Charity-The expression of Love
The expression of Christian Love
We as Christians want to be sure that Christian love is not just a word that radiates from our lips and has no other effect than to tickle the ears of those who hear it.
Jesus said that there were two great commandments: The first was to love God and the second was to love our neighbor.
Now if we say that we love God and our neighbor and don’t express our love in a way that offers some form of proof of our sincerity, then our words just become a sound that is emitted from our lips and has very little value. But if we follow up our verbal expression of our love with some sort of action, it gives meaning to that verbal expression.
After telling the Lawyer of Luke 10 about these two great commandments, Jesus was asked about who we should consider to be our neighbor and Jesus explained who by telling him that which is recorded in Luke 10:30-37. Jesus made it clear that the person who helped the man which was in need was a neighbor to him. What this Samaritan did for the poor man was an expression of love for the man.
Lets take for an example some things that we know.
John 3:16 tells us that God loved us so much that He put His love into action. He did something to express His love. He sent His only begotten Son to be the atonement for our sins.
Jesus expressed His love by shedding His blood on the cross for us. He followed up His words of love with action. He did something to show us how much He loved us.
Jesus also told us how to express our love for Him. He said: If you love me, then do something, Keep my commandments. He asked Peter at one place if Peter loved Him. When Peter said yes he did, then Jesus told Peter to do something to express that love. He told Peter to feed His sheep.
You see by all of these examples that love is not just a word that can be uttered without following up with an expression of that love, doing something and have meaning.
I like to say that charity is the expression of love. Charity being the act you perform to show that you love another person.
Paul states in First Corinthians 13:1 that even though he would speak with the tongues of men or angels and have not charity, his words would have no value. It takes action to make the words true.
Let me just conclude with a quote from James 2:18 with just a little modification to make a point.
Yea, a man may say, you have faith, and I have works: show me your faith (love) without your works (charitable act), and I will show you my faith (love) by my works (charitable act).
Let us all express our Christian love for others by helping those who are in need. Our neighbor who is next door from where we live, the one across town or wherever they may be.
Charity (benevolence) is the expression of our love for another person.
