Charity

1 Corinthians chapter 13 is known as the love chapter. A lot of people get confused about this chapter, because the meaning of the word, "charity" has changed since 1611. There were a lot fewer charitable organizations in the early 1600's and charity meant brotherly love (what so many Christians refer to as "agape" now--which is the Greek word that was translated as, "charity" in the Bible). Since then, so many organizations have sprung up that have laid claim to the title 'charity' that most people think that a charity is an organization. It wasn't always that way, though.

I heard someone on the radio recently that said that 1 Corinthians 13:5 was actually a mistranslation. His logic was that God is love, and God cannot be provoked. I suspect that Ananias and Sapphira would disagree. So would Korah and the people that were outside the ark during the flood, but many people think that since that's Old Testament, we don't have to worry about that. I submit to you that God is the same God that He was in the Old Testament; there is a new plan of salvation, but God hasn't changed. In any case, though, God is unconditional love, and I don't think that Paul was referring to God in this chapter. He seems to be describing attributes of a Christian: In verse 1, he writes: "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." In other words: no matter how beautifully or eloquently I speak, if I don't say what I say out of sincere love for my brothers in Christ, then I am really just making noise. In verse 2: "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." If I could prophesy, and knew everything there was to know; if I had faith enough to move mountains, but I only did what I did for myself, and not out of brotherly love, then I'm useless. Does that make sense? Can you see my point? So, in verse 5, when Paul says that charity is not easily provoked, are we not sometimes provoked by our brothers and sisters in Christ? I know I have been, and I know that I have sometimes provoked others. A sincere love of the brothers and the sisters in the church family makes that provocation easier to take, and it makes it take longer for anger to develop, but it does happen, even in the best of church families.