The Elaborate Dance Between Faith, Hope, and Love

We're able to be in touch with you guys. We've loved the texts and the interactions that we've had with everyone. And it's wonderful also to be here with the Echamas and the Radabas, so hugs from the Apartian boys to everybody. Today we're going to review one of the most famous, one of the best-known verses in the Bible. So if you will please turn to 1 Corinthians 13 and verse 13. We've read this famous conclusion to the love chapter many, many, many times. I hope today, though, to be able to look at it in a way with you that you may never have previously.

So we'll start by reading 1 Corinthians 13 and verse 13. It says, Now there are a few hierarchy verses in the Bible, and this one tells us what God considers to be the spiritual biggies. We've heard powerful sermons about these godly characteristics many, many times, right? And each of the virtues is critical. Each of these is something that God expects us to learn, to live in order to be like Him, to be all that He knows we have in our potential.

Each is intrinsic to living a true Christian life. But have you ever thought about them as a group? Have you ever thought about how they work and fit together? That's what recently I've been looking into and analyzing. How does faith, hope, and love interact? How do they interconnect? The first thing that struck me is how often Paul brings these three words together. And even beyond that, how often when you look at different verses, he is very intentional to talk about how they work together and how they complement each other.

But I will say, trying to get my head around the exact connection between these words has proven quite a challenge. Because every time I think I find the fit of how they're supposed to work together, it doesn't work, because they don't just fit in one way. It's not like puzzle pieces. In fact, I'll see a verse that shows a totally different connection as soon as I think I get it. What I've found is that if I focus on any one of these virtues and look at that in relationship to the others, I can rationalize it spiritually based preeminence above the others. Let me give you an example. Let's start by bringing in the attorney representing the client, Faith.

Well, here he goes. Paul said that we're saved through faith in Ephesians. Hebrews tells us that without faith, it's impossible to please God. The Bible also clarifies that genuine faith brings the believers to peace with God through a life that's lived faithfully. Faith, if you look through the Bible, it's clearly pivotal, and the other two characteristics lean on it. After all, the Bible says the other two characteristics need to be done in a faithful way.

Our hope should be a faithful or persistent hope. Our love should be a faithful or enduring love. All three rely on the faithfulness of God. So clearly, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, faith is the key among the three. Case closed. Drop the mic. Okay, now ignore everything I just said, and let's bring in the argument for hope. Hope provides the confidence and anchor needed around all of God's promises. Hope is our expectation that God will do something amazing in the future, and it's the foundation. It's mandatory for both of the other virtues.

When hope attaches or anchors itself to a trusting God, the Bible says it's only at that point that faith is born. We're told love always trusts, hopes, and perseveres. So love needs hope. Clearly love is the key among the three. Okay, now ignore those two things I said, and let's argue for love. Paul himself told us that love was the greatest. We're told that God is love. All the commandments are summarized in loving God and loving people. The Bible reveals that love empowers hope. Encountering God's love is what created the possibility of hope.

Without that, we wouldn't have it. When hope comes alive, it gains strength as the love of God is poured into our heart. And that is what creates the sense that attracts faith. Faith then believes all things are possible and inspires us, based on a loving God's promises, to go forward in righteous living. What does that look like? Outgoing love toward others. So therefore, love is the key among the three.

Well, friends, the objective of today's message is to show how faith, hope, and love are deeply interconnected. And what I hope you come to see by the end is that they can only exist in the way God intends when connected to each other. We cannot have faith without hope. We cannot have hope without love. We cannot have love without faith. For example, how can we have faith in Jesus if He isn't our hope?

How can we hope in Him if we don't trust in His love for us? How can we love Him if we don't trust and have faith in Him? To achieve their intended outcome, faith, hope, and love must work together in our individual lives and in the life of the Church. If you like titles, the title of today's message is the Elaborate Dance Between Faith, Hope, and Love. The Elaborate Dance Between Faith, Hope, and Love. So let's start by learning what Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 1, 2, through 4.

