Hi friends, How are you? I was hoping to write a post about biblical ways of marriage and love between spouses today. However, I decided that there is so much to consider and talk about with a post like that, so I chose a more general form of love today. That love is “charity”. A Few General Thoughts about the Definition of “Charity”:
I am sure there are many definitions of the word charity. We may each have our own definition. Our definition may even change, as we grow older and mature in faith and understanding.
I can remember reading the word “charity” in the Bible and automatically thinking of the noun “charity, as in an organization that helps the poor. So, maybe I thought of the word “charity” as in “a kind-hearted feeling for those in need”. I don’t remember for sure. Now, I think of “charity” as being a “Christianly love for all” and something that is to be done always. It is a love we are called to have for others, because God calls us to love others. They don’t have to be poor. They don’t have to be rich. They don’t have to be kind. They don’t have to be friends or friendly. We are just called to love others. What is your definition for the word “charity” as mentioned in 1 Peter 4:8? I would be interested in hearing thoughtful considerations by other Christians. If you are uncertain of a definition, you might want to research it. A Bible concordance may be helpful for you. Here is a page that explains and defines “charity”. What Reason Does Peter Give for Having “Charity” for Others?:
In 1 Peter 4:8, the reason Peter gives us to have charity for others is “…for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.” (KJV) So, what does this mean? When I first read this, I thought about how we tend to “overlook” or more easily forgive minor misgivings from our loved ones, because of our love for them. We might think or say something like, “Oh yes, he (or she) might have done something wrong, but I can’t stay mad. I love him (or her).” The more endearing the person may act towards us, the more difficult it is to stay upset with that person.
Was Peter’s meaning this practical? Was he talking about the practicalities of human behavior? Is that what God means? Is God calling us to love one another in 1 Peter 4:8, because it will make it easier to forgive one another when our human behavior slips into sin? I am not sure. However, in the practical sense, I do think Peter wanted to stress to the early Christians that they should stick together, encourage each other, and help build the kingdom of God. I think he wanted to stress the need to be of one mind in God and guard against being divided. God’s Word:
When reading and studying God’s Word, it is often important to consider the context of the statement before taking it to heart. For example, when reading 1 Peter 4:8, I am kind of surprised to read that Peter’s instructions was to “have fervent charity among yourselves” above all instead of loving God above all or something like that.
Let’s dive a little deeper and look at 1 Peter 4:7 for some context. In that verse Peter notes that “the end of all things are at hand”. So, I am thinking that Peter is probably expecting Jesus to come back and the world to end soon. He wants to do what he can to comfort the newest Christians and to encourage them to love each other and to stick together. He is probably warning them that things will get difficult, that there may be persecution from the non-Christian community. He may be saying that they should make sure they have their “ducks in a row”, so that when the end comes, they will be with God. He wants them to remember that “together we stand and divided we fall”, so sticking together and encouraging each other is important. Maybe Peter figured that if he said to “love God above all”, the new Christians might not understand the message that he was giving them about sticking together and encouraging each other. Maybe Peter was remember back and relaying the message that Jesus gave in verses such as Matthew 22:39, Mark 12:31, and John 15:12 that we are called to love one another. Maybe Peter knew that we couldn’t dislike each other and love God at the same time (as mentioned in 1 John 4:20). Maybe Peter wasn’t sure if the new Christians would understand that, so he just said to love each other. I believe that we get more out of God’s Word and His message, when we look at things in context and also try to put ourselves in the shoes of the speaker or listener back in biblical times. Although, nothing is better in gaining knowledge about God’s Word then to read it and then pray to ask God for knowledge. So, let’s pray. Heavenly Father, Thank you for your love and your Word. Your Word is a living and life giving Word. However, at times it can be difficult for us to understand and to take out of context. Help us to turn to you in prayer, especially if we have the least little doubt about what you are telling us through your Word. Help us also to love each other and to encourage each other in your Word. Help us also to understand that we don’t love you, if we don’t love others. I ask you this through your Son, Jesus. Amen. 
If you enjoyed this post, you may also want to read these similar posts: *How Do You Show Jesus You Love Him? *Do You Reflect the Love of God? *Do You Practice Pure Religion? *Why are We Called to Love Our Enemies? Now, it is your turn. I am so thankful that you are here. I pray that God blesses you as you read the Faith Blog by DUO Inspirations. If you feel called to do so, please feel free to comment or contact me at any time. I welcome your comments and look forward to reading them. Also, if you have any questions, comments, ideas, or requests for me, please feel free to let me know. Thank you. If you find value in the Faith Blog by DUO Inspirations, please share it with your friends and family. The new share buttons will make it easier for you to do that. Some of your friends and family may appreciate you sharing it, so they can read it as well. As you can tell from the post, I believe that all Christians are called to share God’s Word and encourage others to get closer to God. In helping you with your Bible study, I have a free gift for you. Please, sign up below to receive your free gift and get the Faith Blog by DUO Inspirations in your inbox each week. Yes, I may include some other “faith” content with the email at times, especially a prayer.
