So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. Colossians 3:12-13.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
Be very kind. You have only one life to live on earth and then you pass into eternity. Your sojourn on earth is very brief compared to the eternity I have planned for you and yet your life here on earth gains you great rewards that are eternal. Even your trials. “Momentary light affliction,” Paul called his many trials. 2 Corinthians 4:17. He did not let them overwhelm him. He kept it all in perspective. He rejoiced. He knew he ultimately would have the victory in Christ Jesus. He knew it would produce nothing for him but glory.
Don’t waste your life on earth. You only have one chance here and yet it determines your eternity. Speak the truth in love and go out of your way to be kind and to do kind things. Don’t take offense so easily. Don’t grab your children in anger and yell rude and derogatory remarks at them. Don’t sit around talking in derogatory ways about others (judging). Don’t get in senseless arguments with your spouse. Don’t ever permit yourself to stay irritated and cranky. Kindness is wrapped up in patience and gentleness. Never make another feel like a burden to you. You can be truthful and yet also be kind. A kind person is gracious and hospitable. A kind person is not harsh, argumentative and abrasive with others. Your kindness should be known to all. I said all people would know My followers by their love for one another.
Be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve My righteousness. Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive My Word implanted in your heart, which is able to save your souls. James 1:19-21.
You are capable of doing so much good and yet many of you choose to do evil, harmful things to yourselves and others. When I see this I am deeply grieved, My eyes cannot even look upon evil. I am appalled at some things men do. I look for someone to intervene, to work with Me, to permit Me to make things right, to stop the evil. Isaiah 59: 12-16. But I can do nothing on earth unless one of you authorizes Me to do so. I gave dominion to you. What you permit on earth is permitted in heaven and what you bind on earth is bound in heaven. Matthew 18:18. Stand up and rebuke evil in the Name of Jesus and call upon Me to do mighty deeds of goodness and love through you, through the power of the Holy Spirit, through My life opened up and poured out into your life, that is grace which comes through My Son Jesus Christ to you and empowers you to do the impossible.
Kindness. Lovingkindness. It is a fruit of the spirit. I am kind. Remember when Moses asked Me to reveal My glory to him? I passed before him and proclaimed My Name and revealed My very nature to him as I cried out: “The LORD, the LORD, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in lovingkindness and truth.” Exodus 34:6.
Keep everything in the perspective of eternity. Remember that your time here is brief and you only have one time to do it. So it is best to do it right. You will be judged for every idle and vain word you speak. Watch your words and deeds. Are your words kind? Do they encourage and edify those who hear them? It is appointed for you to have a life of good deeds prepared for you by Me in advance that you should walk in them. If you choose not to do so, then you waste your precious life that I have given you for a purpose.
Relationships are more important than things. It is relationships with other people, and ultimately your relationship with Me, that determine your happiness here and your eternal destiny. Sometimes it seems that people are in your way and you would be better off alone, but think what life would be like if you really were all alone and there was no one else to share it with. It is not good for man to be alone. It is not good for Me to be alone. I made you to be My family in My image to fellowship with Me. I need you for My joy to be complete and you need Me for your joy to be complete. You were made to be united with Me in spirit and in truth. My desire is that all men be saved and come to know the truth! My Word is truth and My Word became flesh, one of you. I want no one missing, no one broken and no one alone. I want you all with Me in Glory. I want to wipe your every tear away. Kindness is like that.
Imitate Me as My dear children and walk in love. When you took Jesus as your Lord and were baptized, you were clothed in Christ. He is love. He is kind. He is gracious. In seeing Him you are seeing Me. So clothe yourselves in kindness and humility in your dealings with one another and walk in love. Remain in My love and your life will be sweet.
My prophet Jeremiah stated it well when he wrote: This is what the LORD says: “Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the LORD. Jeremiah 9:23-24.
Yes, I delight in kindness. I delight in doing good to you. Jeremiah 32:41. Go and share this kindness with those you know and meet. Make the most of every opportunity, of every moment—you only have once to do it, so you might as well do it right. For in the end, only three things remain for eternity: faith, hope and love. And the greatest of these is love. And I am Love and you are made in My image and likeness, so you are too. You will not be happy walking any other way.
You have all experienced My kindness. I forgive all your sins and remember them no more.
For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Titus 3:3-7.
Kindness is encompassed in the word “Chesed” in Hebrew. Chrestotes (noun) and chrestos (verb) in Greek.
Of My kindness the earth is full. And when My kindness and My love for mankind appeared, I saved you, not on the basis of deeds which you had done in righteousness, but according to My mercy. And how does My kindness and My love appear on the earth? In Jesus. The Law was given to Moses but grace (lovingkindness, chesed, My life in you) and truth came through Jesus Christ. And that is always the way grace and truth come to you, past, present and future.
And Jesus told you to come to Him if you are wearied and burdened and He will refresh you and to take His yoke on your shoulders and learn from Him for He is gentle and humble in heart, for His yoke is chrestos (pleasant, gentle, kind, useful) and His burden light. He bore your burdens and carried your diseases. The yoke He gives you is kind and useful. Well fit for use.
But let Me explain about kindness. What you translate as “kindness” does not quite carry the notion of what is meant in the original Hebrew of the Old Testament and the original Greek of the New Testament. The kindness I am speaking of means goodness, excellence, uprightness, benignity, and a kindness that is also serviceable and well fit for use. In Greek the word is chrestotes which is derived from chrestos, which means useful and profitable. It is useful kindness that meets real needs. Kindness that meets human needs and avoids harshness or cruelty.
