Friends,
These are simply brilliant thoughts from NT Wright on Kindness:
“The key word, of course, is ‘love,’ and much has been written about that in itself. But I want to draw attention to something else–something often ignored in the clamor for better and clearer rules of Christian behavior: that we should be positively kind to one another. ‘Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us’ (Ephesians 4:32-5:2). The quest for justice all too easily degenerates into the demand for my rights or our rights. The command to kindness asks that we spend our time looking not at ourselves and our needs, our rights, our wrongs-that-need-righting, but at everyone else and their needs, pressures, pains, and joys. Kindness is the primary way of growing up as a human being, of establishing and maintaining the richest and deepest relationships.” (Simply Christian, 228-229).
How many problems could we solve in the church, in the world, if we would only learn to be kind to one another? This is another of those things that (as I wrote the other day) are missing in the church. I am indebted to Wright for this elegant, brilliant, profound exposition–this humbling of my heart with his words. God be Blessed!
Soli Deo Gloria!
Life Under the Blue Sky: The View From Below 