Faith, Hope, Love (Conclusion)

Each part of 1 Corinthians 13:13 - Faith, Hope and Love - is a pillar that the believer purposefully decides to incorporate into their Christian journey. In other words, to be Christian means these three areas of Faith, Hope and Love are in constant development from the time of accepting Christ as Lord, forward.  

FAITH

Faith recognizes confidence and assurance not chance, not gamble or luck. The track record of Christ Jesus as the fulfiller of all, not just some, of the prophesies concerning The Messiah of the world is unparalleled. Jesus backed up everything said about Him and supported His own words as He claimed He is The Way, The Truth and The Life - The Only Means to Father God (John 14:6). 

Declarations like these and of His future return for His believers, plus the living out of His instruction, His Word found in The Bible are NOT ingredients for a future organization or kingdom built on risk, but on The Rock of All Ages, The Sure Foundation, The Cornerstone - Christ Jesus, The Lord.

HOPE

Hope recognizes the future benefits believers share because of the price that was paid through the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Christ Jesus. All that goodness and hope can be wrapped into one phrase - The Plan of Salvation. Salvation is for the unbelieving world. What Jesus accomplished is a finished work, a completed mission. This Salvation from Jesus to all unbelievers can be trusted in.

Hope is something still yet to come but that is brewing with the good things of God. Hope then is for the Christian and will manifest itself one day in two main forms -

1. The physical appearance of Jesus Christ and His supernatural physical daily involvement in our lives. (John 14:2-4)
2. Our bodies glorified for our new dwelling in New Jerusalem on New Earth in a New Heaven. (Romans 8:23-24)

1 Peter 1:3-5 sums the believer's hope up nicely be stating it is a "living hope" found in Christ Jesus that secured for the Christian a Godly inheritance that "is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time."

LOVE

Love recognizes love. God is love (1 John 4:16). And we can find the best detailing of Love to exemplify in our lives in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, also known as The Love Chapter. This passage is your standard for Love. If you show what love is, what love does, what love keeps, what love rejoices in and what love always succeeds at - then the believer is on his/her way to becoming more Christ-like.

Jesus does not just instruct His followers and disciples to "love one another", He commands it, according to John 13:34. 

In addition, Jesus supplies the Christian with some how to be loving instructions -

1. "love one another" (John 13:35)
2. Who are we to love? Your enemies, your mother and father, neighbor, the church and wives - as a starting point.

When Jesus stated that "all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (John 13:35) notice there is an "if" in this statement. This means to represent Christ and be recognizable before everyone by loving each other is a choice. 

Later, the Apostle Paul recognizes this command and incorporates another holy trio that Christians should implement to assist in loving God and loving others. Paul says in his first letter to his protege Timothy, 

"The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith." (1 Timothy 1:5)

How do you know if your faith is sincere? How do you know if you have a good conscience? How do you know if your heart is pure? The boxes are checked in the positive if you operate in God's Love.

Each one of the three points of this trinity supports the other as mentioned in my Introduction of this Series. Each one of these is important to live out within the Christian journey, but the focus or emphasis should be placed on living in and through God's Love. 

As I stated in the section on Love - The Triad of Faith, Hope and Love is unified by Love. Paul says in Colossians 3:14 -

"And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity."

Therefore, let us saturate our minds, our attitudes, our speech, our actions and relationships with Faith, Hope and Love knowing the greatest of these is Love.