The Real Meaning of Charity
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The most common association with the word charity today is giving. Although giving is an act of charity, what charity actually means is love.
The Fall From Grace
Since the King James Bible became an obsolete object of ridicule, the true meaning and understanding of the word charity has quietly changed from something magnificent and holy to a simple act unconnected to God's mercy and salvation. We have all fallen for this subdued version, and it doesn't help when you open any modern dictionary and see this:
Charity: "generous actions or donations to aid the poor, ill, or helpless: to devote one's life to charity." - dictionary.com.
And at oxforddictionaries.com: "the voluntary giving of help, typically in the form of money, to those in need."
To their credit, they still list the true meaning at the bottom of their list: "archaic love of humankind, typically in a Christian context: faith, hope, and charity." To their discredit, they call that form of charity, "archaic."
According to the same online dictionary, archaic means, "very old or old fashioned." Since the common cultural context of the word charity means simply to give, defining charity as archaic shouldn't be considered offensive. However, that particular definition states, "archaic love," not "archaic meaning." Apparently, Christian love is archaic. The pocket Oxford American Thesaurus published in 2008 uses these synonyms to describe the word archaic: "outmoded, out of date, bygone, extinct, defunct, prehistoric, and OBSOLETE."
It is interesting that lexicographers are so involved in their work that they don't realize that the world is still filled with millions of Christians to this day who follow that, "archaic," form of love.
What is also interesting is that the 1979 version of the Oxford American Dictionary (Heald Colleges Edition) defines charity as: "loving kindness toward others." Admittedly, it is a simplified version of the meaning of charity, but it also hits the nail on the head. Strange that as one looks backward in time, the definition of charity becomes not just a simple humanistic act of only giving, but an expression of ultimate love not fettered by the definition of a single act.
Why is this Persnickety So Important?
It's just a simple misunderstanding right? No, it isn't. Since the beginning, Satan has twisted the word of God just a little - enough to mislead humanity into the temptation of knowledge over love - the knowledge of God so we wouldn't need him (Genesis 3:4-5). Satan changed the meaning of God's word and Adam and Eve were willing to listen and accept it.
According to Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, copyright 1890, the word charity in the Greek Dictionary of the New Testament is defined as love, ie. affection or benevolence, specifically: "a love feast." A love feast! When is the last time you have heard charity described as a love feast? In fact, the word charity is an escalation of the word love which is defined in the context of, "in a social or moral sense." Charity makes love look almost bare in comparison. Not to worry, the Greek meaning of love in the New Testament often refers to the same meaning as charity. But the word charity draws our attention to a deeper love.
The Difference Between Charity and Knowledge
1 Corinthians 8:1
Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth. (Edify means to "build up.")
Knowledge makes you FEEL bigger but charity MAKES you bigger. Seeking knowledge fills your head with facts and truths, but charity (love) makes you more Godly. Just to clarify, there is nothing wrong with learning, but the point the Bible makes, is that the emphasis of the pursuit of knowledge over love, is wrong.
The Greatest Commandment
1 Timothy 1:9-10
Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;
Matthew 22:35-40
Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Loving God and loving your neighbor (everyone), trumps knowledge and even the law in that if the two great commandments were followed, the law would not be necessary.
Small Changes in the Word of God leads to Missing Meanings
The Defining Twist
This brings us back to loving God. If we choose to believe words that have been twisted, we could end up being greatly tempted. The Bible instructs us to forgive others as God has forgiven us. Thus it follows that because God loves us, we should love God and love others. Therefore, if the meaning of charity was to give THINGS to others, then wouldn't it follow that we should also expect God to give US things? And this is indeed what the modern Christian thinks, they pray for fancy cars, miraculous healings and wealth. But this is not right, charity means to love as God loves. Notice we cannot ask for more of God's love because we already have it, therefore there is only one thing left to do: love others!
This is why it is so crucial that charity is defined clearly - so that we do not misunderstand God's will for our lives because of a deliberate twisting of the meaning of a simple word.
Then What Finally, is the True meaning of Charity?
Romans 15:1-2
We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good to edification.
