Charity- A Relationship

A New Idea

I can't take credit for this concept.

I wish I could! I first heard this when I was sitting in my Doctrine and Covenants class at BYU. Brother Sweat (name not changed, his last name really is Sweat) was talking about faith, hope, and charity.

I can't remember how it was introduced, but it was something like this "Charity is the pure love of Christ" (Moroni 7:47).

Hearing this idea about the meaning of charity was one of those moments when you suddenly see something you've been looking at your whole life in a completely new light! It was mind-blowing!

You're probably sitting there like, "I don't get it..."

Let me try to read this a different way.

Let's say one day I tell you "I have a love of dogs." Would you think I'm saying that the way I love other people is similar to the kind of love dogs express toward people? No, definitely not. You would just think that I love dogs and I'm just phrasing in a funny way.

So in the scriptures when it says "charity is the pure love of Christ" does that mean that charity is loving people as Christ loves? Or does it mean that to have charity we love Christ with a pure and perfect love?

You might want to read the last two paragraphs again a few times.

So what I'm saying is that charity can be interpreted as a pure loving relationship between us and Christ rather than just an imitation of Christ's love toward others.

A Different Interpretation

Now I don't want to tread on any toes here. I've had people quote to me my whole life that to have charity means to have pure love in my heart as Christ loves. Prophets and apostles have spoken of charity as pure love in general conference. Even on the LDS website in the topics section it says "Charity is the pure love of Christ. It is the love that Christ has for the children of men and that the children of men should have for one another."

All that being said, I firmly believe that there is no one single right way to interpret a scripture. Haha there are definitely wrong ways to interpret scriptures, I have heard plenty of those on my mission! But when people read a verse of scripture it's going to mean something different to each of them.

This way of looking at charity, as a relationship between us and Christ rather than an imitation of Christ's love, is simply a new way of looking at an old scripture that we've all heard a bajillion times.

And we do hear it a lot. I mean, when someone says they're going to teach/talk about charity you can pretty much watch the youth methodically open up to Moroni 7 and immediately begin drooling onto the pages as they pass out with their heads in their hands.

Hopefully this will provide a different perspective and save those pages a bit of moisture.

Scriptures about Charity

Thinking about charity as a relationship between us and Christ seems to make other scriptures fall into place.

"Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth."

Christ will never fail us. If we have a relationship with Him then He will never forsake us. The greatest act of charity is the Atonement. If charity for us means a relationship with Christ, then charity for Christ means His relationship with the Father. Charity never faileth. When Christ was in the garden of Gethsemane he turned to His relationship with the Father to sustain Him. "Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt." (Mark 14:36)

"... he must needs have charity; for if he have not charity he is nothing; wherefore he must needs have charity."

The first great commandment is to love God. Without a love of Christ we are truly nothing because in the eyes of God we have not fulfilled the greatest and most important commandment.

"And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things." 

Now, instead of this being a list of the character traits we need to live in order to have charity, these all come as natural "side-effects," if you will, of our personal relationship with Christ.

Looking at all these scriptures with the idea in mind that charity is, first and foremost, our relationship with Christ lends a slightly different meaning to each of these. Tie together these three scriptures:

- "If ye have not charity, ye are nothing" (Moroni 7:44, 1 Cor 13:3)
- "But the greatest of these is charity." (1 Cor 13:13)
- "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."  (John 17:3)

It becomes obvious that Charity is so much more than just love of others. It truly means having a relationship with Christ. However, that's not to say it doesn't have to do with also loving our fellow man.

Loving Others Will Come As A Natural Result Of Loving Christ

Have you ever been so excited about something that you just had to share it? I know I sure have! I'll learn some cool new thing in school or be introduced to some new food that I'll immediately fall in love with.

What's the first thing you think of doing? If you're like me you think "Who can I share this with??"

I'll be super excited to share that cool new fact with my family or have them try whatever food I've just gotten hooked on! Usually they just roll their eyes at me as I excitedly talk about some new bit of human physiology, but they tolerate me well. But that's what we like to do! Once we love something we want to introduce others to that same thing.  (Funny side-note, guys will also do that with things that are gross. Have you ever heard this before? "Oh that is gross!! ... Hey dude come smell this!")

One funny example of this is when a friend of mine had pretzel-bites for the first time. I think I heard about pretzel-bites at least every few minutes for... hours... Until finally that evening we went and had these world-stopping pretzel-bites! Hahaha they were good! Not mortgage-my-house-to-get-them-every-day kind of good, but they were alright!

