In 1 Corinthians 13, the famous Love passage, Paul says there are only three things that abide with eternal significance, and those three things are faith, hope, and love. In Colossians 1, verses 3 through 5, Paul puts those three crucial ingredients together in his prayers of thanksgiving for the saints. He writes, “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.” He clarifies these three traits for us. When he talks about faith, it’s “Faith in Jesus Christ.” When he talks about love, it’s “Love for each other.” Both Faith and Love are motivated by the hope that’s laid up for us in heaven.
We see faith, hope, and love linked together often in Paul’s writings. Paul presents them as the supreme marks by which a church is measured and, by implication, by which a Christian is measured. It’s not the spiritual gifts, the abilities, the personality, or the passions that God measures believers by. It’s faith, hope & love. Look at these other verses written by the Apostle Paul. 1 Thessalonians 1:3 says, “We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” Galatians 5:5–6: “We eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus … the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” Ephesians 1:15–18: “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.… I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you …”
We see that as transitive verb forms, these words must take an object. Faith has as its object Jesus Christ. This is the only name given among men under heaven by which they might be saved. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. Hope has as its object eternal life. We know there are a couple of things that God cannot do. He cannot sin. He cannot lie. Eternal life is something which God, who does not lie, has promised to those who believe in Jesus. Our hope is not like earthly hopes that may or may not come true. This hope is resting confidently on the promises of God. Knowing Jesus through faith. Having the hope of eternal life inspires in us love for God and love for others. Paul says love is the most important of the three because it is the end movement of the three. “For Paul, love is the most important of all the Christian graces and the very heart of Christian ethics. Motivated by the supreme expression of God’s own love in the sacrificial death of Christ, it springs from a transformed life filled with God’s own Spirit. The primary focus of love in Paul’s writings is its tangible expression within the Christian community.”[1]
[1] Mohrlang, Roger. 1993. “Love.” In Dictionary of Paul and His Letters, edited by Gerald F. Hawthorne, Ralph P. Martin, and Daniel G. Reid, 575. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.