Dave’s Monday Blast – September 19, 2016

I would like to wrap up our discussion from the last two weeks concerning the “Lost Christian Virtue” of Kindness based upon the book by Barry Corey entitled “Love Kindness – Discover the Power of a Forgotten Christian Virtue”. The premise is simple…the Christian voice has been marginalized in our culture and evangelicals are despised in various quarters because we are viewed as being unkind.

Corey suggests that Christ-Followers must be defined by Firm Centers and Soft Edges. A firm center simply refers to having convictions based upon the Word of God. We can live confidently with those convictions because God’s promises “trump” our experiences. Along with a firm center comes a soft edge. This simply refers to the tactic or strategy we use to share our convictions. Tactics must be tempered at all times with kindness. This is a very INTENTIONAL process. We examined last week other affectations of this idea acknowledging that many with the church today typically use one of two strategies:

1) Spongy centers with soft edges: Which lacks conviction and confuses niceness with kindness.

2) Firm centers with hard edges: Which has plenty of biblical conviction but lacks the kindness necessary to convince people that we care about them as human beings.

We find support for Corey’s premise in Micah 6:6-8. In verse 6 the prophet asks God, “With what shall I come to the Lord?” In other words…what will it take for the Lord of the Universe to be pleased with me and to accept me into His presence? As you read verses 6 & 7 you see a man of God trying to understand how he could possibly be “good enough” for the Lord to desire a relationship with him. The prophet goes on to suggest five specific “gifts”, hoping that the Lord would be pleased with one. I must say…it is an impressive list…including surrendering his own first-born. How does God respond to these offerings?

Verse 8 provides God’s very precise answer to Micah’s direct question, “He has told you O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” If you and I are to live a life that is pleasing to the Lord; a life that allows us to be effective disciple makers, we must DO JUSTICE, LOVE KINDNESS and WALK HUMBLY with our God. We don’t just “do kindness” we are to “love kindness”. Being kind is not just a series of random acts, it is organic…systemic. And kindness is the permanent partner of justice. Humility is the key. We really cannot be kind and just, without humility. Pride is a stumbling block to treating people with kindness because pride puts us in first position. And if we are not kind, we will not be able to be just.