Biblical Charity

The concept of Biblical charity [I Corinthians 13] is often short-changed. We define charity as love, which is a major part of charity, but it is even more. God is love [I John 4:8] but the Bible never states that God is charity. The definition of charity is “to grow up.” It is learning to walk in the Spirit of God. God, in His infinite glory, never had to learn or grow up. For our Christian walk and fellowship, we need to grow up so that we can love properly. This is how the world will know we are the disciples of Christ [John 13:35]. Without charity a church has no bond to hold it together [Colossians 3:14]. Charity is our ultimate goal above all [I John 4:8]. Again, love is the major component of charity and love fulfills the law [Matthew 22:36-40]. However, never forget that charity rejoices in the truth, not feelings, emotions, or pacifying the wicked [I Corinthians 13:6]. In a recent Bible study, I brought up 1 Peter 4:8 “And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.” The point I was bringing up was that charity would give us empathy towards others. We are never to condone sin or excuse it, but I can be “gentle unto all men” [II Timothy 2:24] and I can practice “considering thyself” [Galatians 6:1]. However, another in the church family brought up a really good point. I Peter 4:8 is not only speaking of having charity toward others, but also having charity toward your own faults and failures. If you read the entire passage, going back to verse 3, it points out how we used to be before our salvation. Some of us were born again when children. Others did not get saved until later in life. Regardless, we all have sins in our lives that can bring about a great feeling of guilt and regret. Satan can use this against us time after time. We need to practice charity, grow up, and believe what God said. My sins are paid for by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ [Romans 5:8-9]. I need to grow up and trust God for what He said. To become a Christian our confession is Romans 10:9-10. We are confessing Jesus Christ as the Jesus of the Bible, the Messiah, the Redeemer, and the only means of salvation through His death, burial, and resurrection. For the Christian, we confess our sins to God [I John 1:9] to restore fellowship [I John 1:7] with our Father, not to be re-saved. So, we need to grow up and trust what God said. Stop re-living our past failures and faults once we confess them to God. Grow up, move along, and do something for God today. In this life we are going to have failures and falls. I am not excusing anything, just stating the reality of being in Adam’s flesh. If Paul, the writer of half the New Testament can admit that [Romans 7] then surely we can as well. But it did not stop him from getting back up and starting again [Proverbs 24:16]. Adulting is hard. As a kid, I would walk out to get the mail and see my dad’s name in the envelopes with the little windows. I can remember thinking those are really important and I could not wait until I saw my name in those little windows. Little did I realize that inside those envelopes were bills that had to be paid each month regardless of your emotions, wants, or excuses. After getting my own little window envelopes in the mail, I was wishing they still had dad’s name there instead of mine. Spiritual adulting is hard as well at times. Life is not fair and sometimes you just have to be the adult and suck it up. The spirit of charity makes being the adult worth it. To be a blessing to someone in need, regardless if you get the credit or not. To do something just because it is right and of God, even when the other person acts childish. To know there is a God in heaven and our labour for Him is not in vain [I Corinthians 15:58]. As the hymn says, one day, it will be worth it all.