There is that word edification again. And although the word love or charity is not mentioned, it is implied in the actions we are instructed to take. Helping others at the expense of our own comfort is an act of love. Notice also that the result of this love, this charity, is edification just like in 1 Corinthians 8:1 mentioned earlier. Love builds up others (and ourselves).
1 Corinthians 13:1-8,13
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, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
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.
The Whole Point
God is a giving God. He gave us charity so that we could give love to others. Giving to the needy is a wonderful calling, but charity is not just about giving away unwanted items to unwanted people for a tax break or a even just a temporary good feeling. Charity is sacrificing yourself for the benefit of others. Charity is loving the unlovable. Charity is peaceful and hopeful and humble. It was out of love that Jesus suffered on a cross to bear the weight of our sins, sacrificing his innocence so we could gain ours if we choose to follow him. That is what true love is: lowering yourself to lift up another, thinking only of their benefit.
If this seems like a tough act to follow, don't worry - true charity starts with a kind word given by you on a bad day to a checker at the store, holding a door open for an older person when you're in a hurry or even asking God to bless an enemy at work. But it all starts with love. Learn to love God because he loved you first, then learn to pass it on to everyone else.
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I guess you can learn something new everyday! I always believed that charity, was something that related to giving someone who needs: money, clothes, shelter and so forth. this sure helps. It is great to know that without me realizing it, I have given charity, love to others all my life. and this is what God is expecting. great article!
I thoroughly enjoyed this hub. Write more like it, please!
Amen. The twisting of words is a subtle way to water down truth. True charity is to love as God loves and that is impossible outside of being a recipient of His grace in salvation. Even then we fall far short. True charity is the most beautiful of things. And false charity is one of the ugliest. Good hub.
Excellent, keep it coming. Charity begins at home and if all could just find it, it would eliminate wars and other conflict. You presented the truth in a truly excellent post.
Well written , Marc! It is obvious it's from the heart.
Thank you for following God's leading. You are using your gift to it's fullest potential to bless others lives. Keep up the good work, my friend.
I second Rommergrot's words. Charity begins at home. If this example was followed there, the world would be a better place. Well written hub!
This article is true and Holy Spirit inspired.
Wonderful insight backed up by the scriptures. You showed the correct way of looking at charity, one I have not heard before. Thank you for sharing this. Keep'em coming.
I enjoyed reading this hub, thank for sharing!
"the King James Bible became an obsolete object of ridicule," really? Well I suppose anything and everything can be an obsolete object of ridicule depending upon the person.
You make an excellent point about the word meanings though. Words change meaning constantly (evolving language and culture) and many of the English words that were used in King James day do not mean the same thing as they do today. That is why we must look to the original languages and lexicons to discover what we are reading about. "Charity" is a good example but there are many more. Very often seeming contradictions are explained when we look up the original wording.
What a beautifully constructed hub Alexander. As a non-Christian, I can still appreciate the spirit of it.
Personally, I much prefer the language of the KJV to the modern Bibles..it transfers me to another, more poetic dimension
Totally agree Jane on all pints!
Wow, I had no idea dictionaries were defining charity that way. That's what I get for using one from 1959 my whole life, huh?
Nice job. :)
Fantastic! You are correct. There is nothing archaic about Creator-Centered-Love. When we confess to believe that the Lord will provide us with what we need, then using the things we have to help those that don't have and/or don't believe is not burensome or troubling. The Lord has our back, so we have theirs. The thing we have to get people to understand is, at some point in time, it will be their "pole-to-carry" and they will have to have someone else's back and thus trust in the act of charity. 1Corinthians 13 has long been my favorite chapter in the Bible and this hub does the command great justice. Peace
Mark, I am wowed! I love this message as I love the original author, boy, carpenter, baptized by John the Baptist, Jesus the teacher of great talent with out sin, walking and healing by touch or by faith of one that asked for another sick in bed distances away yet healed by his command, so many things and yet I have faith that it was greater than the number recorded.
