When you are a kind person in a wicked world, you will be under attack because the world views kindness as weakness.
1 Corinthians 2:13-15 "…13And this is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. 14 The natural man does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15The spiritual man judges all things, but he himself is not subject to anyone’s judgment.…"
Those who are deficient in kindness will attempt to paint kind people as foolish, even lie and twist the good things they do to make them look as though they did bad instead of good.
They did this to Jesus Christ, claiming He did His miracles by the power of the devil. They will do it to authentically born-again believers, too.
John 14:17 "the Spirit of truth. The world cannot receive Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you do know Him, for He abides with you and will be in you."
Romans 8:7 "because the mind of the flesh is hostile to God: It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so."
When we know the devil is working to foster this in people, using what they already feel in the flesh to escalate the mentality to cause harm to those he hates.
People who are intimidated by kindness will be triggered to include others in their hatred through gossip. They are never satisfied with being rude and mean themselves, they must gather others to do the same. They always need allies to prop them up.
These groups of people will unite against us, because they do not have a legitimate reason for their hate, they must be continually propped up by others to evade the guilt that dwells constantly inside.
True kindness is a character quality Christ gives us and comes from a place of strength. Even though others revile us for doing what is good and right, we remain sturdy and robust. Each rejection leads to resilience and perseverance. We do not become weaker from the attacks of the devil and those he uses, we become stronger.
Some hate our kindness because they think we are being manipulative. They believe this because when they are kind, they are manipulating and they think we do the same thing.
I once heard a woman say she was deliberately being nice to a person who was angry with her to "heap hot coals of kindness", she wasn't coming from the place of loving that woman, she just wanted the woman to feel bad about herself and this was the method to do that.
This kind of false kindness triggers more anger because it is obvious that it is manipulative, and the target knows it.
It is common for unkind people to poke at you with the hope you will become angry so they can justify their rudeness. If they can make you angry, they can claim you are worse than them.
This is why God tells us to bless our enemies, not to manipulate them but to keep ourselves from sinning in response to them.
It is not what people do to us that matters; it is how we respond in a Christlike manner to protect ourselves from becoming someone who dishonors God. This is the devil's goal to cause us to bring a sinful testimony to the world.
We must always be aware of why we are kind. Is it because we have the character of Christ and it is the bone and sinew of who we are, or are we being kind to get something out of it for ourselves?
When we operate out of kindness to make people happy with us, this is manipulation. True kindness coming from the heart does not have to be calculated or feigned; it will come naturally, even without thinking or expecting anything in return.
Healthy people are not threatened by genuine kindness; unhealthy people are threatened by kindness because it shines a light on what they lack. Unhealthy people need to feel special and superior; everything they do is based on the elevation of self.
It is important to be ourselves and allow others to be themselves. Then we can choose who our close friends are and who we need to keep our distance from.
Remember that unbelievers are not our friends, they are the enemies of Christ and of us. They need the gospel and salvation before they can be our friends.
Ephesians 4:18 "They are darkened in their understanding and alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts."
Thursday, May 14, 2026
Honoring God and Parents
Amos 5:20-22 "…20 Will not the Day of the LORD be darkness and not light, even gloom with no brightness in it? 21“I hate, I despise your feasts! I cannot stand the stench of your solemn assemblies. 22Even though you offer Me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; for your peace offerings of fattened cattle I will have no regard.…"
There are so many things we do that purport to celebrate God and others. Many people say, Happy Birthday, Happy Mother's/Father's Day", Happy Easter, Merry Christmas ", and other greetings pertaining to holidays they wish to celebrate, but really have nothing to do with the people they claim to honor.
When society requires a celebration for someone, it usually involves oppressive expectations of that person they claim to celebrate.
God's response to human holidays that are supposedly created by humans for Him is that He "hates and despises them."
When His commands tell us that divorce and remarriage offend Him and that His commands and rules are for our own good and the response is to ignore them and make up our own rules about them, we are not honoring Him in His way; we are requiring Him to honor us by doing our bidding. The culture requires God to bless their holiday that offends Him.
Many people claim to be Christian but have no reverence or devotion to most of what He says in His Word. They do not value His wisdom, even making up their own version of His commands to satisfy their own fleshly desires.
When honoring someone requires the honoree to do the bidding of others to please them so the giver can feel good, that they did something, this is not honor, it is dishonor and a burden to the one supposedly being honored.
The honor goes to the one who sets the obligation to reverence and admire the one who gives the gift rather than the one who receives it. This sort of honor is a burden to those who are required to engage with those who set the rules.
In our day, "honor your father and mother" has become "send them a card" or "give them a call" while all the rest of the year acting arrogantly and disrespectfully against them as though they have no wisdom or value. The card and the call have replaced actual honor.
This is the same way Christians act toward God; they make up their own rules about honoring God, usually involving words, songs, or manmade special days, but negate Him when it suits them.
Matthew 15:8-9 "8 “‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me; 9 in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”
Jeremiah 14:12 "Although they may fast, I will not listen to their cry; although they may offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Instead, I will finish them off by sword and famine and plague.”
Honor has nothing to do with our gifts to God, our holidays for God that He never commanded. Honoring God means we deeply value His wisdom and His commands while seeking Him for guidance, counsel, and personal transformation.
If someone becomes angry because we do not celebrate the culturally man-made rules, then we know they celebrate them for their own good feelings and not for the one they claim to bless.
