Walk with this attitude

“You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you,” said John Bunyan. "It is profitable for Christians to be often calling to mind the very beginnings of grace with their souls.”

People mistake charity for love in Paul’s epistles but it’s actually “love in action,” says Richard Jordan: “Charity is the motivation of the love of Christ and not all these other kinds of things constraining us in our Christian life.

“In Colossians 3, Paul says charity is the ‘bond of perfectness.’ It’s the thing that binds maturity together. When you have perfected saints, what binds them is the fact that they instinctively look out for the benefit of the other, not for themselves.

“To walk charitably with a saint means to put his needs, his concerns above your own. Now, where does the motivation for that come from? The motivation is an understanding of God’s charity to us. Charity has to do with the motivation behind your good works.

“Charity isn’t a braggard, it’s not proud, it’s not covetous, doth not behave itself unseemly. It’s patient and suffereth long.

“Boy, you read those things and you think, ‘Wow! That’s quite a mental attitude to have!’

“Paul says ‘charity never faileth.’ So what charity is is a complete lifestyle that puts the interests of the other ahead of your own.

“I Timothy 1:5 says, ‘Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned.’

“The heart is the mentality of your soul. It’s single-minded; it’s a heart that just goes on sound doctrine. It’s not living on emotions; it’s living on the application of the truth of God’s Word rightly divided.

“We’re to have a system of norms and standards that reflects God’s thinking. You’re able to walk by faith and not by sight. That verse is a beautiful description of a mature Christian walk. And not just an individual walking that way, but a group of people gathered together and working together in the work of the ministry.

“Paul told the Corinthians, ‘As unknown and yet well known.’ I love that verse because that’s exactly what you’re . . . your spiritual power and influence far outweighs your appearance.

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“When Paul talks about ‘in spirit,’ that’s the idea of your disposition; your attitude that you do something by.

“In Ephesians 1:17, for example, he writes, ‘That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.’

“He’s not talking about the Holy Spirit. That’s not the initial giving; it’s not a later ‘re-giving.’

“He talks about the spirit in the sense of the ‘spirit of slumber,’ or the ‘spirit of bondage.’ When you have the spirit of slumber, you have this disposition of being asleep at the switch. Bondage is the disposition of being controlled.

“Paul’s saying, ‘I want you to have the spirit of wisdom and revelation God has given you right here in this text. You get it in the Book.’

“The attitude with which you do things affects an awful lot. He’s saying, ‘I want you to walk around with this attitude and disposition that’s produced by understanding this great cosmic plan God has in His Son.’ ”