Be Ye Kind

And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. – Ephesians 4: 32

How many of us Christians today are kind to one another? It’s almost nonexistent and it’s getting worse. Let me give you a dictionary definition of the word kind.

Kind: Of a friendly nature; generous or hospitable; warmhearted; good. Someone who is charitable and helpful and shows sympathy or understanding. A kind word. Humane; considerate; kind to animals.

I could go on and on with definitions of this word with which we are very familiar. This is a subject that has touched a nerve with me as of lately. And by lately, I mean the last five or 10 years. People have gotten as cold as ice and that is because they have ignored the Word of God. As I said before, everyone is interested in out-doing each other. They are not only practicing rivalry, but more specifically, it can be called ambitious rivalry. I did a teaching on that subject and you should read it. Before I move on to any other Scriptures, I want to rehash the principle pertaining to giving equals receiving. What happens, is one person is rude and doesn’t even know the meaning of the word ‘kind’ and he agitates another person to the point of anger. That person now also becomes angry and starts to imitate the behavior of the person who was first rude to them. And the circle continues because they get back what they give out and they give it out to somebody else who gets mad at them. They also receive back what they give out and you could see the circle going over and over again until the world becomes like it is today. No one gives a damn about anybody and when you do receive some kindness once in a great while from somebody, you are so thankful that you never forget it. That’s because kindness is so scarce and precious today that it leaves a long-lasting impression.

I want to now go to a more spiritual meaning of the word kind. From a Bible lexicon, kind is defined as being good, gentle, benevolent, and benign; it reflects a person who has the quality of being actively beneficent [and here is the important part] in spite of ingratitude. You have got to get it in your head that when someone agitates you, it is the devil himself. If he succeeds to agitate you, he wins every time. Just don’t react and continue to be kind in spite of ingratitude and in spite of even any insults you may receive from that person. Here’s what I mean.

Let’s say a person walks up to you on the street and they say to you “Wow, that is really an ugly pair of pants that you have on.” Do you know what I say back to those people? I don’t get angry and let the enemy win. I look at the person and I say to them “Boy, I really like that jacket you have. Where did you get it”? You see that the Word says to overcome evil with good. You should honestly like their jacket and it will just shut them down for what they originally tried to do by insulting an article of clothing that you are wearing. Believe me, try it someday. It works. It really works.

The following Scripture should blow some of you away because it will have a major impact on your spiritual walk with God and your balance in the world today – if applied.

But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. – Luke 6: 35

Can you even imagine what that Scripture says? We are actually to love our enemies and do good to them hoping for nothing back in return. But what does God say will be our reward? He says our reward will be great and we will be the children of the Highest. For God is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Can you imagine this? We are to be imitators of God. Believe it or not, there are times when I go on long walks up in the mountains and I actually pray for my enemies – that they will have a good life and that God will bless them and give them the things that they need to be happy. Is it hard to do? When you first apply this principle, it is difficult because it doesn’t make much sense to your mind. But people are people and you have got to understand that the only reason they do the things that they do that are wrong, hurtful, and evil is because they are influenced and many times under the control of Satan himself. That person needs to be delivered and needs the love of God, and the only way that is going to happen is if they acquire an accurate knowledge of God’s Word. You may be the one that God picks to share His Word with that person. If you turn around and you counter their evil with your evil, they will never ever listen to you. All people will read you before they read the book. You should never ever forget that. I asked a few people that I introduced to the Word of God as to why they became so interested in the rightly divided Word of God. They looked me straight in the eye and they said, “It was your life and the way you acted and believed that made me interested in learning the Word of God. I wanted to have what you have and that is why I became interested.” I was surprised at their answer always thinking it was something from the Bible that had gotten their interest more than anything, but it wasn’t. It was my example that captured their interest and helped to motivate them to seek out God’s Word. In God’s eyes, I am no different than you. It is our believing that matters.

The fruit of the Spirit is the result of spiritual growth as mentioned in Galatians 5: 22 – 23. This fruit determines the quality of your life. It was the ‘kindness’ of believers that drew me to seek out God’s Word. By their continued stand, they were able to manifest this type of spiritual growth to a great degree. Let’s look at these nine fruit of the spirit.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. -- Galatians 5: 22 - 23

Do you think that kindness could fall under the category of love? How about longsuffering [patience] and especially gentleness, meekness and temperance? Examples of kindness are throughout the whole Bible.

Charity suffereth long, and [scratch ‘and’ – it’s in italics] is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, -- I Corinthians 13: 4

This example is coming from what is possibly the greatest chapter in the Bible. This chapter emphasizes only the love of God in the renewed mind in manifestation. You can see that to be kind is included in this verse along with patience. Also, we see that the love of God is not on an ego trip – it is not puffed up and full of pride. Right in the middle of these other attributes is the word ‘kind’. Now would it not be something if everyone on this earth acted in this manner?

