The Fruit of Kindness

“But the fruit of the Spirit is…kindness”—Galatians 5:22

In August 2010, CNN.com published an article about Laura Miller, a 32-year old administrative assistant at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. What was fascinating about Laura was not so much her talent, looks, money, power, prestige or celebrity that earned her an article on CNN, but it was her kindness. Laura had formed a friendship with a frequent blog reader of hers, whom she wanted to do something for on her birthday. And rather than get a gift certificate or gift card her friend said, “Do an act of kindness in my name and sign it, ‘Secret Agent L, All-Around Swell Chick.’” So she did, and the person known as “Secret Agent L” was born. It started off with her doing some random acts of kindness to different people—nothing over the top, just kind. For example, she took a purple hydrangea, and placed it on someone’s window with her card, “Secret Agent L: All Around Swell Chick—Be Kind, No Exceptions” along with her blog address. She then attempted to perform one act of kindness per week.

On August 5, 2009, days after a gym shooting in Pittsburgh, where a man walked in and killed 4 people, including himself, Secret Agent L decided to go shopping at an H & M in the Pittsburgh area. She went in, got some clothes and went to try them on. Upon leaving she left a framed copy of a quote by Oswald Chambers, the great devotional writer of the early 20th century, that spoke about the preciousness of life. It read, “One individual life may be priceless to God’s purposes, and yours may be that life.” Accompanying the frame was her card, “Agent L-All-around Swell Chick” and a sticker that said, “Take me home! Yes, really!”

Her acts of kindness ranged from filling bags of dog treats and leaving them at dog parks to leaving Dunkin’ Donuts gift cards at random places. She isn’t the only one doing it either. According to her blog she has approximately 1,800 affiliated agents across the country and around the world.

As believers in Christ, we are to exhibit kindness toward one another. Christ was known to be kind, but all too often His followers are not. But what is kindness? And how can we be kind?

To understand kindness, we cannot begin with ourselves, but we must begin with God. It is God who is kind in His essence. But what is kindness? Kindness is the perfection of God that connotes His love, benevolence, and gracious concern in order to draw us into Himself for eternal salvation, thus redeeming us from sin forever (Romans 2:4; Ephesians 2:7; Titus 3:4).

The Scripture is clear that kindness is a fruit of the Spirit of God—which means that it is a byproduct of our relationship with Christ. If we have Christ, then we will be kind. But how can we be kind to others? In a variety of ways—being benevolent to others is a start—in other words, pursuing their good and not just your own. And not just that, but it involves forgiving others when they sin against you.

God’s kindness is meant to lead us to repentance and our kindness—because it comes from God’s Spirit, is meant to do the same—show others the greatness of God in the hope that they too will come to know Christ as Lord and Savior.

The difficulty that most of us face is exhibiting the fruit of kindness in a world that is perpetually unkind. We all too quickly don’t want to be kind as we go about living in this world because it might be misperceived, questioned, or berated. Nevertheless, we continue to exhibit kindness to others in our families, workplaces, schools, and churches—because in doing so it is Christ that is seen not us. It is not for our benefit or advantage that we are kind, but we are kind because we are reflections of our Savior—desirous to show His presence in our lives so that a watching world might take notice and respond to God’s unbelievable kindness made available to all in and through the glorious Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.