We're going to find in verse 3 that Paul makes a very special explanation and link between all three of these. 1 Thessalonians 1 and 2. It says, So Paul was spiritually proud of the Thessalonians. He is now going to explain why. Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of our God and Father, knowing, beloved brethren, your election by God. Alright, let's work through the things that he mentioned in verse 3.

The first connection Paul makes in verse 3 is between works and faith. So what does Paul mean by your works of faith? I believe he's referring to your works that result from faith. If you read 4 in a couple of verses in chapter 1 and verse 8, he says, Paul commends our faith by saying, If you read that same verse in the New Living Translation, it says, We don't need to tell them about it. Their faith changed the actions they were doing in their lives. And if you want to know how, Paul explains that in verse 9, because he points out how the Thessalonians' faith has changed.

Verse 9 says, So previously, they served idols because that's what they had faith in. Paul preached the gospel to them. Their faith changed, and then they had a faith in God. And when your faith changes, your works need to change as well. The point Paul is making is that where we put our faith determines what we do. Where we put our faith determines what we do.

Faith isn't merely what we believe in. It must be something that changes our actions, something that changes our lives. And with that lesson in mind, let's make personal and reflect on what we are doing, because that will tell where our faith is. Is God's work the primary focus of our life? Is it the primary focus of your life? If so, then our faith is in God. Is the work of the world the primary focus of our life?

If so, then our faith is in idols. That's the important connection Paul is making between faith and works. Now, the second connection Paul makes in the verse is between love and labor. We've defined that works that Paul is referring to as the task to be done. The labor, then, is the effort we put into the task. By definition, the word labor means to work arduously, to toil, to work to the point of exhaustion. It's about the attitude we have toward our work. That's what determines the intensity in which we do the work. So our love should be what produces that intensity. A person or a church that doesn't love won't labor.

They may know what they should do. They may have faith that properly defines the work they should be doing. But if they don't have a true biblical love, they simply won't work. In Thessalonians, or the Thessalonian church, Paul is showing, had the love and it showed. It showed in the intensity of their work for the Lord. Now the third connection Paul makes in verse 3 is between hope and steadfastness. Strong's tells us the word steadfastness is used to describe the characteristics of a man who isn't swerved from his deliberate purpose and is loyalty to faith and piety by even the greatest trials and suffering.

So this verse describes the results of hope in our lives, and that is having endurance to the end. Endurance, even despite, even through the most difficult times. Do you want to have more spiritual endurance in your life?

Then what this verse is saying is the way is to produce hope in your life. Hope will produce that. The word hope is really one of the most misused words in our language today. Truthfully, if you look at how we use it, hope really is used more meaning wish. We say we hope it rains and there isn't a cloud in the sky. Hope, at least as the Bible uses the word, is something that's entirely different.

It means a joyful and a confidence expectation. What we hope for is what we expect to happen. When we speak of a hope for the kingdom, right? But only think of the kingdom as a long shot. It's no wonder we lose our endurance. If you're discouraged, if you want to quit, especially when things are difficult, you need to work on your hope.

If we don't have the right kind of hope, then the Bible says we're not going to endure. So are you starting to see how these three virtues connect? In 1 Thessalonians 1.3, Paul complements the Thessalonian believers. And I'm going to play with the words a little bit here to show what they're fully explaining. He complements them for their work produced by faith, their labors prompted by love, and their endurance inspired by hope.

So as you read this, recognize that Paul didn't use this by accident. He had a very intended order in mind. Faith precedes work, not the other way around. Love leads to labor and not vice versa. Our work for God isn't in response to his love. It's not an attempt to earn his love. And endurance is the result of, and only achieved through, a godly hope.

When this happens, you start to see this cause and effect trigger occurring. Believers' faith, hope, and love results in work, labor, and endurance. Having received God's grace, the cause, we work our labor to serve him in his kingdom in a way he has empowered us to do to achieve his objectives. The effect. If you want, we can say that same concept in reverse. Work, labor, and endurance are the output, the normal result of faith, hope, and love.

