Paul's Favorite Trio in the Trenches

Sing along if you know the words:  "But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love." (1 Cor. 13:13) A modest estimate would tell us, I am convinced, that roughly two million people have, in the past five years, translated some portion of these words into a 90s script font and placed them into a picture of an ocean sunset. You can find them all on Facebook.

That aside, though, the trio of faith, hope, and love is certainly one of Paul's favorites.  He mentions this combination a number of times in his biblical writings, and it is evident that, for him, these are more than just pretty words or ideas.  They are the helmet and the breastplate for the sober Christian warrior (1 Thess. 5:8), essential defensive components in the chaos and struggle of Christian life. 

Consider the basis of Paul's thankfulness for the Thessalonian believers, taken from 1 Thessalonians 1:3 - "your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father."  These qualities were not incubated in a pristine bubble of comfort (read:  they did not pitch their tents in the candle aisle of a Christian book store).  There was hardship, persecution, confusion, difficulty - even from the very beginning (see Acts 17:1-9, for instance).  Let us look at faith, hope, and love in the above context, and see what they teach us about the commendable Christian life.

1.  Our faith must work.  We cannot mention faith and works without James' famous treatment in James 2:14-26 springing into our thoughts, can we?  The faith of the commendable believer is one that is active.  It is not content to rest upon the (presumed) laurels of (supposed) salvation; rather, the natural outpouring of genuine faith is committed action for the Lord.  A lazy faith is not one that will excite gladness from our spiritual family, and it will not fasten us to an immovable pillar of assurance, because true faith should naturally generate godly works (cf. 1 John 5:2-4).  The circumstances through which our God leads us are manifold and complex, but biblical wisdom and godly discernment always, always demonstrate to us how we can serve Christ in faith in a given situation. 

2.  Our love must labor.  Paul's word choice behind "labor" is kopos.  This is toil, exertion to the point of weariness or pain¹ - perhaps not the usual sort of idea when love is discussed.  Our love, both for God and for others (and it is difficult to completely separate those two objects; is it not?), should motivate us to lavishly pour out our energies in useful, selfless kingdom work.  The immortal words of David Brainerd, that earnest missionary of the 18th century, spring to mind:  "I want to wear out my life in His service and for His glory."  We live and work in the only kingdom that will never be overthrown; we enjoy the only salvation which is true and permanent.  We serve the only righteous Lord and life-giving Savior - what cause could clamor more loudly and rightly for the near-prodigal expenditure of our energies and zeal?  Put another way, what would we seek to withhold from ourselves for the sake of the love which God commands and implants?² 

3.  Our hope must endure.  We know from Paul that hope grows from the soil of steadfastness (Romans 5:3-5), and he explains here that steadfastness must also be a facet of that same hope.  True hope in the Christian world is never an uncertain venture, for it is grounded in the faithful truth of our immutable God - it possesses the element of expectation, not assumption.  Hope for the believer is always favorable.³  It is easy to see, then, how genuine hope can either set a believer up for devastating failure, or else carry through with them to victory for God's glory, in any given endeavor.  Hope that falters and comes short when circumstances grow difficult is of little use; it merely mimics one's emotional state when it should be driving one beyond the frustrating confines of emotional mire.  It has no weight, and is thus without momentum (simple physics teaches, of course, that momentum is the product of mass and velocity).  Hope's reality is proven in its endurance - true hope knows and believes in God's character and promises, and acts accordingly.

True faith, hope, and love, are serious pursuits, as well as powerful tools.  They require effort and endurance, and they will be tinged with the dirt and sweat of spiritual battle, but they will provide energy, direction, and protection, all from God, in our lifelong pursuit of Christ and His kingdom!



¹Brown, Colin. Dictionary of New Testament Theology. Vol. 1. Grand Rapid, MI:  Zondervan Publishing House, 1975. pp. 262-263.

²This is not at all to suggest that love should be given without wisdom or reck (e.g. giving the family house to a homeless man who shows up at your door).  Love must fall within the righteous confines of God's wise word, or it is not love at all, for it fails to love Him.  Make your love a wise, godly love.

¹Vine, W.E., et al. Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words. "An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words." Nashville, TN:  Thomas Nelson, 1996. p. 310.

My Abundant Source of Lack

Unsought blessing is a definite component of God's program of grace.  Do unrepentant sinners continue to draw breath, often for a lifetime, untroubled for a time by the fetters of eternal, divine fury?  Are such as these sometimes granted an inexplicable understanding and acceptance of the need for Christ's salvation, such that they seek it with earnest repentance?  Does God preserve His children in salvation, even when they foray deep into sin?  Unsought blessing is all around us - without it, we would not last for even a moment in this world, much less taste the joy of salvation.

There is also, however, such a thing as sought blessing - those articles of grace which God chooses to withhold until we ask Him for them.  If we know something of the priority God places upon the demonstration of His glory (and we really should), this only makes sense; we perceive a lack of some sort, and our pervasive inability to satiate it compels us toward the throne.  By making us active participants in the communion of grace, God helps us to see more fully just how we need Him (in a quiet piece of irony).

