Faith, hope, and love
A Simple Message
“Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
1 Corinthians 13:4-7
One of love’s greatest enemies is doubt, and the only defense against doubt is faith.
By choosing to believe God’s promises, we find it easier to love God. Choosing to believe that our neighbor is worthy of God’s love makes it easier for us to share our love. Believing that there is good in us and that we deserve love, we learn to love ourselves.
Another of love’s great enemies is inaction. Hope for something better gives us the motivation to put our love into action.
When we step out believing that the love we actively share will make a difference, it never fails to do just that.
This is why we see, in the above passage, that love believes and hopes all things.
Any good thing, any positive thought, any promise of God, love believes them all; love motivated by hope acts on them all.
God told Adam and Eve that this world was theirs to steward and shape as they saw fit. We still have this authority, on some level, even today. The worldview we form in our mind as stewards of our own thoughts becomes the world we experience around us.
If we choose to believe we are unworthy of another’s love, we likely won’t behave in a way that is worthy and we won’t be loved.
If we choose to believe all people are terrible, we are more likely to treat all people terribly, and be treated terribly in return.
If we choose to believe all people are worthy of love, we are more likely to love and be loved in return.
In the end, three remain: faith, hope, and love. To live a Christ-like life, we are required to exercise all three of these great Christian virtues daily.
We are to believe God’s promises and that there is still good no matter how bad things may seem; and to hope that God is acting on our behalf and that our actions also make a difference.
We should love God, and try to love everyone else as much as He loves us.
