What Does the Fruit of Kindness Look Like in the Christian Life?

The Spiritual Fruit of Kindness

For the Sunday evening worship service at Fellowship Reformed Church in Mt Pleasant, MI, we continued our series through the Fruit of the Spirit. Josh Duemler, who is currently a fellow at University Reformed Church in East Lansing, MI, preached on the topic of kindness. Duemler is preparing to move to Mt Pleasant to become an assistant pastor at Fellowship Reformed Church in a couple months.

Duemler opened by reading from Galatians 5:22-23 and Colossians 3:12-14. He gave us a working definition of kindness: it is a disposition that does good to another without reference to merit. (Kindness and graciousness are related ideas). And Duemler explained this fruit of the Spirit by describing God’s kindness, the Christian’s kindness, and some concluding applications.

God is kind, in that he gives various comforts and pleasures to all people, even though people have not earned these things and are undeserving of this special treatment. He is also kind in a special way to his people, to provide saving mercies in Jesus Christ. By looking at what God has done for us in Christ, we see a picture of his graciousness clearly displayed.

A Christian, then, is called to display the same sort of kindness. As Christ has dealt with us, so we should deal with others. God not only gives us an example in Christ, but he also gives us the ability to walk in this kindness through the work of his Holy Spirit.

Practically, it is right, then, that we wouldn’t just show this kindness to friends, when it’s easy. This is no different from how unbelievers operate! Instead, the Lord urges us to be kind to everyone, especially to those of the household of faith. Duemler urged us to be kind to family members, who we can sometimes treat worse than people we know less well. He also urged us to be kind to strangers and unbelievers, recognizing that our good treatment of them may adorn the gospel of Christ more than we realize.