Charity

we are looking at instruction for Christian Living we've been going through second Peter chapter one and I'm going to read those uh partent verses again today we're we've got a couple more lessons after this and we will go on to something else but second Peter 1 beginning at verse 5 said this be giving and besides this giving all diligence add to your faith virtue to Virtue knowledge to knowledge Temperance to Temperance patience to patience godliness and to Godliness brotherly kindness to brotherly kindness charity so we end with this list with that last one there charity and that will be the topic of the lesson today

I want to read a it's a little more lengthy passage from first John chapter 4 we'll begin at verse 7 talks about this now the translators in John use the word love in second Peter in 1 Corinthians 13 they use the word charity but it does come from the same Greek word so let's let's look at what John has to say beloved let us love one another other for love is of God and everyone that loveth is born of God and knows God he that loveth not now this is a powerful verse knoweth not God for God is love in this was manifested or here

was the how the love of God was revealed toward us because that God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him here in his love not that we love God but that he loved us and he sent his son to be a propitiation for our sins or covering for our sins beloved if God so loved us then we ought to love one another no man have seen God at any time but if we love one another God dwells in us and his love is perfected in us and here's how we know that we dwell in him and that he

is in us because Heath given us his Spirit he's put his spirit in his life so we know that he is in us and we have seen and we do testify that the father sent the son to be the savior of the world and so whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the son of God God dwells in him and he is in God and we have known and believe that the love that God hath to us God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwells in God and God in him herein here is how our love is made perfect or here is our love

made perfect that we may have boldness in the day of judgment because as he is so are we in this world there is no fear in love but perfect love casts out fear because fear hath torment he that feareth is not made perfect in love we love him because he first loved us if a man say well I love God and he hates his brother he is a liar and he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen and this commandment we have from him that he who loveth God love his brother also quite

a lengthy passage there and I have to admit looking at this lesson I I always take a little pause when I approach this topic because while to say to talk about love should be easy uh because our Perceptions in the world are skewed it's it's not always um so easy to do why because biblical love is talked here this word this Greek word for charity it it's foreign to our idea of what love is in fact it's it's foreign to the world's concept it it's not typical if you will of what love is significantly the word translated love in the the New Testament is not

found hardly at all in ancient literature of the that day they just didn't use it very much at all they used a word for love and a couple different ones but it was more in line with the way we think of the world word today from the world we love everything don't we oh I love that outfit love those shoes love that tie love our spouse or children or car music pets well you love everything you have to start wondering do you really love anything right just just love it so to Define love I think we think of things like strong affection you know those

warm fuzzy feelings the things that happen this what whatever we feel in here and while that may fit one definition of love it's it's not really the Bible definition it's not what John was talking about not what Paul talks about or Jesus or Peter the New Testament and I suspect the reason the King James translators in 1 Corinthians 13 use the word cherish instead of Love they didn't want modern readers to confuse what they understood to be love with what Paul was trying to say and I think in that respect they were probably right we think of Charity as something you donate to right something

you give to charity we have charity by helping out those in need and we exhibit charity and that is really more what the focus of this word means so let let's see if we can Define it through God's word when when giving the quality that would I identify as disciples Jesus said a verse we're very familiar with by this shall men know that you are my disciples if you have love one to another or if you have charity one to another love it it's a fair fundamental characteristic of Christianity or it should be it it is it is the one distinguishing trait that Jesus specifically

mentioned find that interesting that the thing that he homed in on and said here's how you know not how they dress not how they talk not how anything else it's that they love one another if a person has and Exhibits the love of God everything else will follow everything else will go along Jesus probably gave love as proof of discipleship because really it's impossible to fake true love the Pharisees were certainly faithful in attendance to the synagogues they followed the law down to the letter as closely as they could but they really didn't have much love for anybody right right it was all about I'm

focusing on making sure everything I do is correct and I'm living right and I'm doing this and I'm do this but they didn't care about anybody else Jesus rebuked them for it and he called them vipers a Generation of Vipers they were faithful in all those thing and their outward appearance that conformed to all the laws but there was no love it's just as possible today for us to attend church regularly to dress modestly to adhere to True doctrines and and make sure what we say is right and study and do everything else but lack love Peter's real practical here isn't he we've talked about