It is the true God’s Will that we all be kind one to another. Let me give you an example of what happened to me yesterday. I believe that God has these things arranged so that I could teach you this today. I had received a call from someone who was to leave me an important message. You could see the smile on this person’s face. She was positive, thorough, efficient in all ways and about as pleasant as a person can be. She was kind and I was blessed just to speak to such a person. She had learned somewhere in her life that this is the way that she should be. She was an excellent employee and when I went to her office, I was fortunate that she was the one who attended to my needs. She had a great big smile on her face and… well, you know the rest. This woman and her kindness helped to make my day go much better. Now you know also that when you meet someone who is the opposite of this type of person, you do your best to get away from them as soon as possible. Which type of person would you like to be? You need to understand that the enemy who is the god of this present world has a counterfeit for everything the true God does. He is a parasite. [You should read The Parasite Principle]. When it comes to kindness, the devil has a counterfeit. So you can never really manifest true Godly kindness unless you know the rightly divided Word of God in your mind and you apply it in your life. You must understand that you cannot get around the principle I just mentioned. I’m sure I tried and it just doesn’t work. There is a counterfeit kindness that goes around out there in the world and many times you can identify it. Flattery is a counterfeit kindness. Patronage is a counterfeit kindness. They might appear to bless you for a very short period of time. You need to be very careful out there and you should never let your guard down. I, myself, find this difficult to do. When that woman blessed me yesterday, I felt so good that possibly I let my guard down. Within a matter of minutes, I had an insane person trying to race me with their truck on a dangerous road for no reason at all. How do I shut these people down? I finally learned. I pull on the side of the road and I do not look at them and I wave them on with my hand. Believe it or not this pulls the air out of their sails. If you give them the attention that they are trying to get, they win. But when you ignore them and get away from them as quickly as possible, they lose the contest. I know it’s not a pleasant subject, but let’s face it, it happens to every one of us every so often. I recently learned only last night that the only way we can deal with these people is to put up with them. We have to learn how to put up with them.

Now let’s go back to I Corinthians 13: 4 and I would like to give you the definition of kind according to the Greek word from which it is derived. It is very simple. It means: “To show one’s self to be gentle.” Isn’t that beautiful? I told you at the beginning of this teaching that the word gentle and gentleness would come into play. This definition is from A Critical Lexicon And Concordance To The English And Greek New Testament.

A second definition of the word kind is also mentioned in this Lexicon. Although I have a strong background in grammatical structure thanks to a few college professors, I am not an expert on the English language. When I ran across the following word, I too, had to get out a dictionary and look it up. This word I’m talking about that you can add to the above definition is ‘benign’. It means: “Of a kind disposition; manifesting gentleness and mildness; tending to promote well-being; beneficial.”

What a tremendous definition of the overall meaning of kindness. Above, we learned that kindness means to show oneself to be gentle and in the second part of this definition we learn that we should be of a kind disposition. That means gentle. How many people today do you know that are gentle? We’re all in a big rivalry trying to outdo each other and most of us are making the biggest fools out of ourselves that we can possibly make. This is while the adversary sits back and he laughs at us. We disregard the true God and we conform to Satan’s world. I can’t help but mention when I heard a mighty leader once say: “If you want to go to hell, that’s your prerogative.”

Again, looking at the second meaning of kind, we should be manifesting gentleness and a new word comes into play – mildness. Our lives should promote well-being to no matter who we meet and from that stems a life that is beneficial not only to ourselves but to others as well. Everyone wants to be a tough guy today. Do you know why most men buy trucks? Because it makes them feel powerful. What a bunch of fools. If I were to buy a truck, I would have a good use for it. And they put all these fancy lights on them and huge tires and oversized shocks and big chrome pipes sticking up in the air and they think they’re powerful. Satan is getting a laugh out of it and if you’re one of these people, he’s laughing at you. And when everyone else sees everyone else buy these trucks, they buy them. No common sense – no wisdom – no self-discipline – no free will. The devil is laughing because he won over you. We are not to conform to this world and if you are true believer you will be a peculiar person in many ways. People may talk about you behind your back but that is only because they are jealous of your lifestyle. It sometimes makes me angry pass the point that is not good. I am going to quote you Romans 12: 1, 2 because it talks about conformity to this world. When you buy a truck just because your neighbor buys a truck, or just because you see them advertised on the stupid television, then you are conforming to this world and your life is headed to hell.

I Beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. – Romans 12: 1, 2

What is better……. being calm, cool and collected which is inherent in the definition of kindness? Or driving around in a stupid looking truck that cost you an arm and a leg and you don’t even need a truck. What makes it difficult for believers today is that they have to believe and act more diligently on the Word of God because evil is beginning to predominate our society. As I said almost too many times, the devil knows his time is really short and he’s going to take as many of us as he can with him. He’s working overtime – he’s sweating. Now is the time to take a stand on the Word of God and rub his face in the dirt. Don’t let him provoke you to buy things that you don’t need just because your neighbor did. And another thing that is sickening is a person who buys a riding lawnmower when he has about one half acre to mow. The physical condition of most people is horrendous. They are killing themselves. I swim one-mile every two days in a pool that’s practically empty because people are too damn lazy to get off their butt and do some exercise. And the world keeps coming out with all of these contraptions that will make you lazier and lazier until the point where you drop dead. Sorry, but I’ve had enough. I will do my best to get back to the teaching on kindness and will go back to the Scriptures to show some of the kindness that Jesus Christ showed towards others.

Before I get into the Gospels which illustrate clearly that kindness that Jesus Christ showed toward others, I want to go back to one situation in the book of II Chronicles 10: 6, 7.

To give you a brief outline of the context of these two Scriptures, here is the following: King Rehoboam, who was the son of Solomon, who passed away, had a council or a meeting with the older man who had served and stood before Solomon. He wanted to know how he should deal with his servants. This was a wise move because he wanted his father’s older servants to work with him and be trustworthy to him. I think that modern-day managers should do the same when they take over someone else’s position. Man is just too stupid to do the right thing, so he does whatever he feels like doing and then wonders why there is so much turnover in his company. That’s another subject. The new King asks the older servants as to what he should do and how he should act towards the present servants. That is the context of these two Scriptures. Now let’s go to the Scriptures and in verse seven I want you to notice one word and I’m sure you know what word that is. These older servants asked only one thing of King Rehoboam and I believe this is a beautiful record and a great example regarding importance and unselfishness.

And king Rehoboam took counsel with the old men that had stood before Solomon his father while he yet lived, saying, What counsel give ye me to return answer to this people? -- II Chronicles 10: 6.

This is the Scripture where the King asked advice from the old men who had served his father at one time. This King was very wise to put his trust and confidence in people who were apparently servants of his father. Now watch what the people asked for. They did not ask for money and riches. They did not ask for power and recognition. They asked for a few simple things and you can guess what one of them was.

And they spake unto him, saying, If thou be kind to this people, and please them, and speak good words to them, they will be thy servants for ever. -- II Chronicles 10: 7.

They said to the king, if you will simply be kind to these people and to us and please them every once in a while. Do something nice to them and for them and speak good words to them, they will be your servants forever. I think that’s one of the most beautiful records that I can mention in this particular teaching. They asked the King to simply be kind to them. Can you imagine that? With all the resources the King had available to him, they asked for kindness and a few nice words. Then they made a promise to the King that they will be his servants forever. It’s a beautiful record and I’m sure you will agree. But if I were to stress one word in verse seven, it would be the word ‘kind’. You see that kindness means more to people today than you can ever imagine. I told you about the receptionist in the office where I was yesterday and how kind she was towards me. I was a complete stranger and I could still see the smile on her face and I am warmed by her attitude and, of course, by her kindness.

I know that there are a lot of Scriptures on this subject and I am not going to search Proverbs right now. But I am going to put it towards you in a way that I’m sure many of you have heard before. It was my earthly father who said this to me many times and he expressed great wisdom in many areas. I still don’t know where he learned some of the things that he did and said. But oftentimes, he told me: “You get a lot more with milk and honey than you do with oil and vinegar”. Isn’t that something? It’s just so plain and simple. When you’re kind to somebody, they have a tendency to want to help you much more than when you come off to them with an attitude, especially of rudeness. When you are rude to people, most often they will do nothing to help you. But when you are kind to them, many times they will go out of their way to assist you. Don’t forget it – milk and honey, not oil and vinegar. Now, I am finally going to go through some records mentioned in the Gospels and show you the ultimate example in kindness and that was in the works that Jesus Christ did for others.

The following is an act of kindness that most likely many of us will never be able to accomplish simply because we do not believe big enough. But if we try our best, that is what matters to God Almighty. Here is a record that shows the ultimate in kindness. And take notice that Jesus Christ never ever wanted anything back in return for what he did concerning people. He never passed the basket around for money because the ministry was run mainly by himself. He did not need money. My ministry is very similar. I run this ministry myself with the help of one IT technician and she is one of the best I’ve ever seen. She learned HTML language by trial and error. Now you tell me someone who you know that did that. I’ve seen her fix a problem in 20 minutes that a Dell team of technicians were working on for three days. So you’re in good hands. I never passed the basket and asked people for money because I don’t need any. God has supplied all my financial needs because I used to tithe great sums of money when I studied with the ministry that taught me God’s Word. If I told you how much money I tithed per month, you would really think I’m looney. I like to joke around once in a while if you haven’t noticed and I will tell you one thing and it’s true. I could light my fire place every night with $20 bills. God gave me back so much in return, I almost did not have room enough to keep it. So don’t tell me that tithing doesn’t work. Don’t tell that to me. So I don’t ask for money for these teachings. I only ask for your study and dedication and application of these principles so that you too can manifest the more than abundant life. Well, finally, here is the Scripture:

And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them. – Matthew 4: 24

Can you imagine this act of kindness?

