellence; especially noted as being active in working itself out” in daily life.

These concepts are similar and connected. I could have easily tried to wrap these up into a single sermon, but I did not want to cheat you out of a sermon dedicated to each Fruit of the Spirit. Each of these fruits (???) are important enough to stand on their own and each of them deserve our attention.

Background

As I mentioned to you earlier, this is an alternate version of the Sermon on the Mount. I wanted to take a moment to back up and look at the beginning section with the beatitudes from Luke’s perspective.

Any time you see a list of “blessed are you who...” statements, we call these “beatitudes.” When we say “The Beatitudes” it refers to the “blessed are you who” statements in Matthew 5, from the Sermon on the Mount. However, we can find several places where Jesus used these statements. I have a friend that calls them the “be-a-tudes” because these describe the way that we should be with each other and with those around us who are in the world.

Let’s look at these in Luke 6...

Luke 6:20–26 CSB

20 Then looking up at his disciples, he said: Blessed are you who are poor, because the kingdom of God is yours. 21 Blessed are you who are hungry now, because you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, because you will laugh. 22 Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you, insult you, and slander your name as evil because of the Son of Man. 23 “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy. Take note—your reward is great in heaven, for this is the way their ancestors used to treat the prophets. 24 But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your comfort. 25 Woe to you who are now full, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who are now laughing, for you will mourn and weep. 26 Woe to you when all people speak well of you, for this is the way their ancestors used to treat the false prophets.

The introduction is filled with blessings and woes that are either characteristic of the Christian Life or characteristic of those who find their value in other things.

The key point is here in verse 23. When Jesus says “Take note” the disciple would be wise to pay attention and… well… “take note.” This is about rewards that are found in heaven and in spiritual things. These blessings are about the spirit of the disciple, where the woes are about the flesh. When we allow our fleshly ways to satisfy our hearts, then we are in danger. However, when we walk in the blessing of the Spirit, it can overcome the things that would normally sidetrack us from spiritual formation.

Now, let’s focus for a few moments on the center of this message, beginning in Luke 6:27...

I. Loving People Like Christ Loves People

This section provides some wise life advice. Let’s take another look at it...

Luke 6:27–36 CSB

A. Dealing With Your Enemies

Verses 27-29 focus on how we interact with those we consider to be our enemies.

Luke 6:27–29 CSB

I see several principles here...

Principles

1. Love Your Enemies

2. Show Your Enemies What Good Looks Like

3. Pray for Your Enemies

4. Refuse to hate others. (James 1:20)

James 1:20 CSB

20 for human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness.

If we could truly apply these rules to our dealings with our enemies, how would that be different for them? How would it be different for us? How would the world be different for the changed emotion?

B. People Are More Important Than Things

We have heard this before, “people are more important than things.” But how often do we act like this?

Luke 6:30 CSB

30 Give to everyone who asks you, and from someone who takes your things, don’t ask for them back.

Things seem to gain a power and a control over us. The more things we have, the more anxious and worried we become about them. When we lose control over our things or over our environment, we can often become obsessed about what we have lost and the more unhappy we can be.

I have known people that lost control of their personal possessions: house, car, finances

I have known people who lost control over a relationship, whether it be a friend that fails to live up to the expectations of the “friends contract” or a marriage relationship where one spouse begins to break their vows.

I have known people that lost control at work when a new owner or a new boss came in and they began to feel a growing anxiety and tension in the workplace because of change.

This particular principle can extend way beyond loaning $20 to a friend and it has the potential to destroy us if we let it.

But Jesus said to give it up. Don’t ask for it back.

You know, as a pastor, we see this somewhat in the church. We have people who come to us asking for things. Usually they want money, but people ask for food, for help with paying bills, perhaps with purchasing medicine. On a well-traveled road like Ridge Road, we might see a few people show up during a month asking for something.