some of the things add virtue and add add to your faith and virtue and knowledge and brotherly client all these different things but he said here's what it comes down you have to have love so let's define what it is I think sometimes it's easier to do it by what it is not it it's not this selfish feeling of affection towards something else it it's not that love that has no discipline or no withholding just do what I want to do because I love doing this and I I like the way it makes me feel it's not an unbending discipline either that allows no mistakes

and says you have to live this way or you have to do that and I I think our world is just warped that de generation or that definition of love in our generation you know the internet flaunts paid influencers whose job is to tell how much they love this new product with the idea of sell you something right weekly tabloids whether it's on the when you're scrolling that you see or something else talks about the the latest love of various celebrities or movie stars oh now they've left this one and now they love that one and and watch what passes for love is Tainted with

when you think about it it's tainted in selfishness love says well if it makes me feel good then that's what I love we're not careful we base Our Lives we can base things on this shifting sand of a mutual benefit well I love this because I like what it does for me and and those involved in these kind of things look at you know everything is just a 50-50 proposition you give to me I'll give to you but how unstable that can be we we see that in our society and as long as love is colored by just whatever benefits me it's not true love

and it won't weather the storms that blow up when that go falls apart right people fall in and out of love some sometimes as quickly as they change your clothes and many years ago there was a cartoon strip some of you may remember that if you're as old as I am it's called love is of course we also got daily newspapers and it was in there usually it's just a little square about that big said love is at the top and then it would have a picture of something it might be somebody getting their back scratched or it might be somebody holding the cat Love

Is This Love Is that love all of those things when you think about it it really was just those things that make you feel good right so things that that help me out or make me feel comfortable but when we look at what love is we could look first to the Old Testament and I think this is very telling we get a picture of God's love for Israel and Deuteronomy 7: 6-9 he said this you're a holy people unto the Lord thy God the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself above all people that are on the face of

the Earth so he showing his love he said the Lord did not set his love upon you or choose you because you were more in number than any people for you were the fewest of all people but because the Lord loved you and because he would keep the oath that he had sworn unto th your fathers ha the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand and he redeemed you out of the house of the bondman from the hand of pharaoh king of Egypt know therefore that the Lord thy God he is God the faithful God which keeps Covenant and mercy with them that love

him and keep his Commandments to a thousand Generations so he kind of gives us a glimpse of what love is it is he chose them not for any thing you know not because they were a better people a stronger people a bigger people a better looking people or anything else he just made a decision here is the people that I am going to choose I'm going to raise up this generation really to show my grace to the rest of the world and hopefully bring them all in but he said I loved you and because I'm going to keep my oath because I'm going to keep

a promise so we see in that this idea of Love cannot be just how I feel today or how God feels in fact if you think about it God would have had a hard time with that because there were times he felt like destroying Israel there were times he looked at them and said you're just a bunch of backsliders and you're you're stiff necked you're stubborn you're rebellious you're all these it's easy to love somebody like that right that that's how you are but I made a promise to your fathers and I made a covenant with you and I am going to follow that note

there there thou for that the Lord thy God he is God and he is a faithful God he's not going to change today because he decides he doesn't like you he keeps Covenant he keeps Mercy with them that love him so he continues in that vain that's the kind of God that we serve JW and love according to the New Testament Paul writes about it extensively in 1 Corinthians 13 we call it the love chapter he said it is patient it is kind it is generous it's humble it's Coury it's unselfish good-tempered not self-seeking not hypocrisy it is sincere interesting you look at all those

things really you think about there there's no warm fuzzy feelings in all that at all it's just here's how you need to love here's how you need to live and and I think this is probably an important point when we talk about that you know you can love something and not necessarily like something now that kind of crosses the idea of love right there were times I think God did not like Israel he sure didn't like it when they were worshiping other gods he didn't like the things they were doing he didn't like the way they were living he didn't like all those things and

yet he said but I've loved you with an everlasting love and I even think after the final judgment when those that that have names are not written in the Lamb's Book of Life and they find their s in the Lake of Fire and birth it isn't that God quit loving them it's because they chose not to receive or not to accept his love and so they put themselves there I've heard people say well God can't love people and send them to hell no he he doesn't you end up sending yourself if you choose not his love so John 4 uh verse eight said this for

