Lexicon

G5544 - chrestotes

Strong's: G5544 · BLB lookup Pronunciation: khray-stot'-ace Part of speech: feminine noun Root: from G5543 chrēstos, "useful, serviceable, good, kind", the adjective Jesus uses when He says "my yoke is easy" (Matthew 11:30, ASV) and Luke uses when he says the Most High "is kind toward the unthankful and evil" (Luke 6:35, ASV). NT occurrences: 10, in 8 verses, all in Paul: Romans 2:4; 3:12; 11:22 (three times); 2 Corinthians 6:6; Galatians 5:22; Ephesians 2:7; Colossians 3:12; Titus 3:4. KJV renderings: "goodness" (4: Romans 2:4; 11:22 three times), "kindness" (4: 2 Corinthians 6:6; Ephesians 2:7; Colossians 3:12; Titus 3:4), "good" (1: Romans 3:12), "gentleness" (1: Galatians 5:22). The ASV renders Galatians 5:22 "kindness", so it has "kindness" five times. Hebrew background (LXX): most often tov / tuv, goodness (H2896 - tov), not hesed (H2617 - hesed), which the Septuagint renders with eleos (G1656 - eleos).

The 30-second version:

Chrēstotēs is kindness: goodness that is useful to someone, generous and gentle in how it treats them. Paul uses it of God and of Christians. God's kindness is meant to lead sinners to repentance, it appeared in person when Christ came to save, and it stands beside God's severity, not against it. In believers it is a fruit of the Spirit, something the Spirit grows rather than something people manufacture. And Paul says that apart from grace, there is none who does it, not one.

Semantic range (Thayer / BDAG)

Goodness, uprightness, moral excellence shown in conduct. Romans 3:12, quoting Psalm 14:3, "There is none that doeth good", where the Greek is literally "none who does chrēstotēs".
Kindness, benevolence, generosity, goodness turned outward toward others; the dominant New Testament sense, of God (Romans 2:4; 11:22; Ephesians 2:7; Titus 3:4) and of believers (2 Corinthians 6:6; Galatians 5:22; Colossians 3:12).

The root idea of chrēstos is "fit for use, serviceable". Old wine is chrēstos (Luke 5:39, "the old is good", ASV). Kindness in this word family is goodness that actually does someone good.

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Theological force

1. God's kindness leads to repentance

"Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?" (Romans 2:4, ASV)

The first "goodness" is chrēstotēs; the second is to chrēston, the neuter of the adjective chrēstos used as a noun. Paul doubles the idea.
The target is the moralist who judges others (2:1-3). God's patience with him is not approval; it is kindness with a purpose, to bring him to metanoia (G3341 - metanoia).
To treat God's kindness as permission is to despise it, and the next verse warns of wrath stored up for the day of judgment. See Repentance.

2. Kindness and severity together

"Behold then the goodness and severity of God: toward them that fell, severity; but toward thee, God's goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off." (Romans 11:22, ASV)

Chrēstotēs appears three times in one verse, set against apotomia, severity, a word built on the idea of cutting off.
Paul does not treat these as two moods of God, one soft and one hard. They are one character met from two directions: the same God is kind toward those who continue in His kindness and severe toward those who refuse it.
This guards against two errors: a God of kindness without judgment, and a God of judgment without kindness. It also answers the objection that biblical kindness and divine judgment contradict each other; Paul names both in the same breath as properties of the same God.

3. Kindness appeared in person

"But when the kindness of God our Saviour, and his love toward man, appeared, not by works done in righteousness, which we did ourselves, but according to his mercy he saved us" (Titus 3:4-5, ASV).

Kindness here is not a disposition only; it appeared (epephanē), an epiphany in history, in the coming of Christ.
Paired with philanthrōpia, love toward humanity, and grounded in mercy rather than works.
Ephesians 2:7 uses the same word for the age to come: God will show "the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus" (ASV). Kindness is how grace looks when it reaches a person.

4. Fruit of the Spirit

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control; against such there is no law." (Galatians 5:22-23, ASV)

Chrēstotēs sits beside agathōsynē, goodness. Richard Chenevix Trench (Synonyms of the New Testament) distinguished them: chrēstotēs is the kindly, gentle side of goodness, while agathōsynē is goodness in action, which can include rebuke and correction.
It is listed with makrothymia, longsuffering, in Galatians 5:22, 2 Corinthians 6:6 and Colossians 3:12, and in Romans 2:4 God's own chrēstotēs stands beside His longsuffering. The kindness Paul asks of believers is the kindness God has shown them.
Colossians 3:12 tells believers to "put on" kindness, and Ephesians 4:32 (using the adjective) to "be ye kind one to another... even as God also in Christ forgave you" (Ephesians 4:32, ASV). The model and the motive are both God's kindness.

5. None who does it

Romans 3:12 quotes Psalm 14:3 to say that, left to themselves, "There is none that doeth good, no, not so much as one" (Romans 3:12, ASV). The Septuagint of the psalm has chrēstotēs for the Hebrew tov. Read across Romans, the arc is complete: human beings lack kindness (3:12), God shows it to them anyway to lead them to repentance (2:4), and those who continue in it are grafted in (11:22).

Relation to Hebrew hesed

The codex's Hebrew kindness word is H2617 - hesed, covenant loyalty expressed as kindness, as in Micah 6:8, "to love kindness" (Micah 6:8, ASV). It is natural to assume chrēstotēs translates it. The Septuagint mostly does not.

The Greek Old Testament normally renders hesed with eleos, mercy (G1656 - eleos).
Chrēstotēs normally renders tov / tuv, goodness (H2896 - tov). Psalm 25:7 shows both side by side: "According to thy lovingkindness remember thou me, For thy goodness' sake, O Jehovah" (ASV). The Septuagint (Psalm 24:7) has eleos for "lovingkindness" and chrēstotēs for "goodness". Psalm 31:19, "Oh how great is thy goodness" (ASV), is likewise chrēstotēs in the Greek (Psalm 30:20 LXX).
The two words still overlap in meaning. Hesed is kindness rooted in a relationship and carried by loyalty; chrēstotēs is goodness that is kind and useful to its object. Paul's "kindness of God our Saviour" in Titus 3:4 does the work that hesed does in the Psalms, but by a different word.

Patristic and historical note

A pun on the name. Chrēstos (kind, good) and Christos (anointed) sounded almost alike in later Greek pronunciation. Justin Martyr plays on it in his First Apology (ch. 4): Christians are accused for the name, but to hate what is chrēstos, excellent, is unjust. Suetonius's report that Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome at the instigation of "Chrestus" (Claudius 25.4) is widely, though not universally, taken as a garbled reference to Christ.

Notable verses

God's kindness

Romans 2:4, kindness that leads to repentance
Romans 11:22, the kindness and severity of God
Ephesians 2:7, the riches of grace shown in kindness in the ages to come
Titus 3:4, the kindness of God our Saviour appeared

Kindness in believers

2 Corinthians 6:6, kindness as a mark of apostolic ministry
Galatians 5:22, fruit of the Spirit
Colossians 3:12, put on kindness

Human failure

Romans 3:12, none who does good

The adjective chrēstos

Matthew 11:30, "my yoke is easy"
Luke 6:35, God "is kind toward the unthankful and evil"
Ephesians 4:32, "be ye kind one to another"
1 Peter 2:3, "if ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious"

Notes

Lexical workspace for chrēstotēs.