Our faith, hope, and love are the catalyst, the motivation, the inspiration to produce these fruits in our lives. And they're what should spur us on as believers. They encourage and support us to live an active life that's exemplifying and delivering God's love. And it's when our hearts flow outwardly in service because of the redeeming love that God has shown us that our hope is fixed on faith, and our faith is permanently fixed on Jesus Christ. When our hope is held up or anchored on God, it's unmovable.

We can load on top of it as much as we want. It'll bear any strain. And that's the hope that enables us, even in the heaviest of trials, even in the most difficult of times, we'll set even more in the next verse we read. They are not worthy to be compared with the glory that God promises.

And that's where verse 4 comes in. Verse 4 says, knowing, beloved brethren, your election by God. Now, this verse powerfully reinforces where our perspective needs to be, because it needs to be on God's act of picking us. That's what election means. And the concept is really mind-blowing. If you think about the creator of the universe hand-picked you and hand-picked me. Lasting endurance or steadfastness of hope, as the Scripture says, inspires us to place our faith in the amazing blessings that God promises for the future. And when times are hard, in the presence, the only way to keep going is to look for better days ahead.

And that comes by trusting God's faithfulness to perform the promises in the best timing and in the best way. What perspective enables us to endure that way? It's because we know without a doubt that God always fulfills His promises. And those blessings are possible because of God's election, hand-picking you. Our faith is built upon Christ's Word. Our hope is built upon His Spirit bringing His Word to pass. And as a result, His love becomes the basis of our future inheritance. We then should immediately act in gratitude. It's because of God's love and care in picking us that good works of faith should be produced in us due to our faith in Jesus Christ.

Now, before we read the next section of Scripture, I would like to try to personalize Paul's words to Thessalonians. So apply them to yourself, please. He says, I give thanks to God for your work defined by your faith, your hard labor motivated by your love, and your steadfast endurance inspired by your hope. Would that commendation apply to us? How is our faith in God? Does it define what we do each week? Or is our week defined by worldly idols? How is our love? Does it get us moving to serve God and others? Or is it so weak that we're stuck in neutral?

How is our hope? Is it a confident expectation that drives us faithfully through the hard times? Or is it like a whimsical wish that lets us falter at every little speed bump in life? Let's go on to the next Scripture. Please turn to Romans 5, verses 1-5. Romans 5, verses 1-5. And we'll analyze another Arian Scripture where we find all three of these words combined by Paul. We'll start in verse 1. Romans 5, verse 1.

So what we're finding is that genuine faith brings the believer to peace with God through the act of justification, or being made right with God. And as the verse says, justification was made possible through Christ by His perfect life and His sacrifice. We're brought into a relationship with Christ because we believe He exists, accept who He is, and strive to obey Him through His Spirit. If we have a justified relationship with God, a true justified relationship, it has to produce something in us.

Verse 2. Through whom also, again we're speaking about Jesus Christ, we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. So one item faith in God produces is hope because we have been reconciled to God, justification in the verse before. Godly faith gives the believer a conscious sense of joyful hope toward a glorious eternal life with God, made possible through His Holy Spirit. The verse says we have access by faith into this grace.

In other words, because we have this faith and are brought into God's presence through His grace or His favor, we can rejoice because of the glory of God. We have hope because of the glory of God. Again, remember what hope is. Hope is an expectation for what we know we don't have, but we know is attainable. Biblical hope must be based on something we know is going to happen. And if we lose this, we go down the path of hopelessness.

Hope, the Bible speaks of, comes from being centered on God because He is the only producer of that level of hope that won't disappoint us. And that's another way that faith and hope connect. Hope in God's promises are based on fact, not just possibility. So we keep our proper perspective. Now, the next verse clarifies that an obedient life isn't going to always be a pleasant journey.

