verse4today: As the Lord said to Moses may he speak to us: "I have seen..., I have heard..., and I have come to rescue you.... (Exodus 3:7-8).
Posted on 2012-02-01 via Twitter
"Faith, hope and love remain, but the greatest of these is love." Perhaps you have heard those words. They come from the pen of the apostle Paul and are recorded in his first letter to the Corinthians (13:13). Recently, I landed on that verse as I was developing a lesson on hope for what matters in life. That verse prompted a simple question in my mind: "How do I distinguish between faith, hope and love?" While searching for an answer, I failed to uncover a nice, clear, succinct description of that triad. But, the Lord who said, "Let light shine in darkness," did not leave my in the dark. Piecing together insights from several Christian writers, I found it possible to distinguish faith, hope and love in two different ways.
First, we can look at faith, hope and love through the lense of time. From that perspective, we discover that faith has a past orientation. It functions on the basis of what God has already said and done. We also find that love lives in the present moment, encouraging us to extend praise to God and grace to our neighbor - right here and right now. Finallly, we learn that hope is about the future. One friend defined it as a confident future expectation.
Second, we can distinguish faith, hope and love from one another on the basis of behavior. The person of faith trusts God and His Word. Love differs from faith in that love, while rooted in the heart, takes shapes our relationships. Such is evident in the love poem recorded by the apostle Paul in I Corinthians 13. Hope differs from both faith and love. Based on trust in God's promises (faith), hope prompts prayers to God for the outpouring of His grace into our futures.
In summary, then, faith looks back to the past and trusts, love lives in the present and acts, hope looks to the future and prays. When we lose faith, we fail to trust the promises of God. When love gives way, we fail to praise God and extend grace to our neighbor. When hope fails us, we don't pray or, when we do, our prayers lack boldness and confidence.
When, by God's grace, we apply the gifts of faith, hope and love, by which I mean, we live by faith, hope and love, then we will not only find, over and over again, that our God is faithful, but we will also experience, in some measure, the joy of living as the beloved children of God.
I can definitely use that reminder… constantly.