What is Christian Kindness? Part 1

I know I just finished a couple of posts on kindness, but I'm a bit stuck on this virtue and would like to continue a bit. I found this essay by John Piper on his website, Desiring God. Piper lays out five characteristics of Christian kindness. Ill use the next few posts to share them with you.

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"Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." - Ephesians 4:31-5:2

This text is so rich that we could take almost any of its phrases and dwell on it for hours. But I have decided to gather our thoughts around the simple commandment in verse 32, "Be kind to one another."

Five Aspects of Christian Kindness
As I have pondered these verses it seems to me that they tell us five things about Christian kindness:

1. the extent of Christian kindness,
2. the depth of Christian kindness,
3. the pattern of Christian kindness,
4. the instrument of Christian kindness, and
5. the source of Christian kindness.

Let's look at these one at a time. And as we do let's pray that the Spirit of God would honor his Word by causing us to be changed by it.

I'll post these one at a time over the next few days.