Kindness Has Power
IS IT not a pleasure to be around people who are kind and considerate? Yes, kindness has a good effect on others. Jehovah’s Christian witnesses have found that their following the Bible’s admonition to be kind toward all has aided many to come to an accurate knowledge of the truth.—Rom. 12:20; Col. 3:12.
This was the experience of a young Witness in Hong Kong. She enjoyed playing ball with her classmates at school, but noted that one of them could not participate in the games due to a physical handicap. Moved with pity for her classmate, the young Witness brought a book that the handicapped girl could read during the games. The book was a Bible study aid entitled “The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life.” The kind and thoughtful gesture pleased the handicapped girl. She read with interest God’s promises about a new system, where physical handicaps will be a thing of the past. This girl now enjoys attending the meetings of Jehovah’s witnesses.
During a vacation in France, a Witness from Belgium saw kindness bring unexpected results. While at a camp, he observed that a Moslem girl was having difficulty in getting water from a pump. Rather than offering assistance, a group of people on the balcony of a dance hall made fun of the girl. The Witness approached her, showing her how to use the pump. His attitude so impressed the girl that she stopped by at his tent to thank him, adding: “You are so different from the others. Why?” The Witness and his wife explained that, as Christians, their love was not limited. The girl hurriedly returned to her tent to tell her family about what had happened.
A half hour later, accompanied by her brothers, sisters and friends, the girl again came to the tent of the Witness, extending an invitation to him and his wife to spend the evening with them. Thereafter, for a period of two weeks, the Witness, on repeated occasions, spoke to these people about the Bible. Then contact was lost, for they moved to another camp farther away. However, addresses had been exchanged and, therefore, the Witness eventually learned what results came from his act of kindness.
In the more distant camp the Moslem family had Jehovah’s witnesses as neighbors and therefore were enabled to learn still more about the Holy Scriptures. According to recent information, two sons and the daughter are already sharing in the door-to-door ministry of Jehovah’s witnesses. The parents are at the point of wanting to do likewise.
The power of showing kindness toward those who oppose the truth of the Bible is illustrated in what happened to a Witness in Honduras. Sometime ago an army sergeant tried to force him to join the army, even threatening to kill him. Eventually this sergeant lost his position and thus had to look for a job. He was hired as a helper in one of the local mining operations. It so happened that the Witness whom he had mistreated was engaged in the same secular work. Unacquainted with past events, the employer assigned this man to work under the direction of the Witness.
The ex-sergeant became very fearful, believing that the Witness would repay him with evil. But the Witness treated his former persecutor with kindness, sharing his lunch with him. This very much impressed the man. He just could not get over the fact that he was being treated kindly by someone whose life he had threatened. Gradually this moved him to take a real interest in the Bible. Now the people whom he formerly despised are his friends and he studies the Scriptures with them.
That kindness can bring about such transformations in people testifies to its power. It should also serve as an incentive to heed the Bible’s counsel to manifest kindness.