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“FATHER, FORGIVE THEM”
CHARLO, New Brunswick, May 11, 2024 – I’ve written here before about the Bible being messed with. By “messed with”, I mean that it’s been added to and taken away from, which has changed the content and therefore the meaning of certain parts. The Bible’s also been messed with through translation, which is a built-in hazard surely, but in certain instances it’s been purposely mis- (or better said, dis-) translated. All of which is why you need to read the Bible not with your own understanding, but with God’s.
Even better is to have God read the Bible to you.
One particularly concerning change that’s been made in newer translations is the replacement of “charity” with “love”. The two words are not the same – they aren’t spelled the same and they don’t have the same meaning. This is obvious to us. Not sure why it’s not obvious to the translators unless they’re driven by some agenda other than God’s.
Charity is a form of love that doesn’t require emotional engagement. Charity is based on obedience to God’s directives and indicates a seamless alignment of our will with God’s, an active willingness to do as God advises, which in most cases is either to give or to forgive, or both.
Love, on the other hand, is a deeply emotive feeling that yearns as much to receive love as to give it. Being emotion-based rather than obedience-based, love is an entirely different dynamic than charity, so the two terms should never be used interchangeably.
It’s not “faith, hope, and love”, it’s faith, hope, and charity, and of these, Paul reminds us, charity is the greatest.
In one of his letters, Peter talks about the primacy of charity:
“And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.”
In the newest translations of the Bible, the word “charity” used here has been changed to “love”, which entirely alters the crucial teaching that Peter intended to convey. When you love someone, you don’t have to be prompted to be “fervent” towards that person or to consider his or her wellbeing ahead of your own. You just do those things as a matter of course, as an outpouring of your emotions, prompted by no other directive than your depth of feeling. Your kindness and caring are natural expressions of your love for that person.
But when you don’t feel that depth of emotion (or any emotion at all or only negative emotion) for someone to whom God has asked you to be kind, it takes charity for you to positively respond to God’s request. This is not an emotion-based response but rather a conscious decision to choose obedience to God, and through that obedience to offer something that you otherwise would not offer. You make that choice for no other reason than that God advises you to. That’s charity.
As you can see, there’s a vast gulf in meaning between love and charity, and the two terms cannot and should not be used interchangeably.
Peter was a huge fan of charity. So was Paul. This should not be surprising, as at its core Christianity is all about charity, though not in the sense that the word is used today, either in the new translations of the Bible or in everyday parlance. Charity today has been corroded and cheapened into mostly meaning giving money to a tax-dodging organization that collects financial or other donations for redistribution allegedly to “the poor”, but the lion’s share of these donations usually ends up staying within the organization. This is not the type of charity that Peter and Paul wrote about.
For me, the best example of Christian charity is Jesus’ last words on the cross. According to scripture, they weren’t his only last words, but they were by far his greatest. Jesus said of his executioners: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” Instead of cursing his tormentors or lamenting the unjustness of his circumstances, Jesus looked past it all and positioned himself firmly in the realm of charity. He wasn’t responding emotively to the situation but making a conscious decision to choose righteousness rather than self-pity or revenge.
This is the kind of charity Peter and Paul wrote about. As well as being the highest level of charity that we can aspire to, Jesus’ final words on the cross were also his greatest teaching moment. Everything Jesus had said and done up to that point blossomed and bore fruit in those few words. For me, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” is both a summation of the New Testament and the most precious of our earthly inheritances: Jesus entrusted us with those words so that we would cherish them and apply them in the same way he did, so that when our time comes, we would leave those same words in the safekeeping of our brethren, like Jesus did, and like Stephen did, and like countless other martyrs have done down through the ages, blessing their murderers in their final breath rather than cursing them, and showing us how it’s done.
Love and charity are not the same thing and should never be used interchangeably. Love is an emotion, whereas charity is a choice. There is no greater achievement than the offering of charity in the face of hatred and violence. We not only need to know this but to internalize it so deeply that when our final test comes, we’ll be able to repeat Jesus’ last words unprompted and as if fully natural to us, and in so doing cover our own multitude of sins.
