I presume that many other Grand Lodges are similar to us in that regard.
But, does the quote mean what we take it to mean, given our understanding of those words today?
Other versions of the Bible change the quote.
“And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.” -New International Version.
“So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” -English Standard Version.
I could go on, through version after version, but you get the point. Some versions use the word Charity, other versions use the word Love. And without a doubt, the meaning of both those words have changed a great deal over time and place.
In the original Greek version in this verse, the word translated as "charity" or "love" was agape. Agape is often defined as unconditional, sacrificial love. Agape is the kind of love that is felt by a person willing to do anything for another, including sacrificing themselves, without expecting anything in return.
Somewhere in my reading travels I came across an article that expressed concern that the early workings of the R was intended to use Love instead of Charity. Mackey goes into detail on this in his charity entry in the Masonic Encyclopedia. It is an apple and orange thing to me because Charity is Love and the other way around. My largest concern of Charity in lodges is that some lodges devote so much effort to charity outside their lodges but they forget completely the Charity within our lodges. Our obligations are full of unwritten charity that should be bestowed upon W and O, W D.. We have at great levels forgotten ourselves within our lodges and give all 101% energy to outside charities. Charity and Love is the same thing through this Brothers eyes and we must devote our energy within first before giving to the community. go...!
I share your concern. At times it feels like we are so focused on our large institutional charities, or our formal Lodge charitable programs, that we forget our Brothers.
We should, in our Lodges, help our Brothers in times of crisis. We should also I think, strive to help our Brothers when not in crisis, but trying to improve their lives. Lastly, I think that we need to broaden our understanding of the word in a Masonic context. Masonic Charity doesn't simply mean money. It means a friendly smile, a visit to a sick or down Brother, a supporting hand, and so much more.
But sometimes, I think, we tend to consider only the giving of money.
This is also my take; I think we'd be less concerned with monetary charity and more concerned with brotherly love if we understood the context of "charity" within the tenets of our fraternity. I'm thankful that many of the brothers I spoke with even before petitioning were astute and impressed this definition upon me.
While I have written about this before, and others have succinctly summarized the differences, I went down a small rabbit hole researching what charitable requirements our lodges have according to the IRS.
I was mostly familiar with non-profit 501c3 designations, but according to the IRS we're actually a 501c10 under fraternal organizations. The major differences between a 501c3 and 501c10 is life insurance, of all things. 501c3 fraternal organizations are required to provide life insurance to it's members, 501c10s are not, although they can if they like.
Should we be teaching our new Masons that 'Charity' in our context means something much broader than the giving of money? That indeed it means an unconditional love?
Brotherly love is unconditional as long as we live by the cable tow. What the Ancients didn't leave us is the meanings from their creation of the R. It is impossible to know what the Ancients were thinking when writing and compiling our R. Plus... the R has been re structured so many times from its journey from one jurisdiction to another. I am not confident that we will ever know their beliefs at the time of inception.
In the original Greek version in this verse, the word translated as "charity" or "love" was agape. Agape is often defined as unconditional, sacrificial love. Agape is the kind of love that is felt by a person willing to do anything for another, including sacrificing themselves, without expecting anything in return.
Somewhere in my reading travels I came across an article that expressed concern that the early workings of the R was intended to use Love instead of Charity. Mackey goes into detail on this in his charity entry in the Masonic Encyclopedia. It is an apple and orange thing to me because Charity is Love and the other way around. My largest concern of Charity in lodges is that some lodges devote so much effort to charity outside their lodges but they forget completely the Charity within our lodges. Our obligations are full of unwritten charity that should be bestowed upon W and O, W D.. We have at great levels forgotten ourselves within our lodges and give all 101% energy to outside charities. Charity and Love is the same thing through this Brothers eyes and we must devote our energy within first before giving to the community. go...!
I share your concern. At times it feels like we are so focused on our large institutional charities, or our formal Lodge charitable programs, that we forget our Brothers.
We should, in our Lodges, help our Brothers in times of crisis. We should also I think, strive to help our Brothers when not in crisis, but trying to improve their lives. Lastly, I think that we need to broaden our understanding of the word in a Masonic context. Masonic Charity doesn't simply mean money. It means a friendly smile, a visit to a sick or down Brother, a supporting hand, and so much more.
But sometimes, I think, we tend to consider only the giving of money.
This is also my take; I think we'd be less concerned with monetary charity and more concerned with brotherly love if we understood the context of "charity" within the tenets of our fraternity. I'm thankful that many of the brothers I spoke with even before petitioning were astute and impressed this definition upon me.
While I have written about this before, and others have succinctly summarized the differences, I went down a small rabbit hole researching what charitable requirements our lodges have according to the IRS.
I was mostly familiar with non-profit 501c3 designations, but according to the IRS we're actually a 501c10 under fraternal organizations. The major differences between a 501c3 and 501c10 is life insurance, of all things. 501c3 fraternal organizations are required to provide life insurance to it's members, 501c10s are not, although they can if they like.
Earlier you quoted 1 Corinthians 13:13, but later 1 CHRONICLES 13:13. I think that CHRONICLES was a typo.
Thank you for letting me know Brother! It was indeed a typo, fixed now.
Charity is a mistranslation from the Latin "caritas" which is derived from the Greek "ἀγάπη" ("Agape), which means unconditional Love.
Based upon everyone's comments:
Should we be teaching our new Masons that 'Charity' in our context means something much broader than the giving of money? That indeed it means an unconditional love?
Brotherly love is unconditional as long as we live by the cable tow. What the Ancients didn't leave us is the meanings from their creation of the R. It is impossible to know what the Ancients were thinking when writing and compiling our R. Plus... the R has been re structured so many times from its journey from one jurisdiction to another. I am not confident that we will ever know their beliefs at the time of inception.