Godly love loves kindness.
Our love must be rooted in kindness! It must show kindness to others even when we don’t want to or when it is unreciprocated.
Micah tells us one of the things God requires of us is to “love kindness.” What does that mean? To love kindness?
Kindness is the state of being kind. So, what is it to be kind? To be kind means to be sympathetic and helpful to others. It has a forebearing and gentle nature. We must be gentle with others. We must show forbearance – hold ourselves back and control our responses – with others.
We must love to show kindness. It must become our natural state. Gentle and kind with others. Why? Because God is gentle and kind with us.
Jesus gives us the best example of kindness. His entire life He demonstrated forbearance toward others. He was sympathetic and empathetic to others. He was always helpful. Jesus was gentle with others.
Think about how frustrated or annoyed you get with others during the day while you try to get through your list of things to do? How frequently does that annoyance lead to unkindness? You say or do something that is unkind because someone has annoyed you, gotten in your way, prevented you from doing something, or even was unkind to you.
Jesus never responded that way. He was frustrated. People would annoy Him. Others would get it His way and He would have to change His plans. His followers still could not understand why He was truly there. Pharisees were unkind and hateful. Yet, Jesus was always kind. He always showed kindness to others.
So, how does Godly love loves to show kindness. And by showing kindness we demonstrate a small fraction of God’s lovingkindness. God is gentle, kind, and forbearing with us. We must be gentle, kind, and forbearing with others. Our kindness will help others find the Lord’s kindness!
Adonai's Appeal 