Be calm kind and tender-hearted. And what if you're not tender-hearted? What if you feel hard-hearted this morning?

What are you going to do in response to that commandment?

Tender-heartedness is not a decision.

It's a character trait.

How do you become new so that you can be tender-hearted and not Christian kindness.

That's not Christian kindness.

So what is Christian kindness in this episode of Light and Truth,

John Piper examines Ephesians 431 through 52

to explore the importance of forgiveness and love

as patterns for how we treat one another.

The sermon was originally preached at Bevelin Baptist Church on October 19th, 1986.

This text is so rich, as I mentioned earlier that any of the phrases almost could

be chosen and spoken about for an hour. So we have to be selective and

I've chosen to focus our thoughts around the little commandment in verse 32, be kind to one another.

And I have pondered how the rest of the things in the text fit together with this command and have come up with five things about Christian kindness that I want to talk about with you.

Well, let's start with the extent of Christian kindness.

How much kindness should a Christian show?

That's the question.

Part of the answer is given in verse 31.

Christian kindness should be so extensive that it replaces, it says bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor

slander with all malice see the words all at the beginning at the end all bitterness at the beginning all

malice at the end

...