What comes to your mind upon hearing the word prince?
Here’s mine.
Someone who is dashing, handsome, regal, generous, honourable, with perfect manners, but mostly, someone who is kind.
In fact, if I have to choose only one trait out of all the other above, it will be kindness. There are many definitions and applications of the word kind. “Oh, he is a kind man, he always helps out in the orphanage.” “He is such a kind boy, he shares his food with his friend.” But what is the original standard of kindness?
In Hebrews, kindness is the word khesed means grace, the word we hear a lot in the New Testament in the Bible. The very reason why we are saved in Christ: because of God’s grace, in other words, because God is kind. God’s standard of kindness is this, when we should die because of our sins, He saved us by sacrificing His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ for us. His kindness is undeserving, unmerited, unconditional, and honestly for me, unfathomable. I think John, the disciple whom Jesus loves, agrees, for he wrote so in his epistle: what kind of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called (made) the sons of God (1 John 3:1). The kindness of God that made us sinners into princes now that we are His sons.
We have so many examples of His kindness throughout the Bible, the cross of Jesus Christ being the ultimate demonstration of His love and kindness, but I like what the Son says Himself. Jesus puts it this way:
But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you. And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloak forbid not to take thy coat also. Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again. And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.
For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them. And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same. And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again.
But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.
Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.
Luke 6:27-36
That is the standard of kindness that God has for His children, and that is you and I. A tall order it might seem. Yes, if we operate from the flesh, but we are not in the flesh but in the Spirit if so the Spirit of Christ is in us and He is the Prince of life.
A Life in the Spirit
Before Christ, we lived in the flesh (Romans 7:5) and the flesh has a law called the law of sin and death: you sin, you will die. Anyone that lives in the flesh is subject to this law, they will sin and they will die because sin is in the flesh, sin is the ‘king’ in the flesh. No one can conquer sin, for everyone sins, therefore the law of death is absolute. Until Jesus Christ. That is why the cross is God’s way out for us from the flesh, because when we die, we are free from the flesh and we are made then to live in the spirit, free from the law of the flesh. That is what happened at the cross.
When we received Christ as our Saviour and Lord, we were baptised into His death (Romans 6), our old man is dead and our life is now hidden in Christ, we are new creations in Christ, all things are become new, and old things are passed away (Colossians 3:3, 2 Corinthians 5:17). I explained in great detail how the cross works in this Princess article.
We died and yet we live, nevertheless it is not we who live but Christ lives in us and the life which we now live we live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved us and gave Himself for us (Galatians 3:20). This is the truth, the reality of those who have received the salvation through Christ Jesus, and this is why now we can love and be kind to the kind of standard that God has because it is Christ who lives in us. He is the perfect love and the perfect kindness.
The Faith of the Prince
Our part is to be willing, like a submissive wife, to agree with His faith. His faith says love your enemies. His faith says be kind even to the unthankful and to the evil. His faith says all things are possible to those who believe. His faith is the same faith that loves us till death at the cross, believing that through His sacrifice we will be saved. And His faith prevails.
This is Christianity: a life in the Spirit.
No one can love from the flesh, by love I mean the original meaning and standard of the word love. The kind of love that Jesus demonstrates before, now, and forever. We can only love being in the Spirit, living this life by Jesus’ faith. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ and we owe it to our sons and young men in our lives to share and teach them this truth. Only then they can truly live as princes for their identity is Christ.
As a wise proverb says, train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. My prayer for you is as you plant this seed of truth, the word of God, may the seed fall on good ground, a sincere and believing heart, and the young men in your life, be it your sons, your nephews, or your students, be not despised for their youth, but be examples of the believers, in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity, that the Spirit of God and the power of the Spirit bears witness to them with signs and wonders to the glory of God our Father and of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour. Amen.
