Faith! We must have it to be pleasing to God! (Hebrews 11:6)
Hope! What would we do if we felt we had none?
And Love! Oh, how we need to love and be loved!
Could we pick one of these three above the others? Would we want to be without any of them? Could we say one out of three or two out of three isn’t bad?
Someone has said, “The measure of a man is not how great his faith is, but how great his love is.” [source: bulletin clipping]
But don’t we need great faith? Does faith count for nothing while love counts for everything?
In his letter to the church at Corinth — after providing a list of the characteristics of the godly love with which we are to love (1 Corinthians 13:4-8) — he stated. . .
“(13) So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13 ESV)
Does that mean we can have one without the others? Was Paul saying we can choose love and forget about faith and hope? Not at all! Paul stated the three “abide”. When we consider these three, we should note how completely they are connected to each other. Lord willing, we will consider this further over the next two days.
Have a great day FOCUSING ON WHAT ABIDES!
Carl