God is love notice that God is love love it's the highest characteristic of God he loves the good he loves the bad he proved his love by giving his love for us we read it in in verses 9 and 10 in this here's how the love of God was revealed he sent his son into this world that we might live through him right hearing his love not that we love God but that he loved us that's really the the pro of of that is the basis of the love of God in our lives he loved us us so much notice that when the Bible descries

describes love it always involves an action it's not just a feeling and it is always not just an action but it is a self-sacrificing action God showed his love by sending his son this love as projected on the cross calvaries exhibited love it caused Jesus to love us although we were Sinners although we were unlovable Paul said this in Romans 5'8 God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners says in another places you were at enity with God or you were enemies with God so you weren't on God's side you had nothing to do with God he were without Sinners

but yet because he loved you he died for you and I think when we grasp that we begin to just get a peak of the love of God here's what real love is it's looking at somebody that you don't want in your flesh or in in your normal thinking anything to do with right this is a person going completely the other way and living completely against everything I believe and against what I teach just or against the law I laid down in God's case it it's completely against my nature and yet I love them well how can you say that God how can you love

people that are rebellious and that go against you because love is more than just emotion emotion did cause Jesus to be moved with compassion when he saw the multitudes it did cause him to to react and to do those kind of things when he would look upon but true love caused him to say not my will but thine be done I am G to go ahead even though it's not what I want so then in some ways you can Define love as willful benevolence of choosing the good of others even when it cost us something even when it is against what we want to do

God loves us not because of what we are or who we are or what we've done he loves us because it's his choice and its nature it's because he created us and he said I am going to invest myself in this people as rebellious as they are as sinful as some of them become and and is you know he gave gave us a choice to make choices and to have that Free Will which many do and go a different Direction but he said I gave you that choice because I love you and I want you to love me back so love is the Cornerstone of

all virtues it's the ultimate test of true Faith it's the greatest commandment and and really it's the greatest empowerment by the Holy Ghost we like to talk about Empower to do a lot of things but it really comes down to love it's interesting uh DL Moody wrote many years ago talking about the fruit of the spirit talking about them but he said the fruit of the spirit begins with love he said jooy is just love exalting being happy because of the love of God right peace is love just in rest I can rest because God loves me and I love him longsuffering Is Love on

trial not always easy to love right when you're going through hard and difficult times gentleness is love in in society among others goodness is Love In Action Faith Is Love on the battlefield meekness is love at school and Temperance is love in training he said person said it this way we like someone because I like you because you think like I do I like you because I like the way you look I like you because of this I like you because of that we love someone although I made that choice Jesus described the love that proves discipleship when he said this a new commandment I

give you that you love one another as I have loved you that you also as I have loved you that you also love one another let me ask have you ever been commanded to love an individual you go love that person that's foreign idea to our love idea of love right you can't make me love this or love that but the key is understanding that we love as he has loved us you cannot truly have charity have the love of God apart from Jesus Christ it is the result of his Spirit working in us and I think that's the essence of our lesson text particularly

from John there he has given us his Spirit he said that's how we know that he lives in us we have his Spirit but it will cause us to love as he is loved as long as we walk after the spirit notice he said as I have loved you not as you perceive love not as you see it in the world not as it is defined in any other way but in the way that I loved what was that a self giving love exceeds carnal affection you might have for whatever reasons we love because he loved us now I used to look at that verse

and thought that that sounds weird you know we love him because he first loved us okay well if he don't love me I'm not going to love him and okay now he does so it it to us that just doesn't square right we love him well you ever have somebody say well I love you and you look at and say well I don't love you well you first love me so you have to doesn't make sense right but in God's case we love him are we Ena to love him back we are put in a position where we can love because he was willing to

