Charity 7 - 1 Corinthians 13:12-13

One thing that I find really interesting is the concept of seeing your reflection. I heard something recently about kids in third world countries being given hygiene kits or something and it had mirrors in it. The very interesting part of this is that the kids were all shocked to see their own reflection, and it makes sense. We don’t really understand because we have reflective surfaces everywhere, but for people who don’t, seeing what they look like is pretty mind bending for them. I know that even sometimes when I look in the mirror, I am surprised because I am very different from how I think that I look. The IM has a picture of an ancient mirror used by Roman Celtics, and it just looks like a dull piece of decoration, it’s not reflective at all, but apparently that’s what ancient peoples would use for a mirror.  

Paul expands on the concept of having limited understanding in this life that grows over time saying, “for now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” The mirror pictured in the IM, I think, is used to illustrate just how limited our view can be, especially when it comes to self-reflection. The IM comments, “Paul observed that the knowledge available in this life is incomplete as compared with the perfect knowledge we will enjoy in eternity. He compared our current, imperfect knowledge to viewing a person’s image in the imperfect reflection of a metal mirror. He then compared perfect eternal knowledge to the clarity of seeing that same person ‘face to face.’”

We get the concept that we are limited in this life as far as our knowledge goes, but I guess my question is, what does this have to do with charity? It seems to me that this is an independent concept that doesn’t necessarily go together. Charity has two components, first, our love for others, and second, God’s love for us. Thinking back to Jesus’ mortal ministry, when he preached the concept of “love your enemies,” the Jews went nuts because the idea of loving Romans, especially the soldiers who actively oppressed them, was pretty outrageous. But if we consider the context of us not having all the information or understanding in this life, then it would be easier for us to accept and implement kindness to those we feel don’t deserve it.

Part of what Paul says is that in the perfect day, instead of seeing others or ourselves with an obscured view, we will be able to see each other clearly, like we would if we were face to face. Obviously that doesn’t mean physically seeing someone, but emotionally and spiritually seeing someone. We can have negative feelings towards people, but if we get to know them, a lot of times our perspectives will change, or if we learn about their background and what they’ve gone through, we start to feel empathy for them and soften our feelings. Human nature is such that hurt people, hurt people. When someone is mean or hurtful, they are not happy people inside. Clearly there are exceptions in the cases of psychopaths, etc. but for the most part, a lot of our animosity towards others could be negated if we just knew them as people, their strengths and weaknesses and their background.

It’s not just other people who would benefit from a clear perspective, but we would as well, as far as how we see ourselves. How we judge ourselves is often infinitely more harsh than how we judge other people, and it’s interesting because if we think about the people that we love in our lives, we know that they are not perfect, indeed many have the same faults that we do. But we are able to overlook their faults because their strengths outweigh their weaknesses in our minds. How often are we not able to do that for ourselves? How many times do we obsess about the one mistake that we made, and decide that we are not worth the time of others, so we seclude ourselves or beat ourselves up about it to the point that we feel terrible. So much of the time, we would never say to others the terrible things that we say to ourselves, but we do it anyway. If we truly love the way that God loves, then we will be able to see ourselves the way that he sees us, not through the overly critical eyes we use, but through the eyes of a man who loves us unconditionally.

Finally, Paul urges us to “abideth faith, hope, charity, these three.” I think this is saying something like “embody and develop faith, hope, and charity, and use them to build a testimony and relationship with Jesus Christ.” Everything that I’ve read on this verse says that faith needs hope and charity. Hope needs faith and charity, and charity needs faith and hope. They work together and build on each other. I had come up with some of my own definitions for these terms that helped me understand them. I think it was something like, “faith is a trust in God’s plan, hope is for a better future, and charity loves everyone and is kind.” That wasn’t it, but it’s good enough for now. I guess I just really struggle with the how charity fits in with faith and hope. Maybe it’s “if you trust in God’s plan, then you hope for a better future, and treat everyone like we are all children of God.” That sounds better.

I’m just going to sum up chapter 13 really quick because this has been a long study of it. Basically Paul says that it doesn’t matter what spiritual gifts you have or what you do if you don’t have God’s love in your heart. God’s love is kind when it can’t get anything in return, and genuinely wants what’s best for other people, even if that means it’s not what serves us. God’s love will last longer than anything else, even longer than this earthly existence. And even though we don’t understand it all right now, eventually we will and we will be grateful for it. 

Tomorrow I will be going back through and looking at the ways that Jesus is charitable towards us, and then we should be able to move on.