The Church’s Great Need

A 2023 poll revealed that 84% of Americans are angrier than a generation ago, with 42% of those polled admitting to feeling angrier themselves. A recent Pew Research Center survey shows nearly half (47%) of US adults believe public behavior is ruder than before the Covid-19 pandemic. Surveys are not everything, but they are not nothing either. It seems that Americans have the general impression that the country is becoming angrier.  This situation has created an opportunity for the church, and we had better take advantage of it. But how?

Ephesians 4:32 shows up at the end of a long string of admonitions for the church.  It reads, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” Remember this is written to the church. So, no matter what the world looks like the church is supposed to embody this verse and demonstrate a visible difference from the behavior of the world. At the very least, we are to be kind to one another.

What is Kindness?

The word that is used here (chrestos) can be translated in a variety of ways. In Romans 2:4, God’s kindness is meant to lead to repentance, Matthew 11:30 the Lord’s yoke is easy, and in I Corinthians 15:33 we are told that bad company ruins good morals. So, what does it mean for those of us who are trying to embody kindness?  Well, an old lexicon (Liddell & Scott), which looks at words diachronically, or as a word has developed over a long period of time, says that chrestos is to be useful. Now, the question is, did the word have that kind of variation in meaning at the time when Paul used it?  Well, the Louw & Nida lexicon which deals with meanings at the time of usage or synchronically has an interesting emphasis.  In their lexicon, chrestos means to act kindly.  It is the “act” that might lead someone to think that there is some carry over in usage.  Thus, acting kindly might well be understood as acting useful to someone else.

Regardless of the technicalities of the whole thing, that is a good way for Christians to think about kindness.  We ought to want to be useful to one another. And this means, as Paul says early in the same chapter, putting off certain behaviors that are not useful, such as lying, anger, and stealing. Instead, we are to put on useful things like truth telling, wholesome talk, and a good work ethic. This is kindness or at least it’s a good start to it.

What Motivates Kindness?

The text says that we are to be kind. The voice of the verb is a middle one, which means that the subject is doing something to himself. We, ourselves, are to be kind.  No one can make us useful.  But we will be useful if we have learned Christ (Eph. 4:20).  If we haven’t, we will likely be useless to one another in the church.  But granted to have learned Christ requires that we have undergone heart surgery of a spiritual kind, the fruit of which is a tender heart (v. 32). Kindness flows from a tender heart or a heart made new in Christ.

The Greek is splanchnon, which means, of all things, bowels.  The New Testament usually translates this word as heart. For example, in Colossians 3:12, the text says that we are to have compassionate hearts, but in reality, we are to have compassionate bowels.  I John 3:17 says that we are not to close our hearts to a brother in need, but you guessed it, we are not to close our bowels to a brother in need. It might resonate with us better if we talk about feeling it in the pit of our stomach. You know what I mean, when tragedy strikes someone, especially someone close, we feel it in the gut, in our bowels. Let me give you an example.  Did you see the picture of the man rejoicing in front of the stage where Charlie Kirk was shot and bleeding to death? The man had a smile on his face with his arms uplifted. He was rejoicing that another man had been shot and fatally so. That man has no bowels. If the church becomes like that man, then there will be no difference between us and the world. It’s that simple. Bowels motivate kindness.

Who Models Kindness?

The verse goes on to say that you are to forgive one another as God in Christ forgave you. Now, let’s be as simple about forgiveness as the Lord’s Prayer is simple, not simplistic but simple.  Think of forgiveness as forgiving a debt. Now, some of you are objecting already.  You are saying that forgiveness can only be granted after repentance.  I got it.  But think subjectively. Think about your part of the equation. Think readiness to forgive, like Christ on the cross who said, “Father, forgive them…”  Are you ready to forgive the person who wronged you? That is the question.

Now, that is the sort of thing that is born out of kindness, a desire to be useful to another person. Do we understand that forgiving another person is useful to us and them.  And our forgiveness flows from tender bowels. It is an act that emulates our Savior who has been so kind to us.  So, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you and in so doing we will look entirely different from a world growing increasingly angrier.