Galatians 5:22
The Fruit of the Spirit Is Kindness
January 29, 2006
The fruit of the Spirit is…kindness…
My name is Onesiphorus. O-nes-i-pho-rus. O-nes-i-…OK, so I am not the bestknown person in the Bible, but I do appear twice in Paul's second letter to Timothy. (2 Timothy 1:16-18; 4:19) We’ll talk more about me in a moment, but first I want to talk a bit about you.
One of the things that strikes me as I look at you Americans is how many things you do well. You are efficient. You are dedicated, hard-working. You are tremendously talented.
But you are not very kind.
And if it is true that television is a molder and a shaper of your society, it's no wonder. Watch TV for a while and you will see brothers and sisters who do wisecracks well. They do sarcasm well. They do putdowns well. But they do not do kindness well. The same is true when you see parents on TV interacting with their children, when you see spouses interacting with one another.
You see it closer to home, too. Your job may pay you well, you may work with efficient people, but it's probably a little harder to find people who will actually take the time to be kind. Oddly enough, when you get home from those jobs, or when you get home from school, you often fail to show that kindness to those close to you
I suppose there are a lot of reasons for that. We’ll take a look at some of those in a moment, but first I’d like to talk about the kindness I showed the Apostle Paul.
I lived in Ephesus where Timothy was our pastor. When Paul visited our church, he spent quite a bit of time with my family and me.
One fall Paul told us that he was going to spend the winter preaching the gospel on the Mediterranean coast of Greece, just east of the southern tip of Italy. It would be an easy site from which to launch his next missionary trip--to Rome. Paul wanted to go there to start a church in what was one of the most powerful cities in the world. Paul did get to Rome--and he got there sooner than he thought. But he also got there much differently than he thought.
It appears to have happened like this. One day Paul was in Troas, just north of my home, with Carpus, a kind and generous man. He was planning his next mission trip when Roman soldiers burst in, grabbed Paul and took him off to Rome. They didn't even let him take his coat or his scrolls (his Bible).
When news got to me that Paul had been taken as a prisoner to Rome, I knew that he would want some company, so I traveled to Rome to see him. It was nearly a 600-mile journey as the crow flies, but my journey over sea and land was longer, because I hardly went as the crow flies.
When I got to Rome, my fears were realized. Paul had been imprisoned in Rome before, but it had only been a "house arrest." We could visit him as we pleased. But this time, I couldn't even find him! For days I wandered around that huge city, trying to find out from people where Paul was. I was afraid that the people I asked wouldn't know, but at the same time I was also afraid that the people I asked would know--and that I would end up getting arrested for even daring to confess that I was a friend of his.
When I finally found him, he was in a real prison, in a cell--in chains! He looked--well, he looked how you would think someone chained in a Roman prison would look. And he sounded--well, he didn't sound like the Paul that I had known. He put on a good face for me, he spoke glowingly of God's goodness and God's grace through his Savior Jesus Christ.
And I knew Paul well enough to know that he believed every word that he was saying, but I also knew Paul well enough to know that he didn't feel it quite as much as he had in the past.
And I could understand why. In addition to being in prison, Paul had experienced what many of you have experienced at some time in your life. That is, you've got dozens of friends and the fun never ends as long as you're buying. But friends are hard to find when they discover that you're down. For example, he said "Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica." (2 Timothy 4:10) Apparently it had been fine for Demas to hang out with Paul when everyone was coming to hear Paul preach, but now that Paul was in prison…
I can't recall why Crescens had left him, but he had. Titus had left for a good reason--to go back to his congregation. Paul more than anyone understood that the work of Christ's church had to go on--with or without him. But he still missed Titus.
The Paul that I saw was one who was feeling very much alone. I stayed in Rome for quite a while visiting Paul. It felt kind of strange, but I ended up preaching God's Word to him. I reminded him of God's presence--that Paul was not alone. I reminded him of God's promises, of God's goodness. I turned his focus away from this life to the glories of heaven. Like I said, it all felt a little strange, because I figured that Paul already knew all these things, and that he probably didn't need a spiritual infant like me to teach him. And the fact is that in all the time that I was there, never once did Paul say to me, "You know, Onesiphorus, you're right! I never thought of that!" Of course he had thought of it. He had preached it!
And yet when I said something to that effect, Paul practically begged me to continue to share God's Word with him. He said that Satan had been attacking him in his loneliness, and that he needed to be constantly strengthened by and reminded of God's grace in Jesus.
We talked about other things, too. Sometimes we talked about the old days, sometimes we talked about what was happening in the congregations that he had started. Sometimes we just sat and didn't talk about anything at all. And Paul even seemed to enjoy that.
Now at this point you might be asking me why I showed such kindness to Paul. Was it because Paul had shown such kindness to me previously? To some degree, yes. But I had a bigger reason than that.
You see, I had not always shown such kindness to others. I won’t give you specific examples, but suffice it to say that when you consider the times in your life you have failed to make the effort to show kindness—a true kindness, a kindness from the heart—suffice it to say that I had similar failures.
Why had I failed to show kindness? Well, why do you fail to show kindness? Perhaps one reason is that kindness takes time. It costs two seconds to say, “Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help”, but it may take 2 hours to actually look for a way to help and then carry it out.
Perhaps another reason that kindness seems to be in such short supply is that is that kindness is so often equated with weakness.
When George Bush was running for president in 1988, he spoke to the Republican Convention in New Orleans. He wanted to paint himself in 2 colors. The first one was toughness. He spoke about his ability to be tough, toughness he had already demonstrated in combat, in business and in office. "I mean to run hard, to fight hard, to stand on the issues and to win," he said.
