1 Corinthians 13 Part 21: Faith, Hope and Love
1 Corinthians 13:13. Faith and hope abide, but love is the greatest.
“But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
1 Corinthians 13:13 NASB1995
We have now reached the last verse of 1 Corinthians 13. This chapter in this Paulian epistle, with only 13 verses, took 21 different devotionals to even start to scratch the surface of the deep meaning. First, let’s examine the final verse, then I will summarize what I learned during this challenging journey.
Does God need faith and hope? Of course not! He is an all-powerful and all-knowing God who does not have to have “faith” in something other than Himself. He also doesn’t “hope” because He knows all things and is in complete control. He is love. We need faith and hope to characterize our lives as believers - faith in the unseen God and hope in our salvation and eternal life. But love is the most important thing we can cultivate. Paul emphasizes it again and again in this chapter so that the church in Corinth would understand that their battles over spiritual gifts and preeminence in their church were useless pursuits if love doesn’t bring unity to their brethren. If you lose love, you lose everything.
David Guzik from his Enduring Word commentary identifies many of the places in the NT where faith, hope and love are mentioned in the same verse or verses:
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.(1 Thessalonians 1:3)
But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. (1 Thessalonians 5:8)
For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love. (Galatians 5:5-6)
Who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart. (1 Peter 1:21-22)
Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints; because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel. (Colossians 1:4-5)
For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day. Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. (2 Timothy 1:12-13)
Summarizing my devotionals for this chapter, I gleaned the following. I rewrote some of Paul’s “love is not” statements into positive statements:
Love speaks - it is not noise.
Prophecies, knowledge and faith without love are worth nothing.
Giving all, including your life, without love is meaningless.
Love is patient (patience is love).
Love is kind (kindness is love).
Love is grateful and content (not jealous).
Love is humble (not arrogant and boastful).
Love is self-controlled and gentle (not acting unbecomingly).
Love is unselfish (not focused on self).
Love is patient and self-controlled (not provoked).
Love is forgiving (not tracking or remembering the misdeeds of others).
Love is truth, love is kind (not rejoicing in the misdeeds of others, but also standing in truth).
Love protects and bears all things.
Love trusts and believes all things.
Love is optimistic and hopes all things.
Love persists and endures all things.
Love is eternal (it never fails).
Love is perfect (it does away with the childish).
Love is complete (it does away with the partial).
Love is the Son (we will see Jesus!).
Love is greater than hope and faith.
I failed the test many times doing these devotionals, when I substituted my name for “love” or examined my life. Love does not look inward - it is always focused on others. Another thing I learned is to be a little more discerning in how I phrase things. I tend to be too honest and perhaps too critical of my past faith experiences in a mainstream church that were less than desired.
Jesus was all of these things of love, of course, in total perfection. I pray that my readers found some things to think about for when they read 1 Corinthians 13 again and ask the Holy Spirit to guide them into this true agape love. God loves you!
My next devotional series begins with an introduction to the miracles of Jesus. I plan to examine each miracle in roughly chronological order and will use multiple Gospel references.
Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer:
Dear Heavenly Father: You are love!! As my faith and hope abide, let love be the greatest thing that I can cultivate, because it will endure forever. Thank you for the inspired words of Paul and for helping me know what love IS. In Jesus name - Amen.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Devotionals from David Guzik on Enduring Word are used with written permission.