The other power twin. Kindness.

The other power twin of goodness is kindness. One thing I’ve noticed as one progresses towards the front of the list in  Galatians 5:22-23 that each fruit takes a little more work and depth to attain from the Holy Spirit. He works deeper and deeper within us to move us towards the personality of Jesus. So if the acts of goodness are …good, then the heart of the issue really is deeper which is this fruit of kindness.

So what is this Greek word we translate as kindness?

(Strongs #5544 Chrestotes) It is defined as … The disposition to be kind, gentle, soft-spoken, even tempered, cultured, and refined in character and conduct. Useful kindness refers to meeting the real needs in God’s way, in His timing. Spirit produced – which meets the need and avoids human harshness ( cruelty ).

This fruit works hand in hand with the fruit of goodness. Often times one can’t really tell the difference. Then why are they listed separately? In my humble opinion — one can DO acts of goodness but still not truly have a heart of kindness. People can do acts of goodness hoping to ‘score’ points with whomever, but kindness is deep from within the heart. The Holy Spirit truly is the epitome of Kindness. He is always ALL nine fruit.

If this kindness is produced BY the Holy Spirit THEN it will have to be guided, nurtured, tended, and placed BY Him into your being. This obviously raises a question in me … have I ever asked Him to place His kindness in me? Why wouldn’t someone ask this of the Holy Spirit now that you know HE is the source of Kindness? What challenges do you think He would give you to begin growing kindness within you?

I’ve noticed that often times we are more kind to people who are not in our family than with our own spouses. Supposedly shouldn’t we be showing them the most kindness? How are you doing in that department? Same goes for very close friends. Shouldn’t we be looking for ways to be kind to them as well?

There’s a lot of reasons we can give for not being kind. But are any of them valid? Especially when you think of standing before Him and trying any of those excuses on Him? Oh — how we must have the fruit of self control to be in place for this fruit to be there. As well as gentleness, faithfulness, and goodness. These fruit keep building in our lives. New levels, and depths, with new challenges, that our Teacher the Holy Spirit brings to us to adventure in and go forward. Getting out of our comfort zone, again and again. Just when I think I’ve almost made it with a certain fruit — He takes me to another challenging level within that fruit.

Even tempered. Yeah that one sticks out for me. To me that means not reacting, but responding as He instructs me to. Which means I have to engage with Him in those difficult times. Refined. To me I see a very hot smelting process where the metal is heated up till all of the impurities rise to the top and get scrapped off. Refining takes heat and pressure. For our characters to be kind — we will have to go through that experience more than once …a refining process. I think  “Ouch.” For a person to really know what kindness is — they have to experience it in many different ways. And the opposite to know what it isn’t.

Buckle up — the path forward only gets steeper and more precarious.