Longsuffering and Kindness of Charity.
Zion's Advocate, May 1903, Vol. 42, No. 5.
"Charity suffereth long and is kind." - I. Corinthians xiii. 4.
Natural charity is love toward our fellow-men attended by benevolence and liberality, especially toward the poor and needy. Many who make no profession of religion seem to possess and cultive this noble principle in a high degree, while many who are loud in a godly (?) profession seem to have but little love for others and are so stingy that they scornfully turn from the destitute and send them away empty. This is a most estimable trait and should be cultivated by all, and especially by those who profess the holy religion of Jesus Christ. It teaches us to slight and despise no man, but inspires forgiveness toward our enemies and complacency toward our friends, while it produces gentleness of temper and affability of manners. It comforts the afflicted, protects the oppressed, reconciles differences and intercedes for offenders. It is the very soul of social life, and without it this world would be a pandimonium of unbearable distress.The charity mentioned in our text and treated so fully in this chapter is of a much higher order than natural charity. The word is found eight times in the chapter, and is the subject of sixteen propositions, each of which describes some important quality. The original word is agape, the meaning of which is love. It is divine love shed abroad in the heart. Romans v. 5. This love is given to all who are born again, but in many the fleshly nature is allowed to predominate and habits of selfishness are formed to such an extent that few if any evidences of it are visible.
This charity will manifest itself by patience and longsuffering. Some who profess christianity seem to possess but little disposition to forgive offences. They are so suspicious of others that upon the least pretext they become offended at what is only imaginary ill-treatment, and when they have real cause to be offended they are resentful and unforgiving. What a bad disposition this is, and how far it departs from the loving spirit of the Master! In the disciples' prayer, taught them by him, they are required to ask to be forgiven as they forgive those who trespass against them. How can those who are not disposed to forgive others use this petition? It matters not how much others may trespass against us, we cannot forgive them more than we are forgiven if the Lord forgives all our sins. May the remembrance of this fact soften all our hearts and enable us to forgive every offence committed against us by our fellow-beings.
When one says he will not forgive an offender, or shows that he is not at all disposed to do so, we are forced to conclude that he is destitute of this heavenly charity. How can it be otherwise? Our lesson says that charity suffers long. The inquisitive might ask, How long? By turning to Matthew xviii. 21 it will be found that the apostle Peter asked a similar question of Jesus. "Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?" That seemed a complete number to Peter. No doubt he thought it sufficient. As we think about it, that does appear as a great many forgivenesses. Surely any one who has actually forgiven seven real offences committed by the same brother has a charity that is long-suffering. But did Jesus accept that limitation? Oh, ho! He multiplied it by seventy! What! Four hundred and ninety times? True enough. This is the Saviour's rule which none dare to modify, ignore or neglect. This is charity that suffers long. Reader, do you possess it?
"Charity suffereth long and is kind." This is in sweet harmony with Paul's exhortation: "Be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." Ephesians iv. 32. What loving kindness and rich mercy was shown us in the forgiveness of our sins! Then how forcibly this admonition appeals to us! Brotherly kindness, and a tender-hearted feeling toward our brethren, and a disposition to forgive as we are forgiven, are sure evidences of the love of God in the soul and are certainly worthy to be desired by us all. We cannot be too kind, too tender-hearted, too forgiving. If any one of us possesses a natural disposition that is the exact opposite of this, he should strive continually to subdue it and cultivate that charity which God has implanted in his renewed soul.
The very highest order of kindness is that felt and shown by this God-given charity. Unbelievers may be kind, but they are entirely destitute of this peculiar quality of kindness. Their kindness does not arise from divine love. How very shameful it is, then, when it appears that some unbelievers are more kindly disposed than some professors of religion! If such professors are real children of God we can only account for this strange lack on their part by the fact that their outer nature is the same as it was before they were regenerated, and that they have allowed it to gain the mastery. Natural kindness is a great blessing to the human race, but christians should prove the superior quality of the kindness of spiritual charity.
Christ's love to us in giving himself for us should be taken as an example to direct us in a walk of love as followers of God. We may talk our religion as much as we please, but the only way we can show it is by a walk of love. Look at the patient, loving life of Jesus. How we should strive to imitate it! See him as a mute sufferer before his enemies, like a lamb dumb before its shearers! He opened not his mouth to resent the insults of his enemies, to murmur at the vile treatment he received at their hands, or to threaten them with judgment. While bleeding on the cross he prayed for their forgiveness. Oh! what a blessed thing it would be if we could live such a life and die with such a feeling!
Having put off the old man with his deeds by a profession of godliness, and having put on the new man, "which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him," let us all now "put on, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye." Look at that beautiful garment! How becoming it is to a child of God! What more? "And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness." See Colossians iii. 10-14.
Solomon wisely says, "He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls." Proverbs xxv. 28. "Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger is in the bosom of a fool," (Ecclesiastes vii. 9), stands as a piercing rebuke to christians who manifest an irritable, resentful, unforgiving spirit. Surely we should pray daily for a constant supply of pure charity, that the rising and setting sun, the splendor of the noon-day, or the gloomy shades of night, might never find us unkind and unforgiving.
We close by giving our readers a beautiful poem composed by Eliza Cook, on the text, "Let not the sun go down upon your wrath." It is worth memorizing, and worth repeating every day.
"Father, forgive us," is our daily prayer,
When the worn spirit feels its helpless dearth:
Yet in our lowly greatness do we dare
To seek from heaven what we refuse on earth.
Too often will the bosom, sternly proud,
Bear shafts of vengeance on its graveward path;
Deaf to the teaching that has cried aloud,
"Let not the sun go down upon your wrath."
We ask for mercy from the God above,
In morning worship and in vesper song;
And let us kindly shed the balm of love,
To soothe and heal a brother's deed of wrong.
If ye would crush the bitter thorns of strife,
And strew the bloom of peace around your path --
If ye would drink the sweetest streams of life,
"Let not the sun go down upon your wrath."
Were this remember'd, many a human lot
Would find more blessings in our home below:
the chequer'd world would lose its darkest blot,
And mortal record tell much less of woe.
The sacred counsels of the wise impart
No holider words in all that language hath;
For light divine is kindled where the heart
Lets not the sun go down upon its wrath.
J. R. D.
Copyright c. 2005. All rights reserved. The Primitive Baptist Library.