ARE YOU HELPING FOR GOOD OR IN VAIN?
MCLEODS, New Brunswick, January 17, 2024 – Jesus spent his entire ministry helping people. In fact, helping people was the reason God sent him. As Jesus’ followers, we also have that same impulse baked into us to help people: It’s part of who and what we are as Christians: we can’t help but help. Certainly, helping people is a good thing in and of itself, but we need to remember that Jesus didn’t just go around randomly helping people for the sake of it; he waited for God to show him who he was to help and how he was to do it, and then he helped them.
I was reminded of this when I read an article the other day about a homeless encampment in suburban Halifax. The camp has been growing for months on an unused baseball diamond and has gained some notoriety through constant media coverage. The fall-out from all the publicity is that members of the general public – including some local churches – have started dropping off “donations” to the homeless at the camp. These are usually in the form of food, gift cards, clothing, tents, sleeping bags and other camping items, and personal care products. Some people also drop off cash.
The reason the camp was in the news on that particular day is that a drug dealer had set up camp (literally, in a trailer) next to the homeless encampment. Using the camp as his cover, he’d been plying his trade for months. When the dealer was arrested and his trailer seized, the police found hundreds of gift cards as well as unused winter clothing, sleeping bags, tents, and other items with street value. The police also found a large amount of cash.
While no witnesses have come forward to attest to the homeless people at the camp trading their donated goods for drugs, the evidence is overwhelming. Thinking they were helping the homeless, the people who’d dropped off donations were in fact only helping the drug trade and enabling the drug-addicted homeless to sink deeper into their own personal mire. In other words, they were making a bad situation worse.
What the general public chooses to do is their business, and I would never tell them who or how to help. It’s not my job to do that. But what Christians do or don’t do is very much my business. We’re here to help each other as much as we’re here to help non-Christians. Please allow me, then, to offer you a gentle reminder (for those who need it) about the importance of helping people the way Jesus helped them and the way God invites us to help them.
First and foremost – wait for God to show you who and how to help. If you wait for God to show you, he will also enable you, and the help you provide will be blessed. When your help is enabled and blessed by God, it won’t end up in the hands of a drug dealer. It won’t make the situation worse. If you wait for God to specifically tell you who needs the help and how you can help them, you will genuinely be blessing people.
Secondly but just as importantly, “don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing”. In other words, don’t make a big show of your help. Don’t blow a horn and announce your help. Just do it.
And thirdly, let people know you’re happy to help them in any way you’re able to help them, and then leave the offer with them. Don’t force your help on anyone or guilt them into thinking they need your help. Wait for them to come to you. If they come to you, God has brought them to you, and God will help you help them.
I worked for a major international Christian charity several years ago on a short-term contract, coordinating the charity’s volunteers at Christmas time. My office was on the main floor of the main building, so I got to see all the comings and goings of the charity’s interactions with the general public. A few weeks before Christmas, an elderly woman dropped off a garbage bag full of mittens and hats she’d knitted over the past year, intended for the homeless and needy (there was a homeless shelter attached to the main building). She’d brought her donations to the charity assuming that the charity would then dispense the items to people who could use them. This was a tradition for the woman, that she’d donate a garbage bag full of her labours every year just before Christmas. The charity staff made a big deal of thanking her for her donation and waved her out the door. Then one of the staff took the bag of mittens and hats upstairs.
A few weeks later, just after Christmas, I was rummaging through one of the storage rooms to find a pair of winter boots for someone at the hostel, when lo and behold I stumbled across dozens of dusty garbage bags full of handknit mittens and hats, moldering in the dampness. By the looks of it, none of the woman’s donations over the years had gone any farther than that storage room, and now they were no good to anyone.
