Charity

Charity- affection or benevolence; a love feast; dear, love
Affection- to cherish affecionately; inward affection+tender mercy; to interest one self in: set the affection on, care, be of one, be of the same; a passion

These are definitions from the Strong's Concordance. I have heard I Corinthians 13 preached on before and how charity (love) is a strong kind of love, but never really studied the word out for myself. I have been reading ICorinthians and came to chapter 13 this morning. So I decided to study the word. The definitions use some strong words such as affection, cherish, tender, and passion.

"And thoughI have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing."
-I Corinthians

I have read that verse many times, but it just popped out at me today. That is pretty strong language. If I don't have charity, I am nothing. If you coninue reading the chapter and read what charity does and does not do, it was pretty humbling. In verse 3, it talks about feeding the poor and says if we don't do it with charity it amounts to nothing. I know sometimes I have done something for somebody, but maybe just because I knew it was the right thing to do. We need to help and be kind to others with the right motive because we love them. Although it may be difficult and hard with some people, we are to love everybody. Especially those that are brothers and sisters in Christ. We are also to love sinners who don't know the Savior. Yes, we are to hate the sin, but love and have compassion on the sinner so we can point them to Christ. This is very difficult to do sometimes. Reading this just made me realize I need to show more love and compassion to and for people.

I hope I was able to put my thoughts down in a way that makes sense.