Charity begins at home

What “Charity Begins at Home” Really Means
The phrase “charity begins at home” is said to first appear in writing in a 1642 book by Sir Thomas Browne. Yet the exact origin of the phrase is still debated. Though many people agree that it is derived from this bible verse:
But if any widow has children or nephews, let them learn first to show piety at home, and to requite their parents: for that is good and acceptable before God. – 1 Timothy 5:4
But doesn’t this verse just reaffirm that we should put the needs of our family and friends before others? Not really. Besides, there’s nowhere in this verse that suggests that.
What this verse tells us is that we should learn to practice piety at home. And it’s impossible to show piety without learning the virtue of charity.
So there you have it. What the phrase “charity begins at home” really means is exactly what it literally says: charity should start at home. It means that we should be charitable starting with the people at home – our family and the people that we interact with every day. Simple things like being there when they need someone to talk to, sharing your food with them, or comforting them when they’re not feeling well. These simple gestures are a great way to begin practicing charity. But it does not necessarily mean prioritizing their needs above others.
You can help others even while helping your family. It’s very much possible to help someone in need without depriving your family. If you’ll ever have a “priority” when it comes to charity, make sure that the first ones on your list should be those who need it the most. Not who you love the most.
Your family should just serve as a starting point and not the be-all-end-all of your charity efforts. Yes, charity begins at home but it should not end there. Do not use this proverb as an excuse not to extend a helping hand outside of your circle.

Why Charity Should Begin at Home

There’s a bible verse that perfectly explains why charity should begin at home:
Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it. – Proverbs 22:6
A child’s moral values are formed by what they see around them. They absorb and mimic everything the adults do. So if we want them to grow up charitable and with a strong sense of compassion towards others, we need to practice it around them.
There’s no better place to do this than in our own homes. It’s where the child’s character is molded. It’s where they gain a sense of what is right and wrong. If you show them the importance of charity while still young, they’ll cherish those values as they grow up.
Remember that our children are the inheritors of this planet. So what we teach them today will determine the kind of future our world will have.
The original meaning of this proverb was that a person’s first responsibility is for the needs of their own family and friends. However, nowadays the ‘home’ referred to is frequently not an individual household, but the UK as a whole. When discussing overseas aid, this phrase is often used to argue that the UK should tackle its domestic problems before spending money to help those in need abroad.
This phrase is bandied around as if it’s some kind of universally acknowledged truth — like ‘practice makes perfect’ or ‘scissors beat paper’ — which automatically trumps any other argument. Really, it’s just a group of words which doesn’t make that much sense if you encourage people to think about it for a while.
The point of charity is to help those who need it most. Imagine if someone’s house burned down, and their next door neighbour refused to help because they had rising damp in their walls and so needed to sort that out first because, after all, ‘charity begins at home’. Only the most heartless person would do that, right? The scale and urgency of need must surely be taken into account when deciding where charity is deserved.
Those of us living in the UK are very fortunate that our collective ‘home’ has wealth in abundance. It may not feel like it at times — to someone on a zero-hours contract struggling to pay the rent it must feel like a kick in the teeth to be told they’re fortunate to live in a rich country. The truth is, there is an enormous amount of wealth in this country which could be put to use solving domestic problems if only the British public would vote for policies aimed at tackling economic inequality. In much of the developing world, no matter who they vote for (if they even get to vote) they will still be poor.
It’s hard to even imagine the hardship which exists in some parts of the world. The scale and urgency of their problems make ours seem small by comparison. In the UK it is (quite rightly) a national scandal that so many people are reliant on food banks; in Chad, people routinely starving to death doesn’t even make the headlines. Here, the NHS is experiencing a funding crisis; in Malawi, there is no universal healthcare and medical services are struggling to cope with an AIDS crisis. Here, it is claimed that the ongoing Brexit debate is tearing the country apart; in Colombia, lives, families and communities have been torn apart by decades of civil war.
We have the resources in this country to tackle our domestic problems and help those in need overseas. It doesn’t have to be a choice. Many countries around the world have significant and urgent problems which they need help to solve. If the UK abandons foreign aid because ‘charity begins at home’, we are no better than someone refusing to help their newly homeless neighbour because of their own troubles with rising damp.