One of the most sobering parables in the Bible is the one about the people who’d attended church and performed miracles and preached in Jesus’ name but who were shut out of Heaven because they’d done all these things on their own volition. When we rush to help people without God’s prompting and guidance and without God’s blessing, we aren’t helping them in any real way and are likely only making things worse. As Christians, our job is to help people, but we need to help them as God guides us, in his way and in his timing. When we rush to help people just for the sake of helping them, our efforts are not unlike those who claimed to preach in Jesus’ name but who preached in vain because God hadn’t sent them.
David’s advice to “wait on the Lord” (Psalm 27) is as applicable to helping people as it is to every other aspect of our lives.
THE LOVE COMMANDMENT
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, December 18, 2019 – On his last night as a human, Jesus spoke in depth to his followers who were gathered with him to celebrate the Passover meal. At some point during the proceedings, he gave us another Commandment – to love as he loved. This was the handing on of the torch from teacher to students, envisioning that they themselves would one day be handing on the torch to their own students, and they to theirs, and so on and so on, all the way down to us.
We now stand with that same torch in our hands, lit by Jesus. And just like those who were gathered around Jesus on his last night as a human, we too are commanded to love as he loved.
But how did Jesus love? (more…)
HEAVEN FIFTEEN
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, November 11, 2015 – There’s an epidemic of well-meaning but misdirected help these days. We born-agains are often the worst offenders, imposing our “help” on people who either haven’t asked for it, don’t really want it, or never actually receive it.
In so doing, we make things worse for them and for us.
If people haven’t asked for help, don’t try to give it to them. It won’t work. Yes, you may see that they have a need, but if they don’t see that same need in themselves, keep your mouth shut about it. Better to go to God and pray for them than to nag them.
The only one you should be nagging is God.
Another help misfire is when people are insincere in their request for help. You’ll know the difference between a sincere request and an insincere one, and the best response to an insincere request is a simple “Sorry, no”. It may sound harsh, but ‘helping’ people who don’t really want to be helped in the way they need to be helped does not lead to a positive outcome for anyone.
Sending a check to a charity is another misdirected help effort that does no-one any good (except maybe the administrators and marketers of the charity). If you know (as most of us do now) that up to 100% of charitable donations are redirected down the black hole of admin and advertising costs, then you’re a sucker to sign the check. Charities are banking on your being a sucker. Close that sucker bank down.
If you feel the need to help someone financially, find a relative or an acquaintance who could use a few dollars. Give them the money (don’t lend it to them, give it to them) and do it anonymously, if possible. Expect nothing in return, not even a “thank you”. That’s true charity.
During his ministry years, Jesus helped all those who came to him in sincerity. God also helps all those who come to him in sincerity. These are our models – Jesus and God – not the Joneses next door who are involved in a dozen charities and sign up to do volunteer work every weekend.
If people sincerely need your help, God will send them to you and make it obvious that he sent them to you. Always be ready and willing to help whoever God sends your way. If God sends them, God will help you help them. That’s the only genuine help that’s genuinely needed and genuinely does any good.
HEAVEN SEVEN
BEDFORD, Nova Scotia, October 28, 2015 – As born-agains, the spiritual tools we value the most, use the most, and need the most have no place in Heaven.
Imagine that!
The Ten Commandments are obsolete.
The directives God gave us through Jesus don’t apply.
We don’t have to pray.
And there aren’t even any Bibles (King James or otherwise).
Imagine that!
Faith, hope and charity have value only in this life.
We don’t need faith in Heaven because, as Paul told us, we’ll see and know God fully as he is.
We won’t need hope, either, because we’ll have everything we want and there won’t be any adversities to overcome.
And we won’t need charity, the self-less love that’s expressed by obedience to God’s will. There won’t be any need for charity in Heaven because we’ll all have the mind of God, so we’ll all be doing God’s will automatically.
As for praying, we won’t need to do that any more because we won’t have to talk to God and Jesus in faith, trusting they hear us; we’ll be able to talk to them face-to-face.
