Tuesday January 13-Acts 10-Jerry Bridges
Jesus … went about doing good.
(Acts 10:38)
Kindness is a sincere desire for the happiness of others; goodness is the activity calculated to advance that happiness. Kindness is the inner disposition, created by the Holy Spirit, that causes us to be sensitive to the needs of others, whether physical, emotional, or spiritual. Goodness is kindness in action—words and deeds.
I tend to think of kindness in terms of our awareness of those around us and the thoughtfulness we can express to them, almost incidentally. Kindness may be as simple as a smile, a thank-you, or a word of encouragement or recognition. None of these expressions iscostly in time or money. But they do require a sincere interest in the happiness of those around us. Apart from God’s grace, most of us naturally tend to be concerned about our responsibilities, our problems, our plans. But the person who has grown in the grace of kindness has expanded his thinking outside himself and developed a genuine interest in those around him.
Goodness, on the other hand, involves deliberate deeds that are helpful to others. Although the Bible uses the word good to refer to what is upright, honorable, and noble about our ethical or moral character, it also uses it to describe actions that are not only good in themselves but also beneficial to others.
George W. Bethune well observed, “The best practical definition of goodness is given in the life and character of Jesus Christ: ‘Jesus of Nazareth, who went about doing good.’ So far as we resemble Jesus, in his devotion to the welfare of men, do we possess the grace of goodness.”
Do we aspire to be Christlike? Then we must be continually sensitive to how we might meet the needs of those around us.