You have provided a message with scripture that I was trying to explain in a note to A.M. just minutes ago. Now I have a better understanding of what it was I was trying to say. Coincidence? No, God works among us all the time that we Agape Yahweh, and Agape our enemies, we are no better than them. In modern times one might look in the enemies pocket on his uniform and find pictures and letters from home, and be humbled to find they too had family waiting their safe return, just as we did, it changes you inside for ever, it made a difference in my approach and everyone elses. I read that over 1,000 rounds were fired per each casualty, I thought about that, we as they were using full automatic fire, 30 shots in 4 seconds as a scare tactic, the one with the most fire chased the other back to retreat. I'll shut up as I could go on with this for a while as I just experienced the Charity of Christ and the power of prayer by myself and several others that I love. You have done well and I hope you teach me more in the future.
I love you, dust
Awesome words of wisdom!! My grandmother always taught us to kill them with kindness. Open your heart and home showing them love so that they in return could pass it on. Thanks!!
You are becoming famous Alexander Mark!
Doing it just for a vengeful heaping of coals would be as wrong as not doing it, in my humble opinion, we need to do it with a loving heart, yes? 50
I truly believe this to be the case. Most of us don't reaize that to have true charity, we need to have love for the thing we feel charitable about. great Hub!
thanks for sharing... Charity from the heart... thats one of my parents taught us... It is God's love who live in us :) have a nice day!
I like the way you explain your ideas. Very well said!
My pleasure Alex :) its my first time here in HP I enjoy reading all the sharing...
This is a very enlightening hub on charity. I believe that we are all blessed so that we can be blessing to others. We have much to give but we just don't realize it.
Thank you so much for this Hub. This is something that I consider a lot in my life. I do community service when I can and I donate when I can... but I feel sometimes that true charity is giving when you really can't. And this is something that I haven't quite brought myself to do comfortably yet. I know of people who can and am so amazed. I hope I am able to become a better person in this way. Thanks for this thought-provoking Hub.
Thought I'd better stop by and pay a visit. This is quite a study you've done! It is very interesting and quite unfortunate that Webster's could do a better job with the word "Charity." Oh well, guess it's on the par with wikapedia, huh? Thanks for the info.; it was a blessing!
Really! What has the United States come to? I love Him and will share my love no matter what! Blessings to you, Alexander.
Thank you for being the man who published this long-overdue and needful article about the true meaning of Christian Charity. Your Hub is tremendous! I love it. Well done.
I never found a hub page that I can't disagree with or find something wrong with it...and this one is no exception!
The last sentence, when you say "Learn to love God because he loved you first, then learn to pass it on to everyone else." instead of a comma you should have used "and"! Other than that serious flaw I must say this was a fantastic hub page (work on the comma) :)
I'm gonna read it again, it was so good!
Alexander: Thank you for this interesting and well-researched presentation of the true meaning of charity. It's a meaning by which I was raised. The passages which you quote perfectly illustrate your presentation. And the last paragraph gives easy examples for becoming familiar with the feeling of charity, through little acts of kindness which may not seem so little to the recipients. I've been having a problem with exiting from my driveway for months now; instead moving into the empty lane to the left, cars stay in the right lane so I can't pull out. I started making a conscious effort not to do the same as I drive, simply because it seems so road-hogging to me. Then I began to notice that I no longer have a problem of waiting and waiting to exit from my driveway --- not because cars are being more chivalrous but because they aren't speeding around the curve downwind from my driveway. Is there a connection? Perhaps.
Well if i had to rate this hub on a scale of 10 , i would give this one 20 on 10 :) This is one of the best hubs i have read so far on hubpages . I agree with jo goldsmith that i always believed that doing charity was donating to the needy but never thought living too could be doing charity . great share mate !
Alexander - This was a well-written beautiful Hub. No one mentioned compassion. Compassion is a basis for Charity - the heart and soul feels and wants to give. I had a few thoughts that came to mind - my neighbors for the most part in the many places I have lived were the opposite of me. Nasty - uncaring - trespassing - wicked people. Do you turn the other cheek? Treat them nice and sweet - do only good onto those that hate you and do all sorts of evil onto you - your home and your family? Not an ideal situation. At home - I wasn't taught charity or volunteerism. I had to obtain that on my own.
Lastly with asking for help from God - one would most likely ask God for things that are of God not of the world. I think God turns a deaf ear to worldly requests.
I need that new car - the latest game and I want to win the lottery big time. How about, give me the right words in my job interview that will help me eventually to improve my life for my family and so and so forth...that would be a much better prayer. Thank you.
A great hub and thank you so much for sharing.
