Kindness: Overcoming Self-Pity

Series: Fruit of the Spirit
Date: 10/18/2020
Text: 1 John 3:16-20

Central Thought: Kindness is a living faith that testifies to a living hope.

  1. A kind person cares.
  2. A kind person takes action.
  3. A kind person is powerful.

What is kindness? A thoughtful love that motivates action.
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Read the text as a group. Share your observations, encouragements, and convictions from the text and Sunday’s sermon.

Next, discuss some of the following questions related to kindness.

  1. In your culture, what does kindness look like in practice? Is there any difference between kindness as a fruit of the Spirit and just ordinary “being nice”?
  2. Kindness often happens on a schedule different than we originally planned for. How can you be more open to the Holy Spirit when opportunities (interruptions) come your way?
  3. Think back over the past 24 hours. How aware were you of the needs and well-being of the people around you? If you were distracted, what distracted you?
  4. The sermon referenced the Good Samaritan story in Luke 10:30-37. The location of the story used to be called the Red & Bloody Way because of the high risk of robbery for those traveling the road. When you are traveling a figurative bloody way in life, do you stop in that place to give yourself to another in kindness? Or do you tend to ball up and protect yourself?
  5. Why should we be kind to the ungrateful?
  6. Jesus is the kindest person who ever lived. His kindness motivates and empowers us to be kind. But we are “wounded healers”. To glorify our Lord, share a story of how God has used a weak person to help you (or used you in your weakness to help another).

IN CLOSING
Consider one person in each of the following areas and how to be kind to him/her: home, workplace, neighborhood.

Pray for neighbors, family, and friends to see God’s kindness and agree with him about their need for it. Ask God for boldness, opportunities, and the words to share the gospel with those he sends our way!

These resources have supplied discussion questions for this topic:

  • Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit by Christopher J. H. Wright
  • The Fruitful Life by Jerry Bridges
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