Charity, the labour of love

Charity, the labour of love

1Tim.1:3-5 As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine, (4) Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do. (5) Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:

The word "charity" in the context of this passage is not you loving with natural affection. This is a supernatural love that comes from God. This charity is brought about by faith. Paul says in 1Thess. 1:3, “remembering without ceasing your work of faith.” What is the work of faith? Godly edifying. What is the end of that godly edifying? Charity. Thus, charity, which is this outward display of a labour of love, is formed in you, and increases in you based on your faithfulness in godly edification.

Godly edification

In 1Cor.13:13, Paul said, “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.” God gave you the bible to do a work of faith in you. As you study the bible, it gets into your mind and renews your pattern of thinking, influencing you unto righteousness, Rom.6:16. The work of faith is the doctrine that works in you to change you, to prepare the ground of your heart that you might be able to bear fruit. The work of faith, godly edification, can only take place when you receive impartation of spiritual knowledge; we need to get into that bible, study it, read it, and meditate upon it. The work of faith will not happen without getting the words of the bible inside us. Our key verse indicates that it is the end result of godly edification which bring you to charity, operating out of a pure heart, so that you can do a labor of love. Paul defines this process here:

1Thess.1:3  Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father;

The labour of love and patience of hope

The labour of love is in essence the fruit of the Spirit. It is called fruit, not work, because it is the natural product of a renewed mind and of obedience to faith. When the fruit of the Spirit starts to manifest in your life it will bring persecution, a surefire measure of the outward life of Christ in you, 2Tim.3:12. This is why the end result of this labour is the patience of hope, because as you’re doing this labour, you will need patience to endure the opposition and resistance that the world will throw at you. You’re going to be persecuted because the world hates Christ. You’re going to have to forgive things you don’t want to forgive, be merciful to people when you don’t want to be merciful, because the height, breadth, depth, and length of the love of Christ that we aspire to is much more than any of us have.

Charity is going to take you to depths and places you don’t want to go. You'll need to tap into that patience of hope like Paul did and say, “It’s not worthy to be compared...”, Rom. 8:18. You do this by faith. OK. Wait a minute! We've been here before. Notice how the cycle repeats here: The work of faith, that trust and reliance of God's word renewing your mind comes back to support us in patience of hope. 

Friends, it's all for Christ's glory, which carries with it a great hope of glory in the ages to come. We do not see our prize in this world. Our walk and our reward will be fully manifested in that day of Jesus Christ.