Kindness week2

 For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.     Deuteronomy 10.17-19

We must be careful as we read the Pentateuch that we do not see merely the ‘legal’ side of God. Here in this passage, the Lord doesn’t say, ‘Thou shalt not,’ but instead says, ‘Go to it.’ Here, instead of simply telling Israel what they must avoid doing to keep from sinning, God deals with the more subtle kinds of sin, the sins of omission. To fail to defend the cause of the orphan is sin. So is the failure to protect widows. So is the failure to help the foreigner who suffers from severe loneliness in a strange and engulfing culture. 

Christians are to look around and seek those who are lost and alone, those who are unable to defend or protect themselves. Once we find these people, we need to know that God has given us the green light, our purpose is to minister to those who are in need of a little kindness. 

If we are God’s children, we are to act like it. We are to look to God’s kindness to us and then spread that kindness to others.  God’s purpose for our lives is that we model our actions and attitudes after His care for those who are in need.