Kindness

 Greetings to you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

     First Peter 1:5-8 says, “And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;  And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;  And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.   For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

     We have about fifty residents here where we are living and it is very difficult to please everyone and for the most part it is peaceful, but tempers seem to flare especially when everyone gathers to eat.  There are two serving, the first is for the people that can do things for themselves and the second is for those who need assistance.  The beginning of our stay resulted in a lot of people shouting at each others, lour remarks and food that was not quite hot enough.  I chose to make my own food in my room with my microwave.  One staff member asked me why I didn’t go to the dining room, and I said, “Too much drama.”  He replied, “You got that right.”  I would rather eat in peace than to be around bickering all the time.  One of the prayer request that often comes from some of the residents is that people here would be kind to each other.

     The above passage from First Pete gives us a whole list of traits that need to be exhibited in our Christian life.  The list of seven different things includes one called, “brotherly kindness.”  I always disliked going to the monthly church business meeting, as many times it resulted in an argument over one thing or another.  One such meeting, one of the elders, Jim Kerns, st ood up and said, “Brethren!  We have a problem.”  The pastor and I were sitting next to each other and our hearts sank as we were about to hear about a serious problem.  Jim was always very exact in his speech and everyone was glued to hear his next statement.  Jim ws the overseer of the food pantry and someone had donated a bag of dried beans that had been opened.  That was the problem.  We breathed a sigh of relief  and, I believe, cooked the beans ourself instead of giving them away.  Not  all problems are that simple, but the trait that needs to be displayed is that of kindness.   Peter listed it as “brotherly kindness.”  Who is your brother?  It is referring to those that are believers in the Lord Jesus Chrsit.  We are the “brethren.”  You  need to notice that the list in  “charity” or “love” as we would say it today.  We need, and it includes all of us, to express our love by doing righteous deeds to meet the needs of another{“ in other words, to be kind at all times, not just on Sunday morning or Wednesday evening.  Praise God that we have His Word for our instruction in our Christian lives.