Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with a heart of mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.
Into the Text
Kindness is one of those fruits that sounds beautiful in theory but can feel nearly impossible in practice. I know there have been moments in my own life where choosing kindness was the last thing I wanted to do. Maybe you know that feeling too.
It is easy to be kind to the people who are kind to us or make our lives easier. But what about the difficult coworker who gets under your skin? The family member who knows exactly which buttons to push? The friend who let you down when you needed her most? Or the stranger who was rude for absolutely no reason at all?
That is where kindness gets costly, and that is exactly where God meets us.
Colossians 3 tells us to clothe ourselves with kindness. Each morning, we are to put on kindness the same way we pick out our outfits and get dressed. Clothing is a daily, deliberate choice. Nobody accidentally gets dressed. Paul is telling us that kindness is the same way. It is not something that just happens naturally; it is something we have to choose to wear intentionally every single day.
The kindness God calls us to is not a personality trait or a feeling we have to drum up from somewhere inside ourselves. It is His kindness, not ours, that flows through us, reaching people we could never reach in our own strength.
Joseph chose kindness toward the very brothers who had sold him into slavery. That was a Spirit-produced, God-glorifying kindness that could only come from a man deeply rooted in God’s love.
Make no mistake, choosing kindness in the hard moments is one of the most powerful things you will ever do. It reflects a heart that has been changed by God. It points people to Jesus in a way that words alone never could. And it reminds the world around you that there is something different about the way you live.