Faith, Hope and Love

The apostle Paul summed it up best when he wrote, And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13) It has been said that, “Faith looks up to God, hope anticipates heaven, and love reaches out.” The impetus for each originates with our triune God.

Faith is a gift of God. We are not born with it, but through it we are born again (Ephesians 2:8-9). The Bible defines faith as follows: Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. (Hebrews 11:1) Faith can never be separated from reason (I.e. faith that I can suddenly sprout wings as I dive off the Empire State Building), but since we are told that with God all things are possible (Matthew 19:26), we can have absolute faith and trust in the truth of God’s Word and all it tells us about God and His track record of marvelous, seemingly impossible deeds in time/space history.

Hope springs from faith and the assurance that God will never renege on His promises, as He has revealed them in Scripture. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. (Hebrews 6:19) The Greek word for anchor used there implies a “sea anchor,” which was like a huge sock that was tossed over the stern, not used to keep the boat from moving but instead, to keep it on course in the midst of a storm. Paul addresses hope as follows: Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:18-18) With an eternal perspective we can always say, “It is well with my soul.” The word H.O.P.E is an acronym for, having optimism based on a perspective that’s eternal.

Love is the foundational element in the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). The Holy Spirit takes up residence in each of our souls at the moment of our new birth. He is the love of the Father and the Son toward each one of us. He is also the means by which we reach out to others in love. We are not to be reservoirs of love, but rivers of living and loving water (John 4:14). Paul calls love the “greatest” because God is love (1 John 4:16) and also because love will be with us forever. In heaven we will no longer need faith or hope because we will see that which we now hope for and our certainty will be based upon sight not faith.