My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today I want to address something that is very frequently misunderstood by both friend and foe of the Christian life. That is the word charity.
Paul, in 1 Corinthians 13:13 says: “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these 3; but the greatest of these is charity.” (1 Corinthians, 13:13, KJV)
Let’s look closer at that word, charity. If you look it up in the Greek, you will see the word is Agape. Many translations will write it down as love, but what kind of love is it? After all, English is a rather limiting language in the sense that we only have one word for something that a lot of languages have multiples. We tell our wives we love them, we tell people we love a restaurant, we tell our child we love them, and we tell our favorite artist that we love their work. Surely that does not use the word love in the same way in each example and yet because of the linguistic limitations that’s the word we choose to use. In Greek however, like in many other languages, each type of love has a word.
There is Eros, from which our modern word erotic comes from. As you can imagine, that is the word for a physical, sexual kind of love.
Then there is the word philos, most commonly attributed to family love, such as the way a child loves their parents.
Then there is this word we just saw earlier, agape. It is defined as an unconditional, sacrificial love. In fact, we see a similar word to this one, agapao, earlier in the New Testament, in John 3:16 where it talks about God so loved the world.
So obviously the word “love” is not appropriate in this instance since the love we are talking about is so much more than that which is meant today by the word love, which is why I prefer the King Jame’s translation of Charity.
So what is this “charity”?
In today’s language the word would be defined as benevolence, instead of charity since “charity” is unfortunately tied up with exclusively helping the less fortunates, which was not always the case.
So what is “benevolence”?
Let’s look at the dictionary definition.
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, “benevolence” is defined as “disposition to do good.”
This, as Paul instructs, should be the core of our attitude towards others.
In the same chapter, 1 Corinthians 13, in verses 1-3 Paul writes:
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.” (1 Corinthians, 13:1-3, KJV)
And remember what we said charity means in this context, it means benevolence. So basically, you can do all these amazing things, you can even end up a martyr, but if you do all this for self-gain, or out of pride, or boasting, or for any reason that isn’t love for your fellow human being it is pointless.
The thing we have to remember here when looking at this charity is that it isn’t easy and it isn’t human. What do I mean by this. It is not our human instinct to be charitable. It just isn’t.
Jeremiah 17:9 says:
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked…”
People think of wickedness as being criminal, as committing a murder, adultery, or some other obvious crime in society, but that’s not the only way to be wicked. To be self-centered is wicked, arrogance is wicked, and boasting is wicked.
And here self-centeredness, arrogance and boasting are the 3 offenses that are most easily committed.
How many people donate millions to build a new building at a college, only to have it be named after them or their family. And how many other acts of so-called charity are done in a flashy way so that everyone can see just how much was donated by the individuals involved?
No no no, Paul states clearly, that isn’t charity.
The worse thing anyone can do is be good to get browny points.
That doesn’t just not count but in fact it counts against you.
Think of the religious leaders in Jesus’ day. They all fasted and made their faces look extra sad. Jesus even talks about them making a show of things like paying their tithing or praying.
None of that is true charity, none of that truly counts.
Charity are the things we can do for others regardless of credit. Charity is the things we do when no one is looking. Charity is giving one dollar to a homeless person, who you don’t know and who doesn’t know you.
And yes I said the concept of charity was unfortunately tied up with only giving to the less fortunate in today’s language but I put that last example up because giving to someone who you don’t know and who doesn’t know you, means you will never get anything except perhaps a thank you from that individual at that time. You literally don’t know what happened before or what will happen after, and that’s the sign of true charity. Giving without expecting anything in return.
And I’m not talking just about money here. It could be giving time, giving food, giving anything. It could be something as simple as giving directions to someone who is lost. True charity isn’t about the amount of time or money it took you, it is simply about doing good for the sake of Christ.
People may think you weak, because human nature is so opposed to this form of charity. Why would you help someone you don’t even know? People ask. And our answer should always be, we help because we can, and we can because of Christ.
