Agape Love - Kill Them With Kindness

For mock elections senior year of high school, I was voted "nicest" female. While this was an endearing sort of achievement for me, I'm learning that nice isn't the same as kind. Nice is a "push over" term, while "kind" is a more solid sort of nice. It has guts and a backbone. Nice is swayed by a situation, while kind holds true to what is right for the other person. Nice would listen to your four year old when they cry because they don't want the medicine, but kind would force them to take the medicine because you know it will prevent them from getting sicker. Nice protects yourself, but kind protects the other person. Kindness packs a punch, while nice takes the punch. There's a reason why people say "kill them with kindness," and why it is important for Agape Love.

We don't realize that kindness is actually a powerful tool. It is something that plants seeds for changing hearts. The word for "kind" in the context of 1 Corinthians 13 means to "show oneself useful," or "to show your mildness." It is used as a verb, not a adjective, meaning the word "kind" here is a moving word, and action word. This implies many things about being kind in showing love.

Kindness is helpful, not hurtful. In all honestly, some forms of nice mean it's also harmful, whether to yourself or to the person you're trying to be nice to. Nice isn't always honest and nice is draining. Kindness is an all around blessing that benefits everyone. You may sacrifice to show the kindness, but you are blessed through it. Kindness promotes positivity and joy. It displays something on the outside, making what is on the inside evident.

Kindness is polite. Even when you don't feel like being polite. Proverbs 15:1 says

"A soft word stirs up wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger."

It is amazing how far a kind word of understanding can douse a heated situation. To pour genuine kindness out in a loud, rude world reveals a greatness of love. We truly live in a world that thrives on selfishness and rudeness, with occasional acts of kindness. The louder you are the better you feel. The louder you are about your beliefs, your opinions, your stance, your situation, the more of difference you believe you make, but that is not true by this definition of love.

Love is kind. Love is being helpful. Love is mild. Not rude. Not hurtful. Not heated. How do we strive for this kind of a smell in our Christian lives? How do we douse the loudness of an opinionated world? Could you imagine if we simply showed up on the front lines to offer a helping hand, rather than making a statement? How would this change our world, indeed, because everyone is trying to make a statement right now. Let's allow kindness to be our statement.

Kindness listens and strives to understand. Kindness offers the people you don't agree with in the picket line a bottle of water. Kindness meets the need rather than feeds the greed. Kindness packs a punch of humility, rather than an opinionated pedestal. Kindness offers words that build up in what we are for, rather than arguing with words of what we are against. Kindness puts someone ahead of you, even if you don't agree with them because you know kindness makes all the difference.

Change this world with kindness. Love will shine through.

Scripture to Read:
1 Corinthians 13, Titus 3:4,

Questions to Ponder:
How has Christ shown us kindness, even when He doesn't agree with everything we do?
How is kindness a word of action?
How can you show kindness to someone you don't necessarily agree with this week?