Charity!

 

1 Timothy 1:5 KJV: Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:

Since the word “end” can mean purpose or goal, “the end of the commandment” refers to the goal of the commandment. In God’s mind the ten commandments are one (James 2:10,11), so “the commandment” (v.5) refers to all ten. God’s purpose, or goal, in giving the ten commandments was “charity,” a Bible word for love. God’s goal in giving the law was to get men to love Him and their neighbor as themselves.

But don’t change “charity” to love, for love is a feeling, charity is that feeling in action. God’s goal in giving the law wasn’t just to cause you to feel love toward God and men, it was to get you to put that feeling in action by not having others gods before Him or taking His name in vain, and by not lying to your neighbor, stealing from him, killing, etc. (Rom. 13:8-10; Gal. 5:13,14).

Only saved people have “a pure heart” (v.5 cf. Pr.24:3,4; Mt.5:8). The Jews purified their hearts by water baptism (Heb.10:22), but the Gentiles purify their hearts “by faith” without baptism, like Cornelius (Acts 15:8,9). The point is, God’s goal in giving the law wasn’t just to get everyone obeying the ten commandments, it was to get everyone saved and obeying them out of a pure, saved heart.

That doesn’t mean God doesn’t it like it when the unsaved obey the law. We know He does, for He’ll force them to obey it in the kingdom (Rev.19:15; Jer.23:5). The kingdom will begin with all believers, but when most of their children don’t believe the Lord will have to rule amid His “enemies” (Ps.110:2). Everyone will obey the ten commandments in that day, but the unsaved will obey them out of impurehearts.

But we know the law can’t change impure hearts because at the end of the millennium all who obeyed it out of impure hearts rebel against Christ (Rev.20:7-9). And it wasn’t God’s goal to give the Law so men would obey outwardly, just waiting for their chance to rebel! It was to get men saved and obeying the law “out of a pure heart.”

The process always starts when the lost hear the law and learn what sin is (Rom.3:20; 7:7). Once the lost man learns he is a sinner he sees his need to be saved and become someone who can obey the law out of a pure heart.

Similar to all this, the only ones with “a good conscience” (at least in this context) are saved people. The Jews got it by water baptism (Heb.10:22), we get it by faith alone! God also wants us obeying the law out of “faith unfeigned” (v.5). Since “feign” means pretend (ISam.21:13), “unfeigned” faith was genuine faith (IITim.1:5).

The reason Paul was saying all this is because some in Ephesus had “swerved” from the goal of charity and “turned aside” (v.6). Since three times the Bible says that Israel “turned aside” from the law (Ex.32:8; Deut.9:12,16), Paul picked this phrase deliberately to answer those who were charging himwith turning aside from the law (Rom.6:15). It was his way of saying, “Yes, I am turning aside from the law, but you’re turning aside from the goal of the law.” 

“Vain” (v.6) means empty, and “jangling” is overly loud jingling. We know when some turned to vain jangling they were turning to the law,for Paul goes on to say they desired to be teachers of the law (v.7). They left charity to focus on the thing that was supposed to produce charity. This led to bickering, another meaning of “jangling.”

Paul told Titus to “stop” the vain talkers of the circumcision who were talking about the Law (Tit.1:10,11). The Greek words for “vain jangling” are the same as for “vain talkers” there. Their motive was “filthy lucre.” Satan always makes sure undispensational things are lucrative.

But if the goal of the law is to get men to love God and others, and we’re not under the law, does that mean God doesn’t want us to love God and others in the dispensation of grace? Of course He does! But today it is the goal of a different commandment, the commandment of God that made Paul an apostle (ITim.1:1) and gave him a new mes-sage of grace, not law. The goal of that commandment is to get men saved by grace and loving out of a pure heart.

CHARITY- ἀγάπη- agapē- 

In the Bible it is written, "Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned."(1Tim 1:5) This text provides for us a clear, simple statement of God's goals and objectives in giving us His commandments: His laws and instructions found in Torah, the Law of Moses. The word end in our text is the Greek telos, which is the point aimed at as a limit. (Strong) God is explaining to us the benefits He intended for us in a right use of His Law.

As if to emphasize the importance of this topic, God immediately warns us what happens when we forget this purpose and/or fail to pursue these goals as we study Torah: "From which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling; desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm." (1Tim 1:6-7) Evidently, it is very easy to pursue something as powerful as the Law of God with wrong motives; in doing so one loses the benefit God intended therein and fails to edify themselves or others in the process. It is therefore very helpful that we understand how God uses Torah to achieve these goals in us, and it is absolutely imperative that we keep these purposes of God before us as we study and apply God's laws so that our labor will not be in vain. 

Charity out of a Pure Heart

It is no wonder that God's first purpose in giving us Torah centers in His greatest commandments: to love God with our whole being and our neighbor as ourselves. (Matt 22:37-40) Charityis the selfless agape love that seeks the welfare of others regardless of their disposition, nature, or their treatment of us or others. All obedience without this kind of love is worthless (1Cor 13) so increasing and abounding more and more in real love, a genuine care for the welfare of others that is rooted in wisdom, knowledge, and all discernment (Php 1:9), must accompany any godly pursuit of understanding in Torah.

The way Torah helps us here is that it actually functions as God's definition of love, both toward others and toward Himself: "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.(1Jn 5:2-3) It is so very easy to confuse love with being nice and doing our best to please others, but this is often foolish and harmful – both to others and ourselves -- rather than truly loving. God has therefore defined for us what true love looks like, in a myriad of examples and scenarios in Torah. The process of memorizing Torah, hiding it in your heart and meditating on it (Ps 1:2), obeying it in every way that you are able, renews and aligns the spirit of your mind (Rom 12:2) with God's ways and so equips you to love others in sincerity, purity and truth. (2Tim 3:16-17, Ps 19:7, Ps 119:1-6)

God's goal is not merely charity, this unselfish love for others: God's goal is charity out of a pure heart, love that springs out of an inmost being which is clean, undefiled, holy and pure. Those who have pure hearts have been deeply blessed by God and are destined to see Him (Matt 5:8), and in seeing Him are destined to be transformed into His likeness. (1Jn 3:2) Everyone who is expecting and looking forward to this end purifies their own hearts in the same way that God is pure. (1Jn 3:3) As Torah defines love, Torah helps us in this transformation by also defining holiness, purity and sin: sin is the transgression of Torah (1Jn 3:4) and God's call to holiness is intrinsic to the nature of Torah: believers are to pursue holiness because God calls us purity through obedience to His law. (1Pe 1:15-16, Lev 11:44-45) Obedience to Torah in the power of the Spirit produces purity and holiness by definition. (Rom 8:4) 

A Good Conscience

God's second goal in our transformation as He works His will in us (Php 2:13) is that we have a good conscience. What does this mean? 

Our conscience is our inner sense of what is right or wrong in conduct or motives, impelling us toward right action. It is a sense, much like sight or touch or hearing; it detects, interprets and evaluates the rightness or wrongness of something we experience which has a moral dimension or aspect. At an idiomatic, high level then, maintaining a good conscience is to consistently act in a manner such that one does not feel guilty. This is certainly God's will for us, yet given the import of our context there is evidently much more here to consider.

Morality

The very concept of morality implies and conveys a type of standard by which to measure the goodness or wickedness of something, and this is not at all a matter of how much we prefer it. We may prefer watermelon over cantaloupe, but this is not a moral evaluation. Morality implies an external standard, independent of Man, a device by which we may measure and evaluate the alignment of certain actions or thoughts, either of ourselves or others, with something else outside of and beyond Man: and this something is necessarily the expectation and decree of God Himself. Morality is a spiritual dimension involving alignment with God's definition of good and evil.

So, now that we understand what a conscience is and its function in the moral dimension, we can more completely define a good conscience(1Tim 1:19) as one that works correctly: it is a sense of right and wrong which accurately detects and evaluates the morality of something; that is, a good conscience evaluates the moral quality of an event in the same way God evaluates it. A good conscience uses the same ruler that God uses when defining good and evil; it uses the same metric, the same measuring system and convention.

An Evil Conscience

So then, knowing what a good conscience is, what about an evilconscience? (Heb 10:22) or a weak, wounded or defiled one (1Cor 8:12), or even a seared conscience? (1Tim 4:2) These terms must all refer to various ways and degrees in which a conscience does not function as it is designed to function: it does not evaluate good and evil in the same way that God does. Everyone has a conscience, a sense of what is right and wrong, but this does not mean that when a person senses that something in particular is right (or wrong) that this thing actually is right (or wrong). All of us have a conscience that does not work correctly all the time: there are cases where we don't measure good and evil the way God does ... and some of us are much more broken here than others. 

Even though this concept is surprisingly simple to explain, most folk have never given it much thought; most all of us go stumbling along through life never questioning whether our sense of right and wrong is accurate or not, or where it comes from. Most people presume that when they feelsomething is wrong then it must be wrong, and if they feel something is right then it must be right. We make hundreds of moral evaluations every single day, we have discussions, debates, and arguments about moral issues – particularly in political and religious circles, and never have any real clue whether our conscience is working correctly or not. 

People generally have no idea what the actual moral standard is by which they are measuring everything, and most of us do not seem to be the least bit concerned about it. It is as if we have each decided that we each have the authority and wisdom to define the ultimate moral standard on our own, independently of God or anyone else; we are basically acting as if we are God. This is a frightful phenomenon of very real blindness and rebellion which is extremely easy to observe, both in others and in ourselves, if we are the least bit introspective and honest about it. It seems to be an inherent, integral part of our carnal, rebellious nature. (Rom 8:7)

A Moral Vacuum

Take, for example, the US Supreme Court's decision on June 16^th, 2015, to legalize homosexual marriage in the twelve remaining states (it was already legal in thirty-eight states). A great deal of very heated discussion followed this ruling, yet very little attention was paid to the actual definition of morality: the divine standard by which homosexuality is ultimately measured. Since most Christians have rejected Torah as God's standard of righteousness, thinking Christ abolished it, they are proposing a vague, ambiguous "love of Christ" standard as the basis of morality, but this happens to be the very same ambiguous standard which proponents of gay marriage leverage to support it! Torah-rejecting Christians are therefore having a very difficult time articulating a consistent moral basis for opposing gay marriage, a fact which energizes and emboldens those sympathetic with the gay agenda as they happily point out the obvious inconsistency in Christians and label all moral conservatives as "homophobic." 