So you see, there’s no ‘faith, hope and charity’ or praying in Heaven because there’s no need for them.
And there’s no free will, either (to which I say: THANK GOD FOR THAT!).
I’m glad God gave me free will, but I’ll be even gladder to kiss that double-edged mother good-bye.
It’s caused me a lot of problems.
Bye-bye, free will!
Bye-bye, Bible!
Bye-bye, faith hope and charity!
Bye-bye, loving your enemies!
Bye-bye to everything but God’s will and God’s goodness, because that’s all we’ll need when we arrive in Heaven. God will provide us with everything else, just like he provides for us on Earth.
And the last thing we’ll say good-bye to is good-bye itself, because there are never any partings in Heaven. Everything and everyone are there to stay.
HAPPY CARITAS DAY!
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, February 14, 2015 – When I was in university, I had to read excerpts from the Bible for a comparative literature assignment. I was an atheist at the time and hated the Bible or anything that spoke of God in a positive way. I thought believers were idiots and I had zero patience for them.
The assignment specifically required me to read passages from Paul’s letter about faith, hope and charity. As an atheist, I had a difficult time reading the New Testament because all the words ran together and I couldn’t make head or tails of what was being said. Trying to read the New Testament for this assignment was no different; none of the words made any sense to me. It was as if they were written in a foreign language that I had no knowledge of.
In discussing the assignment in class, my professor talked about “caritas”, or charity, as a type of love that was distinct from other forms of love. He was a kind man and a diligent instructor, and I can still see him struggling to convey a meaning that can only be understood by people who are born again. I doubt whether he, at the time, was born again, or even if anyone in the class believed in God. I certainly didn’t understand what my professor meant by “caritas”, but I dutifully picked up enough of his explanation to regurgitate it on the exam and get a pass for the course.
Caritas is often translated as “charity”. It means self-less love, the kind that God gives us. God loves us selflessly, even arrogant university students who spit venom at the sound of his name. He gives of himself without expecting anything in return. As an atheist, I could not fathom a type of love that wasn’t feelings-based and wasn’t meant to be reciprocated on some level; to me, love without palpitations and weak knees just wasn’t love. Sure, I understood that my parents and grandparents loved me without palpitations and weak knees, but that was different. I was expected at least to show my respect to them, so in this they got something in return for their love.
But to love expecting nothing in return – what kind of fool would do that? My atheistic mindset had no place for such as concept. To me, the notion of caritas made the idea of God all the more far-fetched.
Muddying the waters even more was my personal experience of the charity industry. I saw charities as seedy organizations whose sole purpose was to separate people from their time, energy, and money. How could these organizations truly be called ‘charities’ if they gave tax receipts for monetary expressions of love? Wasn’t real charity supposed to be done selflessly and without expecting anything in return?
Despite his best efforts, my professor could not bring me to an understanding of Paul’s concept of charity, nor make me grasp why Paul considered charity to be the highest virtue. It was only after I was born again and able to read the New Testament that I started to get a feeling for what Paul meant.
Jesus said to give freely without expecting anything in return, to love your enemies, and to treat other people as you want to be treated. He also tells us to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect. This is the caritas that Paul was talking about – being kind to people without expecting to be treated kindly in return, and giving freely to those in need without expecting anything in return (including a tax receipt or even a thank-you). And to do it all sincerely, and with a smile in your heart.
To Jesus and Paul, charity simply meant to love as God loves. No palpitations or weak knees are required. Caritas is initiated in us by an act of our will, not a feeling. It is an act that is done for no other reason than that it is the right thing to do; no personal gain is involved. This is the selflessness that my professor struggled to convey all those years ago.
When we say “yes” to caritas, God loves through us. The simple nod of our will gives God permission to work through us so that we can, in fact, love as God loves: fully and selflessly. In saying “yes”, we feel God’s love flow through us, and we know there is no greater love.
HAPPY CARITAS DAY, EVERYONE!
A BORN-AGAIN BELIEVER 