Hello friend! Thank you for joining me on this study of the attributes of Christ.
Here is my collection of questions to ponder, journal and meditate on, as well as a collection of scriptures, talks, quotes and other resources about the Christlike attribute of CHARITY. I hope you feel closer to your Savior after taking on this study!
Love, Jenny
Questions to Consider
- What have I assumed Charity to mean in the past, and what do I know of it now?
- What makes it difficult for me to receive God’s love? What makes it easy?
- What did Jesus mean when He taught that, when we serve others, we are serving Him? Is that literally true? Can it be?
- What does it mean to serve as Jesus served? Why does He frequently choose to serve one-by-one?
- When our best laid plans are interrupted or derailed by the immediate needs of others, how can Jesus be an example to us? What does he prioritize?
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What am I now inspired to change in my life and in my relationship with God and others?
Scriptures
1 John 4:7-12, 19-21
John 13:34-35
John 15:9-12
1 Corinthians 13:4-13
Moroni 7:44-48
1 Nephi 11:22-23
Mosiah 4:11-16
Ephesians 3:17-19
Mosiah 18:8-11, 21-22
Conference Talks and Sermons
“All Who Have Endured Valiantly” by David A. Bednar
“Charity: Perfect and Everlasting Love” by Gene R. Cook
“Charity–A Sign of True Discipleship” by Michael D. Strong
“Charity Never Faileth” by Elaine L. Jack
“The Love of God” by Dieter F. Uchtdorf
“The Ray and the Reflection” by Alexander MacLaren
“Love’s Birth and Parentage” by Charles Spurgeon
Podcasts
Original Grace — A Conversation with Adam Miller, Faith Matters (Sept. 4, 2022)
S. Michael Wilcox: Grief, Loss and “Filling Eternity With Love”, All-In Podcast (Aug. 26, 2020)
Books to Explore
The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis
“We were made for God. Only by being in some respect like Him, only by being a manifestation of His beauty, lovingkindness, wisdom or goodness, has any earthly Beloved excited our love. It is not that we have loved them too much, but that we did not quite understand what we were loving. It is not that we shall be asked to turn from them, so dearly familiar, to a Stranger. When we see the face of God we shall know that we have always known it. He has been a party to, has made, sustained and moved moment by moment within, all our earthly experiences of innocent love. All that was true love in them was, even on earth, far more His than ours, and ours only because His.”
The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis
“‘Of course, Daughter of Eve,’ said the Faun. ‘The further up and the further in you go, the bigger everything gets. The inside is larger than the outside.’ Lucy looked hard at the garden and saw that it was not really a garden at all but a whole world, with its own rivers and woods and sea and mountains. But they were not strange: she knew them all. ‘I see,’ she said. ‘This is still Narnia, and, more real and more beautiful than the Narnia down below…’”
An Early Resurrection: Life in Christ before You Die by Adam Miller
“Love is the key to life in Christ because love is itself a certain way of handling time. Love is a certain way of looking forward, a way of looking at the world, right now, as already redeemed. Love is a way of looking at this fragile world as already beset, on a global scale, by an early resurrection.”
Life of the Beloved by Henri J.M. Nouwen
“Listening to that voice with great inner attentiveness, I hear at my center words that say: ‘I have called you by name, from the very beginning. You are mine and I am yours. You are my Beloved, on you my favor rests. I have molded you in the depths of the earth and knit you together in your mother’s womb. I have carved you in the palms of my hands and hidden you in the shadow of my embrace.’ … Every time you listen with great attentiveness to this voice that calls you the Beloved, you will discover within yourself a desire to hear that voice longer and more deeply. It is like discovering a well in the desert. Once you have touched wet ground, you want to dig deep.”
On Loving God by St. Bernard of Clairvaux
“Do not suppose me to imply that charity exists as an accidental quality of Deity. No, it is the very substance of the Godhead. One may therefore say with truth that love is at once God and the gift of God, essential love imparting the quality of love. Love is the eternal law whereby the universe was created and is ruled.”
Washing the Feet of the Disciples
Quotes About Charity
“For love is of God. He is the fountain, author, parent, and commander of love; it is the sum of his law and gospel: And every one that loveth (whose spirit is framed to judicious holy love) is born of God. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of love. The new nature in the children of God is the offspring of his love: and the temper and complexion of it is love. The fruit of the Spirit is love. Love comes down from heaven.” – Matthew Henry
“I know of one means only by which to attain to perfection: LOVE. Let us love, since our heart is made for nothing else.” – St. Therese
“My brothers and sisters, the first great commandment of all eternity is to love God with all of our heart, might, mind, and strength—that’s the first great commandment. But the first great truth of all eternity is that God loves us with all of His heart, might, mind, and strength.” – Jeffrey R. Holland
“Any time we look at our Maker with love, our importance in our own eyes diminishes, and we are filled with awe and humility and love for others.” – Julian of Norwich
“Until and unless Christ is experienced as a living relationship between people, the Gospel remains largely an abstraction. Until Christ is passed on personally through faithfulness and forgiveness, through concrete bonds of union, I doubt whether he is passed on by words, sermons, institutions, or ideas.” – Richard Rohr
“The entire material universe speaks of God’s love, God’s boundless affection for us. Soil, water, mountains: everything is a caress of God.” – Pope Francis
“Love—not love toward a specific person but the spiritual condition of readiness to love everything—is the only condition in which we are conscious of the true spiritual source of our souls.” – Leo Tolstoy
