Kindness A Key to Building God's Kingdom - Andre Bercot

Well, good morning. I'm going to take a look at the word kindness today. I titled the message, "Kindness: A Key to Building God's Kingdom." I think as you hear the message, I think you'll agree with me. Let's look at what kindness is.

It's the act of showing love towards our fellow humans that comes from our love of God. I know people can show kindness without being a Christian. I'm not going to say that, but I think showing genuine kindness comes from us loving God.

Think about yourself. Do you show kindness and love towards other people, or do you show them contempt, scorn, disrespect? I view kindness as part of our character, who we really are. That when things go bad, when no one's looking around us, our character, who we are inside, is what shows. And if we're kind inside, it's going to show even when the chips are down. And if we're not kind inside, it's going to show when the chips are down. We can't hide that from other people.

So we're going to look at some of the Bible verses here that talk about kindness. Now, in my message, when we talk about kindness, I'm going to interchange the word kindness with love because they are intertwined. They're not the same word, but they are intertwined. Most going to look at using the word of showing someone respect because, again, that's showing kindness. So preferring our brother, and it says in Romans, preferring our brother. That's all kind of intertwined. It's not, I know they're not the same word, but they go together, make a very good, yeah, component to each other. I'm going to pull from my own experiences, but I'm also going to pull from some insights from the early Christians and some insights from William Law.

As I, William Law is one of my favorite authors. He lived in the 18th, sorry, 1700s in Great Britain. We're going to begin with these verses here.

When the scribe and Pharisees asked Jesus, "What are the two greatest commandments?" This is found in Mark chapter 12, verse 28 through 31. Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, "What is the first commandment of all?"

Jesus answered him, "The first of all the commandments is, Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength." This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." There are no other commandments greater than these.

And this is where kindness begins. If we honestly do not have love for God and love for our neighbor, yes, I know people in the world can show kindness, but I don't say it's not genuine kindness. I think it's just if they do show kindness because God put something in everyone's heart, as it says in the scripture, that they can't exhibit the things.

We're going to take kindness to the next level from this. We're probably all familiar with this verse in John chapter 13, verse 34 through 35. This is Jesus talking. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. And if you think about this verse, it takes it to the next level. The first one says, "We love God, then we love our neighbor." Now Jesus is commanding us to love our brother, which I would say includes our neighbor, as he loved us, which is the next level, because Jesus loved us even further than we are, if you think about all the things he did for us.

William Law says this about this verse in the book, a series called Development, a series called Development Holy Life. But it was new in this respect that it was to imitate a new, until then, unheard of example of love. It was to love one another as Christ has loved us. And I said that's like, in my mind, taking it to the next step than what we are used to hearing.

And William Law made this contrast with the same verse. And if men are to know that we are disciples of Christ, but by thus loving one another, according to his new example of love, then it is certain that if we are void of this love, we make it as plainly noted to men that we are none of his disciples. Which I know, which obviously the verse implies that, but I think that's very true. Like I said, this all intertwined, those words, love, kindness, respect.

In your own mind, you can think of some of the examples of how Christ demonstrated this love for us. I'm not going to necessarily dwell on that, but just think about all the things that the scriptures talk about. The one I thought about, it says as he laid his life down for us to redeem us.

So as I look at this idea of love, kindness, it is a true, it's truly a high calling. It is, if we really wrap our heads around those things, love God, love our neighbor, love as Christ loved us, that is truly a high calling. William Law says this again about this idea of love.

If therefore we desire this divine virtue of love, we must exercise and practice our hearts to the love of all. It is not Christian love until it is the love of all. And I did like that emphasis that he's saying is not Christian love until we love everybody.

So as I move forward in our this message, we're looking at love, kindness that begins in our heart. As Jesus says, out of the heart proceeds both good things, and out of the heart proceeds both bad things. So it just proceeds from our heart, but it expresses itself in both using the words like saying, "I will help you, I will love you," but it also expresses itself in concrete actions.

Let's look at this verse. This first verse we're to look at is found in the Sermon on the Mount. Again, Matthew chapter 7, verse 12. We're all familiar with this. Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and the prophets.

And this is, I could say, one example of how we can show kindness to people. We will treat them how we would like to be treated, both in the positive aspects, doing kind things to them, but also in the aspect that we would refrain from doing something bad to them. If you don't want someone to steal from you, of course, you're not going to go steal from them or anything like that. And I know this is focused on the positive, but I think it also includes the negative.

