In a letter Sue sent me before we were married. "Man to marriage counselor - I know I took her for better or worse, but this is worse than I took her for."

Charles Spurgeon, a great British preacher said, "When home is ruled according to God's Word, angels might be asked to stay with us, and they would not find themselves out of their element."

Many homes today, even some where Dad and Mom are professing Christians are NOT ruled by God's Word. Sometimes instead of angels being guests, it might appear that demons are the masters. In addition to broken marriages, who knows how many wives and husbands are emotionally apart even though they are still married?


A couple who were serving God in a youth shelter in England adopted a young Greek boy who had been deaf from birth. They were concerned that the boy have the best possible treatment and therapy. On the day of the boy's arrival, he sat in on the evening meeting. He could not hear a word and even if he could, he would not have understood. He was doubly handicapped by being deaf in a foreign language!

This did not stop the young Greek boy from functioning, as the speaker of the evening soon discovered to his discomfort. For the boy was a brilliant mimic. He could not hear or understand, but he could see and copy. In no time at all he broke up the meeting because he carried on a perfect duplication of all the speaker's mannerisms and characteristics, even to the point of drawing attention to his rather large stomach.

When this boy mimicked, he did it for laughs, and maybe with a little ridicule in his performance.

Do you and I mimic God? We are supposed to be imitators of God, not for laughs, but for love. This is a tremendous challenge for all parents, grandparents, and persons who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ.


Listen to Barclay's translation of the first two verses of Ephesians 5. "You must become imitators of God as well loved children imitate their father. You must live in love, as Christ loved you, and gave Himself to God as a sacrifice and an offering, a sacrifice which was the odour of a sweet savour to God."

The morning I want us to think about the discipline of charity. I am using charity today, not because I am old fashioned, but because love is a word that has been overused, misused, cheapened and overworked in our society. Love has been inaccurately identified with sexual promiscuity, adultery, infatuation, passion, sentimental feelings, romance, etc.

The discipline of charity as we see it in the Scriptures is described differently, even though many translations will use the word love, instead. For a few moments this morning I want to make an attempt to partially describe charity, as we see it in I Corinthians 13. Call it love if you wish, I probably will sometimes, but remember, we are using it in a clean, pure, godly sense.

My wife, along with other saints through the years, tell us that love is an action word. So today we are describing charity as:
I. Acting with Unselfishness.
II. Acting with the Will.
III. Acting with Forgiveness.

Charity IS:
I. Acting with Unselfishness.

In this great letter Paul tells us that charity does NOT seek it's own. It seeks nothing for itself, NOT EVEN GOD! YES, charity seeks God, but on God's terms, not yours or mine and not for gime's sake. Charity seeks God and other people not for what it can get from them, but for what it can give to them.


Meister Eckhart said, "Some people want to see God with their eyes, as they see a cow, and to love God as they love their cow - for the milk and cheese and profit it brings them. This is how it is with people who love God for the sake of the outward wealth or comfort. They do not rightly love God, when they love God for their own advantage... Any object you have in your mind, however good, will be a barrier between you and the inmost truth."

These words are along the same train of though written more than forty years ago by Albert Edward Day.

"One of the most distressing characteristics of our age is the many cults and movements that invite people to God because of what they can get. They try to use God as they use the experts they employ - their physician and lawyer and banker. Their interest in God parallels their interest in a garage when their automobile breaks down. They want help. They are willing to pay for it. They are no more eager to associate with God than with the mechanic. When trouble is past they forget God just as quickly as they forget the mechanic who fixed their car. Maybe they want God around, but only as they want their chauffeur. They are afraid or unable to drive alone. Beyond the role of servant to their needs, they have no use for God. Charity is just the antithesis of that."

I must be careful - perhaps you also - to think about other persons Albert Day may be describing and not be aware of my own sinful, selfish nature that needs to be kept in check, reminding us of the next description.

II. Charity is Acting with the Will.

Charity is more than moonlight & roses & chocolates and sentimentality.

Quoting Day again, "Charity is not an emotion. All the saints are agreed on that. Charity is an act of the will - a resolution and a determination born in a sense of value and renewed day after day."

Bede Frost says that charity is not a sentimental feeling, but a constant act of the will, choosing God before anything else.

St. Teresa wrote, "Let everyone understand that real love of God does not consist in tears shed, nor in that sweetness and tenderness for which we usually long, just because they console us, but in serving God in justice, fortitude of soul, and humility.

"Charity is a resolute determination, of the superior will to seek God and a union with Him; the which resolution she will not give over for any distractions or occurring difficulties whatsoever...And such a resolution is grounded on a high esteem we have, by faith of the infinite perfection of God and the innumerable obligations laid by Him on us."


Yes, my friends, charity - love, is an acting of the will, not merely a tender emotion and this charity rightly demonstrated toward God results in the will to be charitable toward others.

Are you willing to put God's concerns and other's concerns above your own? Do you recall the story of two mountain goats? They approached each other on a narrow ledge. Realizing that there was no room to pass, they reared and bucked, but neither budged. They backed up, charged, and locked horns again, but each held his ground. Again they parted and charged; then like the Rock of Gibraltar they stood unmovable. Finally, the sensible one knelt down, and let the other one climb over him. Then they both went merrily on their way. Sometimes, we too, must let people walk over us. Love is magnanimous.

Yes charity is:
• I. Acting with Unselfishness.
• II. Acting with the Will.
• III. Acting with Forgiveness.

Return