On the Virtue of Kindness, Part 5: An Act That Brings God's Favor and Missions to Brazil in Moscow, ID
It's great to be back, but always a glory to reflect.
Nuntium
The conference day was spent strategizing with dear friends and feasting with these brothers from the finest Fenchman I know. The Foucachan family has been dear friends for many years, and if I could describe the meal and pronounce the words, I would tell you precisely what I had. What I can say is that I broke my keto-carnivore protocol. The entire thing was a spectacle to behold and taste! Thank you, Francis and Donna!
I opened the conference with my talk on the Church to the World. Hopefully, that talk as well as the others will be made available! Here is a group of jolly fellas after the end of the first day of the Missions Conference in Moscow, ID.
It was a delight to spend time with Thiago McHertt, the pastor of our second church plant in Brazil. The work in my place of birth continues to flourish under godly ministers, and I pray this conference stirred more good works.
I also found this trilogy at the Sword and Shovel Bookstore.
And always a delight to see Providencians old and new.
After four days, I returned to Pensacola to enjoy one whole week at home before more traveling for Presbytery in Niceville, FL, and to the Tactics Conference in Lafayette, LA. Thankfully, these won’t require another jetplane.
On the Virtue of Kindness, Part 5: An Act That Brings God's Favor
The Garden of Eden was a beautiful place. God told Adam that he could eat from any tree in the garden. But there was a tree, called “The knowledge of good and evil.” That tree was forbidden. Men always want what they cannot have. Adam ate from the tree and plunged humanity into sin. Instead of producing virtue, Adam’s sons produced murder and strife. Instead of godliness, Adam’s sons went the way of all flesh. But many centuries later, a new Adam would partake of another tree with his own body and blood. He died on the ultimate tree of good and evil so that we may eat of it forever and ever.
As Paul says in Galatians, I am crucified with Christ. Therefore, Christ now lives in me (Gal. 2:20). The fruit of the Spirit is of discernment—the tree of the knowledge of good and evil given to all who are crucified with Christ. In Christ, we eat of all spiritual virtues. Adam should have waited to eat of that tree by the power of the Spirit, but he failed. We now eat of that tree by the power of the Spirit through the work of the One who died on a tree.
We eat freely from those virtues that give us discernment. Among those virtues is the fruit of kindness. It’s the virtue Cain should have extended to Abel, but he didn’t. He extended unrestrained anger. Cain was not led by the Spirit, nor was his father before him when he ate of that tree. For Adam, kindness meant removing Eve from an evil discourse. Instead, he volunteered and blamed her, which was an act of utter unkindness.
Kindness Defined
So, how do we consume this fruit rightly?
At this point, we come to a definitional problem. Some view kindness as a synonym for “be nice to everyone.” Or, we may view kindness with contempt: “Kindness is for the weak!” Still others will smile a lot, get along, do what they are told, and feel like they have fulfilled the duty of kindness.
Is that what kindness is?
Kindness is the fifth in Paul’s list of virtues. So, we need to see how the Bible thinks of kindness, so we don’t fall for a cheap imitation. The seduction came in the Garden through the supposed “kindness” of the Serpent, and a true act of kindness must restore it.
In the Old World, when the prophets, priests, and kings spoke of kindness, they referred to that famous Hebrew word hesed. It shows up everywhere. “You have shown hesed to me,” said Lot when he was spared from the destruction in Sodom and Gomorrah. The idea appears again 248 times. It’s a big deal. Translating that word into English isn't easy because it is powerful. So, in our English Bibles, it comes out as kindness or mercy. Hesed, the Hebrew word for kindness, is an act that changes someone’s disposition towards you.
I have attempted to define each virtue succinctly and will do the same with kindness. Kindness is “an act that brings God’s favor.” It is a steady exercise in seeking favorability. The idea of kindness does not change in the New Testament. It’s embodied. Kindness is not just a spiritual disposition, but one that tangibly changes those around us. Jesus becomes the perfect kind man. In the Bible, kindness is a sign of maturity.
Kindness Personalized
Over the years, I’ve heard people say: “My grandfather or grandmother was such a kind person.” Kindness is the product of a life lived in faithfulness to God, in seeking his favor. Do you want to know what you should look like when you reach three scores and ten? You should look like a kind human. There is a demeanor that comes with kindness: “He is slow to speak,” or “he communicates truth with grace,” or his countenance is gracious.”
This idea of kindness is so attached to changing someone’s disposition towards you that it becomes how the Bible speaks of salvation. In Romans, Paul says that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance (Rom. 2:4). It was the kindness of God; his hesed changed your disposition towards him. He brought you into his favor. He does it by the power of the Spirit, and now your duty as Christians is to live out this hesed in the presence of saints and sinners. The abundance of God’s kindness changes us to be more like his Son, Jesus Christ.
In her wonderful book The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert, Rosaria Butterfield tells how she came to the Christian faith. Before God’s kindness saved her, she thought all Christians were cruel and ignorant. One day, she wrote a critique of a Christian group in her local newspaper. The responses were many, so she divided them into hate mail and fan mail.