Refraining from doing the negative. Tertullian said this about refraining from doing the negative. And he said, "As you would that men should do to you, do you also to them likewise." And this command is no doubt implied as counterpart. As you would not that men should do to you, so you do also not do to them likewise. And I wholeheartedly agree that it's the golden rules, both the positive and the negative.

But as I thought about the golden rule idea, it's not just an action. It's we can do the golden rule through God's love. If we're loving God, if it's, like I said, it's our heart expresses itself in action. So we cannot genuinely perform the golden rule if we don't have the love of God in ourself, if we don't love our neighbor as ourself, and we don't love as Christ loved us. Yes, like I say, people can do it, but it's not, I would say, the genuine.

William Law says this again about the golden rule. For as love is the measure of our acting towards ourselves, so we can never act in the same manner towards other people. We look upon them with that love with which we look upon ourselves.

And I just thought about that again as a genuine love for God and our neighbor, and as Christ loved us, and we have the proper love that we're supposed to for ourselves. It says, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

We're going to look at two verses here that are found in the New Testament. I said there's many verses about this idea of kindness and love, but I'm going to look at two verses in the here that are the first one is from Peter, the second one is from Paul. 1 Peter chapter 3, verse 8 and 9.

Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another, love as brothers. Be tenderhearted, be courageous, sorry, be courteous, not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, blessing, knowing that you are called to this, that you may inherit a blessing.

And I thought about this, what Peter said, all those words referring to both love of God, love of our neighbor, loving as Christ loved us, showing compassion, love as brothers, be tenderhearted, being courteous, not returning evil. We said it's showing both our internal and again, how our internal from our heart expresses itself in concrete actions.

And a similar verse that Paul says in Colossians chapter 3, verse 12 and 14. Therefore, as the elected God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering, bearing with one another and forgiving one another. If anyone has a complaint against you, even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things, put on love, which is the bond of perfection. And again, the same idea that not, it's obviously not the same verse, but it's the same idea if you look at what Paul said.

Tender mercies, kindness, humility, longsuffering, bearing with one another, forgiving one another, even as Christ forgave you, and then he says, put on love. And it's the same thing from our heart expressed concrete actions.

I want to change here and look at a verse which talks about an example of not being kind to one another and how that is condemned. Actually, a couple of verses here. We're probably all familiar with this one, but this is again the Sermon on the Mount, chapter 5, verse 20, chapter 5, verse 22.

But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause, or it could be translated rashly, shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, "Rocka," shall be in danger of the council, but whoever says, "You fool," shall be in danger of hellfire.

And if you think about these verses, this verse, if you just think about it from what it actually says, not from what you have heard in the commentary or anything else, it's talking about this, the utter disrespect we have for a person.

You think about being angry with rashly, telling your brother "Rocka," which is more or less something like saying, "Hey, you," and then calling someone fool, which I don't think is just necessarily referring to the word fool, but just showing a complete disregard for a person and their worth.

And Jesus gives us a warning that if we, if that's the type of person we are, and we fail to repent, he uses the word judgment, counsel, and hellfire, that we're in, yeah, serious trouble, danger about our salvation.

John Chrysostom says this about this verse. He that calls his brother fool is in danger, he says, of hellfire, Matthew chapter 5, verse 22. But if you, if it be so with him who calls a man fool, which seems to be the slightest of all things, and rather mere children's talk, what sentence of punishment will not he incur who calls him malignant and crafty and envious and casts at him 10,000 other reproaches? What more fearful than this?

You might think this might be being extreme with what John, with what Jesus' words or what John Chrysostom says, but if you think about it, Jesus says this later in Matthew, in Matthew chapter 12, verse 37, he does say specifically, we will be judged by our words. He says, "For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned." So the Master himself says that about our speech.

Now let's think about you and me personally about this idea of kindness and calling so many names. If we're all honest, I think we probably have all called so many names when something bad happens. I know I have. We were thinking about that. And I know it's a bad habit I've gotten into, and I want to repent of it, that thinking about an experience I had with a person on the road, like running a red light, I say, "Oh, in my mind, or audibly, why did they do that?" But I don't usually say, "Why did they do that?" I usually say that's something not very nice, or what's something bad at the store, or bad at the job, or something.

And I think we're all honest, we probably have done that too, that we don't, and like I said, God hears our thoughts. We can't hide it from God. No one else might hear it. Then again, we might say out loud, and it's like, "What if you think about that? If you're a father and you just call people names, I have three children, and I have a wife," and they hear a dad say, "You idiot or something." Not a good example.

So I said, I think we've all honestly probably have done that.

