chrēstotēs

Kindness names goodness turned outward: not merely being good in oneself, but treating another person with generous, welcoming good will. In Paul's letters the word does double duty. It names the saving kindness of God, and it names the same kindness lived out by people who have received it, so the human virtue is really a reflection of the divine one.

The word carries weight from two backgrounds at once. In the Greek Old Testament it describes God's goodness toward his people, especially in the Psalms. In the wider Greek world it was the goodness expected of a good king or a great benefactor: generosity and clemency toward those in his care. Paul draws on both, so God's kindness is at once the goodness of the God of Israel and the true benefaction of the one who has genuinely done people good in Christ.

Because the same word covers both God and the believer, it should not be shrunk to a mild, sentimental feeling. It is sturdy, active goodness that can be shown, displayed, and even set against severity, as when Paul contrasts God's kindness with his sternness toward the branches cut off.

In one place, Romans 3:12, the word shifts meaning. There Paul quotes the Greek Old Testament (Psalm 14:3), where it renders a Hebrew phrase for doing good, and it means concrete moral goodness in action rather than warm kindness shown to another.

The point is pointed: Paul says there is no one who does this good, not even one. So the same word that names God's kindness in the rest of his letters here names the good that people uniformly fail to do. It exposes the gap that God's kindness alone can close.