Charity Begins at Home

When I was growing up, my mum used to repeat that line to us time and time again. I thought it was a pretty good line. However when I got born again I used to hear many people make fun of that line because of the fact that it was not found in the Bible but is used as though it was. Let me say firstly that I am a firm believer in the Bible and that as Christians we should not form doctrines apart from it. However lately I have come to ponder on its ties with the Scripture. Is it in the Bible or at least is it a principle derived from Scriptural mandate?

I would like to offer some references from Scripture in support of this phrase. In Exodus 20:12 God gives us the command to honor your father and mother that you may live long in the land. The word honor used here signified a monetary support or kind. Believe it or not, the commitment to financially support our parents is found in the Ten Commandments. And we thought it was about respect and obedience alone.

Secondly in the gospels Jesus rebukes the Scribes and Pharisees with this argument.
"Matt 15:4-6 "For God said, 'Honor your father and mother,' and, 'He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him be put to death.'5 "But you say, 'Whoever shall say to {his} father or mother, "Anything of mine you might have been helped by has been given {to God,} 6 he is not to honor his father or his mother.' And {thus} you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition."


Jesus seems to make the point here that honoring your parents is more important than giving to the temple or (church) because honoring your parents is honoring God who gave us the commandment to do so.



I think the most obvious instruction and rebuke given to this effect is found in Paul's letter to Timothy the bishop of Ephesus.
"1 Tim 5:4 but if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to practice piety in regard to their own family, and to make some return to their parents; for this is acceptable in the sight of God."

"1 Tim 5:8 But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever."

Here Paul calls the one who does not practice charity at home, among his household first an unbeliever and one who has denied the faith.

Let's learn that the first community God has brought us into is our family and that they are the testing ground for relationship, commitment, charity and piety for which future relationships be it church, workplace etc. will be based on. If we fail in this area we are bound to repeat the mistakes in the others.

This Christmas make it your commitment to bless the socks off your family. Make a New Year resolution to get to know your family more, spend more time with them and heal wounds for it is true as we have seen even in the Scriptures, "Charity begins at home".

Merry Christmas and a Happy and Blessed New Year