“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe
yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and
patience.” (Colossians 3:12 NIV)
Psychologists are now saying that when people are kind to others, they
experience a sense of well-being. And this is not referring to
Christians alone; it goes for all people.
This tells us something about
how God made humanity—we feel happy, not because we have received
something, but because we have shown kindness.
If this is true for all people, imagine what it means for us
as Christians!
In his New Testament letter to the Colossian church, the
apostle Paul wrote that they were to clothe themselves with compassion
and kindness.
Why? Because as believers, they had taken off their old
self and put on the new self, “which is being renewed /in knowledge in
the image of its Creator.”
He then went on to say that this is not just
for Jews or just for Gentiles.
It is for everyone //who has been born
again.
Showing kindness is quite a challenge in this day and age,
when there
seems to be so much anger and hatred and coarseness in our public
discourse.
Thankfully, we are not left to ourselves to grit our teeth
and produce in ourselves a desire to be kind to others.
Paul ends this
part of his letter with the words, “And whatever you do, whether in word
or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God
the Father though him.”
We are to show kindness to others in the name
of Jesus, asking the Holy Spirit to help us “put on love,
which binds
[all the virtues] together in perfect unity.”
As we do this, we will find that kindness is contagious!
It draws others to engage in acts of kindness as well.
Let’s ask the Lord to help us show kindness to someone today!
Read Colossians 3:1-17.