1 Peter 4:8

INTENSE CHARITY

‘Above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.’

1 Peter 4:8

The charity about which St. Peter and St. Paul wrote is love; that love for each other, perfect, honest, intense (that is the word that brings out the true meaning of the original), which is the outcome of true and perfect love for God. It is love for every fellow-creature upon whom we see stamped the Image of the One Father—be he stranger or kinsman, friend or foe—love such as—what?—such as God has for us.

Now this love has many marks and shows itself in many ways. You have only to read that thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians to see this. I wish to speak now only of one aspect of true charity. ‘Have intense charity among yourselves, for charity covers [a better reading] a multitude of sins.’

I. One mark of true charity is that it keeps us from spreading abroad, cackling over, exposing the faults and failings of others. Charity would always rather cover such up. There is a book of devotions in which one of the evening prayers contains these words—some of you will recognise them—‘Vouchsafe both to our enemies and to ourselves constant charity. May we all have patience, kindness, and pity, and may envy, wrath, and bitterness be far from us!’ Ah! well may we daily use such words. This world would be a happier, a brighter world, were we all seeking heartily this spirit of true Christian love. The charity which ‘covers sins’ shows itself in a spirit of true kindness. One who is truly charitable will never take pleasure in exposing the weaker side of a neighbour’s character—in blazing abroad another’s sins, but will seek rather to cover them. Do you not know how we do this in our own homes—how careful we are to keep secret the faults and failings of some member of the family? Not because we condone them, but for love of the erring one, and ‘for the sake of the family’! Do you not know how a wife will do this for her husband, a mother for her child? No one knows the sin, the failing, better—aye, no one mourns over it more, prays over it more than the brave, sad, true-hearted wife, the anxious, loving mother. ‘Yes, the fault is there.’ They know it—but oh! it must be covered up—the hard, censorious, cold world must not get hold of it—it must be covered up! Well, God would have us act thus towards every fellow man and woman, as we act in our own homes. Do we know something discreditable to another? Then do not, for the love of God, let us go and make it known in every home, and at every tea-table, and every tennis-party in the parish! That is not charity which turns up its hands and its eyes over ‘poor So-and-so’s sin,’ which the hearers never suspected till it was mentioned. It is the hateful spirit of envy, the opposite of charity, which is sorry for another’s success, and glad at his disgrace. There are some whose lives would be better, more hopeful lives to-day, had more charity of this kind been extended to them in days gone by.

II. Then charity shows itself in a spirit of patience.—How impatient we are! how ready to take offence and feel ourselves slighted, when no slight whatever was meant, and when a little patience would have proved it. And we want patience in our judgment of others. Even when appearances are very bad indeed, and very much against one, charity says, ‘Never mind—believe the best—hope the best. This may all be explained.’

III. And finally, it tries to find something good, even in the worst.—You know there are some people who always find a good word to say for another who is being abused in their presence. Lovable souls these whose presence in the world makes it warmer and brighter, of whom you hear it said sometimes, ‘I have known So-and-so for ten—fifteen—twenty years, and I don’t think I ever heard him say an unkind word about any one!’ It is a Christ-like spirit, this!

—Rev. J. B. C. Murphy.

Illustration

‘There is an Eastern tradition which says that Jesus arrived one evening at the gates of a certain city, and He saw at the corner of the market-place some people gathered together looking at some object on the ground; and He drew near to see what it might be. It was a dead dog with a halter round his neck by which he appeared to have been dragged through the dirt; and a viler, a more abject, a more unclean thing never met the eyes of man. And those who stood by looked on with abhorrence. “Faugh!” said one, “it pollutes the air.” “How long,” said another, “shall this foul beast offend our sight?” “Look at his torn hide,” said a third, “one could not cut even a shoe out of it!” “And his ears,” said a fourth, “all draggled and bleeding.” And Jesus heard them; and looking down compassionately on the dead creature, He said, “Pearls are not equal to the whiteness of his teeth!” Then the people turned to Him with amazement, and said among themselves, “Who is this? This must be Jesus of Nazareth; for only He could find something to pity and approve even in a dead dog.” And, being ashamed, they bowed their heads before Him, and went each on his way. Is it not even thus that the good God looks upon us? Are we in His sight, the sight of the All Holy, any better than that dead dog in the eyes of the Eastern crowd? and yet He says of the most depraved, the most worthless, “He was innocent once! I cannot but remember it! And precious beyond pearls is his soul in my sight—‘All souls are Mine.’ ” ’

(SECOND OUTLINE)

‘THE GREATEST OF THESE’

Charity is the very queen of graces. There is only one word in our language which exactly and adequately represents the true, full meaning of charity, and that world is the golden one of love. It is directly from God, and most like God.

I. Its nature.—It never faileth, and is as immortal as the soul itself.

(a) Brotherliness. While it is exercised in relation to all men, as a sanctified affection it is specially devoted to ‘all them who are sanctified,’ to the Christian brotherhood. But it is not confined to these; it embraces those of every order, condition, age, and country; and rises infinitely superior to all the outward observances of religion, which are merely the scaffolding, not the building ‘fitly framed together’ (Ephesians 2:19).

(b) Intensity. It is a burning affection. The flame on its altar is greater and higher and stronger by commiserating others, praying for others, helping others. It would transform this earth into another paradise; and in this desire it finds a heaven of delight.

II. Its action.—Hatred, the opposite of love, finds an evil satisfaction in multiplying and exposing the sins of men. Not so charity (Proverbs 10:12; Proverbs 17:9). But whose sins does it cover? Those of the charitable man himself, or those of others? Some exceedingly wise men have said the first; but St. Peter speaks of the latter.

(a) It cannot delight in thinking on other men’s sins, nor in talking about them. Malevolence can and does. Nay, it watches for eccentricities, miscarriages, blemishes, so that it may talk loudly and strongly of them.

(b) It never magnifies other men’s sins, but rather lessens them. Not that it would apologise for sin, if that were possible, but it leans naturally towards the side of virtue.

(c) It always tries to hide other men’s sins, that they may be concealed in obscurity. The sons of Noah took a garment and covered their father. Charity does the same with the sins of others—throws the robe of mercy and pity over them. This is indeed God-like (Isaiah 43:25).

We should covet earnestly this best gift; and when we possess it we should cherish and display it; so shall we adorn our high profession, and glorify Him Whose grandest and sweetest name is ‘love.’