In most any controversial moral issue we find the same phenomenon: abortion, the death penalty, welfare, pre-marital sex, women's rights, etc. We exist in a cultural moral vacuum where nearly everyone is responding to moral questions in exactly the same way, based on how they happen to feel -- in the absence of a clearly defined moral absolute – each person is simply reacting to the impulses of their own unique, broken conscience. This is the inevitable result of rejecting Torah as our moral standard: there is nothing to replace it. We try to bolster our feelings by appealing to "Traditional American Values," the Christian faith of our founding fathers and historical cultural norms, but these types of arguments are by and large extremely weak, incomplete and unpersuasive. Without a clearly defined standard by which we can measure morality, we are lost.

The fact is, every moral discussion should begin and end without any ultimate regard for how we or anyone else happens to feel inside; we should be seeking to identify and understand the divine moral standard, validate that this standard is indeed of divine origin, and working to align our feelings with that. This leads us to the concept of healing the conscience.

Healing the Conscience

If a good conscience is one that consistently makes accurate moral assessments according to the divine standard, then healing a weak, damaged, seared or evil conscience is the process of awakening, realigning and recalibrating the conscience so that it makes better moral assessments and evaluations and does so more consistently. How does this work? How can a conscience be healed and cleansed?

For those of us whose conscience is extremely broken, when we are first regenerated God may do some major surgery to get us on the right moral footing. When we have been steeped in the lies of this world for so long that we can't see which way is up or down, God may intervene supernaturally to cleanse our consciences, as He writes His Laws into our minds and hearts, instantly aligning our moral feelings with His own to a large degree: "How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" (Heb 9:14) This type of moral overhaul and quickening is a type of jump-start to sanctify us through His miraculous, instantaneous renewal of minds and hearts.

In addition to this supernatural jump-start, there is also an ongoing more natural process of healing the conscience which is also quite simple to explain. When we are meditating in God's Word, particularly in Torah, and we see something in it that is inconsistent with the way we are thinking and feeling, we can by faith prayerfully start to align our minds and hearts with God in spite of our feelings, asking Him to conform us to His ways, and then experience the shifting of our feelings over time as we continue to seek His ways and obey Him. For example, suppose we have been taught that Sunday is the Christian Sabbath and that we are supposed to be in church on Sunday. However, as we read Torah we discover that Saturday , the seventh day, is God's Sabbath and that it is one of God's appointed holy convocations -- a time to meet with others in God. We reason from this what we are supposed to be meeting with believers and ceasing from regular work on Saturday rather than on Sunday. So, by faith in God's Word, we start looking for a congregation that meets on Sabbath, one that both understands the Gospel and also respects Torah, and we start treating Sunday as a regular work day. The first weekend we try this it still feels wrong; on Sunday morning we actually feel guilty in not getting ready and going to church, but we use our mind and compare this feeling with God's Word, and we choose to override and ignore the feeling as best we can. As we continue in this obedience in spite of how we feel, over time our conscience is cleansed and we begin to feel that we are obeying God by worshipping and resting on Saturday rather than on Sunday; we no longer feel guilty obeying God. The Spirit has used this act of obedience by faith to cleanse our conscience. We have recalibrated our moral compass in this area so that it evaluates our behavior more accurately based upon God's true moral standard rather than a lie. 

There are countless ways in which this process plays out, but each time it is essentially the same pattern: we recognize an inconsistency between God's moral standard and how we are feeling, thinking and acting. We then prayerfully seek to start aligning with, agreeing with and obeying His moral standard rather than what we have been taught, in spite of how we are feeling about it, and over time our moral compass straightens out and points more truly toward the goal of God's holiness than it did before. This process has more of a natural appearance to it than the miraculous jump-start which God sometimes does in us, but underneath it all God is still at work sanctifying us -- now He is just allowing us to participate with Him in this process, which is indeed a great privilege for us. All true believers benefit from this supernatural, ongoing cleansing work of God and we should regularly be recognizing and thanking God for His precious sanctifying of our conscience. God is working in all believers, individually and corporately, "that he might sanctify and cleanse (the church) with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish." (Eph 5:26-27) In this confidence then, "let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water." (Heb 10:22)

Wounding and Searing the Conscience

In the same way that our consciences are healed, we can also reverse the process through neglect and disobedience, and in reverse the process of weakening, corrupting and searing our conscience works very similarly. In the enemy's war with the saints he is constantly lying to us about what is good and evil, and when we fail to cling to the Word of God and prayerfully identify and reject his lies we tend to receive them, and this process pollutes, defiles and corrupts our conscience: we introduce a twisting or a bending of our moral standard so that we are unable to measure good and evil as accurately as we did before. And much like sanctification, this deterioration is also a constant and ongoing warfare against us.