Jesus Christ didn’t even know who these people were. They had serious sicknesses and diseases and were tormented most of their lives – they were possessed with devils and some of them were crazy. Should I go on? And what kind of act of kindness did Jesus Christ show towards these people? He healed them - every single one of them. Some may have been great sinners, but they believed. Did you know that God loves the evil sinner as much as he loves the righteous person? That evil sinner is going to have a terrible life overall, but God and Jesus Christ still loves that person. Jesus Christ showed great acts of kindness towards people. Look at what happened with Mary Magdalene. She was a prostitute and Jesus Christ took her under his wing and he told her that her sins were forgiven, but not to go out and do it again. This is where we make our mistake many times. Don’t you think that I sin sometimes? You’re damn right I do because the Word says that every man is going to sin. But God will always forgive me when I confess that broken fellowship because of His great kindness. If I go out and do it again, I suffer again sometimes even more so. Then I go to God another time and I ask His forgiveness and He forgives me. There is no possible way on this earth or in this universe that you can receive any greater amount of kindness than from God Almighty. Jesus Christ always did the Father’s Will so he also was a great man of kindness. All I did was flipped through the beginnings of the book of Matthew and I found this Scripture. These records, in subject matter, will almost seem repetitious, however they are extremely important to our understanding of this principle of kindness. We need to keep that word in our mind during the day as we go about our day. When we are around people we should think of a possible way that we can be kind to that person. When I swim, I sometimes see people drifting into my lane as I swim laps. I usually stop and stand up and ask them in a kind way: “Do you mind moving over into your lane? When I have to stop, it breaks my stride – if you don’t mind.” And I smile. Oh I know what you are thinking and many times you’re right. It doesn’t always work but at least you gave it your best shot. At times, if someone is rude to you for no reason, you may get into an argument with them. Ha! I learned something a long time ago and I never forgot it. NO one wins an argument. So as I said hundreds of times, do your best and God will do the rest. I am going to turn to the book of Luke for our next example which is somewhat different from our previous examples.

I would like to use an unusual example so that you don’t get all mushy with people. Kindness many times involves the principal of reproof and correction. If you have enough courage to tell somebody that they are doing something wrong, this is a great act of kindness. Let’s say you are doing something wrong and you have no idea that you are doing such a thing. But you know that something isn’t going right in your life. Finally a good friend or brother in Christ or sister in Christ comes along and sits down with you and tells you, with the love of God, in a gentle kind manner that this is what you are doing wrong and you need to change this part of your life. [Use your Bible] That is a great act of kindness. The following record is a record about an excess of material things which one man possessed. We sometimes think that the more that we have, the better off we are. Then ambitious rivalry takes over and we start to compete with what everyone else owns and before you know it these material things choke you and they own you. In one Scripture in the gospel of Luke, Jesus Christ covers the subject.

Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him [the publican], Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me. – Luke 18: 22

Jesus Christ was listening to all the questions and conversations of this publican. In the meantime, God was giving him Revelation as to what to say and how to gently change the subject to something that was much more productive for this publican and it was a tough pill to swallow.

So when Jesus heard all these things, he gently changed the subject and he said to him, ‘Yet you lack one thing.’ Now notice how he gets right to the point. He said you need to sell all that you have and distribute it to the poor and then you will have treasure in heaven. And then you can come and follow me.

And when he [the publican] heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich. – Luke 18: 23

Reproof and correction such as the example above will many times feel very difficult to accept at first. But as time goes on, you will realize that the person who told you this has really done you a great favor. That person was the only one who cared enough to try and to help you and you realize that what he or she did was truly an act of kindness.

I would like to close with Luke 18: 24, 25 and 27. As I said many times, there is no use in repeating a principal over and over again. I believe that you got the point of the teaching and that you will never again forget to be kind towards others. They may not act like they care for you at first but deep down in their heart, they are thankful that there is someone like yourself who cares. So do God’s Will and BE YE KIND.

And when Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful, he said, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! -- Luke 18: 24

For it is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. – Luke 18: 25

If you happen to have a lot of riches, you should not give up, but you should always remember the next and last Scripture of this teaching.

And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God. – Luke 18: 27

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