GOD'S IDEA OF KINDNESS (5 OF 7)
by Jeff Strite
Scripture: Luke 6:25-42
This content is part of a series.
God's Idea of Kindness (5 of 7)
Series: The Fruit of the Spirit
Jeff Strite
Luke 6:25-42
Open: A Sunday school teacher was telling her class the story of the Good Samaritan, in which a man was beaten, robbed and left for dead. She described the situation in vivid detail so her students would catch the drama. Then, she asked the class: ''If you saw a person lying on the roadside, all wounded and bleeding, what would you do?''
A thoughtful little girl broke the hushed silence, ''I think I'd throw up.''
APPLY: When most of think about the story of the Good Samaritan, that's not generally the first thing that comes to our minds. Perhaps that's because we focus less on the man in the ditch than on the Samaritan that helped him.
The Good Samaritan is a ''feel good'' story. It's a story of a good man helping someone along the road. It's a story of kindness and mercy. And we'd all like to think we'd behave just like the Samaritan did in Jesus' story.
ILLUS: In my files I have a number of stories of Churches and College campuses where the leaders experimented with having a man sit near their church building or on their campus dressed in ragged clothes like a tramp or a pan-handler... and giving the appearance of man down on his luck.
In each incident, people passed by the man without paying him a second thought. Nobody seemed to care enough to even ask him about his situation.
As I studied the Scriptures dealing with kindness I was shocked with what I found. I found the Bible teaches us that God's concept of kindness does not come easily to us. We do not naturally exhibit God's type of kindness.
Romans 3:12 tells us ''All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good (literally ''kindness'' - the same word found in Galatians 5:22), not even one.''
Thus, the Bible teaches us that there is no one who naturally does kind things. In fact, Christians are urged to constantly seek to be kinder in their lives.
Col ...
Series: The Fruit of the Spirit
Jeff Strite
Luke 6:25-42
Open: A Sunday school teacher was telling her class the story of the Good Samaritan, in which a man was beaten, robbed and left for dead. She described the situation in vivid detail so her students would catch the drama. Then, she asked the class: ''If you saw a person lying on the roadside, all wounded and bleeding, what would you do?''
A thoughtful little girl broke the hushed silence, ''I think I'd throw up.''
APPLY: When most of think about the story of the Good Samaritan, that's not generally the first thing that comes to our minds. Perhaps that's because we focus less on the man in the ditch than on the Samaritan that helped him.
The Good Samaritan is a ''feel good'' story. It's a story of a good man helping someone along the road. It's a story of kindness and mercy. And we'd all like to think we'd behave just like the Samaritan did in Jesus' story.
ILLUS: In my files I have a number of stories of Churches and College campuses where the leaders experimented with having a man sit near their church building or on their campus dressed in ragged clothes like a tramp or a pan-handler... and giving the appearance of man down on his luck.
In each incident, people passed by the man without paying him a second thought. Nobody seemed to care enough to even ask him about his situation.
As I studied the Scriptures dealing with kindness I was shocked with what I found. I found the Bible teaches us that God's concept of kindness does not come easily to us. We do not naturally exhibit God's type of kindness.
Romans 3:12 tells us ''All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good (literally ''kindness'' - the same word found in Galatians 5:22), not even one.''
Thus, the Bible teaches us that there is no one who naturally does kind things. In fact, Christians are urged to constantly seek to be kinder in their lives.
Col ...
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