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Charity and the Trinity

We demonstrate our true attitude towards God by our attitude towards the idea of charity.

On the surface, we all love the idea of charity. We give to charity, we claim to believe in it, we hold high hopes for it… but we find it very difficult to receive. And this demonstrates our real attitude not only towards charity, but towards God. Both practically in our lives and spiritually in our souls, we are simply too proud to accept help when we are down.

Perhaps we should revisit briefly the basic concept of Charity. For a start, charity is not just about giving money and offering practical assistance to organisations that help people who are downtrodden; neither is it merely about random acts of kindness by individuals. Although these things are certainly part of charity and flow from it, as the sum total of its meaning, they are no more than a caricature – a utilitarian reduction of charity to its lowest common denominator.

Yet somehow, even with this word being denuded of most of its meaning, we still understand the basic concept when we hear it – that it involves a kind of concern within the person offering the help that is not swayed in any way by the circumstance, loveliness, value or virtue of the one being helped… If we are to go deeper into the history of charity, we realise that this ‘concern’ is actually a kind of ‘love’. C.S.Lewis in his book ‘The Four Loves’ explains to us about the different kinds of love. There is στοργή (affection), φιλία (friendship), έρως (‘being in love’, as distinct from mere sexual fulfilment) and αγάπη (charity). The first three were recognised by the ancient Greeks, but charity, a self-giving love regardless of circumstance or the ‘loveliness’ and worthiness of the beloved, is a kind of love that is peculiar to the God of the Bible and is exemplified supremely in the person and work of Jesus Christ. It was Jesus who gave the greatest ever demonstration of charity when he – as God in the flesh – came to people who had rejected God and rescued them, while they were still rejecting him, by paying in his own body for their rebellion and wrongdoing as he died on the cross. The cross is the ultimate act of charity; it is the ultimate act of love given to the undeserving, unlovely and unworthy.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-7)

And this is why we reject it! We don’t mind talking about the cross as an act of love – this sounds relatively harmless – but as an act of charity??? Who does God think we are?! Some poor, helpless souls who couldn’t help themselves…? What we don’t realise when we happily affirm that the cross is about God’s ‘love’ is that the love of God given to us in Christ on the cross IS charity; it is exactly the same thing to say that the cross is an act of charity as it is to say it is an act of love, for this is what God’s love (read: charity) looks like.

Yet by our reaction to hearing that the cross is ‘charity’, we display the true attitude of our hearts to God. For while we are perfectly happy to offer charity to others, we hate having to accept it, which means that we don’t actually believe in it. Charity for most of us is something that makes us look good; it is something that most of us ‘do’ but none of us actually ‘have’. When we hear that the ultimate act of charity is something that WE need, it makes our blood curdle, our toes curl and our hackles rise – and we hate God for presuming us to be so undeserving and lacking of our own merit, so unable to help ourselves… (Ironically, we tend to refer to our own acts of charity towards others to justify rejecting God’s charity towards us).

This all just goes to show how unlike Jesus we really are.. and how nonsensical it is for people like us to ask the question ‘what would Jesus do’. We might possibly be able to ascertain on a meagre few occasions what it is that Jesus would do, but because charity is not something we have, we could never actually do what Jesus did, even if we found out what it was, so it becomes a futile question for us to ask. At the end of the day, we demonstrate that charity is always something we force ourselves to do without ever really believing in it – for if we did believe in it we would have no problem accepting it for ourselves.

Yet somehow, the Bible calls Christians to exercise this kind of love – the assumption being that they can ‘possess’ this kind of charity love within themselves. How is this possible?!

Today being Trinity Sunday, I thought, I would attempt to offer a defence of charity as a specifically Christian virtue by highlighting its unique source – the Trinity – and showing how it is given to Christian believers to exercise authentically.

As Dan Hames brilliantly noted a few days ago love is neither a feeling, nor a choice in the first instance, but a way of being. We love sexually because chemically and biologically it is how we are made; it is part of who we are, not just what we feel or do. Similarly, we love our friends and family because “we are social animals by nature” (Plato) and friendship and family is the fabric which makes up our social structures. Apart from social structures, filial and familial love cannot exist.

But how about Charity love? Where does self-giving, no-strings-attached love spring from? The only answer that exists is The Trinity. Only the triune God of the Bible is a being who has existed, within his being, as a communion of three persons who have always, consistently and infinitely given themselves to one another. The one God, Father-Son-Spirit, is the only being whose charity can be witnessed as a way of being, meaning that his charity-love is not a choice or feeling or action imposed on himself, but it is who and what he is and always will be.

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. (1 John 4:8)

A human receives this kind of love by being united to Jesus Christ, through faith in his death and resurrection.

Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature. (2 Peter 1:4)

What does it mean to ‘participate’ in the divine nature? It certainly doesn’t mean that our human nature fuses with God’s divine nature. This didn’t even happen in the incarnation! Rather, it means that through faith in Jesus we are adopted by God the Father and brought by the Holy Spirit into the communion of the Trinity. Once this happens, we too, like God, will exist in love as a way of being. This is what Jesus died to accomplish and rose to life to bring to fruition. He alone can bring us into the fellowship of the Trinity, that we may have a relationship with God that transforms who we are. As sons and daughters, existing in a fellowship with the only being for whom love is a way of being, we also produce this same love, since it flows from our new identity and our union with Christ.

Charity is what makes every other kind of love possible. 1 Corinthians 13 is read out at weddings, which usually means that people miss that it is not talking about eros love but about charity, the love which makes eros-love possible.

Next time you give to an organisation or commit an act of kindness (random or not), remember that charity is what reminds you of both God’s unique love and your own rebellion against it. We all need charity, on an infinite level for the infinite transgression of denying God and abusing his creation. Only when you admit that you are the kind of person who needs charity on this cosmic level will you have a hope of truly reproducing it yourself. And this will only happen once you accept Christ’s charity through his paying for your sin by his blood on the cross and as a result are brought into the fellowship of the Trinity where you can become someone who can truly give charity, for you have truly received.

As ever, three verses and a chorus are able to express all this more than my many words ever could. This is “Love of God” by Stuart Townend:

(Youtube link)

LOVE OF GOD, revealed in wonder
By the works of a maker’s hand;
Seas that roar with thunderous splendour,
Fields that whisper at His command.
All the joys of life we cherish
Are God’s gracious sign
We are children of His promise,
Heirs of mercy and grace divine.

Unfailing love from heaven’s throne,
That sought me out and brought me home.
My song of praise shall ever be:
The Father’s love for me.

Love of God, revealed in frailty,
Through the gift of a servant King;
Joy of heaven robed in humility,
Prince of Peace crowned with suffering.
Oh, what love, that calls humanity
To kneel at the cross
And exchange our sin’s futility
For the joy of a father’s love.

Love of God, what priceless treasure
Over all this world affords:
To be His and His forever,
This my glory and my reward!
May this love beyond all knowing
So capture my soul,
That I’m filled to overflowing
With a passion for Him alone!

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