say I love you even though you're unlovable I love you even though you don't deserve it I love you even though you've gone astray and you're not living according to my word and according to my plan but because he did and because he was so willing to show his love to me what else can I do but say Lord I love you too right if you love me that much when I didn't deserve it when I didn't earn it when I had no reason for you to love me but you love me I love you too he loved us while we were yet sinners if

we fail to love Sinners and and here here's what it comes back to us because he loves the love of God is working in us right if we fail to love Sinners we've shered our responsibility to love Jesus didn't men's words did he Matthew 5:43 you have heard it been said You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy okay that's easy enough love the people I'm friends with love my little click that I hang around with love those that I like and hate my enemy I don't like them but I say unto you love your enemies and he's not talking about warm fuzzy feelings

I can't wait to get over to their house because I just love them they hate me and it just feels so good bless them that curse you that's a hard one do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you here's why if you do that that you may be the children of your father which is in heaven he makes his the son to rise on the evil and the good he sends rain on the just and the unjust and if you love them which love you what reward of you well of course that that's easy they

love me it's easy to love them back and then he saido not even the publicans do the same and if you salute your brethren only what do you do more than the others do not even the publicans do so but be be ye therefore perfect even as your father which is in heaven is perfect and what he's saying there is doesn't mean you have to be perfect like God and he's saying you know what he loved when the people were unlovable he loved when you were unlovable he loved when you were a sinner so you be perfect and love like he loved since charity begins

with god let's go back and start there we already mentioned a little bit from the Old Testament and Paul's writing God has many characteristics we think of God's strength you know he is omnipotent he has all power we think of his wisdom and his knowledge omnicient he knows everything we think sometimes about God's judgment I mean we think of all these different things and all serve to describe some aspect of God's being talks about the wrath of God but here's what the Bible never says God is wrath God is knowledge God is you know all these but what it does say in very plain letters

is God is love all all that God is everything he does is founded solidly on that fact he loves love shapes and it forms everything else he is and everything he does even his wrath is tempered by love and this love is not something of which he only speaks it it prompts him to action John said this in this was manifested the love of God in other words here is how the love of God was revealed not just that yeah you said you love me but I'm going to show you how much I love you because that God sent his only son into the world

that we might live through him that is the love of God God set the example for us in an unselfish love Christ's love was totally giving nature nothing we had to offer in the in return Paul said it this one in Romans 56 Christ died for who all those good people that go to church died for all those people that just have the right personality that he knew that would love him and no he died for the ungodly people that weren't living for him people that weren't interested in him people that weren't wanting to follow after him for scarcely for a righteous man one will

die sometimes that happens we see people take bullets for others particularly if you're a president and it's your job to push them out of the way and get hit you yet per adventure for a good man some would dare to die but God commendeth his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us love can never be perceived apart from actions right words mean little say all day I love you I love you I love you and then not show it not live it out not whatever it is by the action of Our Lord the death of Jesus on the

cross that we can understand the love of God that's how we see it that's how we know it hereby perceive we John said here's how you're going to perceive it here's how you're going to understand what God's love is perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us that's how we see God's love and then he said and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren in other words you have to live in the same kind of way in the cross God gave us a high and lofty example as Jesus laid down his life for us we need

to have that same kind of love that says you know what I'm G to sacrifice for others reach that's what God's love is all about the demonstration of God's I'm think well it didn't just end at Calvary from there he's continued to display is of aren't you thankful that it's still in your life after you're saved it doesn't just disappear so okay well you know you're on my side now the Old Testament God used bunch of different names they used a bunch of compound names we've talked about these sometimes called himself Jehovah Gyra the Lord will provide he was a provider he was Jehovah Rafa

which means the Lord that heals he was Jehovah Shalom the Lord our peace Jehovah to sidu the Lord our right righteousness all of these telling about different attributes of God and different things he does he still is our provider isn't he he is still our peace he is still my righteousness he is still my banner he is still the Strong Tower he is still all of these things to us and these many other names reveal him what I think what it shows is he is concerned about every need of the human race in fact Paul sums it up in Jesus he said this but my