John 17:3

That's how charity works as well. Once we begin to establish that pure loving relationship with Christ then we are bound to begin expressing that same love for others. It's a natural consequence. You cannot love Christ, with that pure love He has for us, and yet hate your neighbor! (And if you're trying to do that then I recommend you hop off the fence. I'm sure that's beginning to chafe.)

When we begin to love Christ then He blesses us "that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son." Have you ever felt this? When you're truly striving to follow Christ then he is able to work through you and your capacity to love others increases.

I noticed this most on my mission. Every person I taught and passed on the street (or in the jungle) I felt a love for. Even a yearning that they would someday come to know the truths that I knew. Because of my relationship with Christ He was able to bless me with a love for others that I didn't even know.

You cannot love Christ, with that pure love He has for us, and yet hate your neighbor. 

Unfortunately the opposite is possible.

Loving Christ Is Not Necessarily A Natural Consequence Of Loving Others

I've known some very kind and tenderhearted atheists/agnostics. And no, I'm not being sarcastic.  They love and serve their fellow man, perhaps better than some of us that profess a love and knowledge of Christ and His gospel, but they have no belief in, knowlege of, or love of, Jesus Christ.

Would we say that someone who has no belief in God but treats others with kindness has charity? In the colloquial non-religious sense, yes! They are very charitable by the world's standards! But what about in the true meaning of charity?

Would we be able to say that their "charity," their kindness toward others, is more important than faith and hope in Christ? As it says in 1 Cor 13:13 "Now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity."

I would tentatively suggest that someone who loves God with all his/her heart, but struggles having good relationships with others, is probably better off on judgement day than someone who loves others, but, of their own volition (choice), has absolutely no belief in, or relationship with, God.

Neither one of those are necessarily good situations to be in. Perhaps someone may struggle having healthy relationships with others because it's difficult for them to trust people. Perhaps in their childhood they were raised in a situation that has made it difficult for them to freely love. God has promised to fill us with His love as we pray for charity, a love for the Savior.

Now, if we are striving to have a relationship with Christ then certainly increasing in love for our fellow man can help us come to love Christ more. I feel like I've come to know Christ more as I've enriched my relationships with my parents, my family members, etc. They've all taught me things and helped me in ways that have drawn me closer to Christ.

So I don't mean to say that loving others can't help us love Christ. It's just that loving others will only bring us closer to Christ if that's already something important we've established in our lives.

Perhaps that would be an interesting way we can evaluate our relationships. Think of someone in your life. How has your relationship with Christ influenced your relationship with that person? And how has your relationship with that person influenced your relationship with Christ?

The Word Charity

Google's definition of charity leaves out
any religions connotation at all.

I'm afraid that the word "charity," along with so many other words defining fundamental gospel principles, has become watered down and has lost it's significance. What used to mean a pure relationship with Christ, or unadulterated love, now means "the poor house" when we hear of people giving to "charity," or people being able to write off "charitable donations" in their taxes.

Doesn't that sound just like Satan? To take a word that means something so significant, that if we aren't "found possessed of it at the last day" we are "nothing," and then water it down to the point of being nearly synonymous with simply "kind" or "generous."

"And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things."

But charity is so much more than all of that. I'm not suggesting that we take to the streets with signs trying to change the meaning of charity back to its scriptural definition. But in our scripture study and in our gospel conversations think of charity as more than just

This Is All Very Nice... So What?

I've shared a lot about charity. If you've made it to this point then I congratulate you. Hopefully you've enjoyed this different view of charity as much as I have. But what now?

Moroni said it best, and it would be a poor substitution if I were to try and paraphrase his words.

"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." 

I love the fact that praying is the prerequisite for charity. One of the greatest blessings from God, a relationship with our Savior, is available to us. It's is simply contingent on our asking for it.

I love talking about prayer. It's so beautiful and simple. I won't spend any extra space here writing about prayer (I wrote a different post about it a while back that has a few of my thoughts). But just pray. It's that simple. As my mother says "You can never err on the side of prayer."

Charity

Pray for charity. Establish a relationship first with Christ by loving, serving, and coming to know Him.

Remember, "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." (Matt 22:37-39)

Everything else will fall into place if we can keep those two commandments.

I know God lives. I know Christ atoned for my sins. Because of that, nothing is impossible.

Keep Pushing On

Andrew Davis