“Charity…is kind” (1 Corinthians 13:4).

What is kindness, anyway?

I can think of what it isn’t — impatience, meanness, selfishness, thoughtlessness.

I know. I’ll check WordPerfect to see what synonyms someone programed into it.

Compassion. Generosity. Consideration. Gentleness. Tenderness. Thoughtfulness.

God’s love is that way because God is that way.

And He wants my love to be that way because He wants me to be that way.

I’m not that way, until He lives His life through me.

Only then am I genuinely loving and sincerely kind.

(Even at those times when other responses seem more natural and fitting.)

In life in general, there are many things I do not need.

And in my life in particular, I own things for which I have no need.

But what about in the church — could it be there are people of whom I think I have no need?

If so, I am both carnal and ignorant. And proud, too.

Listen, Mark, and listen well:

“And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you” (1 Corinthians 12:21).