2. The Fruit of the Spirit Galatians 5

3. Context: One of Paul’s earliest letters was to what was the central region of modern Turkey. He visited four cities in this region in his missionary journeys and this letter is meant to have been shared among all the churches that looked to him for leadership.

4. Kindness in modern English may give us some fits because for most of us kind is just another word for nice, but God’s word does not say NICENESS is a fruit of His Spirit at work in our lives!

5. Kindness, when surveyed in all the uses through the New Testament, is actually much more complicated because, as we should expect, it’s a RELATIONAL term mostly used to highlight the holy response to weakness, wrongdoing, and sin!

6. More than being nice, gentle, or thick-skinned, the Holy Spirit at work in His people leads us to respond in TENDERNESS to weakness and offense.

7. What grows tenderness towards weakness in us
What grows tenderness towards weakness in us? At this point do we notice the continuum in Paul’s “fruits”?