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Agape: Christian Charity
Many dictionaries define charity as “Christian love,” and in turn, Christian love is described as agape love -- "the love of Christians for other persons, corresponding to the love of God for humankind." (Webster's online Dictionary) Perhaps this is where we need to start then, not with charity, but with agape. Ancient Greek society understood eight different concepts of love, each embodied by a different word:
So often we are afflicted because we are trying to feel love or to make or manifest love in ourselves, thinking that this is what God wants. God knows that this is impossible for us and has told us so by offering himself to us. We urgently need to understand the right definition to love. Love isn’t self-determined, and much of what is called “love” isn’t love at all. Rather than turn to the noise of this world to tell us what love is, we must turn to God who properly defines love. Spoken of over 200 times in the Bible, Agape is the fatherly love of God for humans. It is the transcendent love of God that rises above the self to the good of the beloved. Agape is love at the highest level, a selfless, sacrificial love found in the very being of God and shown to us in the absolute sacrificial self-giving of Jesus. St. Paul describes this love in one of the most beloved passages in the New Testament, I Corinthians 13: 13 If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. This is the love of God that we aspire to, this is the love we are called to, this is the likeness of Christ and communion with God. This love is all consuming and bears no likeness to selfish desire, warding or protectionism. This love is absolute. It would be hard to exaggerate the significance of charity (agape). It is from love that God bestowed His grace on His people (Eph. 1:4–5). It’s His love that gives rise to our love (1 John 4:10–11). It’s evidence of the Spirit’s life within (Gal. 5:22). It nourishes godliness in our hearts (Eph. 3:17). It’s the pathway we walk (Eph. 5:2), the contemplation for our mind (Phil. 4:8), the bridle for our tongue (Eph. 4:15), our protection in darkness (1 Thess. 5:8), the bond of our fellowship (Col. 2:2), and the measure of Christian perfection (1 John 4:18). Charity is, as Paul said, not only an excellent way but the most excellent way (1 Cor. 12:31–13:13). In Christian theology and ethics, agape is translated as charity since agape is not simply a feeling--far from it, agape is an action. Agape cannot be agape if love does not act, since agapic love is sacrifice. In this way, agape may be better understood as charity, as charity is understood as an act of caring and selflessness. St. Augustine summarized much of Christian thought about charity when he wrote: “Charity is a virtue which, when our affections are perfectly ordered, unites us to God, for by it we love him.” Using this definition and others from the Christian tradition, the medieval theologians, especially St. Thomas Aquinas, placed charity in the context of the other Christian virtues and specified its role as “the foundation or root” of them all. Writing in Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis explains this foundational aspect in the modern sense: . . .'Charity' now means simply what used to be called 'alms'—that is, giving to the poor. Originally it had a much wider meaning. . . Charity means “Love, in the Christian sense.” But love, in the Christian sense, does not mean an emotion. It is a state not of the feelings but of the will; that state of the will which we have naturally about ourselves, and must learn to have about other people. I pointed out in the chapter on Forgiveness that our love for ourselves does not mean that we like ourselves. It means that we wish our own good. In the same way Christian Love (or Charity) for our neighbors is quite a different thing from liking or affection. We “like” or are “fond of” some people, and not of others. It is important to understand that this natural “liking” is neither a sin or a virtue, any more than your likes and dislikes in food are a sin or a virtue. It is just a fact. But, of course, what we do about it is either sinful or virtuous. Natural liking or affection for people makes it easier to be “charitable” towards them. It is, therefore, normally a duty to encourage our affections—to “like” people as much as we can (just as it is often our duty to encourage our liking for exercise or wholesome food)—not because this liking is itself the virtue of charity, but because it is a help to it. . . . . . . The rule for all of us is perfectly simple. Do not waste time bothering whether you “love” your neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him. If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself disliking him more. If you do him a good turn, you will find yourself disliking him less. . Consequently, though Christian charity sounds a very cold thing to people whose heads are full of sentimentality, and though it is quite distinct from affection, yet it leads to affection. The difference between a Christian and a worldly man is not that the worldly man has only affections or “likings” and the Christian has only “charity.” The worldly man treats certain people kindly because he “likes” them: the Christian, trying to treat every one kindly, finds himself liking more and more people as he goes on--including people he could not even have imagined himself liking at the beginning (Mere Christianity 115-117). American revivalist preacher, philosopher, and Congregationalist theologian Jonathan Edwards reflected on charity when he wrote that Christian charity “is one as to its principle, whatever the object about which it is exercised; it is from the same spring or fountain in the heart, though it may flow out in different channels and diverse directions.” There are many practical opportunities for you to show Christian charity. In your own family, in your circle of friends, and around you every day there are people in need of help. Charity begins by embracing a selfless perspective and seeing the other as a “beloved one,” not as a curtailer of freedom. You can offer your personal attention by helping at a soup kitchen, donating food or clothing, writing encouraging notes, volunteering at your church, and so on. Still, there are other forms of charity no less faithful to God, as long as the action is taken to the glory of God and without undue attention to self. Material gifts, donating money to the less fortunate or to the Church or Christian aid organizations is an acknowledgment of the blessing God has given you and your ability to reach out in Jesus' name. Jesus taught that love to God and love to neighbor are the greatest and second commandment: “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 neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (Mark 12:30–31. BCP pg. 324) Love is to characterize our relationship to God through Jesus Christ. Because we are united to Him, charity must also characterize the same in our relationships with those who bear His image. In this, love is upward and outward focused and characterizes every single relationship in our lives—marriage, parenting, friendship, and fellowship. In love and charity with the neighbor, Fr. Bill+
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