The guy shrugged his shoulders at me on Friday night when I came into his pub, giving him an opportunity to donate to the Army's work. "Sorry, mate", he said, "charity begins at home."
Indeed it does. 'Charity' is of course the old middle-English word for love - specifically for sacrificial, brotherly love, that particular type of love that in Greek is translated as "agape". I have blogged about this before, here.
So the statement is quite correct; that form of love begins in the home with your family. If it thrives there, then it will easily be shown outside your home to others. If your children learn to love and help those nearest to them in their early years, they will love and help their fellow men when their grow up. In other words, charity begins at home, but it does not end there.
Or was it simply that the guy was just too hard-hearted to give me anything?
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