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Hi friends,
There are many kinds of love. However, one kind of love may be more difficult to do or to understand than the others. That is the love we are called to do in Matthew 5:44. We are called to love our enemies. Think for a moment about the people who may have hurt you. Think of the people who you dislike or distrust. Think of the people who may have been cruel to you or abused you at one time or another. Did you know that you are called to love those people? Yes. We aren’t just called to love family, friends, and neighbors. We are called to love our enemies also. Do you love your enemies? Do you love those who have been mean to you, cruel to you, and abusive to you? I know. This might not seem logical to us humans, especially being surrounded by worldly reasoning which says the opposite. Worldly ways say something like, “hate those before they hate us” or “get them before they get us” or “if they don’t like us, we don’t have to like them”. Yet, worldly ways are not God’s ways. So, why do we have to love our enemies? Well, God could just say, “because, I told you to” but He gives us other reasons as well. Let’s look at some of the reasons why we should love our enemies as Jesus tells in in the words of Matthew 5:44. If We Love Our Enemies, We are not Murderers:
One of the reasons why we are called to love our enemies is found in 1 John 3:15 (KJV) which says, “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.” God knows human nature. Killing someone isn’t always a physical act.
There are other ways of “killing someone” other than physically doing it. You can incite a riot to kill someone. In that case, words work on people’s emotions until they are caught up in the moment and get violent. Look at they way the crowd called for the murder to be released and for Jesus to be crucified. People can act in a different way than they normally would or even want to act when caught up in the moment or feel pressured. Look at the way Peter denied Jesus. He was caught up in the moment and felt pressured, even when he didn’t want to feel that way. We often hear that if we think positive thoughts, positive things will happen and if we think negative thoughts, negative things will happen. It is why we are concerned when a friend or loved one may start to have suicidal thoughts. We know that if the thoughts are there, the actions might not be too far away. There is a fine line sometimes between thoughts and actions. Therefor, if we hate someone, we might not be far from saying mean things towards him or her or about him or her. If we say mean things about someone, we might not be far from being violent towards that someone. If we are being violent, we might not be far from killing. So, we are called not to hate at all, not even those who are mean to us. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be a murder. To me, that is motivation for me to love my enemy. If We Love Our Enemies, We Love God:
Another reason we are called to love our enemies is found in 1 John 4:20 (KJV) which says, “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” If we hate our enemy, we don’t love God.
God is love. If we don’t love, we are not near or even around God. We aren’t thinking of God. It is like God is far away and out of our mind, if we don’t love others. So, how can we expect to be or say that we are close to God, if we don’t love others, even our enemies? If we don’t love, God is out of sight and out of mind. That is not where God wants to be. God wants to be close to us. Even more than not being a murderer, I don’t want to be far from God. This is even more motivation for me to love my enemy. I know that I am called to be close to God and that is where I want to be. What about you? If We Love Our Enemies, We are Children of God:
Still another reason to love our enemies is in the very same breath as Matthew 5:44. Yes, Matthew 5:45 tells us the answer as well. It says (KJV), “That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.”
Yes, as children of God, we are called to love our enemies. If we want to be considered children of God, we are called to love our enemies. God makes the sun rise on the good and the evil. He shows the same “Godly love” to enemies as He does loved ones. As God’s ambassadors and as God’s friends and family, we are called to show our enemies “Godly love” as well. God’s Word:
Friends, I get it. God’s Word is full of concepts that are difficult for us to understand and even more difficult for us to live, especially being surrounded by worldly people telling us just the opposite. If it were easy, we wouldn’t read about most of the people in the Bible NOT getting it.
Living by God’s Word and doing all the things God calls us to do may seem impossible at times. We do know that, “For God nothing shall be impossible.” (Luke 1:37 KJV) So, let’s pray: Heavenly Father, Thank you for your holy Word. Thank you for showing us the way to you. Thank you for loving us like friends and family. Thank you for showing us love and how to love. Help us to love not only our friends and family, but our enemies as well. Help us to love when we are hurt, angry, or confused as to why we are even called to love. Help us to love, when how hurt seems so enraged that it doesn’t feel natural to love. Help us to love our friends and our enemies, so that we may know you and be close to you. I ask you this through your Son, Jesus. Amen. 
