Love is ... (Pt 3)

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-8 ESV).

The second principle of the Apostle Paul’s definition of genuine love is to learn to be kind but not weak. We must not mistake weakness for kindness. Kindness isn't weak. Kindness is a certain type of strength. We must be kind enough to tell someone the truth. We must be kind enough and considerate enough to lay it on the line. We must be kind enough to tell it like it is and not deal in delusion. There must be equal parts of grace-giving and truth telling in all our relationships. Kindness should be that quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate. In a study conducted by Dr. Sonja Lyubomirsky, psychology professor at University of California, Riverside, students were assigned to do five random acts of kindness per week for a period of six weeks. At the end of the study, the students' levels of happiness had increased by 41.66 percent. Being kind had a profoundly positive effect on happiness. Franklin D. Roosevelt said, "Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough." Years ago Steve Sjogren started a congregation outside Cincinnati, Ohio with only a handful of people. They started something called “Servant Evangelism” in which they continually performed acts of kindness to people in their community. They never took any money for these good deeds. Today, over 4,000 people attend the church that started this conspiracy of kindness. Our reading today shows us God’s example of kindness. Kindness is the command of God. Jesus commands us to love our neighbors. Love for others is not an emotion or a feeling, it is a choice. We choose to love others because God tells us to. So we are kind because Jesus told us to be but another reason to show kindness is the character of God. God tells us to show kindness to others because that is part of His wonderful character. He is full of loving kindness toward us. God has forgiven us without any justification on our part. We certainly didn’t do anything to deserve it and could not have earned it. The apostle says, God didn’t just tell us He loves us, He proved it. It’s not enough for us to say we love others; we must show it. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late." Love is kind!