Malachi 1:10 “Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would no longer kindle useless fires on My altar! I take no pleasure in you,” says the LORD of Hosts, “and I will accept no offering from your hands."
God would prefer we do nothing at all than to falsely honor Him our own way.
Jeremiah 6:20 "What use to Me is frankincense from Sheba or sweet cane from a distant land? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable; your sacrifices do not please Me.”
Before Christ came, God's requirement for an offering to Him had to be without blemish.
Leviticus 3:1-5 “If one’s offering is a peace offering, and he offers an animal from the herd, whether male or female, he must present it without blemish before the LORD. / He is to lay his hand on the head of the offering and slaughter it at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. Then Aaron’s sons, the priests, shall splatter the blood on all sides of the altar. / From the peace offering, he is to bring a food offering to the LORD: the fat that covers the entrails, all the fat that is on them,"
When our gifts to others are tainted with expectations and rules they must follow to satisfy our own desires to be elevated and admired, then it is no gift at all.
Psalm 40:6-8 "Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but my ears You have opened. Burnt offerings and sin offerings You did not require. Then I said, “Here I am, I have come—it is written about me in the scroll: I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your law is within my heart.”
Wouldn't it be better to value a person caring about their thoughts and wisdom than to give them a gift and ignore them, or even disdain them, every other day of the year?
Hosea 6:6 "For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings."
Proverbs 21:3 "To do righteousness and justice is more desirable to the LORD than sacrifice."
Manmade holidays are always about the one who celebrates them, not about the one they claim to honor. Perhaps this is a matter everyone should pray about, asking God to reveal a selfish heart of false honor to understand what real honor looks like.
There are so many things we do that purport to celebrate God and others. Many people say, Happy Birthday, Happy Mother's/Father's Day", Happy Easter, Merry Christmas ", and other greetings pertaining to holidays they wish to celebrate, but really have nothing to do with the people they claim to honor.
When society requires a celebration for someone, it usually involves oppressive expectations of that person they claim to celebrate.
God's response to human holidays that are supposedly created by humans for Him is that He "hates and despises them."
When His commands tell us that divorce and remarriage offend Him and that His commands and rules are for our own good and the response is to ignore them and make up our own rules about them, we are not honoring Him in His way; we are requiring Him to honor us by doing our bidding. The culture requires God to bless their holiday that offends Him.
Many people claim to be Christian but have no reverence or devotion to most of what He says in His Word. They do not value His wisdom, even making up their own version of His commands to satisfy their own fleshly desires.
When honoring someone requires the honoree to do the bidding of others to please them so the giver can feel good, that they did something, this is not honor, it is dishonor and a burden to the one supposedly being honored.
The honor goes to the one who sets the obligation to reverence and admire the one who gives the gift rather than the one who receives it. This sort of honor is a burden to those who are required to engage with those who set the rules.
In our day, "honor your father and mother" has become "send them a card" or "give them a call" while all the rest of the year acting arrogantly and disrespectfully against them as though they have no wisdom or value. The card and the call have replaced actual honor.
This is the same way Christians act toward God; they make up their own rules about honoring God, usually involving words, songs, or manmade special days, but negate Him when it suits them.
Matthew 15:8-9 "8 “‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me; 9 in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”
Jeremiah 14:12 "Although they may fast, I will not listen to their cry; although they may offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Instead, I will finish them off by sword and famine and plague.”
Honor has nothing to do with our gifts to God, our holidays for God that He never commanded. Honoring God means we deeply value His wisdom and His commands while seeking Him for guidance, counsel, and personal transformation.
If someone becomes angry because we do not celebrate the culturally man-made rules, then we know they celebrate them for their own good feelings and not for the one they claim to bless.
Malachi 1:10 “Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would no longer kindle useless fires on My altar! I take no pleasure in you,” says the LORD of Hosts, “and I will accept no offering from your hands."
God would prefer we do nothing at all than to falsely honor Him our own way.
Jeremiah 6:20 "What use to Me is frankincense from Sheba or sweet cane from a distant land? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable; your sacrifices do not please Me.”
Before Christ came, God's requirement for an offering to Him had to be without blemish.
Leviticus 3:1-5 “If one’s offering is a peace offering, and he offers an animal from the herd, whether male or female, he must present it without blemish before the LORD. / He is to lay his hand on the head of the offering and slaughter it at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. Then Aaron’s sons, the priests, shall splatter the blood on all sides of the altar. / From the peace offering, he is to bring a food offering to the LORD: the fat that covers the entrails, all the fat that is on them,"
When our gifts to others are tainted with expectations and rules they must follow to satisfy our own desires to be elevated and admired, then it is no gift at all.
Psalm 40:6-8 "Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but my ears You have opened. Burnt offerings and sin offerings You did not require. Then I said, “Here I am, I have come—it is written about me in the scroll: I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your law is within my heart.”
Wouldn't it be better to value a person caring about their thoughts and wisdom than to give them a gift and ignore them, or even disdain them, every other day of the year?
Hosea 6:6 "For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings."
Proverbs 21:3 "To do righteousness and justice is more desirable to the LORD than sacrifice."
Manmade holidays are always about the one who celebrates them, not about the one they claim to honor. Perhaps this is a matter everyone should pray about, asking God to reveal a selfish heart of false honor to understand what real honor looks like.
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