Faith, hope and love.
In AD 50 Corinth was one of the most important cities, commercially of the day, controlling much of the shipping between the East and the West. It was a city heavily steeped in Greek culture, its idolatry and immorality. Paul established the Church, after spending 18 months living there. After preaching in the synagogues and getting thrown out of there, Paul set up the Church next door to it. After he had left he received disturbing reports that the church was having problems with immorality, divisions, and Greek culture affecting the religious beliefs. Paul wrote the letter that became 1 Corinthians, during his time ministering in Ephesus. He wrote it to try and correct some of the practical and doctrinal problems that they were facing. It is during this letter where we find Paul emphasising to the Corinthians the very heart of Christianity.
1 Corinthians 13:13
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Paul was telling the Corinthians that when all else was stripped away, he wanted to find that the church excelled in these three areas. This threefold combination of faith, hope and love is also found in 1 Thes. 1:3; 5:8; Gal. 5:5-6; Heb. 6:10-12; 1 Pet. 1:21-22. Here God was talking to the Corinthians both as a church, and as individuals.
Faith.
Faith is a subject that featured a lot in Paul’s writings, and so he knew what he was looking for in the Corinthian Church, In the book of Romans, Paul cites Abraham as being the greatest example of faith. In Romans chapter 4 Paul states that it is Abraham’s faith that made him righteous, not his circumcision, or any of the things that he did. Abraham believed God that he was going to be the father of many nations, even though he was 99 years old and his wife wasn’t far behind. It was Abraham’s faith in believing God could do what He said he would, that was awarded to him as righteousness. Why? It was because Abraham believed God could do what He said He would, that God knew that Abraham truly believed in who He was.
The second example of faith that I want to look at occurred around three thousand years later. This person showed that much faith that it surprised even Jesus.
Luke 7:1
When Jesus had finished saying all this in the hearing of the people, he
entered Capernaum.
2:There a centurion’s servant, whom his master valued highly, was sick and
about to die.
3:The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him,
asking him to come and heal his servant,
4: When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, ’This man
deserves to have you do this,
5.’because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.’1
6:So Jesus went with them. He was not far from the house when the
centurion sent friends to say to him: "Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do
not deserve to have you come under my roof.
7:That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say
the word, and my servant will be healed.
8:For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this
one, ’Go’, and he goes; and that one, ’Come’, and he comes. I say to my
servant, ’Do this’, and he does it."
9: When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd
following him, he said, "I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in
Israel."
10:Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the
servant well.
What was it about this centurion that Jesus considered his faith to be so great? When we read these verses we firstly find that this man is a man who has compassion, he was of great authority and yet considered his servant worthy of coming to Jesus with.
We also find him to be a man of great humility. The servants came and told of the works that this man had done for the people of Jerusalem. Yet when asking Jesus to heal his servant, he doesn’t bring any of this up, instead he actually states that he is not worthy to have Jesus even enter his house. The Jews were renowned for considering that their works, and their obedience to the laws of Moses, was deserving of Gods favour. This man, like Abraham, realised that nothing he could do would make him righteous before God.
The last thing that we see is that he believed that Jesus could heal his servant simply by his command. He used the example that he was under authority and was also a man of authority. In saying this, and in believing that Jesus had the power to perform the miracle, he was actually acknowledging who Jesus was. In believing that Jesus could heal, he was making it clear that he believed in who Jesus was. This was the faith that amazed Jesus, it was the faith of Abraham.
In all of Israel Jesus had not found anybody with such compassion, for those he need not show it to, anybody who had performed so many good works and yet did not rely on them, or anybody who believed that Jesus could perform any miracle, simply because of who He is. This is the kind of faith that Paul was looking for in the church at Corinth.
Hope.
Hope is something that is very difficult to separate from faith, as the two are intrinsically linked.
Romans 5:1
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
2: through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we
now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
3;Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know thai
suffering produces perseverance;
4;perseverance, character; and character, hope.
5; And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into
our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
When we read this passage from Romans it makes it very clear that faith is the key that opens up God’s promises, but hope is the tool by which we hold on to them.
Secular thinking in the day of Paul viewed Hope as a temporary illusion rather than a virtue. Hope is often viewed in the same way today. We are not sure if something is going to happen but we hope it does. There is no surety about the word, and it is no surprise therefore that in Ephesians 2:12 Paul said that Pagans had no hope, Hope that comes from God is the kind that holds on even when the seasons of change would suggest that there is no way that our promise can come true.
This is why the heroes of faith mentioned in Hebrews 11, are also shown to be beacons of hope. Some things that we have the faith to believe for God brings about straight away, but other promises are for the future, and this is where hope steps in. This is how it was with Abraham. He had the hope of being a father of nations, even when circumstances would suggest it was impossible.
When we read the rest of Romans chapter 5, Paul talks about the greatest hope that we have, that of being made right with God and having eternal life through Jesus. Paul was sayimg that this should truly becomes the hope of the church so that they will be less concerned with what this world has to offer and more about the things that are to come. Hebrews 13:14. In 1 John 3:3, we read that hope should also lead to a purity of life.
