Charity: A Lecture
We often think of charity as an action. But I think of charity as a state of the heart.
-Elaine S. Dalton, Charity Never Faileth, BYU Women’s Conference, April 2011
We all know what charity is. I can ask any room of Primary children or churchgoing adults and I will always get the same answer:
“But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.” (Moroni 7:47)
In today’s post I’d like to explore this idea a little more in depth with you and look at how we can all develop this love. This is the third post in my “faith, hope, and charity” triad based on the formula found in The Lectures on Faith.
First on this particular docket is to show what charity is, and then we'll go into the object upon which it rests and finally how to develop it for lasting change. In Faith we find a principle of power, and in hope a principle of patience. In Charity I find the principle of conversion, which we’ll get into more in-depth below!
First: Charity, and what it is.
Definitions help in this instance to show the degeneration of our English language. A workable definition in today's speak goes something like this: "Charity is generosity and helpfulness especially toward the needy or suffering" or "aid given to those in need." This is not the principal definition of the word from the first edition of Webster's Dictionary, it happens to be the third. The top definition given back in 1828 was: "In a general sense, love, benevolence, good will; that disposition of heart which inclines men to think favorably of their fellow man, and to do them good. In a theological sense, it includes supreme love to God, and universal good will to men."
Why do I think this is a degradation of language? Largely because Charity today has been reduced to mere giving rather than recognizing the source of the gift and the larger body to which it is directed. Modern charity necessitates that you elevate yourself above someone else; Charity in a "truer" sense allows it to be given freely regardless of rank or station.
In this way anyone today can demonstrate Charity as a principle just as one can Faith and Hope. In keeping with the rainstorm idea I presented in my post on Hope, I'll try and extend the metaphor even further to illustrate my point. To reiterate: In Hope you expect a rainstorm, in Faith you bring your raincoat and umbrella. In Charity you give your umbrella to someone caught in the rain because you see them getting wet.
And it really is just that simple in practice. Charity recognizes necessity, not superiority, and is given out of recognition of the worth of a soul.
True Charity is absolutely "the pure love of Christ." I like to look at it in two ways: one is the pure love possessed by the Father in giving Christ, and Christ's pure love that He possesses Himself.
Charity begins here: in the idea that God does indeed exist and love His children, or that He is love (see 1 John 4:8). We obviously have to define what love is as well, so we can better understand the Being we worship. I recently discovered a Christian Apologetic, the late Ravi Zacharias, and though we disagree on a few things, I do admire his thoughts on love as the supreme ethic. He had this to say on the subject:
"Love is greater than any law. The whole Law, given at first to Moses, came in about 613 precepts. These revealed the parameters in which God prescribed authentic worship as we love and serve Him. One cannot but be overwhelmed by the sheer weight of obligation. About half a century later David, in Psalm 15, takes these 613 and reduces them to about eleven. Two centuries later, Isaiah shrinks them to six [see Isaiah 1:16-20]. Micah takes those six and summarizes them into three [see Micah 6:8]. Jesus reduces them to two—and both have love at their core [see Matthew 22:37-40; Mark 12:30-31; Luke 10:25-28]." (Ravi Zacharias, Think Again: Love, the Supreme Expression, with added references)
Love is more than simple affection or "warm fuzzies," and this is doubly or triply so when love is applied to God. His love is not the doting, spoiling love of our grandparents, nor is it the fierce infatuation I may have felt in 9th grade. His love is something unfathomable to us though we try and mortalize it, and I believe it is one of those great and terrible attributes that God possesses. Let me put it to you this way:
I recently graduated from singleness to matrimony, and in our four months of marriage at the time of this post, I am obviously an expert. I am not yet a father myself, but I'm sure I'll be an expert when that happens, as well (cue mom and wife's eye rolls in 3...2...1...). I have spoken with a great many people about parenting and fatherhood in particular, and I consistently hear one idea when it comes to a father and his children. Usually I'll ask something like: "What do you want out of life for your children?" to which I get the simple response: "Only the very best."
Now, if we were to take this in our mortal understanding, that usually means (after further questioning) freedom from suffering, an education, near perpetual happiness or contentedness, and the list goes on and on of things we see as good for our children.
God the Father doesn't exactly see it that way; look at His Only Begotten (see John 1:14; Alma 5:48).
If we are to assume that God as Father would give Christ - His Son - only the very best, it's an interesting list from a mortal point of view: He was born in a stable with a manger for His crib, for a start (see Luke 2:7). He was then to live out His 33 years reviled by His peers who also threatened His life multiple times (see Isaiah 53:3; Mark 3:6; John 5:18, 10:31). He wasn't given a house by His Father (see Luke 9:58), and He had no great amount of money, either (see Matthew 17:24-27). He was finally subjected to beatings and then a tortuous death after a relatively short life (see Matthew 27).
