God is Kind

A definition: sympathetic, friendly, gentle, tender-hearted, generous. Also note the connection to mercy in many of the verses below. Mercy is a disposition to forgive, pity; it is compassionate, implies forbearance and sympathy. Kindness is bestowing blessings.

Nehemiah 9:17b But you are God, ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abundant in kindness, and did not forsake them.

Psalm 117 Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles! Laud Him, all you peoples! For His merciful kindness is great toward us, and the truth of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord!

Isaiah 54:10 “For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from you, nor shall My covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has mercy on you.

Titus 3:4-7 But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

The godly woman speaks with kindness.

Proverbs 31:26 She opens her mouth with wisdom, and on her tongue is the law of kindness.This means she has the law of kindness governing all she says. Psalm 141:3 is a prayer for God to set a watch at the “door of my lips.” We should ask God to station kindness as a guard there.

1 Peter 3:8-12 Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous; not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing. For “He who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers; But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” (Also see Psalm 34:12-16)

We are to be kind to the brothers. And sisters!

Sometimes women find it easy to be kind to the brothers, but they are competitive and critical of the sisters.

2 Peter 1:7 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.

Ephesians 4:31-32 Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.

Romans 12:10 Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another.

1Peter 4:9 Be hospitable to one another without grumbling.

We are to be kind to our enemies.

Luke 6:35 But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. A biblical love is characterized by kindness.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8a Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil, does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.

We want our families, our homes, and our church to be characterized by kindness. We want to be bestowing kindness and blessings on those around us. We are to be kind to our husbands.We are kind when we have a hot meal ready for them, when the home is running smoothly, the laundry is done (they don’t have to search for a clean shirt), when we manage the affairs of the home well.We bestow kindness in joyful sex.Women underestimate the kindness of sex. (Remember in Proverbs conjugal love is referred to as rejoicing with the wife of your youth.)

We bestow kindness when we respect, honor, and revere our husbands.

We are kind when we submit to them freely, without a struggle, joyfully.

An excellent wife is a crown of her husband, but she who causes shame is like rottenness in his bones. Proverbs 12:4

Houses and riches are an inheritance from fathers, but a prudent wife is from the Lord. Proverbs 19:14

A foolish son is the ruin of his father, and the contentions of a wife are a continual dripping. Proverbs 19:13

Hindrances

1. Anger: We give way too easily to our anger, annoyance, resentment. We are not slow to anger, but react.

2. We forget God’s kindness and mercy to us, so we are unforgiving.

3. We are inconstant. We let our emotions rule us and do not submit them to the Word.

4. We want to get even, so we refuse to be kind.

5. We are quick to criticize. We prefer our own plans and projects.

6. We are lazy, not diligent, in our spiritual life. We have bad habits, patterns that we have indulged. Perhaps our husbands cannot approach certain hot subjects because of the reaction they know they will get.

7. We judge one another and put stumbling blocks before one another.

8. We grow weary. We want to be thanked, appreciated, or noticed. So we withhold kindness.

9. We underestimate the power we have to bestow the blessing of kindness on our husbands, children, fellow Christians and the power the blessing has in their lives.

10. We are too quick to speak thoughtlessly. We don’t listen, but rather wrangle, argue, or complain.