Be Kind part 4
Kindness isn't just what you do. Kindness is who you are. Because love is kind. And you are Jesus--God in the flesh, love in a body. God in YOUR flesh, love in YOUR body. So you are love. God is love, and He lives in you. He lives THROUGH you. As He is, so are we in this world. So what I'm trying to say is, when our key verse, Colossians 3:12, talks about "putting on" kindness, and humbleness of mind, and the bowels of mercy, and meekness, and longsuffering, I don't believe Paul is writing about getting something you haven't got. Because, again, all of those things are not just what you have. All of those things are who you are. Because all of those things are who Jesus is. So this idea of "putting on," to me, means USING the gift you've been given. LETTING the mind of Christ, that's already IN you... BE in you. And that phrase "Put on" in Colossians 3:12 is number 1746 in Strong's Greek Concordance, and it means, "in the sense of sinking into a garment." We already HAVE the garment. What we need to do is... put it on. Wear it. Sink into it and get comfortable with it. Because, like a new pair of shoes, it takes a little bit of use before they feel right. When we begin to throw of this idea of our old nature... when we stop dragging around the corpse of the dead old man... and when we begin to walk in righteousness--by walking by faith--it can be a little uncomfortable at first. It can seem a little unnatural. And I say "seem" because that IS our new nature. Our true nature. Once again, that's who we are. And its what we do BECAUSE its who we are. We do not do in order to be. We do because we be. We don't try to be someone we're not... once we know who we really are. Once we embrace our true selves. And that's what it means to walk in newness of life. Not struggling to get something we haven't got, or be someone that we're not, but knowing what we've got, and being who we are. And I'm telling you, if kindness means useful... that means YOU are useful. You have what people need. You can solve the world's problem. And, listen, now that I've said that big bold statement, let me say this too: You don't have to solve the ENTIRE world's problem. God so loved the world He gave His only Son to the world. And if He loved us that much, we ought to love one another. We ought to be kind to one another. Wherever we are. With whomever we come into contact with. If you're kind to someone when they REALLY need someone to be kind to them... you might have just saved THEIR whole world. And when you really start to come into--SINK INTO--your true identity, you will find yourself doing all of those things... effortlessly. You won't have to fake it til you make it. You'll find yourself being kind... all the time. Helping people just because they need help. Seeing a need and meeting it without thinking about it. People who think they need to pray about whether or not God wants them to be kind, or help people, or forgive people, or love people... Spoiler alert: God is ok with you showing people who He is. All of the time. No matter what. That's why He created us--so that He could love us, and so that we could love each other with that same love. We are His expression of love to the world. And one way that that starts is with us being who we are. Being kind!