THEARTOFCHRIST — Issue 15: Kindness
The Kindness That Came First
How Christ brings about life, and how He supplies it more abundantly.

The world sells kindness as a tool. Be kind and the world gets better. Smile at a stranger, hold a door, give a little time, and the return comes back to you — less stress, stronger relationships, better health, a more tolerant society. Kindness is presented as a virtue the man can practice, a strength he can cultivate, a power he can wield for good.

The herald announces a reversal. Kindness is not first a tool the man uses. Kindness is first a Person who came to the man.

Anchor: The Kindness That Appeared

"But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us" (Titus 3:4-5, paraphrase).

Here is the whole doctrine of kindness in one claim. Kindness appeared before it was practiced. It did not wait for the man to become kind enough to deserve it. It arrived, in a Savior, to a man who had nothing kind to offer in return. Salvation does not follow kindness. Kindness, in Christ, is salvation arriving.

Apart from Christ, kindness is a performance with a ledger. The man gives in order to get — approval, peace, reputation, a quieter conscience. The man is alienated from the life of God (Eph 4:18), and so his kindness, however pleasant its effect, begins from himself and returns to himself. It is a circle that never leaves the man.

That circle is why kindness apart from Christ is fragile. It lasts while it is repaid — while the neighbor is grateful, the cause worthy, the cost small. When the neighbor is ungrateful, when kindness is mocked as weakness, when no one sees it, the ledger closes. The man stops giving, because the giving was never really giving. It was trading. And it can turn cruel: the man kind in order to be seen righteous soon resents the one who does not notice, and his kindness becomes the proof in his case against his neighbor.

The man does not need a better technique for kindness. He needs kindness to come to him from outside himself, before he has earned it, while he is still its enemy.

In Christ, the order is reversed. The man does not produce kindness. Kindness produces the man.

"Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?" (Rom 2:4, paraphrase). The kindness of God does not wait for repentance. It leads to repentance. The man turns because he has first been met by a kindness he did not purchase. The kindness is not the reward for turning. The kindness is the cause of turning.

"So that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus" (Eph 2:7, paraphrase). Kindness toward us in Christ Jesus — kindness has an address, and the address is Christ. God does not scatter kindness in general. He shows it in a Person, to people joined to that Person. What God is toward Christ, He is toward those in Christ. The kindness is not abstract. It is located.

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness" (Gal 5:22, paraphrase). Kindness is fruit, not manufacture. It grows in him because the Spirit dwells in him. The man is the branch, not the root.

"Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you" (Eph 4:32, paraphrase). The command carries its own ground. Be kind — just as God in Christ has been kind. The "just as" is the whole gospel in two words. The man forgives because he has been forgiven. The man is kind because kindness came first. The second kindness is never the first kindness. It is the echo.

"Love is patient, love is kind" (1 Cor 13:4, paraphrase). Patience first, then kindness — because kindness that cannot wait is not kindness. It is impulse. Love waits, and waiting, it gives. The Samaritan on the road did not pass a theory to the wounded man. "But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them" (Luke 10:33-34, paraphrase). He stopped. He touched. He paid. Compassion moved his hands before it moved his mouth. That is what kindness does when it is real: it interrupts the journey.

"So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience" (Col 3:12, paraphrase). Put on kindness as a garment — not as a feeling to wait for, but as clothing to wear. Kindness in Christ is not performed to become beloved. It is worn because the man already is beloved.

That is why kindness in Christ survives ingratitude. The man who received kindness before he deserved it does not need the neighbor's thanks to keep giving. His ledger was closed where kindness appeared to save him. He gives freely because he was given freely.

God gives hearing. God gives growth. The man does not manufacture kindness. The kindness of God, shown in Christ, takes up residence in him, and the residence gives.

Kindness Reaches the Body

Every topic in this workshop relates to physical life, and kindness is no exception.

The world's program treats kindness as a gesture to be trained: smile more, hold doors, volunteer an hour. The body can be taught the motions, and the motions counted.

Apart from Christ, the training works — and that is the tragedy. The man can perform every gesture and call it kindness, while the ledger still runs underneath. A trained smile is no proof of a kind man.

In Christ, the body is not a stage for gestures. It is the place where received kindness becomes given kindness.

The Samaritan's kindness was bodily before it was verbal. He bandaged wounds, poured oil and wine, set the man on his own animal, and paid for his care. Kindness touched skin, carried weight, spent money, lost time. That is the shape of all kindness in Christ: it costs the giver's body, because Christ's kindness first cost His body.

"Present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God" (Rom 12:1, paraphrase). The presented body is offered — hands, feet, table, and time — to the God whose kindness appeared. A body given to God feeds the neighbor and binds the wound, not to earn kindness but because kindness has already arrived.

The kindness of God does not stay in the inward parts. It reaches the hands. The hands that received mercy now show mercy, and the feet that were carried now carry another.

That is life, supplied more abundantly (John 10:10, paraphrase): a man whose kindness did not begin with him, whose giving does not depend on return, whose body has become the place where the kindness that came first keeps arriving — to the neighbor, in Christ.