Enemy Kindness

So you love your kids? Great job. Now receive the invitation beyond.

Kindness is not merely a quality. It is an action, a choice, a decision to act in a particular way because of experienced circumstances, all from an inner posture that has been previously formed within us (by the Spirit).

When we say someone is “kind,” perhaps we mean that they are nice. And there’s nothing necessarily wrong with that.¹ It’s just not how scripture understands kindness.

Today’s gospel passage in Luke again uses the adjective form of the word Paul uses in Galatians (kind vs. kindness). And Jesus, speaking in his great sermon on the plain within Luke, is calling his people to a particular action, but based upon the character of God.

…for God is kind to ungrateful and wicked people.

This takes us in a bit of a different direction, and a pointed one at that. Jesus is really challenging us here toward a particular kindness - that to those who are against us.

If you do good to those who do good to you, why should you be commended?

Ouch. So does the kindness I express to my spouse or my children count? Of course it does. But Jesus has established a kindness well beyond the familial. Beyond his words, we can recount numerous examples within his action - forgiving those who held the hammer that pounded the nails in his hands, reversing significant cultural expectations regarding other people groups (namely, the Samaritans), welcoming tax collectors who were generally known as taking advantage of people, and absorbing violence rather than returning it.

This may seem like a different direction than we might have expected to go with the fruit of kindness. But we must wrestle with it.

If we want the Spirit to do work within us, this is exactly what Paul is saying in Galatians 5 - we must put behind us our human propensity toward conflict, biting and devouring one another, group rivalry, competitive opposition, and fighting.

And because these things are so difficult, it will require the work of the Spirit, indeed.

Having compassion for those in need is one thing - and it is indeed at the heart of Christ’s gospel. But finding our way to do it toward those who might otherwise want to harm or come against us is a whole other level within the Kingdom of God.

And we’re called to it.

Speaking of compassion, the Greek word Jesus usually uses (most often in Luke) is not the same as kindness. But it is deeply related, and we’ll look more closely tomorrow at kindness and compassion.

Galatians 5:13-26

Luke 6:32-36

“If you love those who love you, why should you be commended? Even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, why should you be commended? Even sinners do that. If you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, why should you be commended? Even sinners lend to sinners expecting to be paid back in full. Instead, love your enemies, do good, and lend expecting nothing in return. If you do, you will have a great reward. You will be acting the way children of the Most High act, for he is kind to ungrateful and wicked people. Be compassionate just as your Father is compassionate.”

Prayer

God,

There are times when I’m not sure who my enemies actually are. I mean, I know who the country I live in tells me I’m supposed to hate. Depending on the political flavor, this can include people of other faiths, sexual orientations, women, the wealthy, and immigrants. But I live in enough privilege that there are few, if any, who truly come against me.

And then there’s this whole confusion of what hate actually is. I guess I don’t need to be defining hate, God. Help me to define and understand, instead, your kindness. Help me to understand it in ways beyond my mind, through and out of my hands, my feet, my wallet, my time.

God, you are kind. In days when I’ve struggled to believe, you’ve called me back with kindness, out of your deep love. So help me, God, saturate me in your kindness that it might seep off my life to anyone I encounter.

By your Spirit & in Christ,
Amen.

1. I really want to go off here on the current moment in which many of us are living in the USA. I don’t have bumper stickers on my car. But the one I keep thinking of custom making and putting on my car would say, “We don’t HAVE to hate each other.”

Thinking about scriptural kindness may seem like a bit of a fantasy land right now. Honestly, I’d settle for even for some niceness these days. Even so, niceness can too often play as distraction from the kindness to which we are called as Christ’s people. Niceties can be a mirage distracting us from the true actions of kindness and compassion.