Radical Kindness

Radical Kindness

It is easier to be nice, than to be kind. Nice people are polite, pleasant and agreeable, they ask you if you’re OK, and to let them know if you need anything. Kindness goes further than ‘nice’.

Kindness leads to action – to do something. Kind people are selfless and compassionate, and they will go out of their way to help, to improve someone’s life, without you having to ask.

And yet, often, it is easier to be kind to those we already like, than to those we don’t. So, the book of Proverbs teaches us the kind of kindness that makes the radical difference in someone’s life.

If your enemy is hungry, give him something to eat; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. For your kind treatment will be like heaping coals to his head (i.e. it may cause a change of heart) and the Eternal God will repay you. (Proverbs 25:21-22).

In other words, buy him lunch. Win him over with your kindness. Go the extra mile. Bless and pray for him. Your consistent acts of kindness, your generosity, toward someone who may not deserve it, will surprise that person, awaken his conscience and change his heart towards God. What a reward! Is there a better way to turn an enemy into a friend?

Reflect on this:
Radical kindness is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, and so it’s something we experience first-hand through Jesus Christ our Savior, when He saved us not because of the right things we had done, but because of God’s mercy.

What would your life be like to experience that kindness for yourself?

How would lives change when you become radically kind to your enemy?

Take this to heart:
All bitterness, anger and wrath, shouting and slander must be removed from you, along with all malice. And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ. Ephesians 4:31-32

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