This often –quoted proverb is of course supposed to mean that you should look after your own affairs –your family and friends or, if you are a leader, your own people – before you turn to the wider world. While no doubt true, the saying is often regarded with scepticism because so many people have used it as an excuse for not practising charity anywhere. (In the original meaning of the saying, charity did not mean simply giving money etc to the needy, but also the Biblical sense of charity as love and acceptance: "Though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, I am nothing…")
The saying can also be taken to mean that we first learn charity (in the sense of human love) at home, if we learn it anywhere; and that is only through the experience of love and generosity in our own lives that we can or will apply it to others.
The saying can also be taken to mean that we first learn charity (in the sense of human love) at home, if we learn it anywhere; and that is only through the experience of love and generosity in our own lives that we can or will apply it to others.