And in Hebrew you often translate the word “chesed” as kindness or lovingkindness but it is so much more. It is grace. It is unmerited favor. It is My compassion, mercy, love, kindness, gentleness, strength working for you, making you well and prosperous, and delivering you– all in one Word. It is the love that is higher than the sky and deeper than the sea that goes to the Cross for you and rises from the dead. It has a height, length, breadth and depth that are unfathomable. It is the unfathomable riches of Christ.
And it is the way you should know Me. The LORD, the LORD, gracious (channun, which is favor, chen) and compassionate (rahum, merciful), slow to anger (erek appayim—very long fuse to get angry) and abounding in lovingkindness (chesed) and truth (emet). Exodus 34:6.
I tell you through My prophet Jeremiah a very interesting truth. It speaks of the way you should know Me. If you do not know Me this way, you do not know Me and are missing entering My rest and your place of grace, your wide and open space, your promised land. Here is what is written: Thus says the LORD, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD (Yahavah) who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the LORD. Jeremiah 9:23-25.
Do you understand and know Me as your covenant God who exercises kindness (chesed), justice and righteousness on earth? And how do I do that? I tell you: When My kindness and My love for mankind appeared, I saved you, not on the basis of deeds which you have done in righteousness, but according to My mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom I poured out upon you richly through Jesus Christ your Savior, so that being justified by My grace you would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Titus 3:3-7. I justified you by My lovingkindness. I put all your sins on Christ and made Him who knew no sin to be sin so that in Him you are righteous with My own righteousness. I give you My righteousness in place of your unrighteousness in Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:21. And My justice is satisfied for I severely punished all your sins past, present and future in Him, in His cruel death on the Cross. And He made you perfect for all time by His one sacrifice.
As David observed, Mine is singular (unique) justice. I punish My Son in your place and impute all your sins to Him and impute His righteousness to you. Thus My justice is satisfied and My mercy is satisfied. And I have made you righteous with My own righteousness. And that is the way I exercise kindness, justice and righteousness on earth. And when you understand this, you will understand and know Me.
But I can tell you this in yet another way. The way of the New Covenant.
As I foretold to My prophet Jeremiah: “Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “because I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” Jeremiah 31:31-34. I laid upon Jesus the iniquities and sins of all. Isaiah 53:5-6.
How do you come to know Me from the least to the greatest? By knowing this: I forgive your iniquities and your sins and offenses I remember no more. They are gone when you are in Christ. You are justified. Just as if you had never sinned.
And this is the testimony of the Holy Spirit to you under the New Covenant in Jesus. The Holy Spirit testifies to you that your sins and lawless deeds I remember NO MORE. Hebrews 10:15-17. Only this will give you revelation knowledge of who I am. The testimony of the Holy Spirit under the Old Covenant as the Ten Commandments (the tablets of the testimony) and through these you did not have revelation knowledge of My ways or understand and know Me. Psalm 95:9-10. Jesus is the end of the law for earning righteousness to everyone that believes in Him. Romans 10:4. He kept it perfectly for you so that in Him you are justified of all the things you could not be justified of under the Law. Acts 13:38-39.
You do not grow in your knowledge of Me by your own efforts but by revelation of My Word. The revelation of My Word gives light making wise the simple.
Jesus is the truth of who I am. Through Him My grace and truth came. My lovingkindess. And that is the truth about Me. I am love.
My kindness is shown to you in Jesus. My justice is satisfied in Jesus. And righteousness is My gift to you in Jesus. And that is the way I exercise these on earth.
You come to know Me in Jesus. In Him are all the treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge. No one knows Me, the Father, but the Son, and anyone to whom He chooses to reveal Me. And no one who comes to Him will He ever reject. Learn from Him. He truly is your teacher.
And I am your Father Forever.
Be kind and you will rest in My kindness. And let all who know you rest in yours. For when you are in Christ, everyone should see how kind you are. I tell you to bind kindness (grace, chesed) and truth around your neck and to write them on the tablets of your heart. Proverbs 3:3. Put on kindness, compassion, humility in serving one another. Colossians 3:12. And take a lesson from Proverbs, it is about the prudent wife but it applies to you all for I espouse you all, male and female, in the spirit to Me as one: “Strength and dignity (hadar – glory and beauty) are her clothing, and she smiles at the future. She opens her mouth in wisdom, and the teaching (torah) of kindness (chesed) is on her tongue. Proverbs 31:25-26. Tell everyone of My kindness, let its teaching be on your tongue. And answer gently without being argumentative. Be a witness to My goodness and lovingkindness in leading others to Jesus so that they too will know Me from the least to the greatest. Let them know their sins and offenses I remember no more. They are not just forgiven but gone. Jesus took them.
And kindness (chrestotes) is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. Christ is the vine and you are the branches, abide in Him and bear much fruit. Including kindness.
Imitate Me as My dear children and walk in love. I have poured My love into your hearts through My gift to you of the Holy Spirit.
I love you. Let My kindness and love fill your life. Jesus is knocking on the door of your heart and in Him I send you My kindness and My love forever. Open your heart and let Me write My lovingkindness and My truth on the tablet of your heart. A love letter. And Jesus writes it with the Holy Spirit for Jesus is My Word from the Aleph to the Tav and the Holy Spirit testifies to Him. Be kind like Me, not be so irritated and short tempered. I will reward you, for whatever you did to the least of My brothers, you did to Me. Remember, anything done without love, no matter how hard you are serving another, is worthless. Selah.