Faith. Hope. Love. These three are sisters, interrelated yet independent. But best understood and best applied in the context of one another. They are all three indispensable for a believer and inseparable from a believer. A Christian without hope, should seem to me as absurd as a Christian without faith. How can a Christian be called so without faith, which is the doorway to salvation in Christ, and without which it is impossible to please God? “For by grace you have been saved through faith”, period. And hope, the anchor for our souls, is grounded and held steadfast only in His presence. This anchor alone allows us to desire and expect the preferred future that He promises, despite anything circumstantial that would tempt us to believe otherwise. This hope assures us that what we put our faith in, is true. A follower of Christ cannot exist outside of faith and hope, but to these two there is a third sister. And although related, she is greater. Her greatness does not diminish the importance of the first two, but rather provides the framework in which all three can exist to their full potential.
Although the reasons for her greatness are numerable, I’ve narrowed my thoughts to three:
1. Love was always God’s motivation
The God of the Universe is. He is unbound by space, time, or any other constraint we can fathom. He is: ineffable, inconceivable, unimaginable. He is before all things and by Him all things consist. This God, who we cannot comprehend or describe, can be motivated. His motivation is love. When His creation first sinned, separating the Holy God from an unholy people, He immediately set into motion a plan for redemption. A recovery of the lost relationship for which mankind was created…a gift, which would require everything of the giver and nothing of the recipient. “For God so loved the world, that He gave…”
“Power, no matter how well-intentioned, tends to cause suffering. Love, being vulnerable, absorbs it. In a point of convergence on a hill called Calvary, God renounced the one for the sake of the other.” –Philip Yancey
Without the love-gift of Calvary, there would be no faith, there would be no hope.
2. Love will endure
Love never fails. When time is merged in eternity, faith will give way to sight and hope’s fulfillment will be enjoyed. Only love will remain unchanged. When we mortals put on immortality, we will see Him as He is. And for the first time, a grand collision will occur as the source and the object of this perfect love meet face-to-face; resulting in the spontaneous worshipful proclamation, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty”. This love - finally fully understood and experienced - will remain for eternity, perfected and perpetuated by The One who is all, and yet gave all, for the object of His affection.
3. Love deems this world worth rescuing
Faith unites us to God. Hope moves us toward God. But love conforms us into His very image and gives us the avenue by which to reveal Him to a dying world. Faith and hope are for my benefit; love is for the benefit of others. The love He requires of us, wants the highest good for others and is willing to do whatever it takes to see that good come to pass. It is an undefeatable benevolence and an unconquerable goodwill. It will always give freely without asking anything in return. Love is a bar set so high by Christ that it is unattainable apart from Him. While I was still a sinner, Christ died for me. He loved me too much to leave me the way that I was, and He simply asks that I view others through the same lens of grace through which He viewed(s) me.
