Faith, Hope and Love
The triad of Christian virtues, faith, hope and love, remain pre-eminent in the life of fruitful people. However, we can be assured that the world, the flesh and the devil will do everything to dilute these fruits of the Spirit as they hate Christ, His kingdom and His righteousness. We not only need a greater personal maturing in our faith, hope and love, but also a heighten sense of corporate faith, hope and love to overcome evil with good. (Rom. 12:21) Without faith there is no victory. Without hope there is no power to move in to the future. Without love there is consolation from the hurt, pain and anger we face everyday.
Paul salted his letters with references to the triad of virtues that tie together his vision of Christ’s kingdom and righteousness. Often times, Paul would inter-twine and mix the order of faith, hope and love depending on the contextual need of the people he addressed. Faith, hope and love give us a bit of an idea of God’s roadmap for how we are to move forward in helping to grow Christ’s kingdom and righteousness in our lives, ministries and relationships.
1. Faith is the assurance that God will do what He says He will do and acting on that conviction. We see a perfect example of one who followed this roadmap in Abraham of whom Paul wrote, “He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but grew strong in faith, being fully persuaded that what He had promised, He was also able to perform.” (Rom. 4:20,21)
Any ministry, relationship or lifestyle that is not based on faith is sure to fail miserably. Without faith it is impossible to please God for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. (Heb. 11:6) Great relationships, ministries and lifestyles emanates from a life of faith.
Empowered lives are energized by faith. Hopeful people have great faith for what God is going to do through and with them. Loving people are able to demonstrate the characteristics found in I Cor. 13:4-7 because they draw upon the life of Christ in them to infuse them with the patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control that enable them to bear all things, believe all things, hope all things and endure all things.
2. Faith enables us to seriously consider and emulate the great faith of those who have led us and taught the word of God to us and evidenced great fruit. (Heb. 13:7) Remember those who led you who taught the word of God to us and consider the outcome of their way of life, imitate their faith.
We need to be good students of the historical and systematic theologies that enrich our appreciation for the meaning, scope and implications of a life of faith. Saturate your life with mission questions, intentions and dimensions by reading the biographies of great missionaries whose faith was used to be a channel of blessings to millions.
Illustration: In 1900 there was only 10% of the non-western world that were born-again Christians. Today about 80% of the Christians on the planet reside in the non-western world. Most of this is due to the great faith of missionaries who went beyond their Jerusalem to the Judeas, Samarias and unto most parts of the earth to be His witnesses by faith. (Acts 1:8)
Illustration: Be enriched by following the great faith of William Carey who became known as the father of modern missions because of his famous statement of great faith: “Expect great things from God, attempt great things for God.”
3. Faith helps us search for greater ways to make our belief public. We must resist the western cultural tendencies to be too private and individualistic with our faith. We must trust the Lord to help us demonstrate faith is interested in larger social, economic, political, global and spiritual realities. Each individual’s faith has the powerful implication to effect the transformation of his or her community and relationships.
Application: Let us ask God to give us greater faith so we can integrate it into our psychology, spirituality, anthropology, and sociology that are seen in human reality.
4. Faith is concerned about the nearly three billion people who are yet to hear and understand a clear presentation of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We should not stop short at talking about our faith, but we must engage in every possible way to send the light, the blessed gospel light from shore to shore.
Application: Faith that emanates from the Holy Spirit will be more loving, more hopeful and more filled with the fruits of the Spirit so all people will know that we are Christians by our love, faith and faith working synergistically together.
5. Love needs to find greater ways to translate it into a way that people can desire its giver, the Lord Jesus Christ. The world is hungering and thirsting for love, but the Lord Jesus is the only one who can give it in its purest form, the unconditional love that gives without any thought of what will be given in return. Love means that we learn to listen, to understand to be corrected and to be more like Jesus in everyway.
6. Love means that it is going to be more important to demonstrate caring than insisting on being right all the time. Love helps us overcome our own tendencies to feel that we need to be respected, justified or acknowledged. By listening to every person in their context, with their complaints and with their perspectives, we are demonstrating the love that was embodied in the Lord Jesus.
Let us grow in Christ’s ability to love as we thank Him for the breadth, length, height and depth of His love for us. (Eph. 3:14-20) The most loving people are the ones with the greatest faith and hope for what God is doing and is going to do through us.
7. Hope is something that gives us a reason and motivation to move confidently forward. Peter wrote, “Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened. But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hoe that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” (I Pet. 3:13-15)
Song: My hope is in the Lord. Who gave Himself for me. And reconciled His work of love on Calvary. For me He died. For me He lives and ever-lasting life and love He freely gives.
8. Hope inspires us to look forward with expectations the great things God will do in, through, with and for us. Paul writes, “Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character and character hope. 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.” (Rom. 5:4, 5)
Faith produces love and then hope. The three virtues of the Christian life are so inter-twined that when one grows it enhances another. When one diminishes so is there a consequential regression in the others.
Quote: “The genuine Christian hope does not paralyze Christian action in the world. On the contrary, the proclamation of the Christian gospel in the missionary enterprise is a characteristic form of such action, since it expresses the belief that missions are an essential element in the eschatological foretaste of the Kingdom of God and the Biblical hope of the end constitutes the keenest incentive to action.” (Cullman 1961)
9. When the Israelites wavered between hope and hopelessness they said, “How can we sing a song in a foreign land? (Psa 137:4) Then the Psalmist wrote, “Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God.” (Psa. 42:11) Regardless of the disturbance, distress or discouragement we are facing we can still overcome with hope in a God who greater than all problems, people or predicaments. That hope inspires our faith and fuels our love for better relationships, ministries and lifestyles.
10. Let us imitate the hope of Daniel, Esther and even Jeremiah who wrote, “Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters… multiply there and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.” (Jer. 29:6,7)
Quote: Charles Van Engen writes, “The last couple of years have convinced me that hope is probably the most important single concept that the Church of Jesus Christ has to offer the world in the next millennium. There was a particular period of about twenty-six days when for the first time in my life I thought we might actually live in a world of peace. The Berlin wall was coming down, Eastern Europe was changing, negotiations were going on in the Middle East, Latin America was beginning to find its way politically and economically, South Africa was beginning its tortuous process of change, Asia was exploding economically and technologically, China was on the move to new things and African nations were beginning to find new paths. But the hiatus was short-lived.
Today I am reminded of the cities in which I have experienced the most terrible tragedy of all; the nearly total loss of hope. Be it Sao Paulo, Sarajevo, or Mexico City, Los Angeles… what I keep hearing is an almost complete loss of hope.. the hope seems to have died. (The Good News of the Gospel of the Kingdom, Van Engen, p. 260, 1996)
11. When we hope we care, we expect great things from God and we risk trying new things. We know that His kingdom, righteousness, His word and His Spirit will not fail us. God’s love and faith working through hope bring about a positive expectation and confidence that regardless of what happens, His kingdom will come and His will is going to be done, on earth as it is in heaven. (Matt 6:9-13)
12. Hopeful believers dare to act and give in a way that they can help change the world according to Christ’s great commission. (Matt 28:18-20)
Application: We can profess certainty in what we do not see. (Heb. 11:1) We can be hopeful that God’s purposes, plans and processes will be carried out to their completion in His time. He works all things after the counsel of His will. Hope energizes, faith revitalizes and love replaces all the negative forces that seek to limit us from being all that God intends.
Application: We can be more creative when we are hopeful in bringing about the transformations that are pleasing to the Lord that allow us to bear fruit in every good work that is done through faith, hope and love empowered by the Spirit.