She got a response from a pastor. He wrote a two-page letter with several questions. It was an honest letter without hate, but he was also not a fan of what Rosaria had said. In her book, she writes: “It was a kind and inquiring letter.” She didn’t know where to put that letter. She writes: “It was the kindest opposition that I ever received.” She contacted the pastor, who invited this well-known Lesbian atheist to his home for food and conversation, and later Rosaria would write: “They talked with me in a way that didn’t make me feel erased.” Kindness is an act that brings favor. It changes people’s disposition towards you. It is a powerful virtue.[1]
Solomon says in Proverbs 21, “Whoever pursues kindness will find life, righteousness, and honor.” This is how our homes should be defined: homes open to receive with conversations immersed in God’s kindness. Kindness is an invitation to a dialogue whose sole purpose is God's favor.
The Relational Blessings of Kindness
Kindness changes us and changes people. This kindness is reflected in two relational responses. The first is the kindness of Jesus towards us, and the second is our response to that kindness in the church.
It’s possible that you live in fear, wondering if Jesus is at the right hand of the Father, scheming to make your life miserable. Or it is even possible that somehow you have bought into the thinking that Jesus is ready to crush you like a bug, like he is ready to take away your baptismal rights and give you a bag of filthy rags to carry around for the rest of your life. You may think Jesus is there at the right hand of the Father, saying: “Yes, I cannot wait to make your life as miserable as possible because you sinned against me, or false gods seduced you, or because of your low self-esteem.” But this is not the case.
Here is the reality you need to hear:
Like Pharaoh’s daughter showed kindness to Moses, like Rahab to the spies, like David to Mephibosheth, like Joab to Absalom, like Elisha who restored to life the woman’s son, like Joseph to Mary, the centurion to his servant, John to Mary, Paul to Onesimus, God’s kindness flows to you day after day after day after day. In God’s economy, no child of God is damaged goods. None. His hesed, his stead-fast love, his kindness endures forever.
Your sins do not move Jesus to more anger towards you, but to greater pity for you. As Thomas Goodwin once wrote: “His pity is increased the more towards you like the heart of a tender father is to a child that has some loathsome disease.” The Gospel of Jesus is for you! His kindness is for you no matter what stage of life you may find yourself. Jesus will pursue you, and if you trust in him and are open to confessing your sins, he will draw near to you, embrace you, and shower you with kindness upon kindness. He will turn his favor and smile upon you and when you are overwhelmed by his good gifts, when you think that you deserve death, he will give you life; when you thought that surely this sin would put you over into the threshold of hell, God says: “Wait, there is more kindness; more love, more Yes and Amen, for nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
This may be hard for some because you have built your identity on what you do, the outward persona you developed, and your cause-and-effect philosophy. You may live your life warning people: “God is gonna get you,” and he is, not just how you think he is. He's going to get you from yourself. We can believe wrongly that God is kind and at the same time hope in our hearts that God’s kindness runs out for this or that person. But that’s not how God works. God’s kindness is everlasting. It never runs dry.
But let me add a note: If there is that slight chance that someone reading this may think to themselves: “Pastor Brito, that’s precisely the kind of rationale I needed to keep doing that one sin that gives me great pleasure. After all, God is everlastingly kind.” If you are that person, don’t confuse God’s kindness with blindness. God does not turn a blind eye to your sin. His kindness may include the loss of your status, your pride; he might be kind to you by exposing you. Yes, God is kind, but he is not blind.
Responding to the Kindness of Christ in the Church
But we cannot leave here without our responsibility to kindness. How shall we then live? How do we eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and dwell in that tree?
We show kindness to one another because kindness changes people’s dispositions toward us. It shocks them into conversion. It boxes their conscience away from anger. It disarms them from their bitterness.
I’d like to conclude with two applications:
a) Persuasion: Whatever happened to kindness in persuasion? I can almost guarantee that most of you reading found your congregations because folks were kind to you in hosting you in their homes, showered you with interest in your life, or greeted you with respect. That’s the environment Paul is seeking to develop.
Everything I love about my own communion in Pensacola: the liturgy, the dance, the community, the Bible-saturated service, the food, the Psalm-roaring: it’s all in vain if there is no kindness attached to these things. Do you want to persuade people to love the way you live: Show them kindness. Bring them a meal when they are sick, when a new baby is born, when they are angry at you. No matter how often and skillfully you justify your anger, your strategy will have no power if guided by anger. It will draw other angry outbursts and apologists, but generationally it will die a thousand deaths because kindness is a generational blessing.
Dads, if you are kind, there is a likelihood your children will be kind. Parents, even when you discipline, they will know or will learn to see kindness behind correction.
If kindness does not guide your argument and deeds, people will close their ears to you or your viewpoint. Disagree with one another over many things, but don’t disagree on kindness on anything.
Finally, a congregation built on kindness will strengthen our dogma. How we communicate that biblical faith says much about who we are. You can constantly stir a crowd with an angry speech, but you cannot keep them with angry speeches. I argue that all of us need an orthodox kindness; the kind that doesn’t give in to inclusivity and sexual confusion, but the kind that calls the weak and says: “Let’s talk.” Or the “sexually immoral” and says: “Come to Christ and repent.” Or the bitter victim and says: “There is a better way.” Or the “angry mom” and says, “Let’s think through this together.” Or the child who reacts to everything with anger and says, “Son, what’s behind this?”
Kindness inquires and brings people along. Anger despairs and sends people away.
Kindness changes us and changes people. Kindness persuades. Kindness is the communal bond that brings us together even when we disagree. Kindness says, “Come to Jesus all ye who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest.” The kindness of God is why we are united to our Lord. We receive his kindness on that tree, and now communicate it with those around us.
[1] Read Kindness Changes Everything by Stephen Witmer in Desiring God. https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/kindness-changes-everything