Love is Kind

Hello Daily Morsel Family - In continuation of the Love Series, we are moving forward to our next explanation of what Love is. Remember we already covered that love is patient, now we are moving on to kind.  2 Corinthians 13:4 says: LOVE IS KIND. So you may ask, what does kind mean?

 Kind is defined as being good or tender or tenderness.

2 Chronicles 10:7 shows us that when we are kind to people, we please them and speak good words to them. Are we speaking good words to people?  Luke 6:35 says, Love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High for he himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. Be merciful as your father is merciful. Love means action. One way to put love to work is to take the imitative in meeting the specific needs or people. This is easy to do with people who love us and whom we trust; but love means doing this even to those who dislike us or plan to hurt us.  Ephesians 4:32 says be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.  My study bible has a great expounding on this verse along with the preceding verses (Ephesians 4:29 - 31). Basically, we can grieve the holy spirit by the way we live. Paul warns us against unwholesome language, bitterness, improper use of anger, clamor, slander, and bad attitude towards others.  Instead of acting that way, we should be forgiving, just as God has forgiven us. Are you grieving or pleasing God with your attitude and actions? Act in love toward your brothers and sister in Christ, just as God acted in love by sending his son to die for our sins.

In Proverbs, there is a description of a worthy woman [a great morsel at another time]. In the description on Proverbs 31:26 it says that she opens her mouth in wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her lips. Women – Do we constantly speak kind words??? In Micah 6:8, it describes the bottom line of what the Lord wants from you.  The word says “He has told you, o Man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God? It seems that people always want to focus on works and everything else to try to please God, but God has made is wishes VERY clear. He wants his children to be just, love kindness and walk humbly with him. In your focus to try to please God, examine these 3 requirements on a regular basis. Are we fair in our dealings with people? Do we show kindness to those who wrong us? Are we learning humility?

Galatians 5:22 notes that the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  But let’s break down the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the spirit is the spontaneous work of the Holy Spirit in us. The spirit produces these character traits that are found in the nature of Christ. These are by-products of Christ’s control- we can’t obtain them by trying to get them without his help. Meaning if we want to have kindness grow in us or any fruit of the sprit grow in, we need his help to do it and it is spontaneous, it doesn’t always happen overnight. So if you need help with being kind, the way that God has described it, we have to HOOK up with Jesus.

Colossians 3:12 says: So, as those who have been chosen of God Holy and Be-loved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness and humility, gentleness and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone, just as Christ forgave you, so also should you forgive. Beyond all the things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful.

Today, let’s continue to strive toward loving everyone as Christ has loved us. Let us not operate in un-forgiveness and let us practice being kind. Let’s be gentle and tender toward everyone, even those who are evil or plan to hurt us.

I love you all and the next part of the series will be about jealousy, until then you may see some other daily morsel, but I will come back to the Love Series.

Love, Crecia