We read in Romans 5 that hope comes from rejoicing in our sufferings. If we can praise God when we are under any form of attack, this will cause us to persevere. From this perseverance we will have a stronger character and will have more resilience to any future attacks. This character formed in the knowledge that God has brought us through once will increase our Hope in his promises.
It is this kind of Hope, holding on to Gods promise through all situations and sufferings, producing more concern for the spiritual rather than the natural and more purity in our lives, that Paul was looking for in the Corinthian Church.
Love
The other two virtues are important, but Paul emphasises that this is the most important of all. The chapter of 1 Corinthians 13, makes it very clear why love is put on such a pedestal and what Paul was looking for from the church.
1 Corinthians 13:1
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
2:If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all
knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, hut have not love,
I am nothing.
3:If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but
have not love, I gain nothing.
4:Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not
proud.
5:It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no
record of wrongs.
6:Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
7:It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8:Love never fails,..
As a church we tend to judge people on what they do. If somebody spoke in tongues, prophesied the word of God, had knowledge and wisdom, had faith that could move mountains, gave all they had to the poor and surrendered their body to the flames, we would tend to think of them as men or women of God. Paul makes it clear that if they don’t have love, then they have nothing. While we look at deeds, God looks at the motives.
It is amazing to think that you can do all of these things out of other motives. You can give all you have to the poor, so that people might think that you are generous. You can perform miracles to make yourself look good. Without love, these things pass away.
Yet, while we you can act without acting out of love, it is impossible to have love and not to act, Verses 4-8 shows us what love produces in us. Here we see why Jesus said, I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil it. In exodus God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, and they were to be obeyed out of fear. In the new covenant God expects us to keep them out of love for Him.
If we truly posses love then we should be patient, kind, without envy, without boastfulness, without pride, without rudeness, without selfish ambition, without unrighteous anger, and without keeping a record of wrongs. We should reject evil, rejoice in truth, protect, trust, hope, persevere and never fail. Having Gods love in our lives should not only help us to keep gods, command, but exceed them. This is the kind of love that Paul expected to see in the Church at Corinth.
Application.
Paul knew that the Corinthian church contained many qualities but was lacking in these, Faith hope and love are the essentials and can not exist without each other. Hope cannot exist apart from faith, and love cannot be exercised without hope. We first need the faith to believe, the hope to endure, and the Love to make it worth while, All of this, Romans 5:5 reminds us, we do through the Holy Spirit who God has given us. The same qualities that Paul looked for in the church at Corinth, God looks for in our church, and our lives as individuals today.
Faith.
Firstly we need to demonstrate faith in our lives. We need to be a people living in faith. Where as the Jews believed that their works would make them righteous before God. We need to realise that nothing that we can do will ever make us right before Him. We must have the faith to believe that His grace is sufficient. On a day to day basis as well, are we demonstrating faith in our lives? Do rely on God for our finances, plans and decisions, or do we try and do these things in our own strength. I want to encourage you that it is only through believing in God to take care of these things that you are believing in who He is. If God has promised you something, then only in believing in Him to fulfil it, can you demonstrate that you believe in who he is. We should take the promises in Gods word, and believe in Him to fulfil them, it is only that way that we will be putting Him in his proper place in our lives.
Hope.
Firstly our hope is in the death and resurrection of Christ, and through that eternal life with him. It is something that we all know, but until that becomes a serious reality in our lives, we will be too obsessed in what is going on in the world around us and not focussed on Spiritual matters. We need, as a church, and as individuals to make sure that this Hope is a reality in our lives. It will produce is us purity and the character to believe through persecution.
I want to encourage you that when things are going wrong in your live to praise God, through this you character will increase, your perseverance will increase, and so will your hope in God. If God has promised you something in your life which you once believed, but now seems impossible, I want to encourage you today to hold on to it, as in doing so you will bring gory to God.
Love.
Love should be at the centre of this church and of our lives. If you minister, then examine your heart, don’t do it out of any pride or obligation, do it out of love. Ladies, if you come home one day to find that your husband has cleaned every room in the house, polished, done the dishes, washing etc. and he has done it out of love. This would mean a lot more to you than if he did it after weeks of nagging that he ought to do more around the house. It is the same with God, we can do the same act, but God judges our motives. Whether or not we possess love will be demonstrated in our zeal for God, and in our treatment of one another.
I want to encourage you to look at 1 Corinthians 13, and to look if you are lacking in any area of love. Do you judge, when you should encourage, do you not have patience, are you easily angered? If you fall down in any of these areas, then we are lacking in Gods love. People often think that love is an attribute that you either have for a person or not. The Bible makes clear that love is both an act of the will, and a gift from God, We must both decide to love God and each other, and we can ask for God to fill us with it via his Holy Spirit.
Romans 5:5
.... God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
Conclusion.
We all want to be an effective church for God, and in today’s climate we need to shine brighter than we ever have done before. The church tries all sorts of gimmicks to quell falling numbers, but God simply wants us to come back to the basics.
1 Corinthians 13:13
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