Powerful verse, verse 3. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulation, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance and perseverance, character and character, hope. Now, there's a process being described here in these verses. Let's work it backwards. Hope is the product of godly character, right? But godly character doesn't come without facing some bumpy roads. We can't build up our own godly character within us. Godly character comes when the big three virtues are developed in us by God. How does this happen? God produces it by perseverance, which is produced by trials. To simplify the concept, God wants us to have hope in him, so he allows trials to produce perseverance, which produces godly character, which produces hope.

Tough times may not always make sense to us. Who am I kidding? Tough times will rarely make sense to us, right? God is doing something special to perfect us, and we need to have faith in what he is doing, even when we don't see how the current crisis fits into this big picture. At those times, we have to have hope and believe in God. It's said that life happens and hope sustains us. Remember the last section, hope yields endurance. I don't know what you're up against, but I want to encourage you to put your hope fully in God, because when you do, the Bible says our faith will be awakened and will have this unshakable confidence in God no matter what.

Verse 5, now hope does not disappoint. Great! But why? Because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which was given to us. The hope God wants us to have doesn't disappoint even when times are really, really tough. Why? Because hope is born and sustained by continually encountering and continually reflecting on God's love. Now, I'm not talking about simply knowing that God loves us.

That's just head knowledge. But truly experiencing His love. Faith and hope can go nowhere until God's love is active in our hearts through ongoing encounters. We would never have the chance for faith or hope without God first extending His love to us. And when we see life as God intends, we find Him always interacting with us in love, even if they're trials, even if they're tribulations that are going on.

Now, without a continual encounter with the love of God, our hope will begin to fade. And when our hope fades, faith dies. And when faith dies, unbelief and despair are coming next. But the encouragement is God's love has been poured out into our hearts in the past, God promises to in the future, and He's there for us now. Because of our hope in both God's present and His future kingdom, the now and the not yet, we have stamina to press on.

But we have to believe God is going to take us there. His plan is going to take place. His promises are conditional on how we open ourselves up to hope, love, and faith. Our hope must be in something completely real that's going to happen. And that confidence must be based on a firm belief that God is going to get us there through whatever problems we face.

COVID, riots, whatever. We have no clue what the world is going to truly turn into. God is going to get us there. And that confidence assurance makes it all worth it. He will fulfill His promises as long as we don't give up on them.

God's promises are there as long as we have the faith, the hope, and the love that comes from Him. It requires us coming before His presence all the time in confidence and submitting to Him. Now, before we read the next verse that links these three words, I'd like to take you back to thinking about Adam and Eve. From before creation, God developed an eternal plan for us to hope for, for us to look forward to.

The walk of all humans with God begins with faith. In Genesis, we see God tried to teach faith to the first people. He created and placed in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve. Faith was their first test. But again, I encourage you to remember the love of God was the true starting point. After our loving Creator created Adam and Eve, He lovingly instructed them in the rules of life.

What they should do, what they shouldn't do. And then He gave them space. God left them alone so they might have the opportunity to experience living by faith. Would they put their trust in Him during His absence? Does it sound like parenting? Very much what God is teaching us is our Father in Heaven. The purpose of this was to allow Adam and Eve to develop past a childlike obedience, which merely relies on God's parental presence holding them accountable to obedience or else.

God doesn't want that for eternity. Our original human parents failed their first tests, and thus God lost trust throughout God's dealing with Israel. He similarly tested their faith, and they failed. All have failed without God's Spirit. Now, with that perspective, I would like us now to learn about faith, hope, and love by turning to Hebrews. Please turn to Hebrews 10, verses 23-25. Hebrews 10, 23-25. We naturally want to go to Hebrews 11, where it talks about faith and hope, but we can lose the perspective and the context in the verses just before that Paul is talking about the involvement of love.

Hebrews 10, starting in verse 23. But let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. For he who promised is faithful, and let us consider one another in order to stir up love in good works, not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another in so much the more as you see the day approaching. It's critical for us always to remember that love is the foundation. Faith and hope could never have happened if God hadn't first lovingly created the universe or established a salvation plan that gave us a chance. Faith is the end result of God's love.

