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Charity

               If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.  If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. (I Corinthians 13:1-3)

 

I came across a quote from something written by Jonathan Edwards a short time ago, and think that it expresses an idea so well that nothing I could say would add to it. So I’ll add nothing:

 

What things are mentioned as being vain without [love,] viz. the most excellent things that ever belong to natural men; the most excellent privileges, and the most excellent performances. First, the most excellent privileges, such as preaching with tongues, the gift of prophecy, understanding all mysteries, faith to move mountains, &c.’ and secondly, the most excellent performances, such as giving all one’s goods to feed the poor, and the body to be burned, &c. Greater things than these, no natural man ever had or did, and they are the kind of things in which men are exceedingly prone to trust; and yet the apostle declares that if we have them all, and have not charity, we are nothing. (Jonathan Edwards, Charity and Its Fruits)

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