Good/kind
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G5543, chrēstos, is a Greek adjective for what is good, kind, gracious, useful, pleasant, or fitting in its context. It describes Jesus' easy yoke, the perceived superiority of old wine, God's kindness toward ungrateful and wicked people, the kindness that leads toward repentance, good character threatened by corrupting company, believers who are kind and forgiving, and the Lord whose goodness has been tasted.
Reader summary
Full entry for χρηστός (G5543) · Open the biblical lexicon
G5543, chrēstos, is a Greek adjective for what is good, kind, gracious, useful, pleasant, or fitting in its context. It describes Jesus' easy yoke, the perceived superiority of old wine, God's kindness toward ungrateful and wicked people, the kindness that leads toward repentance, good character threatened by corrupting company, believers who are kind and.
The BSB source-word alignment has 7 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include kind (2), [is] good (1), better (1), good (1), is easy (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 11:30. Its strongest book concentrations include Luke (2), 1 Corinthians (1), 1 Peter (1), Ephesians (1).
G5543, chrēstos, is a Greek adjective for what is good, kind, gracious, useful, pleasant, or fitting in its context. It describes Jesus' easy yoke, the perceived superiority of old wine, God's kindness toward ungrateful and wicked people, the kindness that leads toward repentance, good character threatened by corrupting company, believers who are kind and forgiving, and the Lord whose goodness has been tasted. No single English word carries every use.
When G5543 describes God, kindness is morally purposeful. The Most High does good to enemies without calling evil good. Romans says His kindness leads to repentance within a passage that also warns of righteous judgment. First Peter's readers taste the Lord's goodness and are therefore to put away malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander. Divine kindness is not indulgence, and receiving it does not leave people unchanged.
Human kindness in Ephesians is tenderhearted and forgiving because God forgave believers in Christ. This does not require denial of injury, unsafe access, or instant restoration of trust. Matthew 11 likewise does not promise a painless life; Jesus contrasts His fitting yoke and light burden with the crushing loads addressed around His invitation. G5543 directs teachers toward goodness that is beneficial and gracious without becoming permissive, manipulative, conflict-avoidant, or detached from truth and repentance.
G5543 describes Christ's fitting yoke, ordinary preference, God's enemy-loving kindness, kindness that leads to repentance, good character, forgiving tenderness, and the tasted goodness of the Lord.
For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Jesus describes His yoke as fitting and His burden as light within an invitation to the weary. The saying contrasts His rest-giving rule with crushing burdens, not discipleship with every form of hardship.
And no one after drinking old wine wants new, for he says, ‘The old is better.’”
Here G5543 reports a drinker's preference for old wine in Jesus' wineskin saying. The adjective describes perceived pleasantness and does not establish that older customs are always morally superior.
But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them, expecting nothing in return. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.
God's kindness toward ungrateful and wicked people grounds enemy love, generous action, and lending without repayment as the controlling hope. Kindness acts for another's good without endorsing wickedness.
Or do you disregard the riches of His kindness, tolerance, and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you to repentance?
God's rich kindness, tolerance, and patience aim toward repentance. To despise that kindness is to mistake delayed judgment for moral indifference.
Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good character.”
Paul's warning concerns the effect of relationships and teaching on good habits or character within the resurrection dispute. The proverb calls for discernment without authorizing contempt for outsiders.
Be kind and tenderhearted to one another, forgiving each other just as in Christ God forgave you.
Christian kindness is joined to tenderheartedness and forgiveness patterned after God's action in Christ. It replaces bitterness and harmful speech without making truth, boundaries, or safety unnecessary.
Now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
Peter uses tasted goodness to move readers toward the pure spiritual milk of the word and growth in salvation. Experienced grace creates appetite and transformed community practice.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. Good that is serviceable and practically beneficial, especially God's kindness that draws toward repentance.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
7 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
useful, gentle, pleasant, kind
Read verseuseful, gentle, pleasant, kind
Read verseuseful, gentle, pleasant, kind
Read verseuseful, gentle, pleasant, kind
Read verseuseful, gentle, pleasant, kind
Read verseuseful, gentle, pleasant, kind
Read verseuseful, gentle, pleasant, kind
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 4 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 3 selected witnesses from 7 lexical occurrence verses.
χρηστός is built from this root:
G5543 shows that biblical kindness has substance. Jesus' yoke is good and fitting for the weary because He is gentle and gives rest, not because following Him removes every costly demand. The old wine saying uses the adjective for ordinary preference, warning interpreters not to turn every occurrence into a moral abstraction. Luke 6 then places God's kindness where human calculation resists it: He is kind to ungrateful and wicked people, so disciples love enemies and do good without making repayment their condition.
Romans adds direction to that patience. God's kindness leads toward repentance and must not be confused with indifference to judgment. In Ephesians, people forgiven in Christ become kind, tenderhearted, and forgiving; corrosive speech and bitterness are replaced by words and actions that build others up. First Peter describes the Lord's goodness as tasted reality that creates hunger for growth, while 1 Corinthians warns that good character can be corrupted by company that denies resurrection hope.
These passages keep kindness from two distortions. It is not cruelty with a polite label, and it is not niceness that abandons truth. Faithful kindness seeks another person's good, names sin without delighting in shame, maintains wise boundaries, and offers forgiveness without pretending that trust or safety can be restored by demand.
Rom.2.4
G5543 is an adjective whose contextual referent controls its rendering. It can describe a yoke as easy or fitting, wine as better or pleasant, character as good, people as kind, and the Lord as good or gracious.
The Old Testament repeatedly calls the Lord good and shows His goodness in covenant mercy, provision, correction, and patient invitation. New Testament G5543 applies that goodness to Christ, God's patience, and the community practices shaped by received grace.