William Law had again reaffirmed what John Chrysostom says. Let's look at his thing on this verse. But he, this is William Law. But he that says, "Rocka," or thou fool, must chiefly mean him that allows himself in deliberate, designed acts of scorn and contempt towards his brother, and in that temper speaks to him and of him in reproachful language.

And he goes on to say on this quote, "So that the scorn or despise of brother, or as our blessed Lord says, to call him Rocca or fool, must be looked upon as among the most odious, unjust, and guilty tempers that must be supported in the heart of a Christian, and justly excluding him from all hopes in the salvation of Jesus Christ."

Now, I obviously, this is, I think William Law said this idea that you weren't repentant. I think that, you know, but it's, but it's, I say it's what Jesus said. He said there are judgment, counsel, and hellfire about our words. So it's not, this is not, this is a very serious thing.

You might think, "Well, maybe it was just an accident." You know, something bad happened in the night, let it slip out, you idiot or something. And there's, that could be the case. I'm not going to say that could never happen.

But on the other hand, as Jesus said, out of our heart comes good things if we have good stuff in our heart, and out of our heart comes bad things if we have bad things in our heart. So maybe it was really an accident, or maybe it's actually what's inside us that came out.

William Law again says this, referring to that idea of it being an accident. But he should consider that perhaps the accident or surprise was not the occasion of his angry expression, but only might only be the occasion of his angry temper showing itself.

And I think there's, that is very true. It's like I said, wasn't that a real accident? Or is that who we really are? We think of people in not nice ways. And if we think of them in not nice ways, it's showing that we truly don't have love for them. Yes, not a good situation.

The Apostle Paul goes as, not sorry, the Apostle John goes as far to say this. If anyone says, "I love God and hates his brother," which could also include hates his neighbor, or hates, quote, his enemy, being the quote, personal enemy or enemy of the nation he lives in, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, helpfully love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him that he who loves God must love his brother also. And I agree with that. It's like, if we say we love God, then we're going to love our brother, we're going to love our neighbor, we're going to love our personal enemy, hopefully we don't have one, and we're going to love the enemies of our nation.

Because Jesus says we're the lover, we're supposed to love everybody. Now I'm going to share a few examples in my own life about this word of kindness and showing respect and disrespect. So the first one, like I said, we probably all have examples in our life when you've done this, but I just want to make myself a little bit vulnerable here. But the one that really sticks out in my mind is back in the spring of 2009, as you probably all know, I volunteered in Help the Scroll Publishing. We had a phone call about a person who had a concern about something that we were sharing.

I know what it was, but I don't think anyone else, no one else needs to know what it was about. I should have listened to him with respect and kindness. I disagreed with his concern, but I should at least have shown respect and kindness towards him. I know in the end, both of us were upset with each other, and either I or he hung up this like that, you know, like we were dealing with a telemarketer, which is obviously not showing kindness and respect and love. I do know the next day, either he or I called it back and we apologized, but I never heard from the person again. I think that was like the one and only time he ever called from Scroll Publishing.

Now we had a, we obviously we do get phone calls that with people showing concern and things like that, and I usually, my mother and I handle them much better, but I think we've, if we're honest, we have had a few that aren't always easy to handle. We had, I had one last fall with a person who had a concern, and I, in my mind, I did a better job, and at the end of the phone call, he was, he expressed thanks that in, you know, gladness that we were able to alleviate his concern. And I just thought about that first phone call. I don't think I could have made him happy, but I could at least show Christian kindness and respect towards him instead of just getting mad and hanging up on him.

I may have given it, maybe he hung up for me, but it doesn't matter who did the hanging up.

Another one that happened to me, this one happened here in Franklin, Cumberland County. I was violating the rules of a business in their parking lot. I was guilty of the crime. So the business owner came over and told me, "Hey, you're not doing right. Really don't want you coming here." So I, I was respectful and I said, "I'm sorry." And I appreciated him rebuking me because I was in the wrong. But unfortunately, we talked two minutes, a minute and a half. He never calmed down. And I just thought about, well, if I had responded in the wrong way, probably wouldn't have been a good experience, good situation. I mean, it's like because I was very thankful for the rebuke because he, yes, he told me, "Hey, you're not driving very carefully in the parking lot.

You could crash into somebody or something." And I thought about, you know, he is right. I've been a little, I've been careless this drop, particularly in parking lots and stuff when you're supposed to slow down. And the one that I would also say that probably the worst one that happened to me recently is I had applied for insurance for our family.

