Although feelings may sometimes accompany it, love which grows out of faith is not a feeling at all. It is a principle of action. Without faith in our dignity and value with God we will only use our brother to establish our own value. Helping him will be merely a means of proving our own worth. Only the Lord knows how many white headhunters have roamed around Africa.
Splendid charity can easily become a splendid idol or status symbol.
Faith alone can make the Christian free - free for his brother, free to give and hope for nothing again and to forget himself in the giving. Faith works in our unconditional acceptance of people, whether they please us or not - whether they follow our ways, belong to our party or are on our side. We cannot love any man unless we love every man without distinction, for love is absolutely impartial. If we think God's acceptance of us is based on something in us, we cannot accept people unconditionally. The moment we define the terms for accepting ourselves, we define the terms for accepting others.