1 Corinthians 13:4
Love is Kind.
We are commanded to “love one another” (John 13:34). Yesterday we focused on the first descriptor of love, patience. Today we will focus on “Kind” which is the second description of love in this verse. The use of kind was a bit puzzling at first. When I think of the word kind and what it means, all the other words that define love come up. It seems redundant. So we (Russ and I) looked it up in the Strong’s Concordance to help us better understand what “kind” is. This is the only place in the Bible where this particular word is used in this form, so it can’t be easily compared with other contexts where it is used. It did have an interesting meaning though. According to the Strong’s, the Greek word for kind means “to show one’s self useful”. This was helpful information.
To Show One’s Self Useful
When we love someone, it should show up in our actions. Love is not passive; it’s active. So… as we go through this day we can have this to-do list in the forefront of our minds. We can be recalling and looking up events from the Bible where people were kind and think of similar things that we might be able to do. We can talk to God about it and ask Him for more insight. We can ask for wisdom as we make choices about how much and where to put our limited time and energies to show our love and have the most impact on others.
We can look for opportunities to love others by being patient and by being kind. We can actively look for ways that we can show God’s love by being useful and making a meaningful difference in the lives of the people that God has placed around us. We all have areas of showing kindness that we are not the best at, but we can strive to continue to get better at it.
Some of my favorite Biblical accounts of kindness that come to mind this morning are Ruth (Naomi) and Boaz, David and Mephibosheth, and The Good Samaritan (Ruth, 2 Samuel 9, and Luke 10:25-37). What are some of your favorite accounts of kindness in the Bible?