Further, whenever we are negligent in obeying Torah, or whenever we willfully violate it and override a healthy conscience in doing so, our conscience begins to realign with our disobedience and to quiet down; as we persist in sin over time we no longer feel as guilty about our sin. This process sears and deadens our conscience (1Cor 8:7) so that it is not as active as it was before; our sense of right and wrong no longer works the same way it did before we sinned, our conscience does not alarm us as keenly and so we are less troubled in our sin. The more we continue to violate our conscience the weaker and more corrupt our conscience becomes, and the more we enjoy our sinful behavior. In this state it is much more difficult for us to even recognize that we are in sin, much less to repent of it, since our conscience is of little help in redirecting us. At this point we may need to be confronted by a concerned brother or sister (James 5:20, Heb 10:24, 12:15), or chastened of the Lord to wake us up and cause us to search our hearts and His word for the cause. (1Cor 11:32, Heb 12:10)

Torah: Our Moral Foundation

The fundamental building blocks of our spiritual life depend upon our ability to accurately identify God's moral standard and make accurate moral judgments. (Act 24:16) The entire sanctification process can be viewed in these terms … the continual deliberate healing and maintenance of our conscience by recalibrating it according to Torah by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Torah is the only verifiable divine moral standard in existence; there is no other. Of this fact God has provided us infallible proof. It is no wonder then that the enemy has gone to such great lengths to discredit and vilify God's Torah. His attacks upon it seem endless, incessant, and extremely effective. The result is a moral vacuum in which people, and sadly often believers, make moral decisions based upon lies, calling evil good and good evil: "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!" (Isa 5:20) "If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?" (Ps 11:3)
 

Faith Unfeigned

God's final goal for us in Torah is an un-pretended, organic faith. This is another concept which is not very well understood by believers. Most of us don't understand what faith is or how it works.

Hebrews chapter 11 is filled with examples of faith and speaks of it as "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."(Heb 11:1) According to any good dictionary, faith is unquestioning belief which does not require proof or evidence. It is absolute assurance, a supernatural confidence in something. It can exist in the presence of proof and evidence, but faith does not require this proof or evidence. Faith is an orientation or disposition that is void of doubt about something in particular: faith and doubt are mutually exclusive  with respect to the same object. Faith is the gift of God which enables one to believe Him completely when He speaks to us about something. Faith occurs when one receives the revelation of God accurately, and when His Spirit within bears witness with this truth, confirming this truth in us, convincing us of it and aligning us with it, knowing in us and with us and for us that God has spoken to us, whether through the written word of God or via supernatural revelation, and enabling us to trust that God is true – that He cannot lie. This faith is supernatural, rock-solid, steadfast, unmovable. Hebrews 11 gives us many examples of how believers lived and acted in such unfeigned faith – through persecution and incredible difficulties they were undaunted, they knew, they persevered.

Apart from the revelation of God many of us try to stir up our belief, our faith, either through emotionalism or presumption, yet this is a pretended faith, a fake, an impostor, a counterfeit, a faith "want-to-be," an imitation and not the genuine article. As soon as persecution and inconvenience arise to block our way, this kind of "faith" vanishes like a vapor; it melts like wax before the fire. (Mat 13:21) There is nothing to it, no backbone in it, no real substance, and it cannot sustain us.

God's blessing to us through Torah is real faith, true faith, based on His Word; it is faith unfeigned. Torah is the foundation of this faith, as all the rest of the written Word of God is based upon the bedrock of Torah, and every supernatural revelation of God is consistent with it. Torah gives us hundreds of examples of the heart and nature and ways of God, applying His moral standard in countless scenarios from a variety of angles and perspectives. The more we are grounded in Torah the more we are able to see the mind and heart of God as He truly is, and the more we are able to detect and refuse the lies of the enemy, and the more we are strengthened in believing God and taking Him at His word. (Ps 119:104)

Torah is the vast storehouse of the unsearchable riches of Christ. (Rom 11:33, Eph 3:8) To lose our foundation in Torah is to lose our way in God (Is 8:20), to lose our compass and our map, to lose the rudder of our ship, to be "tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive." (Eph 4:14) We cannot confidently and fearlessly navigate the difficulties of this life and the insidious, relentless lying of the enemy without Torah. Torah "is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." (Ps 119:105) Torah is our sword, the sword of the Spirit (Eph 6:17); without it we cannot be much of a soldier for God ... just an easy target for the enemy. 

Keep our Eyes on the Goal

We must constantly keep these purposes of God before us as we pursue and study Torah. To lose sight of them is to turn aside from The Way; it is to use Torah for unlawful purposes (1Tim 1:8) such as exalting ourselves (1Cor 8:1), trying to establish our own righteousness before God and others (Rom 10:3), and abusing, condemning and controlling others. (Mat 23:4, Rom 2:17-20) To forget God's intention for us here to increase us in unselfish love, to heal our conscience, and to establish and strengthen our faith, is to fall into emptiness and "vain jangling," (1Tim 1:6) to "become as sounding brass or a tinkling symbol" (1Cor 13:1) – "striving about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers." (2Tim 2:14) The Torah of God is extremely powerful, but it is only good for us if we use it the way God intended.

Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.” (1 Corinthians 8:1, KJV)

Some critics claim that the word “charity” is either wrong or outdated. Newer translations use the word “love” instead. The Greek word at issue is “αγαπη (agapē)”. Thayer defines this word as “brotherly love, affection, good will, love, benevolence” (Thayer’s Greek Definitions). The definition of “charity” is “benevolent goodwill toward or love of humanity” (Merriam-Webster). The English word “charity” comes from the Latin “caritas”, which means “Christian love” as opposed to sexual love (Online Etymological Dictionary). Throughout history, Latin theologians such as Augustine have used “caritas” as a term of art to refer specifically to Christian love (On Christian Doctrine, 3.10.16). Whenever “charity” appears in the KJV, it is in reference to Christian love toward fellow Christians (the following are all 24 verses that have “charity”):

• “Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.” (1 Corinthians 8:1)

• “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. Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,… Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away…. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.” (1 Corinthians 13:1-4, 8, 13)

• “Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy.” (1 Corinthians 14:1)

• “Let all your things be done with charity.” (1 Corinthians 16:14)

• “And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.” (Colossians 3:14)

• “But now when Timotheus came from you unto us, and brought us good tidings of your faith and charity, and that ye have good remembrance of us always, desiring greatly to see us, as we also to see you:” (1 Thessalonians 3:6)

• “We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth;” (2 Thessalonians 1:3)

• “Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:” (1 Timothy 1:5)

• “Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.” (1 Timohy 2:15)

• “Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.” (1 Timothy 4:12)

• “Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” (2 Timothy 2:22)

• “But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience,” (2 Timothy 3:10)

• “That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience.” (Titus 2:2)

• “And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.” (1 Peter 4:8)

• “Greet ye one another with a kiss of charity. Peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus. Amen.” (1 Peter 5:14)

• “And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.” (2 Peter 1:7)

• “Which have borne witness of thy charity before the church: whom if thou bring forward on their journey after a godly sort, thou shalt do well:” (3 John 1:6)

• “These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;” (Jude 1:12)

• “I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works; and the last to be more than the first.” (Revelation 2:19)

“Charity” is therefore an accurate translation of “αγαπη”. Some might say that in our day “charity” only refers to the giving of donations. Even if that were true, it does not follow that “charity” in the KJV is an error or outdated. Rather, it shows that our culture has strayed far from the Bible’s scope of what is meant by “charity”.

Charity is an interesting case in the King James Bible because the 1 Corinthians 13 passage (which uses charity 9 times) had been translated using the word love in Tyndale's New Testament of 1526 - 85 years before the King James translation. Certainly, it was not the case that the King James translators did not know that love might have fit. Rather, they purposely chose charity as the word to use there. Evidently, they saw an importance in distinguishing some of the uses of agape in a specific way. We will look at scripture to see if we can discover what specific nuances of the word are being brought out when charity is used. The use of love is the more general use and will not be discussed here in detail.

Some form of the word charity is found in the Bible 29 times. All of these references are in the New Testament. In fact, the word does not occur in any form in the Bible until the book of Romans. It is definitely a New Testament word. Charity is found 9 times in 1 Corinthians 13, which makes it the Charity Chapter in the Bible. Many people have called it the Love Chapter (in correction of the King James Bible); but this distinction clearly goes to 1 John 4 where love in mentioned 27 times (unless you included the 3 times "beloved" is used). Also, the fact that 1 Corinthians 13 uses charity 9 times connects it with the nine-fold fruit of the spirit. Nine often denotes a spiritual fruitfulness.

In order to define charity scripturally, we will go to the scripture. That is, we will observe how the word is used in scripture and let that be our final authority for the meaning of the word. Notice the following points about charity as it is used in scripture:

1. Charity Is The Epitome Of Perfection In The Christian Life. It Is The "Greatest" Of The Three Abiding Virtues (1 Corinthians 13:13). It Is The "Bond Of Perfectness" (Colossians 3:14) And The "End Of The Commandment" (1 Timothy 1:5). Of The Seven Things Peter Exhorts The Saints To Add To Their Faith, It Is The Seventh (2 Peter 1:5-7). Obviously, The Christian Life Reaches Its Pinnacle In The Practice Of Charity. We Certainly Should Know What It Is.
2. But To Know What Charity Is, We Must Know What It Is Not. Today, People Often Think Of Charity As Nothing More Than A Giving Of Money For Some Good Cause. However, The Bible Strongly Contrasts The Charity It Proposes To The Misunderstood Charity Of Giving Funds. 1 Corinthians 13:3 States, "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." According To This Verse, It Is Possible To Give All Your Goods To Feed The Poor And Yet Not Have Charity. Therefore, The Giving Of Funds Is Not Biblical Charity.
3. Biblical Charity Can Also Be Distinguished From Other Forms Of Love. Though Most Dictionaries Say That Charity Includes The Idea Of The Love Of God For Man, There Is No Indication That It Is Used In That Way In The King James Bible. In Fact, It Is Not Specifically Used Of The Love Of Man For God Either. Although There Are Some Passages Where The Word Could Be Used In Application Of Some Of These Forms Of Love, Those Passages Where The Word Is Specifically Defined Never Refer To God's Love Toward Man Or Man's Love Toward God.
4. Charity Specifically Refers To The Love That We Have Toward Other Men. Paul Stresses That We Are To Walk "Charitably" Toward Our Weaker Brothers (Romans 14:13-15). He Praised The Thessalonians Because "The Charity Of Every One Of You All Toward Each Other Aboundeth" (2 Thessalonians 1:3). In 1 Peter 4:8-9, Peter Told The Believers, "And Above All Things Have Fervent Charity Among Yourselves: For Charity Shall Cover The Multitude Of Sins. Use Hospitality One To Another Without Grudging."

