New Covenant Presbyterian Church
Sermon 1 Thessalonians 5:15 “Kindness and Goodness”
April 7, 2019
Listen to this sermon.
We are continuing our look at Christian virtues. We become virtuous as we become like Jesus. Christian virtues are all based on faith in our triune God. And we develop them through spiritual practices. Last winter, during Avent, we talked about the Christian virtues of Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love. Two weeks ago we looked at the Christian virtue of Patience. And today we will look at the Christian virtues of Goodness and Kindness. We will get to this, but first, let’s pray.
“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy Heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)
When someone does something bad to us our response is usually to do something bad to them. We exact revenge. When we were kids and someone punched us in the face on the playground we punched back. This led to an all-out fight followed by detention and a stern lecture from our parents.
We see this all the time in sports. A pitcher beans a batter with the ball. The batter, infuriated, storms the mound throwing punches. The situation escalates as the dugouts empty. The umpires throw out the pitcher and batter. And coaches try to restore order.
The general principle is that if you respond to evil with evil the situation escalates into a vicious cycle that is hard to end. Think of the Hatfields and the McCoys and a cycle of revenge going on for generations.
But the Bible teaches us to respond to bad with good thus breaking the cycle. We see this is Paul’s letter to the church at Thessalonica.
1 Thessalonians 5:15 Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else.
The Bibles we use are in English. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew. The New Testament was written in Greek The New International Version, I just read from, is a very good translation. But sometimes meaning gets lost in translation. Sometimes you have to look at the original language.
The word that Paul used and is translated for us as “wrong” is “kakos”. Don’t return “kakos” for “kakos”. The Greek word for “good” is “kalos”. Bad is “kakos”. Good is “kalos”. So we would expect Paul to say, “Make sure that nobody pays back “kakos” for “kakos”, but always strive to do what is “kalos” for each other and for everyone else. Surprisingly, this is not what Paul said. He did not use the word “kalos” meaning “good”.
So, what did he use? Well, Paul used the word “agathos”. Like “kalos”, “agathos” is translated into English as “good”. But is has an additional meaning. “Agathos” means that when you do something good for another person you are motivated by an internal moral sense.
This is the Christian virtue of Goodness: We do good motivated by an inner moral sense.
In the scripture from Luke read earlier we heard the story of a great banquet. Jesus observed people acting selfishly by sitting in places of honor. So Jesus told them a story about inviting the poor to dinner. Jesus was exhibiting the Christian virtue of Goodness. He acted on an inner moral sense to benefit the marginalized in society. Christian Goodness requires us to do the same.
Suppose you are away from home attending a conference. You are sitting at the hotel bar having a drink with a very attractive member of the opposite sex. You believe that something good, “kalos” will happen when the two of you go up to your hotel room. And you convince yourself that your spouse will never find out. So the two of you go up to your room.
Now suppose you are at that same conference. You are sitting at the same bar with the same attractive member of the opposite sex. You believe that something good, “kalos” will happen when the two of you go up to your hotel room. But you act out of “agathos”. You have an inner moral sense that adultery is wrong. So you say “goodnight” and go to your room alone. There you call your spouse.
The Christian virtue of Goodness means that we always do good motivated by our inner moral sense. Where does this inner moral sense come from? It comes from our spiritual practices, worship, prayer and Bible study. This is why, one year ago, I took the church through an extended look at the Ten Commandments. I did this so that you would internalize God’s law. My hope was that you would develop an inner moral sense that would give you the Christian virtue of Goodness.
Now, let’s look at the Christian virtue of Kindness.
Matthew 22:37 Jesus declared, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.
“Love your neighbor as yourself.” This is the essence of the Christian virtue of Kindness.
In our scripture today from 1 Samuel, David and Jonathan reached an agreement. Jonathan said that he would protect his friend David from his father Saul. And he asked David out of kindness to protect his life and his family’s lives. Here is what happened.
2 Samuel 9:1 David asked, “Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan’s sake?”
2 Now there was a servant of Saul’s household named Ziba. They summoned him to appear before David, and the king said to him, “Are you Ziba?”
“At your service,” he replied.
3 The king asked, “Is there no one still alive from the house of Saul to whom I can show God’s kindness?”
Ziba answered the king, “There is still a son of Jonathan; he is lame in both feet.”
4 “Where is he?” the king asked.
Ziba answered, “He is at the house of Makir son of Ammiel in Lo Debar.”
5 So King David had him brought from Lo Debar, from the house of Makir son of Ammiel.
6 When Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, he bowed down to pay him honor.
David said, “Mephibosheth!”
“At your service,” he replied.
7 “Don’t be afraid,” David said to him, “for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table.”
8 Mephibosheth bowed down and said, “What is your servant, that you should notice a dead dog like me?”
9 Then the king summoned Ziba, Saul’s steward, and said to him, “I have given your master’s grandson everything that belonged to Saul and his family. 10 You and your sons and your servants are to farm the land for him and bring in the crops, so that your master’s grandson may be provided for. And Mephibosheth, grandson of your master, will always eat at my table.” (Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.)
11 Then Ziba said to the king, “Your servant will do whatever my lord the king commands his servant to do.” So Mephibosheth ate at David’s[a] table like one of the king’s sons.
12 Mephibosheth had a young son named Mika, and all the members of Ziba’s household were servants of Mephibosheth. 13 And Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, because he always ate at the king’s table; he was lame in both feet.
It was the practice of ancient kings to kill all the members of the last king’s family. But David didn’t do that. He showed kindness to his friend Jonathan by protecting his family, especially Mephibosheth.
Last Thursday I was taking the girls from Korea to school. One of them told me that she had left her homework in her room. Normally, I drop them off at school and drive here to begin work. But on Thursday I drove home, got her homework, went back to school, and gave her homework to the secretary. Why did I do this? The selfish thing would have been to forget about her home and go out my day. But the kind thing was to get her homework to the school. I was acting out the Christian virtue of Kindness.
So we have looked at two Christian virtues today. The Christian virtue of Goodness allows you to act based on an inner moral sense. The Christian virtue of Kindness allows you to act in obedience to the command to love your neighbor. We develop these virtues by believing in our triune God and engaging in spiritual practices. Let’s pray.
Father in heaven we ask that you send the Holy Spirit with the gift of the Christian virtues of Goodness and Kindness. Help us to be good, always acting out of an inner moral self. Help us to be kind, always loving our neighbor. This we pray in our good and kind savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
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