What is Christian Love?
The concept of Christian love is defined by Paul very beautifully in the 13th Chapter of I Corinthians. We may operate the gift of tongues and speak in the languages of angels or speak in foreign languages. But if we have not love, God will hear our prayers being said through such languages or our messages being made through flowery languages “as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal”. You may claim to have wonderful communication with God through your prayer language or to have made wonderful messages through your language. But all such prayers or messages are as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
We may perform wonderful deliverance ministries through signs and wonders; we may prophesy in the Name of Jesus Christ and thus reveal the secrets in the hearts of others and the future events; we may understand “all mysteries” and knowledge through the word of wisdom. People may be wondering at the revelations made by us through the gift of the word of wisdom. We may have all faith so as to remove mountains. We may be ministering words of faith to the millions in the world through our television/electronic ministries.
We may also bestow all our goods to feed the poor; we may also sacrifice our bodies to be burned. But if our social outreach program is not motivated out of true love, it profits us nothing. Even you can sacrifice your body for a great cause or for the sake of the gospel. But if you are not motivated by love in your heart, it profits you nothing. In other words, you will not receive any reward from God for your sacrifice which was made without love.
Despite all these wonderful gifts that we receive from the Holy Spirit for different kinds of ministries, if we do not have “love” we are nothing in the sight of God and it profits us nothing. People may get healed or may receive great miracles. But if there is no love in the heart of the servant of God concerned who has performed these wonderful ministries, it profits him nothing. He will not receive any reward from God.
As the members of the body of Christ, we are supposed to love the other members of His body i.e. the universal Church. You may say and confess through your mouth, “Jesus, I love You”. But if you do not love His body, you are only a hypocrite.
Let us now replace the word charity with “you”. Charity suffers long and is kind. You suffer long and are kind. Though you suffer in your body for a long time, you should love His body and should be kind towards the other members of His body. You should also be kind towards your neighbour.
Charity envies not. When the other members of His body are glorified and praised, you should not envy them. When God uses the other members of His body through signs and wonders, you should not envy them.
Charity does not vaunt itself and is not puffed up. If you have a little pride in your life, you do not have the love as defined by Paul. You may have both pride and love in your life. If you think that you are better than other members of the Body of Christ in matters of revelation or doctrine, you are puffed up and do not have charity.
Charity does not behave itself unseemly. If you snub a member of the Body of Christ without any reason, you do behave unseemly or rudely. If your behavior is not in conformity with the standard expected of a man of common prudence, you do behave rudely. Many people of God behave in this manner.
Charity seeks not her own. In my life, the Lord has taught me to help other children of God, and not to promote my own ministry. As the Lord helps me, I use to create websites for other servants of God without charging anything from them or without expecting anything from them. The Lord also leads me to help the poor saints and to promote their ministries. An old woman of God who was used of God mightily when she was in her forties and fifties was living in penury without a proper living house. Many servants of God who witnessed her wonderful ministry and who had benefited from her ministry did not come forward to help her build a house. When I came in contact with her, the Lord led me to collect donations for her ministry and to help her. When I approached a popular evangelist in Tamil Nadu seeking help for her, I did not receive any reply from him. I created a website for her and started introducing her ministry to the thousands of people through my email ministry. Some precious servants of God from USA, Northern Ireland, etc. visited the website and saw the wonderful things that the Lord. She was reportedly building a house along with a prayer hall on her land.
Many servants of God are ministry-minded and not Christ minded because they are engaged in building up their own kingdoms and do not bother to give a helping hand to those poor servants of God who struggle to do their work in His vineyard due to paucity of funds. They expect others to donate funds but they do not donate to the poor saints in their midst.
Charity is not easily provoked. If you have the true love for Christ and His body, you will never be easily provoked. You will forgive those who have wronged you and will forget such incidents. Recently, a dear member of the Body of Christ to whom I was serving out of my love behaved unseemly towards me but the Lord taught me to bear the insult meted out to me and to forgive that person. He did not allow me to be easily provoked. When I felt hurt, I did not even share this with my close co-workers in the ministry. I kept it to myself. After prayers, I pointed out the iniquity to that beloved person in a humble manner. That person also apologized to me.
Charity thinks no evil. Even if we think of harming someone who does not agree with us or who has harmed you, we do not have the love in our heart as defined by Paul.
Charity rejoices not in iniquity but rejoices in the truth. These days, the people of God commit iniquities by not doing what God wants them to. A child of God who loves the Body of Christ will never condone the iniquity but will expose it. These days, we find condoning of iniquities. If you know that some servant of God is not doing the right thing in the sight of God, you may hesitate to point out this to him due to fear of losing favor in his sight. This means that you do not love the servant of God concerned. Secondly, a child of God who loves the Body of Christ rejoices in the truth when people abide in the truth of the Word. I will not rejoice when the people of God divorce their spouses and remarry during the life time of their spouses divorced.
Charity bears all things. If someone harms you, if you have the true love in your heart, you will bear it. If someone rebuffs you without any cause, you will bear it.