We can’t always help everyone and when we do, we have to help them without any strings attached. That’s the hard part. We, as humans, always want to attach strings to the things that we do for others.

But Jesus says not to do that. When we help others, we are doing it with the kindness of Christ.

C. Practice the Golden Rule

The Golden Rule: do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Luke 6:31–33 CSB

31 Just as you want others to do for you, do the same for them. 32 If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. 33 If you do what is good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that.

Jesus taught this rule, that we have dubbed “golden” as a way to break the selfishness of the human heart.

He borrowed this from Leviticus 19:18

Leviticus 19:18 CSB

18 Do not take revenge or bear a grudge against members of your community, but love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.

Jesus was leveraging a universal principle that most humans love themselves. Jesus took something that we know naturally and used it to teach us how to love others—that is, as much or more than we love ourselves.

Now of course, we all know that some people have a really hard time loving themselves. In fact, many due to their own sins or the sins that others have inflicted upon them will go so far as to hate themselves. But this creates a whole other set of problems that compound the problems that they experience in life.

How does this play out in daily life?

If you wish to be respected, then give respect to others.

If you really need a kind word today, give a kind word to others.

If you hope that someone appreciates you for what you have done, then show them some appreciation for their own efforts.

If you want love, then refuse to heap coals on the head and give unconditional love instead.

Instead what we often do is withhold these gifts from others because we have hatred or anger in our hearts toward them.

The Golden Rule requires love and this is part of what we’re about here at FBC Pharr.

I tell people we are 1 church, we speak 2 languages, and we have 3 loves: Love God, Love Others, and Love the World. If we can learn to act on these three loves, then FBC Pharr will be sweeter than honey on the lips.

D. People Are More Important Than Money

This one echos the previous advice about things.

Luke 6:34 CSB

34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners to be repaid in full.

We all get a little bit funny about money. But Jesus is saying not to let money take place before ministering to people.

Then he sums it up...

Luke 6:35–36 CSB

35 But love your enemies, do what is good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High. For he is gracious to the ungrateful and evil. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.

He gives us a promise here about our reward...

As is my usual practice, I will remind you that this reward is not about a financial reward in this world. Too many times we are so money focused that we jump to conclusions about these things.

When Jesus talks about rewards and treasures, he is talking about spiritual rewards...

Matthew 6:19–21 CSB

19 “Don’t store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

That last part, “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,” is the test. Too many of us focus on financial treasure and fail to focus on spiritual treasure.

Look back at verse 35 in our text...

Luke 6:35 CSB

When we are kind to others and we act with goodness, we can expect to be rewarded for that behavior when we receive our reward in heaven.

II. Paul’s Interpretation

I’m going to jump to Paul’s Interpretation of Jesus’ statements. We can see his thoughts in Romans 15...

Romans 15:1–6 CSB

1 Now we who are strong have an obligation to bear the weaknesses of those without strength, and not to please ourselves. 2 Each one of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. 3 For even Christ did not please himself. On the contrary, as it is written, The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me. 4 For whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction, so that we may have hope through endurance and through the encouragement from the Scriptures. 5 Now may the God who gives endurance and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, according to Christ Jesus, 6 so that you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with one mind and one voice.

See Paul has caught the sense of the Kindness of Christ. Kindness is not the opposite of evil or even meanness. Kindness is the opposite of selfishness. Christ was not out to please himself, but to complete the work that God gave to him.

I say this: Be generous with the characteristics of Christ that are within you. Be generous with the love, joy, peace, and patience that you have within you. In doing this you will be able to hold up the kindness that you have within you.

When people hate, you love them instead.

When people grouch and grumble at you, meet them with the joy of Christ.

When people are anxious and worried, teach them about the peace of Christ that could rule their hearts.

When people lose their patience, give them an extra chance.

When you meet up with meanness and selfishness, be kind and compassionate.

For you have the Spirit of Christ within you and flowing out of you like a river

John 7:38 CSB

38 The one who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.”

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