Faith, hope, love (v.13)

“So now faith, hope and love abide, these three...” 1 Corinthians 13:13

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These three characteristics are the key signs that our Christian life is authentic and real. They are grouped together by Paul in other places too (e.g. 1 Thess.1:3 & 5:8). But why do faith, hope and love belong together?

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In Romans 5:1-5, Paul describes the consequences of our being “justified through faith”. It means that we are brought into a right relationship with God, and in particular this causes us to “rejoice in the hope of the glory of God” (v.2). More surprisingly, this enables us even to “rejoice in our sufferings”, because suffering produces endurance, character and hope (v3-4). Once again we are back to the importance of hope – the assurance that one day it will all be put right.

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The reason we can be sure about this is “God has poured his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit” (v5). Because of our present experience of God’s love, the foretaste of all that is to come, we have a sure and certain hope. And that hope itself becomes in us a spring of ever-deepening faith and love in our lives (Col.1:4-5). So faith, hope and love are bound together inextricably.