John encouraged the saints, "Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren, and to strangers; Which have borne witness of thy charity before the church..." (3 John 1:5-6). In all of these passages, charity describes the love of the saints for others. Most of the time, it refers to other believers: toward each other, among yourselves, to the brethren. In one case (3 John 1:5-6), it includes strangers. But in them all, God is referring to the special love that believers should have for others.

There are plenty of passages that speak of the importance of love in general, but the Bible speaks of charity to point us to a specific kind of love. Charity is the love toward others that suffers long with them and is kind (1 Corinthians 13:4), that does not behave unseemly, seek to get its own way, or is easily provoked (1 Corinthians 13:5); that rejoices not in the iniquity of others (1 Corinthians 13:6); that bears, believes, hopes, and endures (1 Corinthians 13:7). It is the grace that proves the believer to be mature in his faith and practice. May the Lord give us all more charity.

What the apostle does here is that he presents Christian living as a two-pronged approach which we can maybe simplify or summarize. The first is doing good works, which is the first part there—visiting orphans and widows in their trouble. And the second prong is to become holy, or as Mr. Armstrong often put it, to build righteous character in ourselves, working with God.

We could also divide it, maybe a little bit differently, into the practical and the spiritual.

Obviously when you are doing good works, that is a practical application of what you have learned and put on as spiritual character.

Another way that we can divide it out is to say that he divides it into the outward and the inward. There is something that goes on inside, and then there is something that comes out of you as a result.

However we want to name this two-pronged approach, we must realize that neither one of these groups, or prongs, is sufficient alone. That is why James presents them together. This is pure and undefiled religion to have an outward aspect and an inward aspect or, to have a practical aspect, and a spiritual aspect.

Please turn over a few pages to I John 3 and we will see that John agrees with this, and backs it up. Pure religion requires both of these prongs.

I John 3:16-19 By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him.

Notice that he said that if we don't manifest God's love by giving, helping, and caring for others then we haven't fulfilled anything. We can't be sure that the love of God is actually in us if it is not coming out in some sort of physical work that we do, some act of love.

Now I admit, and I'm sure that the other ministers would agree to this, that in this church's teaching, we tend to stress only one of these prongs. It is not that we don't talk about the other, but we tend to stress the inward, the spiritual, the holy, the righteous character part; the second prong that James shows there in 1:27.

There is very good, sound, solid, biblical reasons for this. Basically, it is the more important of the two.

The inward, the spiritual, the holy, the righteous character aspects of it are the foundation—you might call it the wellspring, or the fertile soil—out of which good works grow. You can go as far as to say that effective and truly good works cannot be done without godly character.

Did you catch that? You must have godly character before you can even begin to do good works properly! Without godliness, good works are simply common, and rather empty humanistic philanthropy. We see this all the time in the world.

Some foundation is set up to throw money at a problem. Maybe the person who set up the foundation really wanted to help, but when you get down to brass tacks it is rather a cold approach to the problem. They are just shoveling money at whatever they think is the cause of poverty, disease, or what have you. It is just a big cold corporation, or a trust, or fund, or whatever that is trying to do some good as they see it.

That is the common approach to charity in this world. Let's go to I Corinthians 13 and see a little bit of backup on this. This, of course, is the love chapter. And Paul makes this exact statement in verse 3:

I Corinthians 13:3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

You could be the wealthiest person in the world, and die a poor man because you've given it all away to various charities and needy throughout the land throughout the world, and if there is not that bit of agape love behind it, there is no profit in it. It is like money down a rat-hole.

Some good may come from it, but it is not the lasting eternal truly helpful good that God wants our charity to affect. Many people think that just doing good as we see it is good enough. But that is not the case once you become a true Christian. We're going to see this in this sermon.

In this sermon I want to dwell on the first prong that James mentioned—doing good works. We must not forget as we're going through this that the righteous character of Almighty God in us always expresses itself in practical exercise of good works. It always does. If we have God's holy righteous character in us we will produce good works because God gives. It is His righteous character that comes out in giving. He is the Father of every good and perfect gift. That is what He does. He gives. He can't help but give, because all the little parts of His character manifest themselves in outward concern.

And of course, we know that in the Bible this is summarized by the word love, which is agape, which Mr. Armstrong always told us was out-flowing concern for others.

Further (part of my Specific Purpose Statement. as well) we will see through this sermon that godly good works contain not just help, but a great deal of thought and concern. It is not just the act of helping somebody else that matters. It also matters how one helps and it matters what one's help produces.

We often come to the conclusion that once we help somebody our part is done. We do this all the time.

Let's say that you get a letter in the mail from some charitable organization, and they want fifteen dollars, and we write a check, and we throw it in the mail, and that's it. We don't give it another thought, until tax time comes around, and we have a receipt there that we use for a tax deduction.

But, God's form of helping goes far beyond anything like that. I hope to show that throughout this sermon.

Let's go back to Luke 3, and begin here with the body of the sermon. We will go to verses 7 and 8, and then skip down to verse 10. This is the ministry of John the Baptist as Luke presents it; one of his sermons that he gave.

Luke 3:7-8 Then he said to the multitudes that came out to be baptized by him, "Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? "Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.

