Faith, Hope, and Love
And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.1
Faith, hope, and love are all that remain for Paul following his chapter on love in 1 Corinthians. Therefore, these are three essential elements to our everyday lives. If we can learn to live by faith, always find hope, and love unconditionally, we will likely live purpose-filled, meaningful lives.
Faith
On February 5, 2008, an F4 tornado swept through Union University, leaving campus in ruins and my brother David under roughly 25 feet of concrete and steel rubble. While paramedics struggled to save him, I sat silent in a car for five hours with my family. While in the car, I didn't listen to my iPod. I didn't use my phone. I sat in numb silence, staring out the window, trying to figure out what was going on. However, I was too scared to think, so I just sat for what seemed like days and days. And from the time we got in the car at the Wal-Mart parking lot in Lookout Valley to the time we pulled into the Jackson- Madison County General Hospital, I didn't say a word. The weeks that followed would be some of the toughest my family has ever gone through emotionally. We woke each day just hoping that David would make it through to the next day, and this pattern continued for several weeks.
Until this storm ravaged Union, my life was not too difficult. A few of my close relatives had passed away in prior years, but nothing happened that directly impacted me daily. As a result, it became fairly easy to live by faith in my walk with Christ. Satan says in the book of Job, “Does Job fear God for nothing? Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has?”2 This could be said of my life up until February 2008. Not that it was always easy, but it certainly was not unbearable. It was easy for Job to live by faith when things were constantly going his way. If I were wealthy, powerful, and still blameless in God’s eyes, as Job was, I would find it very easy to trust God and to walk in faith. However, when things go wrong, followers of Christ tend to become weaker in their faith. Job is an incredible story because he does not lose his faith. Job was tested time and time again, yet still kept the faith through everything. His family died, his house was destroyed, and he lost his health, yet he never cursed God. It is easy to trust a God that gives his people everything they desire, but not so easy to trust a God that forces his followers through extremely difficult circumstances. However, God tells us that everyone will go through tough times: “He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”3
I had to sit and watch my brother literally fight for his life for several weeks, knowing that nothing I could do would help reduce the physical and emotional pain he was enduring. This was the first time in my life that I needed strong faith to get through a situation. The Psalms are filled with exuberant cries to the Lord. One says, “My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.”4 I felt pretty shaken after the storm, but was able to find rest in God just like the Psalmist. Difficult times always tests a person’s faith, so true faith is developed when things don’t seem to go as planned. God even forces us into difficult circumstances just to strengthen and develop our faith in him. As Christians, we are commanded not to worry about our future, because God has predetermined what will happen to us. However, that becomes extremely difficult when times get rough. We must persevere through our battles knowing that God has already won the war.
Reinhold Niebuhr wrote a prayer he called the Serenity Prayer. It begins, “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.” I find this an accurate description of faith. There are things we cannot control, and we must accept that God controls them. We must also trust God and take bold steps to further his kingdom. Faith is not an ends to the journey; faith is required to complete our journey to glorifying God.
Hope
Hal Lindsey once said, “Man can live about forty days without food, about three days without water, about eight minutes without air, but only for one second without hope.” He obviously believed in the transformational power of hope, as did Paul in 1 Corinthians 13. My experiences have certainly taught me that hope is crucial in our lives, especially during the tough times. The hardest times in life are the times that we need to find the most hope. Oscar Wilde said, “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” The ones who constantly hope for the best will see stars even in the toughest times.
Hope keeps spirits high and visions focused; we must always look ahead to what we want to accomplish. Paul says in Philippians, “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”5 Paul had his eyes set on a vision; he was focused on his goal. Whenever playoffs start for soccer season, we always try to forget what we have accomplished up until that point. Coach tells us that our record is 0 wins, 0 losses, and 0 ties. Even if we have a stellar, even perfect, regular season, one loss can negate all of that. It is important for us to stay focused on what is ahead instead of constantly looking back at the past.
We must also have a strong vision as Paul did. To me, hope is being able to look at the future and know that God will be faithful to provide all he has promised us. When circumstances get tough, it can become easy to lose hope. However, as Lindsey said, we cannot live without hope. I have to agree with him; there has to be something that drives us forward. The issues we feel most burdened about often compel us to accomplish great things, because we stay focused on them and hope for the best. People who strongly want to help children living in poverty in Africa will persist through obstacles like money and transportation. They keep the idea of helping these children in the front of their minds. This vision drives them to press on through difficult circumstances. I have had to do the same thing whenever school gets tough or soccer isn’t going well. I have to remember that I am playing for a prize, and I must fight without ceasing to reach my goals. If I start believing I can’t accomplish my ultimate goal of a victory or a perfect score, then I certainly won’t accomplish it. Hope keeps us focused on our goals; Paul remained focused, and we must do the same.
Chris Martin sings in Coldplay’s 2008 hit Lost: “Just because I’m losing, doesn’t mean I’m lost.”6 Even when things go wrong, we can still find hope.
Love
Love is more important than faith and hope according to Paul. There are over 1.3 billion search results for the word love on Google. The world is obsessed with love. Millions and millions of dollars are spent annually on Valentine’s Day presents for loved ones. Yet Jesus presents a completely different type of love in the Bible. He tells his disciples that the greatest commandment is to, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”7 He then gives the second greatest commandment: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”8 If there were an easy way to tell someone how to live their life, it would be this: Love God and love people. While we are all constantly falling short of God’s glory, we are also constantly showered in his grace. There is a freedom in Christ that Chris Tomlin sings of in his song Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone): “My chains are gone, I’ve been set free. My God, my savior has ransomed me. And like a flood, his mercy rains. Unending love, amazing grace.”9 God did not save us so we could go through life without doing anything for his glory. He calls us to love one another, and gives us several different ways to love. He does not call everyone to leave their jobs and family to go to the mission field and spread the gospel. Love can be simple and sincere, and God will still appreciate it. Of all the commandments in the Bible, when asked which was the greatest, Jesus tells us to love God and love people.
God set the example of love long before we were even born. We are told in 1 John, “We love because he (God) first loved us.”10 Romans 5 gets even more specific: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”11 Christ set the ultimate example of love when he died on the cross for us. Jesus even says while on earth, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.”12 Laying down your life for someone else is an extremely radical thing to do, but Jesus did it for all of us. That is why it is the greatest example of love.
However, love does not always have to be this radical. Love could be something as simple as treating classmates or family respectfully. It is impossible for us to reconcile our sins as Christ did through his love; we must love in our own way.
In conclusion, Paul found three key elements of life to be faith, hope, and love. While much can be said about life and how to live it, these three things are essential to our lives as Christians. We must have faith in God through the good times and bad, and we must have hope for the future He has promised us. Most importantly we must love everyone we meet, knowing that Christ already set the ultimate example of love on the cross. Anyone who strengthens these three areas of his or her life will certainly live a fulfilling life.
1. 1 Corinthians 13:13
2. Job 1: 9-10
3. Matthew 5:45
4. Psalm 62:1-2
5. Philippians 3:13-14
6. Artist: Coldplay; Album: Viva La Vida; Song Title: Lost!
7. Matthew 22:37
8. Matthew 22:39
9. Artist: Chris Tomlin; Album: See The Morning; Song Title: Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)
10. 1 John 4:19
11. Romans 5:8
12. John 15:13
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