Kindness is from the Heart

Richard Thetford

I have often thought to myself "what is the one thing that really draws and keeps Christians together?" Well, it didn't take me long to think of the word kindness. When I think of the word kindness I am also reminded of the passage in Ephesians 4:32 which reads "And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." To be kind takes a sincere effort on the part of each individual. Because of that, when kindness is shown to another, one can see that the heart of the individual doing the kind deed is the way God wants it to be. The passage continues to say that we should be tenderhearted which means to have sympathy or pity for another. It would be like seeing a little puppy with a hurt leg limping across a yard, and being moved with tenderness, you would help fix the puppy's leg so it could heal properly. In the same manner we should want to help our brothers and sisters when they are hurting. When we have a sincere, loving concern for another individual then we will naturally be a forgiving person. We know that God loved us so much that He gave His only begotten son for us (John 3:16). God is willing and wants to forgive us as we stumble through our walk of life, but we must be willing to forgive others first (Matt 6:14-15). When an individual Christian can grasp the love of God then the love of God will be able to pour forth from the Christian.