So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.I'm currently attempting to study for my New Testament test I have tomorrow morning, it isn't going to well. I'm rereading the materials and came across a page from our booklet discussing this verse. Not many verses get a whole page dedicated to them, that's one way you know they should be important to you.
The page digests each component: faith, hope, and love.
Faith
- the trust which takes us beyond ourselves
- focuses on someone else and though everything in our life rides upon it, it rests this load on another
- is content with the wisdom, power, and strength of that other One
- lets Him think and act, He plans and protects, and we're content
- our tie with God which moves us to Him and accepts His view of us
Hope
- the never conquered virtue
- is elastic
- knows no time limit to its hopefulness
- never says, "I was wrong to hope. There is nothing good, no time left, no way out, nothing that can be done."
- always has time yet to come
- always believes that tomorrow may come with good, a good built even on the ruins of today
- believes that there is a way out, even when we can't see it
- our tie with God by which we agree with Him that the world was good in its beginning and that its end will be better still
Love
- the one which defies all expectations
- laughs at all explanations
- can't answer why it loves, and never feels it has to
- accepts what it has been given to love
- the breath of God into lifeless clay
- His desire to make someone who is like Him and to love Him when He is far away
- accepts being loved and knows there is no good reason
- laughs when others try to find cause and knows He had none
- our tie with God because love is faith and love is hope
It doesn't get much deeper than this.
If I were half the person Paul was, I would be beyond happy with my life. I only hope that God may use me in the way He has planned, and that my own goals do not interfere with His design.
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