Luke 3:10-11 So the people asked him, saying, "What shall we do then?" He answered and said to them, "He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise."

And then he goes on and gives advice to various others.

We know that the preaching of John the Baptist was concerned very much with repentance. He told them that they had sins, and that they needed to recognize them, and they needed to turn from them. But, he didn't stop there.

He demanded from them that they bear fruits worthy of repentance as it says there in verse 8. And when they asked him what it is that they should do to show forth these fruits worthy of repentance, he said, "Do good."

If you have a surplus of clothing, he said, give it to someone who doesn't have enough. And if you have more food than you can eat, don't let it go to waste. Give it to someone who can use it.

So, they were to exhibit their changed hearts in good deeds, in giving alms, in doing acts of charity, in giving to others.

We know that this is a common theme throughout the Bible. You can hardly flip to a page without there being some admonition about doing good, or giving, or helping others; sharing, and many other ways that it is expressed in the Bible.

If you sat down and thought about it right now, you could probably come up with a half dozen scriptures just off the top of your head that talk about our need to give either to the needy, to our brethren, the destitute, or the poor. There are many, many scriptures in the Bible that talk about giving as part of our religion.

Even the two great commandments, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. And the second is like unto it, Love your neighbor as yourself," reflect this teaching as our love for God reveals itself in our love for neighbor.

You can't have the one without the other. If you go through John's first epistle, you will find that he is constantly coming back to that, even to the point of saying that if we say that we love God but we show no love for our brother, then we are lying. We really do not love God if it does not come out in acts of love toward our brother.

James 4:17 says that if we know to do good, and don't do it, it is sin to us. There are other scriptures, one in Proverbs 3 that says, "Don't withhold...." If you have something that another person needs, and they really need it, if you withhold it, that is bad. Don't withhold it from them.

Let's move forward a few chapters to Luke 6, and we will see that Jesus picks up right where John the Baptist left off. We will start in verse 27. This is part of the Sermon on the Mount, Luke's version:

Luke 6:27-38 But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you. To him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer the other also. And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who asks of you. And from him who takes away your goods do not ask them back. And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise. But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back. [And probably with interest!] But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you."

Jesus goes further than John. He emphasizes giving not just to those who love us, but also those who hate us, curse us, despise us, and persecute us.

What Jesus is doing there is that He is letting us know that godly giving contains an element that separates it from the common sorts of charity. And, of course, we know this as agape love—the kind of love that can be done without emotion if need be. It is a kind of love that does for another what is truly best for that person, rather than for what will make that person, necessarily, happy at the time. It is a love that looks beyond present circumstances and looks toward the ultimate realization of the act, toward the effect of your own behavior, primarily.

It is not just a love that out of concern gives to somebody to plug a gap and that only. It is a type of love that is done with a great deal of thought, and that thinks through the effects and consequences of one's actions to their ultimate end. Therefore, the result is that one does good for that person whether that person likes it or not.

Of course, God would want us to do these acts of agape love with a great deal of feeling out of true concern. So, it shouldn't be a cold love. But, if necessary, it can be.

It is a love that one must be very careful with. And, if you read between the lines here, in Luke 6, you can see that Jesus is aiming for the Kingdom of God, not for somebody's temporary help. If we look at it, why would one do good to those that hate him? Why would one do good to someone who curses him or persecutes him unless there was an ultimate end for that other person?

I'm thinking specifically here of a witness that is being made so that in the end that person's witness and act of love of doing good for one's enemies will come to the person's mind in the resurrection (it might take that long), and it will help to convert him. It will make a stunning impact on that person's mind that this was a Christian practicing love and true good works.

He mentions here that in godly giving there is greater merit when there is no hope of repayment, or even of gratitude, because it is done selflessly. There is nothing coming back to pay, or repay you for your sacrifice or gift. He is very quick to come up and say, "Look, if you do it this way, there are returns! There are rewards!" But, going into it, a Christian must not have those things in mind.

Godly living is done without respect of persons. It is done in mercy and love, and kindness, as He says here in the golden rule, just like we would like to be treated. It is done without condemnation and thus out of a pure heart that truly desires the other's well-being.

Now, we don't want to make the mistake, however, to be fooled into thinking that godly giving is merely softhearted charity. Obviously, God wants us to have a soft heart. But, we can be softhearted, and be charitable, and be doing it all wrong, because many people have done that just out of concern for a person, giving them whatever, doing whatever it is for them that they do, and making a huge mistake.

Here are some wonderful promises for those who consider the poor. But what does it mean to "consider the poor"?

The Hebrew word in verse 1 translated as "considers," sakal, is quite interesting. One Hebrew lexicon defines sakal as "to look at; to look at with the mind; to consider; to attend to." As Hebrew is a picturesque language, the word runs the gamut of possible definitions. It begins with looking at something, then mentally investigating it, and finally, all the way to attending to it. It is a word, then, that encompasses a process.

The definition continues, giving more figurative meanings: "To be or become intelligent, prudent, or wise. It implies maturity of understanding or judgment." We can now plug these definitions back into verse 1: "Blessed is he who intelligently, prudently, or wisely, with maturity of understanding and judgment, considers the poor."

The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, page 877, comments on this word: "Sakal relates to an intelligent knowledge of the reason. There is the process of thinking through a complex arrangement of thought resulting in a wise dealing and use of good practical common sense. Another end result is the emphasis upon being successful.'"

