What Does Charity Look Like?

You can have great knowledge, but without charity, forget it.
Just pack it up, go home, find you something else to do that maybe you're better at.
Maybe teaching the Bible is not for you.
Without charity, we're no better than all the other voices out in this world.
We just mix right in, sound just like them, walk in step with them, not walking in line in Paul line, not walking in line with the spirit, but just sounding like the world with vitriol and anger and lack of temperance.
You can have knowledge and you might be zealous, but without charity, you're really nothing.
No, no. And that's what Paul says.
I mean, that's the very first verse of this chapter.
That's where he says, though I speak with the tongues of men and angels and have not charity, I am become as a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal.
According to the verse that you just read in the next chapter over in chapter 14, that's no good.
There's no benefit.
I mean, the very next verse after that says that how will one going into battle understand what to do if they don't know?
Paul over there in Ephesians 3 says, And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now, you'll never be filled with the fullness of God until you get your pride and ego out of the way and get into this charity.
Yeah.
This love, this joy, this peace, that peace of God that you've allowed to rule in your heart.
That's when you can demonstrate charity to others.
That's right.
Who's our pattern? Paul.
He wrote this.
All we have to do is follow it.
We don't have to figure it out.
We don't have to wait for a special revelation of the Lord.
The Lord Jesus Christ revealed this to him.
He wrote it down in 13 epistles and all we have to do is look at it and go, okay, let me practice following this.
Right, right.
People have a strange idea sometimes of what love is and what charity is.
And Paul wasn't a pushover, but it is quite possible to be firm and stand in the word of God and have a backbone about what you're doing without taking cheap shots at other people.
Like a bully on the playground.
Taking people's lunch money.
Yeah.
Yeah.
A bully's on the playground.
No, we don't want to do that.
We can walk above that.
Right.
You can't be filled with the fullness of God.
You just can't until you get that kind of stuff out of the way.
And it takes practice.
It takes renewing the mind and installing Pauline doctrine.
That's right.
Colossians 3:14, And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of what?
Yep.
Perfectness.
Perfectness.
Why is it that we?
I always want to say it.
I always, instead of saying per'fectness, I always want to say perfect'ness.
It's funny.
That's why I stumbled at that.
And what does he say next?
What happens if we do that?
The peace of God rules in our hearts.
That's right.
Wow.
So there's a condition, but look at the result.
That's amazing.
That's right.
There it is, guys.
And then he goes on to say to the which also you are called in one body and be you thankful.
Verse 16, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
That's what we do on our mobile app.
Yes.
Singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord, man, don't you just love Paul's words?
If your mind isn't right, Paul will fix that stinking thinking for you real quick.
That's right.
Such beautiful words that minister to the heart of the believer, right?
I mean, this is, this is amazing.
And Colossians.
Colossians is great for that, too.
Sometimes I get lost, especially in chapter one, I get lost in Colossians and just you can read over and over the magnitude of what Paul is describing that that has been done for us who are fortunate enough to be alive during this dispensation of grace.
In chapter 1, I can just read this chapter over and over and over again.
And I see something a little different every time.
It's not, it's more information is it's more elaboration is it's something else will pop out at you and you'll be like, I never noticed that before.
That's right.
I never know.
And this is, this is what growth is whenever, you know, and I hope to never get to a point to where I feel like I can't do that anymore.
This is the reason why I want to read the scriptures, the reason why his word is living because you, you, you get a new living revelation so to speak, it's not a secret.
It's just something you didn't know before because you're you and if you open that word and read it with that open mind that way and see these things, but see, your, your premise has to be right for you for that to happen.
That's right.
There's no edifice there.
Right, right.
So keep talking to us, Paul.
I'm looking here.
Romans 12:9, man, he's good, Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil. Cleave to that which is good.
Yes.
Hear that?
I mean, Abhor that which is evil.
That means to hate something, to detest the way someone behaves.
Verse 10, be kindly affectionate one to another with brotherly love and honor, preferring one another.
Literally the definition of ministry.
Romans 12:10, ministry.
Ministers are not people who Lord over you.
Ministers are servants.
That's right.
If you are a minister, you are serving others.
The ministry is to serve others.
It's not.
Yeah, I know the context whereby you're, you're speaking.
Yeah, it's not to, to, to be something to be revered or built up or anything like that.
It's not a stage.
Look at me, look at me.
A ministry is never a stage and it's never something to grab followers for, to.
To latch on to you.
And ministry is what you do for others.
It's not what others do for you unless it's their ministry.
You see, some look at, they look at preachers and they say, Oh, well, he's not after money.
So you know what?
He must, he's a good, he's a good preacher.
Well, you better inspect that.
Okay.
You better turn up your discernment because maybe there's something else he's after.
That's self serving.
Right.
Like power.
Right.
There's other things besides money that people lust after.
There you go.
The lust of power.
Oh, I don't want your money.
I just want you to revere me.
I want you to, to, to stay in line with what I say to copy me.
No, we're Paul's our pattern.
We're not, we're to finish his sentences.
We're not to copy you.
That's right.
That's right.
That's exactly Galatians 5:22, I love it. I did a study on the fruit of the spirit sometime back and I never got to part two. I, I've got more in me on this subject and a promise to come back with a part two. We got off on something else. I'm going to go back and recap and do that eventually, but 5:22, But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith.
In verse 23, meekness, temperance against such there is no law.
Verse 24, and they that are of Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and lust.
Verse 25, If we live in this, the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit.
Verse 26, Let us not be desirous of vain. What? Vain, say that again, Paul, vain glory. What's that next word? Provoking.
Oh my goodness.
I see a lot of that.
Provoking one another, envying one another, vain glory, vain glory, vain glory.
Whoa.
Now that's a big problem we see today.
Yeah, that's it.
That's exactly right.