People liked that. People want a leader who is tough, who won't back down from anyone. People respect that and applaud that.
Then he went on to say, "Some would say it's soft and not tough to care about kindness--to demonstrate love. But where is it written that we must act as if we don't care, as if we're not moved? Well I am moved! I want a kinder, gentler nation."
There was a large portion of society that was amused by that. There was a large portion of people who didn't buy it that someone could be both tough and kind. A lot of people figured that if mothers wanted to be kind, that was fine. But your leaders--they couldn't show kindness, because that was a form of weakness. Leo Durocher, a baseball manager, is remembered for saying, "Nice guys finish last." And if there is one thing that you don't want to do in this country, it is finish last.
Whether nice guys finish last is debatable (I do know that Leo's team finished 9th out of 10 teams that year), but I do know that our God is a "nice", or kind, God.
Paul and Barnabas told the people at Lystra, "He has shown you kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons." (Acts 14:17) And kindness is the proper term for this. Because rain and crops is not our right. It is not something we deserve, something that God really owes us for creating us. The creator owes his creatures nothing. And yet God shows us kindness by as Martin Luther said in the explanation of the first article of the Apostle's Creed, giving us "clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, spouse, children, land, cattle, and all I need to keep my body and life." Yes, our God is a kind God.
And yet how is his kindness repaid by us? Too often with a decided lack of kindness towards those he has created—or acts of “kindness” that are done more out of a sense of obligation than out of genuine kindness.
And that sort of unkind behavior angers God. And God may have been kind in giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons and bigger and better houses and smaller and better microwaves, but when it comes to sin, your kind God is also a tough God—a God whose holiness demands that sin be punished—violently.
And yet Paul speaks of "THE kindness" of God, when he says, "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." (Titus 3:4)
You see, God found a way to combine toughness and kindness. While his holiness meant that he had to be tough on sin, his kindness meant that he sent Jesus to take our place, to be kind for all the times we have failed to be so, and to receive God's tough punishment for our sins.
What amazing kindness God has shown to us! What sort of people ought you to be in response? Kind ones, of course.
How? Paul mentions 3 aspects of my kindness.
1) Paul wrote of me, "he often refreshed me." (2 Timothy 1:16) As Paul's life was running out, and others were running away, I was running toward Paul; with a bundle of food, a clean coat, or a reminder that the Savior Paul preached about was also Paul's Savior, with him even there in that cell! You show kindness when you refresh those who need refreshing, when you encourage a weary Christian. When God's people suffer, you, their Christian brothers and sisters, have special times to show them kindness by being there with them, no matter how hard it might be to see the blood, to see the pain, to watch them finish the race.
2) Paul said, "(he) was not ashamed of my chains." (2 Timothy 1:16) The aged apostle was in prison facing almost certain death, having been abandoned by some of his close friends. He wasn't someone with whom you really wanted to be seen. And yet I was not ashamed. I did not worry what anyone else would think of him. I was more concerned with being kind. Kindness may equal weakness in the eyes of those around you. Showing kindness to particular people may be an embarrassing thing to those around you. But do not be ashamed of those to whom you show kindness. For they are people to whom Christ himself showed kindness.
3) Finally, Paul wrote, "he searched hard for me until he found me." (2 Timothy 1:17) In other words, I made it my business to find Paul. I didn't just go to Rome, ask a few questions, and say, "Well, I gave it a shot." Kindness is not, "I tried to call you once a while back, but I couldn't get ahold of you. And then I guess I just got kind of busy. But did you get the electronic greeting card that I sent you?" Kindness is persistent.
I might add one more element of kindness. Kindness is shown especially when we give it to those who are unlikely to repay us. In that sense, my actions towards Paul were true kindness. It's true that I couldn't say 100% for sure, but I was able to look at the situation and to judge that Paul was more or less finished. The likelihood of Paul ever getting out of prison, the likelihood of me ever being able to call in the favor seemed slim. And yet I was kind towards Paul.
May you be such people--people who comfort a friend like I did. May you be the sort of people who hold the door at the grocery store for the person behind us--even though you don't know them. May you be the sort of people who take time to speak to a 4-year old--as Jesus himself did.
In other words, may you be people who do things that don't get the headlines, people who go an extra step for someone who cannot repay them, but the sort of people who do whatever little things they can in kindness.
Will your kindness receive any more respect than George Bush did when he called for kindness? Maybe. Then again, maybe not. And yet your kindness does not go unnoticed. For Christ himself has told us, "Whatever you have done for the least of these, you have done for me."
How encouraging those words are! Our kindnesses don’t always seem like much to us. My kindness to Paul really didn’t seem like that much to me. When he was in prison, what I really wanted to be able to do for him was to set him free. I wished I was a lawyer so I could file all sorts of appeals and argue for Paul's release. But I couldn't do that. Maybe you know what I’m talking about. Maybe you’ve sat at someone’s bedside and wished that you could heal them and been frustrated that you couldn’t do anything except sit there with them and keep them company. But in doing so, you are showing what Jesus himself showed to others--kindness.
Paul was in prison, and I could visit him. And Jesus would treat it as though I had done it for him. If you needed any more encouragement to show kindness, there it is! Christ notices your kindness and is pleased with you.
Rejoice in God's kindness to you in Christ. Rejoice in Christ's kindness to you in taking your punishment. Be motivated by Christ's kindness and imitate Christ's kindness in showing kindness to others. That's something of which you are all capable. Pray that God's Holy Spirit would work in you to also make you eager--eager to show the fruit of the Spirit called kindness! Thanks for listening. Amen.