Charity

I remember once, several years ago, a friend of mine made a comment about the translation of the thirteenth chapter of the first epistle of Paul to the Corinthians. This friend of mine commented that the more modern translation of the Bible referred to "faith, hope, and love" in this chapter, whereas the more traditional translations used "faith, hope and charity." This friend of mine thought that "love" was more what Paul was going for, and "charity" must have been a translation error.

Myself, having grown up reading the Latter-day Saint edition of the King James Version of the Bible, I thought it was strange that my friend would say that. I had learned in Primary that "charity is the pure love of Christ" as a young child, and I guess it kind of baffled me that someone else would find that term confusing. I have always felt like charity denoted a higher, purer form of love than that which we normally feel. I think the King James translators did this passage justice in rendering whichever Greek word for "love" that was used here as "charity."

A wise teacher of mine once taught us an interesting principle. If you take every reference to charity in this chapter and replace it with Christ, it still makes sense, since after all "God is love."

However, the same principle does not really apply to us. Can we place our own name in this chapter? Most likely not—at least I can’t. As I was saying before, charity is a Godly attribute that we should all be working towards, but the love that we usually have towards others usually still does not qualify as true charity.

Charity is the pure love of Christ. It is unconditional. Christ loves each and every one of us, regardless of our feelings towards Him or our fellow men. He was willing to lay down His life for every one of us—sinners all. He suffered beyond our comprehension (so great was the pain that blood came from every pore) in order to pay the price of our sins. He is always there, regardless of whether we want Him or not, ready to succor us. That is true charity.

I believe this is why charity is considered the greatest of all. If we truly have charity, then we are in the image of Him who redeemed us, and our Father will be well pleased with us at the last day. If we have not charity, however, then how can we say that we are true followers of Jesus?