This certainly places a high premium on prayer, does it not?  James says to the scattered Jewish elements of the church, "You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask." (James 4:2) Let us approach this from the opposite direction:  because I do not ask, I do not have, and the vacuum created by my prayerlessness draws in temptation - a sad substitute. 

It is tempting to fool ourselves into the notion that a period of prayerlessness does not truly affect our spiritual state - we feel that just as a healthy eater can eat the occasional Crunchwrap Supreme without adverse corollary, the spiritual believer can coast along for a day or two without prayer.  What blessings, though, are we missing on these off days?  The gifts of the Lord that fall upon us are not optional graces sent for our amusement; they are blessings intended to equip us for godly worship and kingdom work.  Similarly, the gifts of the Lord that befall others when we pray are for God's purposes of good and glory.  Do we, as children of the Most High, truly desire to ignore these opportunities from our kind and powerful Father?  Pray, friend.  Pray often, and pray for the kingdom; dress your prayers in quality and quantity alike.

We must go further than supplication, of course.  James certainly does:  "You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures." (James 4:3) He maintains, with divinely-supported clarity, that we lack because we ask with wrong motives; that is, our hearts are not right in prayer.  For this reason, the other elements of prayer - praise of God, confession of sin, and thanksgiving for past blessings - take a crucial role in shaping our hearts into what God desires.  In this frame, we find contentedness in the work and character of God.  We ask with a different attitude, and for (sometimes very) different things in this state, but indeed this is vital work whether we open our mouths to ask for anything or not. 

We are led, then, to two simple questions we might ask if we find ourselves in a state of dissatisfaction or want:  Am I in prayer?  Is my heart in line with the Lord?  Perhaps the answer is that I have not brought my cares to my loving Father, or maybe I have been selfish in my supplications, and am thus unfitted for His answer or undeserving of a present resolution.  God does not always remove the thorns from our flesh, but He always stands ready to give us the grace to persevere - a powerful answer to prayer indeed, if we are exhibiting steadfastness of prayer and unity of purpose with Him.

There is always, always an answer to our present lack to be found in prayer.  He is faithful, and He is sufficient!  How then do we not pray, brothers and sisters?  How is it that I can muddle through a day apart from my Father, whom I know in my very bones to be gracious and sovereign and near?  He stands by with grace in His keeping, and He desires for us to embrace our utter need for Him (remember this?).  May prayer be to the soul even as breathing is to the body.

Faith in the Divine Filter

"Why is this happening to me?"

This is not so bad a question for Christians to ask, so long as we are prepared for the answer - so long as we seek the truth, rather than conclude that there is none to be had.  There is always a true answer to this question, truth that is long-standing and settled in the mind of the Lord. 

This truth is situated in the heart of Romans 8:28:  "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."  This is doubtlessly one of the most beloved verses in Christendom, but let us take care that our regard springs from good and true reasons.  This verse appoints us not, as some suppose, to a life of ease (i.e. everything will go well), but to one of purpose.  A cursory run through the biblical narratives suffices to reveal teh prodigious hardships that have been endured by God's chosen, even the most formidable and earnest of His saints, even when none of their actions would merit such trial. 

Beyond this, James urges his readers to "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials" (James 1:2), certain that it is not a question of "if," but "when."  Joseph delivers this wisdom to his traitorous brothers:  "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good..." (Gen. 50:20a)  Evil is directed toward us, but God means it for good. 

Returning to Romans 8:28, we see the absoluteness of this divine work:  "God causes all things."  This means that every one of the events and circumstances which find their way into our lives are intentional, and that intention is laid down by none other than our loving, omnipotent God Himself.  There is, in effect, a divine filter that assures that those trials which actually reach us are designed for our good.  Consider how this same filter was seen in full force in Job 1 - God turned aside barb after satanic barb before allowing a very specific trial to visit its devastating impact upon His servant Job. 

With this in mind, the astonishing thing is not that we believers labor under difficulty, but that we labor under such small difficulty.  Indeed, the care that our Lord demonstrates through Romans 8:28 means that we should meet trials with something approaching curiosity:  why, indeed, has this particular trial made its way to me?  How will God use this for good?  This neither blunts the force of the trial nor softens its difficulty, but it frames it in the appropriate context of God's selective, sovereign purposes.  It invites a righteous response from the heart of faith that is assured both of the Father's changeless, loving motivation, and of the Father's faithfulness to lavish the needed grace to endure upon our humble frames. 

Does the tragedy of the present hardship crush my very heart?  My God has good and loving purposes behind this circumstance that will far oustrip and outweigh the immediate anguish.  Is this trial immense in its power upon me?  The power which God communicates to my soul is stronger yet, is stronger beyond my feeble reckoning. 

Any number of difficult things might have come about today, but this is the one that did, by God's will, for His glory, and yes, for my good.  Praise Him in all things!