Charity
We have been looking at the quote from a German Lutheran theologian of the early seventeenth century named Rupertus Meldenius, who wrote:
In Essentials Unity,
In Non-Essentials Liberty,
In All Things Charity.
In all thing charity.
So I have to ask. What is charity? How do you define it?
We often think of charity as an act of giving things to people who need them.
I gave to charity, or I support a charity, or this is my charity work.
Money, food, shelter, water, vocational training….charity
That is a very modern interpretation.
Charity means more than that.
In the Greek the word is filanthropía…it’s where we get our word philanthropy from. But Greek words often encompass emotion as well. In this case it is connected to the concept of agape, grace filled love.
When asked to define the word, St. Augustine explained the Christian thought about charity this way: “Charity is a virtue which, when our affections are perfectly ordered, unites us to God, for by it we love him.”
Charity is love driven by God, directed at each other, for the purpose of bringing glory to His kingdom.
So we have talked about that which we agree on should unite us, that which is not essential to our faith should not divide us, and here we get the emphasis that regardless of what the reason or difference is we should always respond in love.
In Romans 14, Paul closes the chapter by saying in verse 19:
Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food.
You can replace the word food with almost any other dispute. God is at work. Again and again in Scripture God reaches into the lives of broken people and calls them to His side. I am not saying we don’t correct bad doctrine, or don’t gently correct bad theology, but we should be just as conscious of the person as we are of the infraction. In fact in verse 22 God even gives you permission to keep it to yourself… So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God.
So what does it come down to?
We don’t avoid the hard conversations.
Don’t make it about being “right” make it about Jesus righteousness,
And that may mean you have to show charity to each other. See each other where they are and lift them up. And we may disagree, but we have to ask if this disagreement is worth breaking unity, the expression of liberty, and be reminded it is never worth ending love.
So how do you love someone you have had to divide from? After all there are some issues that handle that. That is the bonus 4th issue of this series you get next week.
Yours in Unity, Liberty and Charity
-Pastor Dan