If you enjoyed this post, you may want to read these similar posts: *How Do You Show Jesus You Love Him? *Do You Reflect the Love of God? Now, it is your turn. I am so thankful that you are here. I pray that God blesses you as you read the Faith Blog by DUO Inspirations. If you feel called to do so, please feel free to comment or contact me at any time. I welcome your comments and look forward to reading them. Also, if you have any questions, comments, ideas, or requests for me, please feel free to let me know. Thank you. If you find value in the Faith Blog by DUO Inspirations, please share it with your friends and family. The new share buttons will make it easier for you to do that. Some of your friends and family may appreciate you sharing it, so they can read it as well. As you can tell from the post, I believe that all Christians are called to share God’s Word and encourage others to get closer to God. In helping you with your Bible study, I have a free gift for you. Please, sign up below to receive your free gift and get the Faith Blog by DUO Inspirations in your inbox each week. Yes, I may include some other “faith” content with the email at times, especially a prayer.
Hi friends, How are you? We seem to be on a “salt theme” on the Faith Blog by DUO Inspirations. I hope you are enjoying it. We have talked about learning from Lot’s wife (who as we know was turned into a pillar of salt) as well as being the salt of the earth. Today, we are furthering our discussion of salt and how it relates to speaking. Do You Have Trouble Knowing What to Say or How to Say it?:
Have you ever had times when you haven’t known what to say to someone? Maybe during an argument and someone takes a jab at you, you want to “come back” with a statement of your own. You know that you aren’t supposed to be mean, even if others are mean to you. Yet, you just don’t want to leave it. You want to say something. Maybe you are trying to explain something and just don’t know how to get your point across. Maybe you need to tell someone something very important, but not quite sure how to get your message out.
If you have trouble knowing what to say or how to say it, you are not alone. It can be difficult for most of us at times. For, example, I don’t like conflict. When someone says something against me, I have a difficult time knowing what to say, how to say it, or if I am even supposed to say anything at all. Do I ignore it? Do I stand up for myself? I am sure the answer to this is different in each circumstance and for each person. I just know that my first reaction is often to feel uncomfortable. This is not what we are called to do by the way. The Worldly Attitudes about What to Say and How to Say it:
It probably doesn’t help that the worldly views and attitudes about what to say and how to say it seem to bombard us from such a young age. As far back as I can remember, there was a saying that I heard in school that went like this: “Anything you say bounces off me and sticks to you.” Now, this may seem like an innocent enough way to react. After all, if you say that, you aren’t coming right out and calling the other person what they just called you. You didn’t say the same mean words. Yet, in reality, you are saying the same thing. You are saying and wishing whatever mean thing someone said to you back to them.
Worldly thinking when it comes to speaking or talking with someone is often “tit for tat” or “jab them before they get a chance to jab you”. Sometimes it is more like “the one who speaks the loudest wins”. However, this is not what we are called to do. We are not called to worldly ways in speaking, or in anything else. How are We Called to Speak?:
So, how are we called to speak? Let’s start by looking at Colossians 4:6 to answer that question. The beginning part of Colossians 4:6 (KJV) says, “Let your speech be always with grace”. It doesn’t say, “Be nice when others are nice and be mean when others are mean.” It says, “Let your speech be always with grace”.
We are called to speak with kindness in our heart. When someone says something mean to us, we are called to speak to with grace. We are called to be kind and forgiving. It might be difficult at times to understand why we are called to always speak with grace, but I think we can understand what it means to speak with grace pretty well. However, the second part of Colossians 4:6 (KJV) which says, “seasoned with salt”, might be a little bit harder to understand. What are your thoughts on this? As I was thinking just now and God gave me a thought about how we say, “that leaves a bad taste in my mouth”. We need to speak in a way that doesn’t “leave a bad taste in the mouth of others”. We need to speak in a way that leaves a savory taste in the mouth of others. We need to speak in a way that encourages others in godly ways. It also means that we need to be prepared to answer the why of what we are saying at times. We can’t just say, “because, I said so” and expect that everyone is going to be okay with that. I mean, “who are we”, right? Why We are Called to “Speak with Grace” and “Seasoned with Salt”:
Let’s take a few minutes to think and talk about why we are called to speak “always with grace” and “seasoned with salt”. First of all, we are called to speak in that way, because our God told us that is His will for us. Yet, just as there were practical reasons for Paul to say it to those in biblical times spreading God’s Word, there are also practical reasons for us as well. Most of them are the same practical reasons.