Some kind of love, huh?
If that was the very best the Father would give to His Son, it seems silly to me when we expect much different, and we do! We want to live long and happy lives in the lap of luxury with nary a trouble to cross our poor path.
John so graciously outlines the type of love that God exhibits:
"In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another." (1 John 4:9-11)
John had quite a bit to say about love, and it is clearly evident in His written epistles and gospel witness. And this is the second aspect of Charity: a correct idea of how He demonstrates His love to His children.
In this verse we see that the idea of love does not come from us. We did not create it, we do not even define it; God does. His idea of utmost love was to send His Only Begotten Son to save a fallen world (see John 3:16; 1 John 3:16). His idea of Christlike Love was to literally send Christ, the embodiment of His love, to show us that it is indeed possible in life to
"...[suffer] long, and [be kind]; ...[envy] not; [vaunt not oneself], [be] not puffed up, ... not behave...unseemly, [seek] not [one's] own, [be] not easily provoked, [think] no evil; [Rejoice] not in iniquity, but [rejoice] in the truth; [Bear] all things, [believe] all things, [hope] all things, [endure] all things. [And] never [fail]..." (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)
We have today an idea that God is involved only in the good in our lives, that He is more like "...a grandfather in heaven, a God who said of anything we happened to like doing, 'What does it matter so long as they are contented?'" (C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain) I understand Him to be even more actively involved through Charity, through the pure Atoning Love of Christ, than we give Him credit. I find myself largely wishing God to be concerned only with my contentedness than with my eternal welfare.
At the beginning of this post I said that Charity is the Principle of Conversion, and I mean it. Conversion into the kind of creature or being that God wants, which is wholly different and more glorious than words can describe; but darn it I'm going to try. This is where the third "step" to developing Charity comes in: it is an actual knowledge of the love of God (Christ) as manifested in your life, and demonstrate that same charity according to His will. A simple example is found in the conversion of fractions in mathematics. In order to convert, say, 1/2 and 3/4 so they can be added together, you need to find a common denominator (4, in this case). Christ is the Common Denominator in Eternity, and is the Way by which all of us will be saved (see Mosiah 3:17). He it is through which we are made into these new creatures (see 2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15; Mosiah 27:25-26).
How is this done? Charity: Through Christ's Pure, Atoning Love. John taught:
"Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifiers himself, even as he is pure." (1 John 3:1-3)
And Moroni concurs:
"Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail—But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen." (Moroni 7:46-48)
That same love that the Father showed the Son in sending Him down to earth, not to condemn it but to save it (see John 3:16-17), is the same love that He shows us in chastenings and corrections (see Proverbs 3:12; Hebrews 12:6), and it is the same love which He asks us to share with all we meet. So said the Savior:
"As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you." (John 15:9-14)
"If ye love me, keep my commandments." (John 14:15)
And what commandments are those? I think the one that sums it all up and gives closure to this particular idea can be found at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, and consummated after the Resurrection, in which Christ adjures:
"Therefore I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect." (3 Nephi 12:48; see Matthew 5:48)
And we know that it is possible. Through Charity, that which "suffereth long" (see 1 Corinthians 13) is enabled to suffer jointly with Christ such that together with and because of Him we can receive an eternal weight of glory (see Romans 8:16-17; 2 Corinthians 4:17; D&C 63:66).
This is the formula for Charity:
1. First, the idea that He exists and loves His children, or, that God is Love (1 John 4:8).
2. Second, a correct understanding of how He demonstrates His love for His children (John 3:16).
3. Third, an actual knowledge of the love of God (Christ) as manifested in your life, and demonstrate that same charity according to His will. (see 1 Nephi 11:14-22, John 14:15)
Through Christ and His Atonement, we can become completely new and changed as we become possessed of Charity, His Pure Atoning Love. Paul probably understood and said it best to the Corinthians:
"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.
...For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
And now abideth faith, hope, and charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity." (1 Corinthians 13, excerpted)
Truly without Charity, this Converting Principle, we are nothing as Paul says. With this love, this great transformational force, we are promised glories jointly with God and His Christ. I've quoted him a few times already, but Jack had it right:
"It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which,if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree helping each other to one or the other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all of our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors." (C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory)
I hope to help you toward your immortal goal, and I hope to receive the same in return from you. I am working toward obtaining Charity, and God willing we will get there together.