You will know them by their fruits…A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit…Thus you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. Matthew 7:16-20

One of the things I hope readers walk away from this series on Kindness with is that Kindness is not so much random acts as it is a radical lifestyle.

And I must admit that when I first started to write about Christian kindness, I was concerned it might come across as touchy-feely, like a down pillow with no substance at the core. Yes, kindness has a firm center and that center is Jesus (will of my Father in heaven). But it also has soft edges.

The fact is, too often we see Christians displaying soft centers and hard edges. When Christians have hard edges, you can be sure that those edges are there to protect a soft understanding of the Christian faith, a weak relationship with Jesus…or none at all. If you read today’s verse in context, that latter conclusion is inescapable.

Yes, our actions really do display the reality at the core of our lives. By their fruits you shall know them. Good beliefs are a wonderful thing, but they never walk alone. If our good beliefs aren’t accompanied by the fruit of kindness, then our beliefs aren’t good after all. They resemble the clanging gong Paul talked about in 1 Corinthians 13.

It’s been said before, the branches of an apple tree do not try to produce apples; they produce apples because they’re attached to an apple tree. Same with Christians. We are kind because we’re attached to the right tree: Jesus.

The internet is full of horror stories of the unkind behavior people have endured from Christians, churches, pastors, etc. And there are plenty of Christian apologists out there attempting to excuse inexcusable behavior (both of omission and commission), which just amplifies the point that both Christians and non-Christians suffer at the hands of Christians and both believers and unbelievers know that it shouldn’t be that way.

And, without a doubt, Christians have a reputation for being hateful and mean-spirited. Simply Google “why are Christians so hateful?” There are a number of reasons, but many/most of them come down to fear. We have a lot of fear. “Perfect love casts out fear” (1 Jn 4:18), so it’s not a big stretch to say that kindness is one of the early casualties of all our fears.

Fear is an extremely powerful motivator (or demotivator). When we act on our fears (as opposed to trusting God) we make a choice to change our behavior, our circumstances, and even our lives. In other words, what we fear determines what we worship. If we are afraid of being poor, we will idolize financial security (Matthew 6:31-33). Fear of suffering, pain, loss of comfort leads to the idol of control. Fear of judgement, loss of friends, being perceived as ‘different’ leads to idolizing acceptance at any cost.

The list goes on and on. But the point is a clear one: Being kind comes from Jesus being at the center of our lives—Jesus being the one we worship above all else.