Take care and enjoy your day.
Eddy.
AM, This is one of my all-time favorite hubs, so I'm revisiting it to savor it in the waning days of this enigmatic year of 2011.
Without intending to sound judgmental or preachy, I know that this vale of tears would lose so much of its ugliness, pain, and sorrow if only people understood and practiced charity in its true sense. It is a daily challenge which I set before myself, to practice charity.
Kind regards and thank you again for this dear, dear hub! Stessily
AM, Thanks for such a nice compliment, that I'm one of your all time favorite hubbers. Likewise!
I keep intending to ask and keep forgetting, so here it is: Is that opening photo another of your cellphone photos? The expanse of sky, the shape and shading of the clouds, the play of light --- they are incomparable. I'd love to make an enlargement of that photo as well for my ideal writer/artist/quilter nook.
Excellent hub. Glad you dug into older dictionaries for better definition of charity. Would love to see believers understand charity better.
I've always loved others, helped others, and cared for everyone in my midst including strangers. I've given my heart out to many just like opening a door for the elderly, or helping them across the street, but I never cared to think it was fulfilling a god like quality such as charity.
I always thought it was the right thing to do, because I followed my inner spirit to do what felt good to me, and for some reason giving charity came natural to me. I never been selfish, and actually hate selfishness, but not those who render such to one another. I tend to try to help them as well somehow, by showing them how to share which leads to caring, just as a parent needs to show their children.
Life is a beautiful and precious thing to cherish, and living righteously, by God, or by the pure will of my inner spirit (empowered by the holy ghost), where I find love, happiness, and joy in it all. Even in the darkest places I've been, I felt God has protected me in return for being so charitable, and that is also his form of charity to us all I believe.
Awesome hub, I was stunned to read it through and through, and came here, because you answered one of my questions so accurately, and for that I'm repaying the favor as a form of charity as well, sharing is just that.
I agree with the the others that this is a Spirit-inspired hub, beautifully and articulately written. It took a different turn than I expected, and I'm so glad it did. This is the first of your serious hubs I have read, and I will be reading more as soon as I can.
Amen! God is looking for big hearts not big heads full of knowledge! You can't really know God apart from experiencing the love of God in a personal way. Many make the study of doctrine to be an end to itself. What is doctrine if it doesn't lead you into a closer walk with God? My thought is that, "God is Love" now that's pure doctrine!
A well-inspired hub! Truly that "archaic love" is a thing of the past nowadays and I'm grateful that you put up an article like this who begins to question what type of love I can possibly convey! But I believe that GOD works in mysterious ways and dwella in our midst to touch the heart of those who refuse to recognize him to extend the love emanating from GOD! Praise the LORD!!
AM, Since first discovering this precious piece of thought peace almost half a year ago, I have returned many times to bask in the beauty of the opening photo, taken by you, a photo which is one of the most beautiful sky photos I've ever seen. You are a deep thinker, a talented artist, and an incredible writer. Your faith blossoms like an eternal spring through your words and images.
Kind regards, Stessily
Stressily, Thank you for commenting so I reviewed this hub.
Alexander Mark. Thank you for writing this. Have more words than time at the moment. Am linking this hub to one of mine
I really enjoyed this. I found you because you answered the question, "How do you follow your heart?” which then led me to your profile, and then this Hub. I think to analyze scripture and deduce meaning is a lost art that few practice, and your conclusion has some impressive points. “That is what true love is: lowering yourself to lift up another, thinking only of their benefit.” Lowering yourself to lift up another – that is a great image. “Learn to love God because he loved you first, then learn to pass it on to everyone else.” Learn to pass it on – I couldn’t have said it better myself. Great Hub, voted up and I will definitely be following to see what you come up with next.





































Sunnie Day Level 8 Commenter 12 months ago
Good Morning Mark,
My dear friend this was one of the most wonderful hubs I have read and I truly believe Christ led. I am so excited at what you are going to bring to us. This today was my daily bread. When two or more are gathered in his name there he will be. I thank you for the beautiful word today and sharing it with us. You brought truth to the table today.God Bless you..I book marked this for future reading.
Sunnie