So, what is David truly saying? By using this word, he does not say simply, "Blessed is he who sees people in need." We could take it that way, as the most basic definition of sakal is "to look at," but by using sakal,? with its gamut of definitions, he implies a great deal more. He is really saying, "Blessed is he who sees a need, and then looking at the complex situation surrounding it, thinks through how he could best, most intelligently, and wisely bring about a successful solution to it."

That is the essence of this word, sakal. It is not just seeing a problem that needs fixing. It is seeing a situation—a person in need—then taking stock and determining what one has to give that will fulfill what the other person really needs, investigating the needy person's situation and attitude (as much as possible), considering God's involvement, and extrapolating what actions and methods one may take to produce the best possible solution. After all that, one must actually do what needs to be done to bring the situation to a successful conclusion.

That is a lot of work! There is a great deal involved when a Christian goes about doing good (Acts 10:38)!

Strong's #26: agape (pronounced ag-ah'-pay)

from 25; love, i.e. affection or benevolence; specially (plural) a love-feast:--(feast of) charity(-ably), dear, love.

Thayer's Greek Lexicon:

̓́ 

agapē 

1) brotherly love, affection, good will, love, benevolence

2) love feasts

Part of Speech: noun feminine

Relation: from G25

Usage:

This word is used 116 times:

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Matthew 24:12: "because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold."
Luke 11:42: "judgment and the love of God: these ought ye to have done,"
John 5:42: "ye have not the love of Godin you."
John 13:35: "disciples, if ye have loveone to another."
John 15:9: "you: continue ye in mylove."
John 15:10: "ye shall abide in my love;even as I have kept my"
John 15:10: "abide in his love."
John 15:13: "Greater love hath no manthan this, that a man lay down"
John 17:26: "will declare it: that thelove wherewith thou hast loved me may be"
Romans 5:5: "maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in"
Romans 5:8: "God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we"
Romans 8:35: "us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress,"
Romans 8:39: "us from the love of God, which is in Christ"
Romans 12:9: " Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good."
Romans 13:10: " Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling"
Romans 13:10: "ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law."
Romans 14:15: "with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not"
Romans 15:30: "for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love"
1 Corinthians 4:21: "a rod, or in love,and in the spirit of meekness?"
1 Corinthians 8:1: "Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth."
1 Corinthians 13:1: "and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or"
1 Corinthians 13:2: "and have not charity, I am nothing."
1 Corinthians 13:3: "body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth"
1 Corinthians 13:4: " Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself,"
1 Corinthians 13:4: "Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself,"
1 Corinthians 13:4: "charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,"
1 Corinthians 13:8: " Charity never faileth: but whether there beprophecies, they shall fail; whether"
1 Corinthians 13:13: "abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest"
1 Corinthians 13:13: "but the greatest of these is charity."
1 Corinthians 14:1: "Follow after charity,and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that"
1 Corinthians 16:14: "Let all your things be done with charity."
1 Corinthians 16:24: "My love be with you all in Christ Jesus."
2 Corinthians 2:4: "that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto"
2 Corinthians 2:8: "I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him."
2 Corinthians 5:14: "For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge,"
2 Corinthians 6:6: "the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned,"
2 Corinthians 8:7: "and in your love to us, see that ye abound"
2 Corinthians 8:8: "the sincerity of your love."
2 Corinthians 8:24: "churches, the proof of your love, and of our boasting"
2 Corinthians 13:11: "live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be"
2 Corinthians 13:14: "Christ, and the love of God, and the communion"
Galatians 5:6: "faith which worketh by love."
Galatians 5:13: "flesh, but by love serve one another."
Galatians 5:22: "of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness,"
Ephesians 1:4: "before him in love:"
Ephesians 1:15: "the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the"
Ephesians 2:4: "for his great lovewherewith he loved us,"
Ephesians 3:17: "and grounded in love,"
Ephesians 3:19: "And to know the loveof Christ, which passeth knowledge, that"
Ephesians 4:2: "forbearing one another in love;"

What He is saying is that God does not expect us to give out of our own poverty, to put our family at risk to help other people, or to give in any way things that we do not have. The best gifts that we can give are things that we already have to give—things from inside us, as it literally says. The margin reads, "Give alms of what is inside."

Give alms—give help to others from what is produced by the character we have already built. That way, we know it will be a pure offering and acceptable, not only to the person who receives it, but also to God. We are to be living sacrifices, sweet savors in our dedication to both God and to man. It comes out in our good works.

If we give of what we have already built within us, it will be an acceptable and a pure offering before God. Remember the widow's mite? It was not the amount she gave but the relative value of it that impressed Jesus. She gave of what she had.

The word in the New King James Version rendered "charitable deeds," and in the King James, "alms," is best translated as "mercifulness" or "mercy." There are some who believe the word should actually be "righteousness." This comes from the Hebrew concept of good deeds or alms. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word used most often for the idea is sadaka, translated most often as "righteousness." Rather than saying "doing good deeds," the Hebrews would say "doing righteousness."

The idea here is obviously righteous acts—good works. The Greeks did not have a word that worked exactly, and so Matthew chose the word that means "mercies."