God shall supply all your need according to his riches and Glory by Christ Jesus I'm thankful he demonstrates his love not by just saying okay I gave myself for you and that's enough and you no he's there every day isn't he aren't you thankful the love of God when you wake up in the morning the mercies are new every day and he still provides the things that we have need of still supplies our needs and the motive behind that is his love it motivates him to supply for for us look at all the blessings we have in our life we we read this verse earlier

where Jesus was talking and he said he causeth his rain to fall on the just and the undust you know we've all look we always look at that verse backwards the rain there is not talking about trials and tribulations go back and read it he said you know what ice in the rain and he's referring there to the the former rains the latter rains the blessings the things that help their crops to grow all these things he said I send it on the just and we think well that's good they deserve it but he also says I send it on the unjust really doesn't matter

right that's what Love's about he is willing to pour out blessing and he does I mean America is a blessed nation and we look at all the things around us and we can't say America is all living for God there's a lot of corrupt now I don't get discouraged at that like Elijah I only I I'm the only one left forget it Elijah I got 7,000 other ones sometimes we get that attitude when we look at the things of the world but God's got a people but you know what he doesn't say I'm only gonna bless you guys he cares that's the love of God

but not only that I'm thankful for the the giving that brought us into relationship with him giving of Jesus on the cross giving his life for us I'm thankful that for every day the blessing that he just bestowed bestows upon that's why we need to have a thankful Heart Right constantly thanking him and though we deeply appreciate those things I think most important he's got something prepared for us because of his love he said I have an inheritance that is Incorruptible it is undefiled it doesn't fade away and it is reserved in heaven for you there is an inheritance waiting for us why because he

loves us so if we walk in the footsteps of Jesus and and and we're talking here a lot about God's love but the command here in Peter and in John and Paul and Jesus is that we love as he did so if we walk in the footsteps of Jesus and our desire is to be like him we will demonstrate to others the love he has shown to us notice it's it's not an option fact John gets real pointed doesn't he if a man say I love God and he hates his brother John said he's a liar now we don't like call people Liars said if

you love God and you can't love people he said you're a liar he said for how can you not love your brother whom you've seen then how do you love God whom you haven't seen it's easy to say I love God because to many people that's an abstract concept and they well it's easy to see because you don't can't really see you can't you don't rub shoulders with them at work and get aggravated and so I can't love this person and I can't love you may not like him but you better love him why because he loved us in other words we show we have

received his love as we give it to someone else it' be impossible for us as we said to love God apart from his love for us we have really nothing as a basis upon which we can commend ourselves to God we can't earn salvation we can't do any of that we love him as we said because he first loved us Paul said he's given that to you right for by Grace you're saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God it's not of works it's not earning it yourself lest any should boast because God has loved us we can love

him and we can love others we can love others love for God will manifest itself in a love for others that's not just saying we love others but demonstrating that love to others it's easy to get up here and say we love everybody and we want to see the whole world say we love but what are we doing about it are we demonstrating that God could have said all day long I love these people and never s Jesus die on the cross right could have never come and so John says this in Chapter 3 Verse 18 if a brother or I'm sorry Jame James said

this James 2:15 he said if a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food and one of you say unto them depart in peace be warmed and filled notwithstanding you give them not those things which are needful to the body what doth it profit so he said you can say all day I love you and then you see a need and you don't meet that need well God bless I'll pray for you what's a profit what's it do we have to demonstrate that need a characteristic of a true Christian is that he will be found Distributing to the necessity of the Saints Paul

said and given to hospitality there are sacrifices that do please God and regardless of how loud and how long we testify of the love of God the proof is found in how we respond to the needs of others we can't be a church that proclaims the love of God but not reach out to others why we're focusing on that so much right others others we have to to reach out John did say it this way in John 3:17 who so hath this world's goods and he sees in brother in need and he shuts up his bowels of compassion from him how dwells the love of

