Lesson 9

Charity: The Crowning Grace Of The Christian Life

2 Peter 1:7

The list of ingredients in Peter's recipe for a fruitful Christian life concludes in II Peter 1:7. For context and to refresh our memories, let's read again verses 5-9.

The first and most basic ingredient is faith. We are the children of God by faith in Christ. It is our trust in the person and work of Christ that brings the forgiveness of sin and the assurance of heaven. We are saved by grace through faith alone. But saving faith is never alone. And so, Christian growth and maturity demands that we add to our faith.

To that faith, Peter tells us first to add virtue - excellent morals. Christianity will change and improve your morals.

To virtue, the Bible says to add knowledge. Christianity engages the mind in learning, thinking, reasoning, knowing.

To knowledge, we add temperance, that is, self-control - the ability to handle the pleasures of life without excess and indulgence.

To temperance, we are commanded to add patience - the word means "staying power, perseverance". It is the ability to handle the pressures of life without giving up and giving in.

To patience, we add godliness, which speaks of our relationship with God. It is not religiosity but real, genuine, sincere devotion to God.

To godliness, we are commanded to add brotherly kindness. Here is the part about our relationships toward each other - the ability to speak and act in kindness toward our fellow man.

Today we have come to the last ingredient on the list. There is a sense in which thiis ingredient, this quality is the most important because it is the glue that holds everything together. The last ingredient in the recipe for a fruitful Christian life is charity.

Defined

Please do not be confused by the King James use of the word "charity." Generally, when we use this word it is with reference to showing benevolence by making a contribution to those who are needy.

But that is not the idea of the Greek word translated, here, "charity". In fact, this is probably the Greek word which is most familiar to us non-Greek speaking people. It is the word "agape." My children use to sing along with Psalty the Singing Songbook when they were younger and Psalty talked about "agape." The word is found at least 320 times that I can locate in the New Testament and is most often translated "love." Only 28 of the 320 times is it translated as "charity" in the King James.

I suspect that the reason why the King James translators at times chose the word charity is because they wanted to show that the kind of love that was being promoted was more than just a deep feeling - it was also an action. Agape is love in action, love at work, love, not just saying, but also doing.

You realize. of course, that there is more than one word in the Greek language for love. There are three different words for love and two of them are in our Bibles. "Agape" refers to the highest and deepest form of love, the most sacrificial kind of love, the kind of love that God has for us that caused Him to give His only begotten Son for our sins.

Peter places it at the end of the list because it is crowning quality of a Christian. Paul said, (I Corinthians 13:13) "And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity." To the Colossians (3:14) he wrote, "And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness." In his first epistle, Peter used similar language. He wrote (I Peter 4:8), "And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins."

The list goes on demonstrating that charity (agape) is the crowning quality of a Christian. I Timothy 1:5 - Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned. At the top of Paul's list of the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22) is "love (agape)." Jesus said that the greatest commandment (and there were over 600 of them in the law) was to "love (agape) the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength." He said that the second greatest commandment was to "love (agape) your neighbor as yourself" (Mark 12:30-31). The "new commandment given by Jesus (John 14:15,23,24; I John

5:2) was all about agape. Paul said that "all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love (agape) thy neighbor as thyself" (Galatians 5:14).

And so, it is appropriate and fitting that the last ingredient on Peter's list of ingredients for a fruitful Christian life is charity (love; agape). This is the capstone, the crowning element of Christianity. Add to your faith ... charity.

Detailed

The word "love" is so overused in our culture that it lost its bite. We use it to describe the way we feel about everything from pork chops to Pontiacs, from our job to our jeans. I almost feel like the word love should be reserved, not for the food we eat or the clothes that we wear or the cars that we drive or things that we do for fun, but for our relationship with God and with people.

In fact, the big fear or the big concern that I had about preaching this message is that it somehow would be so familiar to us that we would miss the impact of what Peter is saying.

I believe that Peter, having already written about our behavior, our minds, our attitudes toward the pleasures and pressures of life, our relationships with God and each other, is really speaking about what motivates us in the Christian life. What is the main motivating force in your life? What causes you to do the things that you do, to choose the choices that you make? For instance, what is that causes you to come to church or Sunday morning? And what is that gets you back here (or perhaps in your case, that keeps you from coming here) on Sunday night and Wednesday night? What moves you? What drives you? What is the primary motivating factor in your life?

For the pagan people of Peter's world, the motivating factor was probably fear. Pagans practice their superstitious religion out of fear. They are afraid of what will happen to them if they don't. Satan, the god of this world, is a master at intimidation. Idolatry and really, every false religion, is, in fact, the worship of demons and is motivated by fear. Those tribes in the jungles of Papua New Guinea are afraid of their gods. One of my good pastor friends, some time ago, was meeting and counseling with a man whose curiosity had led him into demonology. He had gotten to the point that he was drinking a mixture of human blood and urine in Satanic rituals. He came to my friend and said, "I want to get out, but I am scared to death of what will happen to me if I stop what I am doing." Christianity is not being motivated by fear. II Timothy 1:7 - For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. I John 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

The people of a generation past were motivated by duty. After all, World War II brought with it a sense of duty to country and to the war effort. And old-time preachers stressed our duty to God and to the church as the motivating factor. Duty is a better motivator than fear. But still, duty is not the best motivator. The weakness of duty is that can easily become motivation not by person desire but only out of a sense of obligation.

The people of this generation are motivated by benefit. It is, admittedly, a rather selfish thing, but that's the kind of mindset that most of us have. What's in it for me? What am I going to get out of it? If they cannot see some immediate and personal benefit and reward for a certain action, then they are not interested. To this generation, my life is all about me. To the average person of our time and culture, life is about personal entertainment. We think, we talk, we live mostly to be entertained.

Guess what, every thing isn't just about you. I'm a little sensitive when someone says, "I'm just not getting anything out of church (or whatever)." Guess what, church isn't about you! It's about God. You are not the audience for whom the singers and the musicians and the preacher performs. God is the audience. And we are all to be actively worshipping God.

And while there is a sense of fear of the Lord (respect and reverence for Him) and a sense of duty and a sense of reward, the real motivating force in a Christian's life is what Peter is writing about here. We are motivated best and most profoundly by charity, by agape, by love.

If you can get your heart right, if you can get your reasons right, then the right actions naturally flow out of the right reasons.

The Christian life is not lived with a sense of ...

I'm afraid not to ... or

I have to ... or

I'm going to get something if I do ...

but ...

I love God and love what God loves.

Love is the glue that holds all the other ingredients on this list together.

Virtue - no problem is you love God.

Knowledge - not such a strain if you love God, you want to know Him and His Word more and better.

Self-control - if you love God there is no need to indulge in that which displeases Him.

Patience - easier if you love God.

Godliness and Kindness - loving God makes it happen.

Beloved, add to your faith charity, the crowning quality of the Christian life, the glue that holds it all together. Examine your heart. Is there a problem with what you are allowing to be the motivating force? Be honest with yourself. Are you guided mostly by fear, by duty, by benefit or by love?