Faith, Hope and Love
Faith, hope and love was a dominant framework of richness in the early church and conveyed by the New Testament. These three work together in a cycle, building a tangible aspect of spiritual life. We can see them outlined in the Ten Commandments: the first three are about developing faith in God, the next two provide tangible hope, and then the last five are about how the community functions in love.
How do we see this? Commandments 1 through 3 are about developing our faith in God. Learn to see Him as supreme, with no other gods before Him. Come to see Him as incomparable, that nothing could adequately represent Him. Move into the true life of faith – to bare His image, take on His name and live so at one with His reality that you are a walking, talking ambassador of His kingship.
Then Commandments 4 and 5 become our living hopes: I expect God’s involvement to be so rich in my life that I apply Sabbath living. I no longer strive. I see His provision completely created in all aspects of my life. Today will be a fresh revelation of how He meets needs in a way that makes love come alive. So I live eager for His Fatherhood to bring me into the fullness of maturity in His Kingdom ways. I live hopefully expecting a fresh version of Sabbath and Father to come alive today.
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The first affirmative commandment is Sabbath living. It’s about God's timelessness - always was, always is, and always will be – the Creator. He is ready to deliver us from sin’s slavery and make law-abiding possible. Our grounding in Him allows law-abiding citizenship. This is our spiritual origin.
The second affirmative commandment is Parenting: God's timeliness - always present, directing, teaching, rescuing. He gives us wings, so we can live prophetic lives, maturing into our spiritual destiny.
These 2 positive commandments witness truth to our lives and through our lives. They establish us in both the timelessness and timeliness of God. As members of His family, they give us roots and wings, stability and flexibility, through origin and destiny. We relate to God's timelessness through His timeliness, to live in faith tangibly, hoping for God to show up in rich love, changing lives.
Because I am full of faith and expectant hope, I can take the next step and live in community love. I can do Commandments 6 through 10, not harming anyone in my community, because I am living full of love. I do all types of things that are the opposite of murder, theft, ….
This is the whole counsel of God, the Ten Commandments. This is how we journey into life’s quest, the fullness of our heart’s desire manifested in God’s kingdom. This is how we can progress from Him being our Savior to being our Lord. from justification to sanctification.
We see from the abundance of Scriptures, that came from a variety of early Church leaders, that they had a worldview that included an organized view of faith, hope and love as a framework that incorporated many articulations of the spiritual life.
We see it as a mechanism for how things work together and develop further spiritual fruit. We have clear Scriptural support to say faith, hope and love work together to develop Christ’s life in us. Christ’s life was sinless, obedient to the Ten Commandments, articulating the fullness of faith, hope and love in its framework.
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In Romans 5 we see a core dimension in our walk with God. Living godly brings us into opposition to the world-at-large. But we persevere, expecting a positive outcome. We live in hope, because God's love will become real in new dimensions in our lives, manifesting tangible aspects of God's love. This is the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5), functioning through the gifts of the Spirit (Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4). Then the world sees tangible testimony of God's aliveness, harvesting saved souls.
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Romans 5 points out in our development processes that we go from faith, through suffering, to perseverance, to character, to hope, to love, to God's Spirit poured out. Seven steps to entering a new dimension of Sabbath rest in our lives. And character is in the middle of it - at the heart of the process. It's our lives' treasure, our gold.
Why do we cycle through suffering so often? Gold needs to be refined. (2 Corinthians 3:9-16) God's purpose for you in His witnessing program might require you to be at a higher level of character maturity than you are at now. His purpose may extend beyond witnessing, to Kingdom preparation. And, this is really about relationship with God. Character is at the core of relationships. We like people who have similar dreams, hopes, goals to us - similar character trajectories. This is true of God too. We are made in His image, with the same heart felt nature. He longs for your closeness, for heart to heart relationship. He is building this into you too. (Revelation 2:17, 21:4)
Romans 5:1-5
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
1 Corinthians 13:13
And now abides faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
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Galatians 5:5-6
For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.
6 For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision avails anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.
1 Thessalonians 1:2-4
We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers;
3 Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father; 4 Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God.
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1 Thessalonians 5:8
But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.
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2 Thessalonians 2:15-17
Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.
16 Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace,
17 Comfort your hearts, and establish you in every good word and work.
Titus 1:1-3
1 Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness;
2 In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;
3 But hath in due times manifested his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Savior;
Titus 3:4-8
4 But after that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared,
5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
6 Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior;
7 That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
8 This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men.
Hebrews 6:10-14
10 For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.
11 And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end:
12 That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
13 For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself,
14 Saying, surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.
1 Peter 1:20-22
20 Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,
21 Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.
22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:
2 Peter 1:4-8
4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
5 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity (ie, love).
8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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It's interesting that the section in 2 Peter 1 starts off with faith and ends in love. All the items in between are aspects of what builds hope and hope's presence as it comes to life. Hope is the core issue and requires discipline to complete the process. May you use hope to build a rich view of its fulfillment. God meets the need consistently, exceeding expectation.
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