|
|
|
|
Faith, Hope, Love~Charity
Whether or not you are a Christian, if you've been to a wedding in the western world you've heard the last statement from 1st Corinthians 13... "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." And in fact those words are going to be spoken of in a very intimate way this next Saturday at Amber and Doug’s wedding. I believe that faith, hope and love are some of the most practical words for any situation. On the surface those are some profound words. Yet I don't think that our "modern" world has a clue what "profound" means. We have made it our business to take truly profound concepts and settle for simply slapping the label "PROFOUND" on them and ending all thought about them. I think we do this because things that are truly profound are heavy, they are overwhelming, they challenge us, change us, kick us around... and we don't want that to happen. We want our lives to simply "fulfill" us (oh, there's another one of those words that isn't as fulfilling as it used to be!) Paul nailed it when he wrote those words... when it all comes down to it only three things really matter, faith, hope, and love. § Faith, because without it life is truly impossible. § Hope, because without it life isn't going to go anywhere beyond the mundane. § And love and charity, because it is truly the only way that we can live meaningful lives. These words have incredible meaning for human beings, but even greater meaning when understood within the profound nature of the Christian life. We can talk about living a Christian life, but if we try without these profound concepts we are simply going through Christian motions. So today, we are going to take a quick look at faith, hope and love and how they relate to one another and to our lives. 1. Faith… Everybody mockingly repeats the famous childish definition that faith is "the power of believing that which we know to be untrue.” a. The Bible speaks a great deal about faith... here are two examples i. Hebrews 11:1-3 1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. 11:2 This is what the ancients were commended for.11:3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. ii. Ephesians 2:8-9 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. b. The world, whether it wants to admit it or not runs on faith... i. And at some point each of us are confronted with our great need for faith. It is only through faith that we have any chance of making sense of the world. ii. "Whatever may be the meaning of faith, it must always mean a certainty about something we cannot prove. Thus, for instance, we believe by faith in the existence of other people." G.K. Chesterton, "Heretics". 1. We know very little about the universe, what we do know is attached to faith statements, what we do not know is mystery that we hope to solve. Yet the modern human doesn't want to look at the world with either of these components. 2. Willingness to live with the very nature of mystery and faith make living in this world much more real. a. "Man must have just enough faith in himself to have adventures, and just enough doubt of himself to enjoy them." [Orthodoxy] b. The bright darkness of faith... If we continue this journey of faith, trusting God, we will be amazed and uncomfortable. c. Faith offers us the only realistic starting point on the path to becoming truly human. If we choose to become a machine we can ignore faith… but to be human we must start with faith. i. Francois Fenelon said this: “ Down deep in your heart I believe you know what God demands of you, but you are resisting Him. And this is the cause of all your distress. You are beginning to think that it is impossible for you to do what God requires. But recognize this for what it is: a temptation to give up hope. Now it’s quite all right for you to give up hope about self, but never give up hope in God. He is all good and all-powerful, and He will give whatever you need according to your faith. So open up your heart to the riches of God’s grace. You are now so locked up within yourself that you not only do not have the power to do what is required of you, but you do not even desire to have it. You actually seem to be afraid of what might happen if you open up to God grace in this situation.” ii. Faith is a requirement or life, for hope, and for love. Faith is responding in obedience to the reality of God's word and the unseen nature of God's activity in this world. We need to be willing to go places where every step we take requires an increase in faith. Our journey needs to be bound up in our deepening understanding of the goodness of God while being willing to relinquish our desperate need to know the details of what He is doing. 2. Hope… Hope is the power of being cheerful in circumstances which we know to be desperate. It is true that there is a state of hope which belongs to bright prospects and the morning; but that is not the virtue of hope. The virtue of hope exists only in earthquake and, eclipse. a. True hope only springs from the place where all seems hopeless. I think that it is for this reason that all of us have settled for such a pale version of it. i. Real hope allows us to move forward when every part of our physical being says NO! For practical purposes it is at the hopeless moment that we require the hopeful man, and the virtue either does not exist at all, or begins to exist at that moment. Exactly at the instant when hope ceases to be reasonable it begins to be useful. (Heretics, Chesterton) ii. And Real Hope only moves us forward because Real Faith has empowered it. b. We like happy hope: hopes of future vacations and happy retirements. Dreams fulfilled and life lived easily. But Christian hope is more than that i. It allows us to do the impossible… ii. Because we have been given more to work with than we could ever imagine. c. Hope based on Faith in God is incredibly powerful… Listen to these words from Isaiah 40, they start with God’s request for faith and end with His promise from hope… i. 25 "To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One. 26 Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. 27 Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the LORD; my cause is disregarded by my God"? 28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. 29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. 30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; 31 but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. 3. Love/Charity… It is a wonderful paradox that these three things run in a wonderful circle… to enjoy faith we need love, to have hope we need faith, and hope allows our love to grow even in the midst of the storm… a. The reason that I have included the word charity with love is that that is how this passage has been looked at most consistently up until our modern day. b. The KJV renders 1 Corinthians 13:13 this way: “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.” i. Our modern world has ruined both of these words, love and charity. 1. The first can be downgraded to liking a certain type of food. 2. The second can be downgraded to just handing money to a beggar. ii. Neither of these “new” definitions comes close to the way God describes this incredible and underserved gift… Read 1st John 4:7-21… 1. Love is directly entwined with the very nature and action of God. Faith in God! 2. Love was perfectly shone in His action on the cross. 3. Love is lived out in our communion with the Holy Spirit. 4. Love offers us confidence and true hope for eternity… 5. There is no fear in love… because of faith, hope and love we can live fearlessly. We can reach beyond the fears we have about ourselves and the fears we have about the world. 6. And this love comes from God… it is not something we must create within ourselves to achieve salvation.
Contact Information
|
|
|
