Monday, June 26, 2006
Faith, Hope, And Charity
Thanks and praise to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Charity, meaning selfless giving, is one conventional English translation of the Greek term agapē. Agapē (written αγάπη in the Greek alphabet), is one of several Greek words meaning love. The term was used by the early Christians to refer to the special love for God and God's love for humanity, as well as the self-sacrificing love they believed all should have for each other. {Definitions provided by Answers.com}
Paul was writing to the church in Corinth about faith, hope, and charity{love}. He was telling them that even after faith and hope were no longer needed, after that which is perfect is come, they would still need love to guide them. God is love and love supersedes the other gifts because it is love that will still be the governing principle that controls all that His redeemed people are to do.
This is why it is so very important to show love to your neighbors. Love one another as God loves us. God is love. Let love be our governing principle in all that we do.
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
1: 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.
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.
3: 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.
4: Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
5: Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
6: Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
7: Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
8: 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.
9: For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
10: But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
11: When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
12: For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
13: And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
Charity, meaning selfless giving, is one conventional English translation of the Greek term agapē. Agapē (written αγάπη in the Greek alphabet), is one of several Greek words meaning love. The term was used by the early Christians to refer to the special love for God and God's love for humanity, as well as the self-sacrificing love they believed all should have for each other. {Definitions provided by Answers.com}
Paul was writing to the church in Corinth about faith, hope, and charity{love}. He was telling them that even after faith and hope were no longer needed, after that which is perfect is come, they would still need love to guide them. God is love and love supersedes the other gifts because it is love that will still be the governing principle that controls all that His redeemed people are to do.
This is why it is so very important to show love to your neighbors. Love one another as God loves us. God is love. Let love be our governing principle in all that we do.
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
1: 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.
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.
3: 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.
4: Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
5: Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
6: Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
7: Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
8: 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.
9: For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
10: But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
11: When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
12: For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
13: And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
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