We have faith in God because he is loving, because he is faithful. We must develop unwavering hope in his promises. We must learn to love like God and take on his nature of love. Now, let's read Hebrews 11 in verse 1. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. I trust this sermon is helping you understand that there's a symbiotic relationship between faith and hope. We certainly can't have a healthy one without the other.

They're mutually dependent. Faith leans on Christ, and hope hangs on faith. Faith engages our assurance that God can and will do what he has promised. Let's keep reading. Verse 2.

When we have true faith, we actively and constantly live out that faith, which pleases God. He has a good testimony about that. Verse 3. By faith, we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. Let's proceed to verse 6. But without faith, it is impossible to please Him, for He who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. See, faith and hope are very, very connected. When hope isn't present, faith has nothing to grab onto. And likewise, hope without faith is a wish. Faith turns our hope into substance and leads us to rely on God to provide what is needed.

Hebrews 11.6 says, without faith, it is impossible to please God. We please God by living out our faith and hope through righteous obedience. Faith is an assurance and a belief that God will do what He's promised. See, God wants us to get past our human uncertainties. We all have them. In doubt, He wants us to realize through all the stories in the Bible what can and what will occur if we continue to put our trust in Him. And when this happens, our hope is strengthened. But please don't forget how I started the discussion on Hebrews by pointing out that love is the foundation. God is love. God is the foundation of these virtues. True faith, hope, and love can only occur and be sustained if they are God-focused. Let me take you through a quick path on that one to fill that part in. Our faith must be in the faith or the faithfulness of God. It can't be faith in what we do or say. Hebrews 12.2 says that Jesus is the author, perfecter, and finisher of our faith. So to have faith in Jesus is to trust Him, to believe that He will do what He says He will do. He's the one who said He would build up the church. Our faith must be centered on Him. Jesus is our hope. He is the one who will complete the work He started in us. He is the reason and focus of our worship. He is the hope by which we are saved. We can go through all the examples in the Bible. He is our hope for forgiveness, for redemption, for justification, for sanctification, for eternal life, for the Scriptures, for all of those. We come to church as part of His body. When hope looks to the future, it causes us to live lives of love with endurance right now. God is love. Love is greater than faith and hope because without love being produced through faith and hope, you don't actually have a true biblical version of those virtues. The new command that Jesus gave us was to love as He loved us. And that love for one another is really what distinguishes us as disciples of Christ. We participate in the Great Commission by sharing love with others, by making disciples. We love others because we see them as God's beloved children, even if they have no clue that there's a loving Abba Father in Heaven wanting a relationship with them. That's why we welcome people to come and join us in church. That's why we're excited to see them grow in a relationship with God and Christ. We should celebrate as He changes their hearts and lives. Our love should center on God. So let me summarize the lessons of Hebrews. If faith makes the believers certain Christ promises will be fulfilled, hope fills them with eager anticipation to actually see them fulfilled on the day Christ returned, and love is the greatest of these virtues because love is the origin and the goal of the three virtues. All the commandments are summarized in loving God and loving people. Love enables believers in Jesus Christ to reach out beyond themselves, beyond our needs, toward others, and then faith, hope, and love will produce Christian actions in our constant present. Alright, let's move on to another set of scripture. Please turn to Galatians 5, verses 5 through 6. Galatians 5, verses 5 through 6. We're going to read another segment of scripture that shows this elaborate dance between faith, hope, and love. Galatians 5, verse 5. What the Bible teaches in Galatians is that faith is the instrument, the means, or the way God uses to save His people. These verses show what that's like in practice. They also make another fascinating connection between these three virtues. The faith that produces hope is produced by faith working in love.