God where is it when you see the need and you just shut it up the word of God commands that we minister to the needs of others it doesn't do to excuse our lack of involvement you know we could say well there's there's welfare system you can go apply to this as public you can do that what God's way is to reach out to others more specifically it is to reach to Sinners responsibility to doesn't end to distribute demon demonstrate love and to reach out does not just apply to brothers and sisters in church right it extends to others this is the one of the

major ways in which we show the love of God he said ' If thy enemy be hungry give him bread to eat if he be thirsty give him water to drink the Lord shall reward Thee the natural tendency of human nature is to to look at the enemy say well you're getting what you deserve but love reverses that tendency Jesus said it this way in another place you have heard it been said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a truth tooth we like that concept right but I say unto you resist not evil whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek turn

to him the other also the rela action of love to persecution does not return evil and we could stop there and say okay well if I'm treated badly then I'll show Love by not responding but Jesus goes beyond that he said if a man will sue thee at the law and take away thy coat let him have thy cloak also and whoever comp tells thee to go a mile go with him too and give to him that asketh thee and from him that would borrow of thee turn thou not away so he said show true love going beyond what is required acting on love toward

those that are hostile to us shows God's love for a sinner that's what he did right those that were hostile those who were enemies to him he showed his love Jesus makes it very clear it's not an emotional attachment but it's an outworking of compassion for one another it's seen as we bless those who curse us do good to those that hate us pray for those and by doing that we show the love of God and we reveal it it's to reveal God's goodness to bring him glory it's it's not so you get Glory it's because we want them to see Jesus in US Paul

said Peter said it this way in 1 Peter 2 he said having your conversation then again your way of life what you do honest among the Gentiles or those that are without that whereas they speak evil against you as evildoers they may make fun of you they may say things bad about you he said they may by your good works which they Shall Behold so they've got to see them it can't just be words right they may by your good works glorify God in the day of visitation for so is the will of God that with welld doing you may put to silence the ignorance

of foolish men keep doing good by demonstrating the love of God to unbelievers by our good works toward them we really Rob them of the freedom to mock Christianity falsely accuse or call us Hypocrites they can't deny love in the face of hate so love must be perfected in our lives it must grow in our lives John said this and we have known we believe the love of God that the love that God hath to us we understand that we understand that God is love and that he dwells that dwelleth in love dwells with God and God in him that word dwelleth means to remain

to abide to stay there and so our charity our love is made perfect as we live in it that's not an emotional state because we never live in an emotional state do we not very long we're up here one day and sometimes maybe sometimes one minute I don't know motions are fical but love says I'm going to love all the time True Love Will Conquer fear here is in it love is made perfect that we may have boldness in the day of judgment because as he is so are we in the world there is no fear in love but perfect love casts out fear I'm

thankful I don't have to fear judgment I don't have to fear those things because his love to me made a way that I can live right and as he is as he did as he gave himself so do we need to do that in this world and knowing that we walk in love that we follow him we will be able to stand before the Judgment seat with confidence the idea is that he that has a true love to God that exhibits itself in love to others you will have nothing to fear in the day of judgment think of that passage when Jesus talks about the

son of man coming his angels with him he's going to divide the sheep from the goats and the goats are going to say wa wait a minute why did you do that well I was thirsty you gave me nothing to drink I was a stranger you didn't take me in I was naked you didn't clothe me I was in prison you didn't visit me it was all these things and you didn't do anything love must be lived out again John said four verse 20 if a man say I love God and he hates his brother he is a liar I think again using the word

charity brings Clarity to that passage he that doesn't exhibit charity he that is not willing to to go beyond self to his brother whom he can't see cannot love God and we understand that we can't do all this on our own but it is through the spirit of God Paul said this in Romans 5 the love of God is what it is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us I'm thinking you can't do it on your own I can't do it on your own but because his spirit is in US there's something in us as we cry out

I love you Jesus that is going to reach out and say I love you and you and you and I want to see this world saved is that your desire that's your goal I think it is let's stand let's ask him to help us Lord so thankful for the love of God so beyond what even we can comprehend we know it we've seen it we've experienced it but as Paul said there's so much more that we want to know of that great love that you have but Lord help us to to learn it and to live it out by reaching out and loving others touching

others in Jesus name we pray thank you Lord thank you Lord amen