KindnessSample

Choose kindness

These wonderful words about love are often read at weddings. However, Paul wasn’t writing this letter to a couple on their wedding day, but to a church. He was concerned about the priorities Christians in Corinth had in the way they lived out their faith. He insisted that the best way to express faith is not by focusing on individual gifts or interests but rather by focusing on how we can all work together with a priority of showing God’s loving kindness to others. The first words Paul used here are patience and kindness. Kindness means caring for others, and that takes patience and the time to listen and consider their hopes, dreams, and perspectives.

This type of respectful kindness is rare in our world today. It’s good to be reminded that "we love because God first loved us" (1 John 4:19). The best friendships I have were formed within my own experience of being loved by God. Living in the love of God means that some things that once seemed important to me are shown to be of little value in the light of love. Paul lists the emotions that fuel living without kindness, and it’s not the type of person I want to be: envious, boastful, arrogant, rude, insisting on one’s way, resentful, along with an inability to uphold hope. But I can easily slip into being unkind, especially when I’m tired. I’m thankful I can ask for forgiveness and lean into God’s love again, and so can you. Let’s choose kindness today and show God’s love to others.

Written by KATH HENRY