Now, it's easy to read the two verses we read and miss the most important section of it. In verse 6 it specifies, for in Christ Jesus, the scripture speaks specifically of a living hope, of a living faith. So by contrast, there has to be a dead one. If there is a hope that makes not ashamed, there must, therefore, be one that will make its possessor ashamed when that ultimate judgment day comes and reveals its falsehood. True faith is a precious gift of God, which has to rely on the hold of our Savior and the hold of His Father. The certainty of that hold is what makes us hopeful. It enables people to believe in Christ as the only hope for our salvation. It enables us to trust His sacrifice on the cross. It was for us, for me, personally. It keeps us living out our trust in Christ every day through righteous actions of obedience. The role of love is also clarified in these verses. The nature of both faith and hope is that they only thrive if they're frequently exposed to view.

It's the nature of love to come out. Love is outgoing. Unless love acts and acts on others, it isn't true love. Acts of righteousness should show whether our faith is living, by whether our actions have daily alignment through outgoing, selfless acts of concern for others. Remember the verse, faith working through love. Love is about faith and hope because our present actions and choices are always the most important thing. We've got to let the past go. We can't rely on a future. We have our opportunities now. And the way we show others our faith or our hope is real, is by and through love, suffering, and doing. To put that in other words, all we have control of is our actions right now. Once each moment passes, we remain responsible, continue to show love in each passing moment. And God expects us to passionately want to keep doing it in hope of that being the future norm for the rest of eternity. If we love less because we're too busy looking at the past, or being excited about the future, then our faith and hope are missing their true intention. Love is the only thing that consistently will move us in the direction that Godly faith points us.

So make that personal. If you and I don't see any emotion in our lives, it's possible, or it's possibly, that we don't love or don't love enough. There's ways of applying this, and it's humbling to me and to anybody who looks at these, because they're a bar we can never totally get. That's why it's the capstone of 1 Corinthians 13, 13, or the chapter. So let's start closing out this message. If you'll please turn to Ephesians 2, verses 12 through 19. I don't know about you, but I hope the more we think about faith, hope, and love, the more excited we get about what they mean, and hopefully we see how much they link. Each plays an important part in enabling us to live the way that Christ wants us to. Ephesians 2, verse 12. So this is speaking of the time before the Ephesians were called by God. We need to realize our starting point. And our starting point was being hopeless without Christ Jesus. And it's only because of Christ that we can fully live faith, hope, and love. God the Father allowed His Son to make that sacrifice for us. Let's continue in verse 17. It says that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love. I'm going to stop there. Rooted and grounded. It's a very interesting analogy here to a tree. And it builds on what we've been talking about. We start with faith that's likened to a seed. God planted the seed of faith, and out of the seed of faith, roots of hope take root and they grow. This in turn nourishes the trunk that causes the branch of our faith tree to grow so that we might produce godly fruit. That seedling of faith starts and is designed to grow into a mature tree that grows the fruit of love. Okay, I'm going to reread verse 17 and continue.

You've heard a lot of explanations of their connection during this sermon. And I realize I've approached it from a lot of angles because that's really what the Scriptures are making connections to. You can summarize these virtues in this way. Love gets us moving. Faith gets us headed in the right direction. But only hope keeps us moving when the going gets tough. Hope causes the believer in Christ to eagerly look forward to Christ's promises being fulfilled. It's the assurance of God's plan and that we really can rely on His promises fully that allows us to rest in the hope that comes by faith working through love. It all started with God's love for us and what God made possible for us because He unconditionally loved us from the start before we loved Him, before we had hope in Him, before we had faith in Him. The Bible then goes on to show that hope leans on faith. Love leans on and depends on the hope we hold as Christians. We read that love will languish unless hope is underneath sustaining. Another way to put it, hope inspires us to endure. Faith produces action and love prompts us to the right action. So many ways we can look at how these three connect. There's seemingly no end to it. Without hope, we will soon give up. Without faith, we will not be able to please God and we will be unfruitful. Without love, our actions will be dead and useless, like a noisy gong, a clanging cymbal. The person who trusts in Christ walks by faith, and he who walks by faith will hope, and he who hopes will love, and he who loves will work, and he who works will win. Not only by being spiritual members of God's family, for eternity in his kingdom, but by being the tool of God's love in this age to start the cycle of faith, hope, and love in others so that they can have the same outcome.