Love is Kind
I’m continuing with the study of the fourth verse of I Corinthians 13, which states:
Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant. —I Corinthians 13:4, NASV
Each of the traits of love given here deserves its own attention. We have looked at the patience of love: now we turn our attention to the kindness of love.
It is useful to consider the supreme example of love when we undertake any study of the subject. Scripture states elsewhere that God is love, and says here that love is kind. It is clear that we can see the quality of kindness in God’s expression of His love for us. This is most evident in the sacrifice that He provided for our sins, where He showed kindness in taking our punishment upon Himself.
A friend of mine put it well, I think:
When we grow in love, our thoughts are kind. Our judgement of others is tempered by our love. Our thoughts, our plans, our reactions become kind because we love. This, I think, is the result of being loved. The better we know that we are dust, the greater we see God’s love for us, the less we feel like being unkind.
This acknowledges the fact that the love in our hearts isn’t put there by God in a way that is fully formed. We grow in love, and as we grow, the traits of love become more and more evident.
My first thought regarding kindness was that it means “not unkind”. This certainly is true. If we are kind, there are words that will be left unsaid, and thoughts that won’t be entertained, because they are not kind. To leave it there, however, is to omit a large part of what kindness is, and what love is. As followers of Christ, our lives are not defined by things that we shouldn’t do, but by a broad range of things that we are able to do through Christ who strengthens us.
Here is a look at the Greek word for kind, as used by Paul in this verse. The word is chrēsteuetai, and is actually a verb which means, “it is kind”. This word in turn is based on the Greek word, chréstos, an adjective that is defined as useful, gentle, pleasant, or kind. One who is kind, then, is someone who is taking action to provide something that is useful.
In a practical sense, a person who is kind will see the need of another, and fill that need. A common name for slaves in the Graeco-Roman world was Xrestus, which was alternately spelled Xristos or Christus1, and this name was based on this same word for kind or useful. This ties in with the idea of being a servant to the one that we love. We may need to sacrifice our own comfort on behalf of someone else in order to provide kindness, but if the kindness springs from a heart of love, then it will not be bestowed grudgingly.
As is the case with patience, it isn’t a matter of love trying to be kind. Love is kind. If we find ourselves lacking a kindly disposition towards another, the first place to go to correct the problem is to the One who can fill our hearts with love. When that is done, our kindness will not be fake.
In all of this, let us remember the fact that every attribute and quality of love has been clearly demonstrated to us by our heavenly Example, and we have been commanded to love others as He loved us. Let us obey this command. Not out of a sense of duty or obligation, but because of our overflowing love for Jesus Christ.
1F. F. Bruce, The Books of Acts, 368
