Faith, Hope, and Love

Faith, hope, and love. Even the secular world recognizes the three. You'll find it in crafty shops on plaques and such. The three are together because they're listed that way in the Bible.

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Cor 13:13)

It's a noble sentiment, but look how hard we've worked at stripping it of any useful meaning.

Biblically, faith refers to confidence. It means literally "to be convinced." Biblically it refers to a firm conviction on which you base your life. It necessarily includes evidence and, according to Strong's Bible Dictionary, includes the idea of being convinced "by evidence or argument." Oh, no. Not today. As we all know, faith is opposed to evidence or argument. Faith is the opposite of reason. Faith is believing things you have no reason to believe. That's not the biblical faith, but our world has moved it that way because our world is antithetical to biblical faith.

We use the word "hope" to refer to "a feeling of expectation and desire for a particular thing to happen." It's little more than a wish. It is simply to want something to happen. The archaic definition of the word is "a feeling of trust" and comes much closer to the biblical definition. In Scripture, "hope does not disappoint" (Rom 5:5). In the Bible, hope is closely related to "faith" (Heb 11:1) and means to trust for something that hasn't happened but we know will. Thus, our "hope is in the Lord" (Psa 146:5) which is a certainty and not a wish. We look forward to our "blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ" (Titus 2:13), a certainty and not a wish. Biblical hope is a certainty; the world's hope is a desperate wish. Not the same thing.

Then there's love. The Bible version is clearly not today's version. The biblical version is self-sacrifice (John 13:34; Eph 5:25); today's version is "what I think is in my best interest." The biblical version is a decision (e.g., Matt 22:37-40; John 13:34-35; 1 John 4:7, etc.); today's version is a chemical, emotional response. In the biblical version love originates with God (1 John 4:7,12,19); our version originates from self. The biblical version has a lengthy description (1 Cor 13:4-8) including "love never ends"; today's version is "warm affection" coupled most often with "lust" and the grim certainty that "love never lasts." Not the same thing.

The biblical phrase -- "faith, hope, and love abide" -- is glorious in its message. Today's version is a washed-out nicety without content. "Credulity, wishful thinking, and affectionate lust abide." But you shouldn't be surprised. This world is hostile to God (Rom 8:7) and doesn't offer anything like God offers (1 John 2:15-17). The real problem I see is that too many Christians buy into the false propaganda and lose out on the best that God has to offer in favor of something without any real content. Don't be that Christian.