Radical Kindness

“I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
Genesis 12:3

Many of us have been quietly discipled by Steve Hartman through his Kindness 101 stories—small, human moments that remind us it’s still good to be good. Those stories matter. They restore a little faith in humanity.
But Scripture calls us beyond simple niceness into something deeper and more demanding—a radical kindness the Bible calls blessing. That’s not Kindness 101. That’s Kindness 401.

From the beginning, God chose Abraham not as an endpoint but as a conduit: “all peoples on earth will be blessed” (Gen. 12:3). God narrows His redemptive focus to one family so His blessing might ultimately flow outward to the whole world. This has always been the missional calling of God’s people—we are blessed to be a blessing.

In The True Story of the Whole World, Michael Goheen and Craig Bartholomew describe biblical blessing as the restoration of the “very good” God intended for creation. Blessing is God’s provision for human flourishing. But it is more than provision—it is relational. To be blessed by God is not only to receive His good gifts, but to know God Himself. Blessing restores both delight and direction.

That’s why blessing can never be reduced to “just be kind”—though kindness certainly has its place. Being blessed to be a blessing means resisting retaliation, repaying evil with good, and actively working for the peace and flourishing of the places where God has planted us: our homes, neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, cities, and nations. Everywhere.

As Nicky and Pippa Gumbel put it:

To return evil for good is demonic.
To return good for good is human.
To return good for evil is the way of Jesus.

Of course, this kind of radical kindness can feel naïve in a broken world. Saying the world is a mess hardly qualifies as breaking news. Ever since Eden, every generation has wondered whether things are getting worse instead of better. Yet one of the great comforts of Scripture is that the moral failures and character flaws of even the heroes of faith never derail God’s redemptive purposes.

The Bible’s version of breaking news often comes down to two words: but God.

There are roughly forty-five “but God” moments in Scripture, and each one marks a divine interruption—human failure, injustice, danger, even death… but God. Heaven’s favorite plot twist steps in and redefines the story:

• “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good” (Gen. 50:20)
• “We were dead in our trespasses… but God, being rich in mercy” (Eph. 2:4)
• “They tried to kill Him… but God raised Him from the dead” (Acts 13:30)

If Kindness 101 is about nice human actions, Kindness 401 is about being blessed to be a blessing—those “but God” moments when divine kindness breaks in through ordinary people. It’s a graduate-level kindness that leads to real human flourishing, and it only happens in partnership with God.

Run the play.
Be a conduit of blessing.
Let radical kindness interrupt the story.

Finding Our Place in the Story

(Kindness 401 Edition)

Where might God be inviting me to move beyond being “nice” and instead become a conduit of blessing—even if it costs me comfort, control, or credit?
(Think people, places, or tensions you’d rather avoid.)

What does it look like, practically, for me to repay evil with good in my current season of life?
(At home, work, church, neighborhood—where is radical kindness most needed?)

Can I identify a recent or hoped-for “but God” moment where divine interruption—not human effort—redefined the story?
(How might God want to use me as part of that interruption for someone else?