Charity believes all things. You will believe in every child of God around you and will never look at him/her with suspicion lurking in your heart. You will believe in every thing, except the untruth propagated by the devil. You will always see the good things in others. Trust is an integral part of our Christian foundation without which we cannot build our Christian ministries at all. If I do not trust my co-workers in the ministry, I cannot run my ministry. Even if one of my co-workers is not honest, I have to trust him/her as the Lord trusted all His disciples including Judas. He entrusted the work of treasurer to Judas even after knowing that he was a thief. Can you do so? If one of your staff members entrusted with the finance has misappropriated the funds, you would immediately sack him/her. Some miscreants used to pilfer the funds received by Mother Teresa in India. When it was brought to her notice, she simply replied that those who were in need took that money and that she did not want to lodge a complaint with the police.
Charity hopes all things. You will hope all things. If somebody is passing through a furnace of afflictions, you will hope that the former would come out of it very soon because you love that person. You will expect the impossible things happen before your eyes.
Charity endures all things. You will endure every suffering in your body for the sake of Christ and His body. You will endure suffering in your body for the sake of the glorious gospel. All things mean all things. It may be enduring a sickness in your body. It may be enduring a financial crisis in your life. It may be enduring a loss suffered by you.
Charity never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they shall fail; whether there are tongues, they shall cease; whether there is knowledge, it shall vanish away. Prophesies shall fail. Prophecies made by many servants of God have failed. At times, a servant of God prophesies good things in the life of the person to whom he ministers. Such prophecies may fail but his love for the person to whom he prophesied never fails. Tongues of a particular child of God shall also cease when the same are not required. But the love of that child of God never fails. Similarly, knowledge of a child of God shall vanish away when it is not required. But his/her love never fails. Love is part of our Christian life as it will never die even after our death whereas the gifts of the Holy Spirit vanish after our death. In the heaven, we find only love and not the gifts of the Spirit because the same would not be required there. Nowadays, the servants of God manifest only the gifts of the Spirit and do not manifest Christ through their lives. Their life-style does not manifest the life of Christ through them. They covet offerings from poor saints to build their own kingdoms by inducing them to contribute towards their building projects through instalments. Woe unto those who manifest only the gifts of the Spirit and not the Christ of the gospels!
Of all these three great i.e. faith, hope and charity, charity is the greatest of these.
I have witnessed charity in the life of a servant of God in Tamil Nadu, South India. My early days of Christian life were influenced by the life of this dear servant of God. Every year he visits the Himalayan countries at the risk of his life for preaching the glorious gospel, carrying and smuggling heavy bundles of Gospel literature into these countries where propagation of the gospel is prohibited.
Many years ago, this dear servant of God after finishing his evangelical work in the Himalayan countries was on his way to the South India via Delhi. His train stopped at Delhi. At that time, the Holy Spirit led me to call on him in the Railway Station. Immediately, I went to the Railway Station and ministered to him by giving him some money. (He is not in the habit of demanding money or appealing for funds). When I offered him money, he told me that since he had no money left with him, he had decided to travel in the train without taking any food, and to tell God "If it is Thy will that I should go hungry, I will do so".
For a number of years, he has been publishing a Tamil Monthly, which contains messages giving an account of his experiences in the evangelical field, similar to the Acts of Apostles. He has never bothered to build or establish his own magazine ministry, because he treats his magazine ministry only as a means to the Kingdom of God.
Whenever this servant of God visits the houses of the people to whom he ministers, he would take some gifts to their houses, and would not expect gifts from them. He does not hanker after church pulpits or evangelistic dais. In this regard, what does Christ teach us? He would never open his mouth and ask for an offering for his ministry. He only gives a true account of his missionary journeys in his magazine but never brags about what he has been doing for the Lord.
Who is a minister under the New Testament? Jesus said, whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant; even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many (Matt.20: 26-28).
What is prevalent today in our churches? We find ministers occupying positions of authority and power over the people to whom they are supposed to minister. They expect their congregations to serve them with their tithes. Though the Levitical priesthood was done away with by Christ Jesus, His ministers still perform the Levitical duties, and seek services from their congregations.
This trend is also visible in evangelistic circles and conferences of ministers. The evangelists or the ministers who are called to minister covet prominent places on the dais. They love the best places and the best seats (Matt.23: 6). At times, we find a large number of seats placed on the dais just to please them. They do not want to sit in the audience. They want themselves to be introduced to the audience.
Some time ago, while interacting with some Christian brethren in the USA who argued that the apostolic age was over and that there were no more apostles today, I told them that if they left their computers and came to India, I would show them the true apostles in our nation.
This servant of God does not seek his own. He does not promote his own ministry. He spurned offers for going abroad for ministry when I find many servants of God in this nation coveting invitations from abroad for ministry. He goes every year to the places not reached by the gospel of Christ in India even in his old age when the servants of God in India want to go abroad for ministry – to those nations where they get a lot of gifts and offerings and when the servants of God in the west do not move out of their comfort zones for the sake of the gospel. His beloved wife was suffering from a mental illness for a very long time. But this dear servant of God was looking after her with all the love and affection. He has endured all the things in his life. She left for her heavenly abode during 1998. When I wanted to write a few words of praise about him in my book, he did not allow me to do so. I see the living Christ in him. During 1999, my wife and I visited his house. He showered his love upon us. He is truly an apostle of Christ in our midst and I am in fellowship with him. Let us carry on our ministries always through love!
- Job Anbalagan