People are less likely to listen to us, if we have a bad attitude while we are speaking. Who wants to listen to someone when they are being rude, sarcastic, and condescending or yelling and snickering? We also do want to be “in their face” or expect them to understand right away where we are coming from, especially if we don’t want to take our time to understand from where they are coming. Yes, it might be difficult to speak to others “with grace” and “seasoned with salt” if they have treated us badly. And, no, there is no more excuse for them to treat us badly than we have to want to repay their bad behavior likewise. However, that is why we are called to speak to them with grace. People may be having a bad day or be hurt themselves and lashed out without thinking. We don’t know. We would want others to give us a break and treat us with grace during such times, right? So, we are called to treat others, as we would want to be treated. (i.e.- Matthew 7:12, Luke 6:31) We God's ambassadors on earth and we are called to be role models for unbelievers and new Christians. If we speak harshly, criticize others, or speak in a way others can't understand, what kind of motivation is that for others to get closer to God. After all, if we proclaim to be godly people and treat others horribly, why would anyone else be interested in being godly? However, if we speak with kindness, grace, truth, love, encouragement, and in a way that they can understand, they will be much more likely to want to be more like us and get closer to God themselves. How Do We Speak “with Grace” and “Seasoned with Salt”?:
Sometimes it is easier said than done. So, how do we speak “with grace” and “seasoned in salt”? It helps to know how we are to respond. Reading God’s Word and knowing how to speak is helpful. By reading God’s Word, we also know that we are not always called to come up with the words. For example Mark 13:11 (KJV) says, “But when they shall lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost.”
If we are having a difficult time with the words we should speak, we can turn to God. His Holy Spirit will give us the words we seek. This is great motivation for not speaking too hastily. Instead of speaking before we think, we can pause not only to think but to pray as well. Taking that quick minute to pray before we speak could make the difference between speaking with grace and speaking in anger or in foolishness. God’s Word:
To me, the Bible is a great example of speech that is “seasoned in salt”. Have you ever notice how the different books in the Bible are written in such a way that the particular readers would understand? Most of the authors in the Bible “knew their audience”. They could write and speak in a way that would have meaning for their readers. More so, they could write and speak in a way that would encourage their readers to follow God’s will and to take it as truth.
When Paul wrote the words in Colossians 4:6, he was giving direction to early Christians working to spread the gospel. He was giving good advice on how to speak, so that others would be more likely to listen and accept what they were saying. For example, Luke does this when he wants to “prove” to his readers that Jesus is the Messiah. He knew that his audience was big on ancestry and that they were expecting to the Messiah to come from the “house of David”. So, Luke gives his readers Jesus’ earthly genealogy. (Luke 3:23-38) God’s Word as a whole is great at inspiring us and encouraging us to follow God’s will and plan for us. We don’t always follow through, just as our listeners don’t always heed us when we speak. However, in God’s Word, the encouragement and inspiration are there. Let's pray: Heavenly Father, Thank you for your wisdom, your love, and your Word. Thank you for telling us the way we are called to speak. Help us to turn to you in knowing what to say and how to say it. Help us to "speak with grace" and "seasoned with salt" even in the most difficult of times. Help us to treat others as we would like to be treated and to encourage others in your Word, so we can be your helpers in spreading the gospel and enlarging your kingdom. We ask you this through your Son, Jesus. Amen. 
If you enjoyed this post, you may want to read these similar posts about: *The Power of Words *Encouraging Others Now, it is your turn. I am so thankful that you are here. I pray that God blesses you as you read the Faith Blog by DUO Inspirations. If you feel called to do so, please feel free to comment or contact me at any time. I welcome your comments and look forward to reading them. Also, if you have any questions, comments, ideas, or requests for me, please feel free to let me know. Thank you. If you find value in the Faith Blog by DUO Inspirations, please share it with your friends and family. The new share buttons will make it easier for you to do that. Some of your friends and family may appreciate you sharing it, so they can read it as well. As you can tell from the post, I believe that all Christians are called to share God’s Word and encourage others to get closer to God. In helping you with your Bible study, I have a free gift for you. Please, sign up below to receive your free gift and get the Faith Blog by DUO Inspirations in your inbox each week. Yes, I may include some other “faith” content with the email at times, especially a prayer. |
Hi friends!
This is Jodi. I am so glad you are here! I am a Christian and life-long learner. I enjoy sharing and encouraging others. I pray you are blessed by this blog. Thank you for being here. Archives
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