LIVING WISELY THROUGH KINDNESS

This past Saturday, Jeanean and I were having a conversation about social media and
how sometimes those replying to other people’s posts are a bit harsh. As Christ
followers, we should be gracious with our words, using the opportunity for Christ’s
kindness to shine through, especially in a public or even virtually public setting, so that
others might see the fruit of the Holy Spirit living within us. We should expect that some
of the readers of those posts are not believers (called outsiders for purposes of this blog)
and as such, have a different set of values which are without what I will call a Holy Spirit
point of reference. They don’t know what they don’t know. Part of our mission here in
this earthly life is to spread and live the Good News just as Christ did while here.
Colossians 4:5-6 (NIV) provides direction for us to follow when interfacing with outsiders:
“Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6 Let
your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how
to answer everyone”.

God wants us to conduct ourselves with wisdom toward unbelievers by exhibiting the
kindness of Christ. First of all, we need to focus on something very important: the cross
of Christ.  It is because of the cross and our redemption found there that we are able to
seek to be wise and kind towards unbelievers.  The sacrifice of Christ has (1) cleansed
us from our sins, (2) has forgiven us our trespasses, and (3) enabled us to be gracious
and kind by changing us.  As we were once against God in our unbelief, God was
gracious and kind to us.  Because of Jesus we are to be kind to others.   To the
Christian, every non-Christian is an outsider; that is, outside of a relationship with the
Christ. This is why it is so important to have wise conduct before unbelievers. The
reputation of the gospel depends on us. The world judges Christianity by what it sees in
us. God wants our conduct to be governed by wisdom.