“¹³But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

The “greater gifts” of which “the more excellent way is love” (1 Cor. 12:31) include faith and hope. Did you notice how these latter two are woven into the love chapter? The hope has to do with what is coming ahead: “when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away” (1 Cor. 13:10). Through faith we believe that to be true, and as genuine believers we eagerly look forward to that time. That is the definition of hope: expectancy with desire. In faith, we believe according to the truth that “then [we will see] face to face,” and each of us will “know fully just as I also have been fully known” (1 Cor. 13:12).

These three form a triumvirate, a commanding force that animates the Christian life. They are supremely required, yet are operative and valuable only insofar as Christ is supreme in our lives. His crucifixion gives substance to our faith, hope, and love. Indeed, “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb. 11:6), and it is by grace that we are saved through faith (Eph. 2:8). It is our hope of what lies ahead of us, for “according to His great mercy [He] has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtainan inheritance which isimperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:3–4). Hope gives us the goal of our lives, to see Him. That makes it all worthwhile.

Faith is the beginning; hope gives us a view of the end. We build on the foundation of faith; we press forward in the hope of eternity. Love is the animator of our actions, the continuous catalyst of self-sacrifice. It is the reagent that ignites the chemistry of fellowship. It is the greatest of the three.

Love is more than faith and hope. God so exalts and is so closely identified with love that John presents the ultimate metaphor, “God is love” (1 John 4:8). We are so used to reading this and hearing it proclaimed that we fail to appreciate it as the ultimate figure of speech, on the same level as the “I am” statements of Jesus Christ. In them all, He could have summed them up by saying, “I am love.” Jesus Christ was (and is) love embodied, love in action. He told His disciples in the Upper Room, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). No wonder Paul wrote early in this letter, “I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). So we as disciples of Christ embrace this core truth: “Now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

Lord, I want to be faithful to You in the hope of Your return by sacrificially loving others as You demonstrated in loving me while I was an unbeliever.