Praise the Lord! The Lord has been good to us throughout the past week as He has kept on blessing us time and time again so far in life and it is our assurance that He will continue to bless us all the days of our remaining life on earth. We worship a God who is sovereign and divine and holy and faithful and omnipotent and omniscient and omnipresent and all-loving and compassionate and so on. The holy Scriptures invites us to know such a God very personally. Psalm 100:3 states that Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. When the people saw the way God manifested His awesome power in response to prophet Elijah’s prayer while he encountered the eight hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and Asherah at Mount Carmel, the people who witnessed it fell down and worshipped Him, as it is mentioned: When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The LORD—he is God! The LORD—he is God” (1 Kings 18:39). God Himself declares that there is no one like Him (refer to: 1 Samuel 2:2; Psalm 86:8; 89:6; Isaiah 40:18, 25; 46:5; Jeremiah 10:6).

As the Lord blessed us with another week to live on earth in our present perishable physical body [which is temporary and weak and destined to die and decay / refer to Isaiah 40:6; 1 Peter 1:24], it is time for us to read, hear, and meditate the Scripture passage we chose for our SftW meditation this week, which is 1 Corinthians 13:13 [mentioned above]. This passage talks about obtaining and practicing the spiritual virtues such as faith, hope, and love as they remain as the key foundational pillars of one’s faithful Christian living – a life that is based on the life-principles laid out by Christ Jesus Himself and the doctrines He established through His preachings, teachings, and life-style, which are necessary for a fruitful and rewarding life. Although, faith, hope, and love are equally important for a person to advance strongly in their spiritual-walk with Christ and to assure and receive a reward for their faithfulness to Christ [the Lord and Savior of their life], love stands out as the greatest of all the spiritual virtues one can have. Also, the main theme of the written Word of God from the beginning till the end [that is, from Genesis to Revelation] is love, especially the love of God for His created beings and things and particularly for the humankind whom He created in His likeness an image (Genesis 1:26-27; 5:1; 9:6).

Faith simply signifies trusting God with things that exist but we cannot see with our physical eyes or hear with our physical ears or understand with our limited intelligence or know with our limited knowledge, and so on. The author of Hebrews states that faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see, as it is mentioned: Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see (Hebrews 11:1); and it is written: Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him (Hebrews 11:6). Apostle Peter wrote: Though you have not seen him [Jesus Christ], you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls (1 Peter 1:8-9). Jesus said to Thomas [who did not believe when other disciples told him that they have seen the Lord / John 20:24-25]: Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe. Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!” Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:27-29). According to Apostle Paul, the faithful followers of Christ live by faith and not by sight, as it is written: For we live by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). Therefore, for the faithful followers of Christ, faith is vital as we live by faith not by sight. Ultimately, having faith means nothing but placing out trust in God that He exists [though we do not seen Him] and believing in His promises to us.

The term ‘Hope’ is simply understood as one’s desire for something good to happen to them in the days ahead. Hope in the biblical sense is that whatever is promised to them or whatever one expects to happen to them ought to happen to them in the coming days the way they expected. For instance, most Christians expect to receive [or happen to them] the way the Scripture [the Bible] talks to them. Our God is a God of promises and whatever He promises will happen the way He promised. God’s promises cannot be altered or changed or missed because His promises are made in His righteousness and justice and loving kindness. Those promises are something which emerge from within the Word of God and grounded in the Word of God, so God’s promises are definite and we hope to happened the way He promised to us. Therefore we need to trust and put our hope in the promises of God. When Christ establishes His Kingdom, everything God promised to us regarding our positions and privileges in the Kingdom of God will be fulfilled and established, as it is mentioned I Psalms: Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations. The LORD is trustworthy in all he promises and faithful in all he does (Psalm 145:13). The book of Proverbs also gives us similar assurance, as it is mentioned: There is surely a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off (Proverbs 23:18). God is faithful to fulfill all that He promised to us and once God fulfills all that He promised to us, then we do not need to hold on to the promises of God anymore because the hope that Bible tells us is not just a wish or longing for something good to happen to us but it gives us some kind of confidence and certainty that the things will happen the way it is promised to us. Therefore, Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful (Hebrews 10:23). Thus, hope is nothing but one’s belief that a desire or longing for something ought to happen to them as they wait and work towards it in expectation until it happens to them [whatever it might be].

Love is a strong sense of affection, an emotional attachment with active commitment to the well-being of oneself or for another person. Where there is love, there is no room for any hatred or animosity towards anything or anybody rather there will be compassion and care emerge and expressed. The Scripture talks about love a lot – the one thing that connect and unite everything together: Love connects God with all of His creation, love connects God with humankind, love connects humankind with one another, love connects humankind with everything else in God’s creation – living or non-living, and so on. Love is the one thing that run through the Bible from beginning (Genesis) till the end (Revelation) and connects and unites everything meaningfully and orderly. The power and influence of love strong and unbeatable as it emerges from the Lord God Almighty as He is an Omnipotent and Omniscient and Omnipresent and all-loving and Sovereign God. The Scripture states that God is love as everything God says and does in the universe is emerging from His love for His creation, especially for the humankind (1 John 4:8). Apostle John wrote, saying: Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love (1 John 4:7-8). Apostle Paul stated, saying: And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity (Colossians 3:14); Apostle Peter said: Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8).

Although there are various kinds of love in existence such as agape, phileo, eros, storge, here we discuss only about agape love as it is emerging from God and extends towards His creation unconditionally and sacrificially. God’s love for mankind is characterized as agape love because His love for us never fails for it is patient, it is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud, it does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs, it does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth, it always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres and so on (1 Corinthians 13:4-8a). Therefore, love is greater than faith and hope. Apostle Paul states: If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing (1 Corinthians 13:2-3).

Dear friends in the Lord, based on our above discussions, we can understand and come to the conclusion that faith makes us stand firm and expects better and greater things assuredly, hope makes us endure through trials and troubles and move forward confidently, love unites and holds everything together. Apostle Paul stated: 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 (Romans 5:5). From all these we can understand that faith and hope go hand in hand with love. As a result, when faith began to get weaker and weaker, hope and love hop in and strengthen the faith; when hope began to fade away, faith and love hop in and build up one’s hope; and love is the one thing that connects and holds everything together. One final thought for our encouragement: Faith, hope, and love would help one to live a confident and successful spiritual life and attain salvation through Christ Jesus and thereafter eternal life. After Christ’s return or the end of our life on earth, we do not need have faith and/or hope but love will continue to exist through all eternity. May the Lord God Almighty bless us all! Amen!