Everybody needs kindness; even the people who disagree with you. Why not show them some?
Is there a relationship between forgiveness and kindness. (Jesus said: “Whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”)
The slightest kindness you show can change a life. A simple, caring act can release God’s light.
So many people are hostile and unkind because they are carrying guilt and don’t know how to get free. They try to deny it or medicate it, but their guilt still eats at them. They don’t realize that the only way to overcome guilt is to receive God’s forgiveness that was purchased for them by Christ on the Cross. Your kindness can crack open a door for God’s light to break into hardened hearts.
Even church can (and often does) unkindly slam the door on God’s working in people. A typical church service has no room for anyone’s meaningful input, expect the preacher’s. (It’s the silence of God’s lambs!) For example; is there a place in churches for people who want a 1 Corinthians 14:26 style of meeting instead of a sermon? So how did it become a churchy thing for people to meet every week and sit like a lump?
Jesus didn’t rise from the dead so that He can sit back and passively watch church services. He wants to personally lead and direct us when we meet in His name! That’s prechurch Christianity. The living Jesus doesn’t need us to follow programs. He, Himself, is the way (the program). Follow Him.
Prechurch Christianity isn’t setting your own agenda for Jesus. It’s letting Jesus take you wherever He goes and being kind along the way. Now is the time for believers to realign in the shifting sand of this world. We need to get our lives in line with God’s design and go back to prechurch Christianity.
There have been many attempts in history to do that. For example, the Monastic movement led by the Desert Fathers in the 4th century was an attempt to recover prechurch Christianity! Today, the Bible can release inner sight, ignite your heart, and guide you to fire of early Christianity — the freely flowing work of the Holy Spirit.
Bold, radical, and consistent acts of love and kindness help create an environment where God can restore a fresh vison of His forgiveness and break the sence of self-condemnation that holds so many people back and keeps Christianity stuck in formalism. Be a light of kindness in this hostile world!