This is the last post on John Piper's essay on Christian kindness. Some of the posts in this series were a little longer than my usual posts, but I didn't want to break them down any further; I thought they held together nicely as written. I hope the posts I've shared will help you consider ways to be kinder to others. They have given me much to consider.
5. The Source of Christian Kindness
The text tells us what we must believe if the Spirit of God is to conquer unkindness in our hearts. Three things:
1. We must believe that Christ died in our place. Verse 2: "Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." That is simply an awful sentence—that the slaughter of his Son smelled good to God!!! There are in this sentence realities so great and so awful and so wonderful and so devastating that when we believe them, they are the power of God unto sanctification and a great uprooting of unkindness.
2. We must believe that God has forgiven all our sins. Verse 32: " . . . forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you." In order to be kind, you must be forgiven. In order to be kind, you must believe that you are forgiven for all the sins you have ever committed and will ever commit. To know and believe that every slap in God's face has been forgiven freely in Jesus Christ breaks a Christian's heart and makes it lowly and tender and kind.
3. Finally, we must believe that we are loved by God. Verse 1: "Be imitators of God, as loved children." As LOVED children! Child of God, you are loved by God! Believe this with all your heart, and you will behold a miracle in your own life—the fruit of the Spirit, the gift of God!
Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us believe these things, and be kind to one another! Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment