Grant S. Sisson, MSCP
Faith, Hope and Love –
I Cor. 13:13 “And now abide faith, hope and love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
VALUES –
The greatest war in this world since I was born (baby boomer generation) has been over values. Values are everything. Values determine what we think about, how we act, what we expect to get out of life. The way we prioritize our values determines our character – and others know who we are and identify us by our character.
Character – thoughts, words, actions, habits, character. We choose our actions based upon our inner priorities. We might think that a certain action occurred without thought, but the fact is that we think about things constantly before we are in any given situation, and so our thoughts about that situation that we engaged in in the prior weeks, months, even years, do control the actions we engage in. What is most important to you in a given situation? It is that – not the situation, but your values brought into play because of the situation – that is what has already been thought about and prioritized. We think about this all the time without even being aware of it – “What if…?” or “I would rather … than …” or “Would you …or …?”
We know each other by character traits. We might say that someone is a good mechanic – we mean that he is skilled in the trade and consistently does a good job. So the fact that he knows about his trade comes from a value – it is more important to have a skill than to goof off at the beach. So he makes sacrifices to acquire his chosen skill. Or we might say “he’s a good family man.” What do we mean? We mean that he has prioritized his values such that he has the resources to take good care of his family – often in this context we mean that he is there spiritually and emotionally for them, as well as being a good provider of food and material needs. We are saying that he first decides what his family needs and then goes about taking care of it, rather than doing what he prefers to do and leaving his family to fit in however they can.
And so we see that values determine who we are. Far from being something to steer clear of in polite conversation, we observe each other constantly to find out what to expect from one another, and the way we know what to expect is to come to know that person’s values – what (s)he thinks it important.
As important as they are, you would think that the Bible would have a lot so say about values, and you would be right. In fact, all the teaching that Jesus left is a re-arrangement of values – if values determine our actions, and sin is a misdirected action, then the correction for sin lies not in law but in in changing a person’s values. That is the work of the Holy Spirit within us.
I Cor. 13:13 gives us the foundational values of Christianity. “And now abide faith, hope and love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
1. Faith. It is interesting that we start right here with the connection between God and man – his faith. It is in faith that the correction for sin, that is, the change in a person’s values, begins. Heb. 11:6 - “Without faith, it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.” So the Christian life begins with the idea that there is a God, a Supreme Being, but not only that, but also that this God is acutely aware of and concerned about what happens to each of us. It is only in being sure of the Fact of God that we can have a hope for the future – others can wish that things might turn out a certain way, or try to manipulate others into getting his way, but cannot have this confident expectation that God will reward us - so the whole thing is initiated by faith.
a. What is faith? Heb. 11:1 “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Without this, our behavior will be radically different. Let’s look at some examples of faith from Scripture.
b. Heb. 11:8 – “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the Promised Land like a stranger ion a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”
i. Without this faith, Abraham would never have obeyed a command to leave home, especially without complete and clear instructions regarding where he was going. And if he had not, we would not have this example of faith to draw from.
ii. But with clear instructions, it would not have been by faith. With clear instructions, what would you and I do? We would sit in judgment, as it were, and decide if God’s plan was good enough, and if we really wanted to do that. But faith is the substance of things not seen…Faith involves HOPE. Without faith, what hope is there for any good thing to happen in the future? And he was counting on good things to happen, he had that confident expectation that good things were going to happen, and he believed that God rewards those who earnestly seek Him!
2. So what then, is Hope? – Not wishful thinking. Hope is “Confident Expectation.”
a. As a boy, I knew faith – when I asked for something, Dad would always use that request to show his love for me. He would see to it that, even while weeding out the harmful (motorcycle at 14), that I got the things that were truly important to me – and then sometimes even things that were not all that important in the long run, but just neat things that he wanted to do for me. He always expressed his love for me in both the things he got for me, as well as the things he DIDN’T get for me.
b. I have referred to the book, “Faith of the Fatherless” before. I have always been so thankful for my father. The premise of the book is that when fathers take their fathering seriously, and are there to share the way life goes with their kids, those kids grow up having no problem believing that God exists. They have seen it in their earthly fathers, how that when they wanted something they would get it – not in a way that said, “Leave me alone kid, I’ll get this so you’ll shut up,” or in a way that was a veiled attempt to buy the child’s love, or that taught false expectations of what to expect from the adult world, but in a way that said, “I so very much adore you, and want to get this for you because I am just dying to find more ways to tell you that I love you!”
c. And an interesting thing happened. I learned – or perhaps, never forgot – how to expect good things to happen to me. It wasn’t an expectation as though I thought I was superior and that I deserved it, but an expectation that involved faith that God wanted to do good things for me. This got to be so obvious that my family started calling me the “Golden Boy.”
d. Now, does that mean that those who have experienced that are something special, somehow better than anyone else? NO. The Bible answers that – “God is no respecter of persons.” But God does intend good to come our way, and He looks for ways to show His infinite love for us. All too often, the reason we don’t experience God’s blessings is because we don’t expect them. We don’t expect them because we have been taught that we are not worth it, that we are somehow flawed beyond God’s ability to be gracious to us, and when He does send blessing our way we can’t believe that it could really happen to us, and we simply don’t take advantage of it or recognize it. But those who are walking with God and know to watch for His goodness have hope; hope that good things will come our way, a confident expectation of God’s blessings.
3. Love – The greatest of the three (faith, hope and love.)
a. Why is love the greatest? Because when we see God face to face, there will be no more faith. We will see Him as He is. And why would we hope for that which we already have? No, faith and hope will be no more – but love abides forever.
b. And so love is the foundation of God’s way, the bed Rock of Christianity. 1 John 4:16 tells us that “we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.”
c. Yes, our values define who we are. God wants us to be His kind of people – to be people who love and respect each other. This leads to a completely different kind of life. Our values predetermine what actions we will take in any given situation, as we discussed earlier. This was brought home tom me in a very profound way, one that left me reeling several times before the end of the conversation.
d. When I worked for a counseling center, I met a lady who was born in Lebanon. She told the story of how she came to America, how her father had come here to make a better life for his family. It was an inspiring story, but it took a completely horrendous turn that shook me to my knees. After they had been here for a while, her father had been killed in a mugging here in Shreveport. I was horrified at the incredible tragedy, and wanted to run away and hide in shame, but her face belied none of the bitterness and rage I expected to find there. Instead, there was, and this seemed completely out of context, there was astonishment. I had no idea what I was seeing. But she went on to say, in this voice I will never forget because the astonishment drowned out all bitterness, that she was amazed that the police hunted her father’s killer down and brought him to justice. At that point I really was confused – why would you be surprised at that? That’s their job, to enforce the law. And yet again, her answer to that completely blindsided me. She said, “In Lebanon there are no laws against murder. Nobody cares, at least not enough to do anything about it.”
e. You see, values define not only the individual, but families, nations and countries as well. In Lebanon, at least at the time she lived there, love for people was not high on the priority list, and that value orientation was reflected in their laws. We look at the four thousand year history of the Middle East and say that there can never be any peace there, and that’s partly right. There can never be any peace in any place where love for one’s fellow man is not a core value, and so there will never be any peace there until that part of the world comes to know Jesus. If you know Jesus, you know God; and if you know God, you know love.
f. Since our country was founded upon God’s laws, we place love and respect for people high on the list. We have laws against murder, and all other forms of disrespectful behavior. If it hurts another individual, it is wrong to do it, and our laws reflect that much more accurately than in many places around the globe. This is the reason our Declaration of Independence states, “We are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” That could never have been written by anyone who did not believe that human life is, and must be, a core value of the legal system.
CONCLUSION
And so love is the key. If you know God, you know love. If you are a Christian, you know love. If you feel weak in this area, it is a grave warning – a real red flag. We encourage you to pray and meditate on this, and to study your Bible to learn more accurately God’s ways. And we are here to pray with and for you.
If you are not a Christian, I hope that you have been able to see the value in these principles. This is the only way to peace. That is not a bigoted or arrogant statement; it is simply saying that without respect for each other there will be violence. It can be no other way. Do you see why Jesus is called “The Prince of Peace”?
This impacts and changes lives. It is Good News that changes not only individual lives but the whole world. Let it be our mission to get the Word – the Good News of Jesus Christ – out into the entire world.
If you have need, come to the front and give us the opportunity to serve you. Will you come?