And it didn't work out. I paid the bill, the bill rejected, and I got my money back. And I said, "Okay, I guess we don't have insurance." Okay, what, okay, not a big deal. So I called the representative up and we started the whole process again of reapplying for the insurance. And then December, right at the last week of December, I got a phone call. "Okay, the insurance is, you've been approved for the insurance. However, you owe for the whole year. It never was canceled." I applied July 1st. So for you to have insurance, you have to pay from July 1st current and get it all current. That's like, you got to be kidding me.

You told me it was canceled. I tried to pay the bill in September and it was rejected. And I should have left it at that. But then of course, I think all of us, if we've had something like that happen, we always say, "Well, you're wrong. Why did you do this to me? You know, you're taking advantage of me." And of course, I'm not saying that in a very nice way to the insurance representative. So then after the fact, I told my family, and I was soundly rebuked by several people that I handled it completely wrong, and that we just go ahead and bite the bullet and do the insurance goth. So guess who had to call the insurance person up to go see them personally to tell so he could apologize to them that I'm not acting very nice.

And then after we got it all right, I thought, "Well, she ever trust this person ever trust me again?" I showed her, you know, I, you know, they think she's, I say I'm a Christian and I act bad to her. I'm not saying that, you know, it's like this, that witness is gone, you know, I, you know, or maybe gone, maybe hopefully not. But I thought about that whole experience. We probably have had experiences, bad experiences with insurance companies, you name it, utility companies, bank, whatever. But even if they are in the wrong, which may, they may be, or maybe they're not, that doesn't give us the right to be upset at their representative. I thought lots of people at these big companies will go out, go out of the way to help you out, but if you yell and scream at them, they're probably not going to do that.

So just we'll end there with this, my, a couple of my examples there.

Another thought I had is as we conclude the idea of kindness, we're not quite done, but we're close to it. You might think, "Well, do I have to be kind to everybody?" That's what the world says. They're kind to it, kind to those who are kind to them. And if you're not kind to them or they dislike you, they don't show kindness to you. But Jesus, as I said earlier, he said that he said, "No, we're supposed to be kind to everybody." Here's Matthew chapter 5, verse 43 through 47. It says, "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'" But I said to you, "Love your enemy."

So it includes everybody. "Bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. For he makes the sun rise on the evil, on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.

For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so." And I just thought about that as if you really look at what Jesus said, the whole thing, that's completely contrary to, like I say, our human nature to the world we live in. What we're supposed to love our enemies, do them good when they've done something wrong to us? Why can't I just love my friends? That's what everyone else does. And Jesus said, "You look at what he says." He said, "It's not commendable. It's nothing wrong with we love our friends and family, but that's nothing special.

That's not commendable. That's what everybody does. They love their friends and they love the people who like them. And so if that's not commendable, everybody does it. So if we kid ourselves, if we think, 'Oh, that's showing kindness, I show kindness to my family, I show kindness to the church family.' Not wrong, it's part of it, but we're supposed to show kindness to everybody."

And he goes on further to say that, "Oops." He goes on further to say, "If you look right there, which I think is pretty powerful, that God, our God, sends good things on everybody. If you think about the people who don't believe in God, they still get rain and sunshine. You know, the, you know, people who, you know, say there is no God or openly, you know, worship a false God, God's still blessing them." And that's a pretty powerful, in my mind, a very powerful testimony that we're supposed to be imitating.

So let's look at these last couple of quotes here as we conclude.

This is from William Law again. "You think it's a small matter to ridicule one man and despise another, but you should consider whether it be a small matter to want that Christian charity towards those people, which Christians are not allowed to want towards their most inveterate enemies."

And I like this quote, you know, that we're not allowed to do that towards our enemies. We need to, we're supposed to charity love towards everybody. "But be as charitable to these men, do bless and pray for them as you are obliged to bless and pray for yourself, sorry, pray for your enemies. And then you will find that you have charity enough to make it impossible for you to treat them with any degree of scorn or contempt."

And I thought that, like I said, I thought his quotes were XO true. If we are not supposed to do that, we're supposed to show again, like I said, love towards everybody. So if we're not supposed to bless our enemies, then we're supposed to bless everybody else.

So in conclusion, I hope, I know this is a short message, but I don't think that's bad. I think we can often grasp more and remember more from short messages. I hope in my message that I've inspired you to grow in your love towards God, towards your neighbor, and to love one another as Christ has loved us. He is the ultimate example of this.

And I'll this close, may God grant each of us the inspiration and desire to love him even more and to love one's neighbor as oneself by showing them kindness.