Now Abide in Faith, Hope and Love

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I read a really good post over at Truth 2 Freedom’s blog called: Christ’s Saving Compassion In fact, I could spend hours over there reading many of the posts.

Excerpt:

“Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36).

Jesus felt compassion for the crowds as only the Son of God could feel. It is among God’s attributes to love and care because “God is love” (1 John 4:8).

I have been thinking a lot about the fact that faith, hope and love are the three major components that we as Christians are to abide in. But in the end, the greatest of these is love.

Of course, all three are important and necessary! But why is the greatest of these, “love?”

We are told in Scripture that without faith, it is impossible to please God.

Heb 11:6

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.

The term and concept of “Hope” occurs 142 times in 134 verses in the NKJV.

One example from Scripture:

Col 1:3

We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,

Col 1:4

since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints;

Col 1:5

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,

It truly matters in Whom (or what) we place our hope. Our greatest hope is in the Lord Jesus Christ! Christ is the gift to us from God’s grace!

We go on to discover why faith in Christ is imperative, and why hope in Christ’s promises is sincerely necessary (because it helps blot out fear – which is a lie from satan). Once we reach such conclusions, we now know why the greatest of these concepts is Love. It is precisely because Christ epitomizes the greatest love we could ever have faith in, could ever have hoped for; and fulfills the deepest desire of our souls. Christ’s “laying down His life” for our souls to be redeemed and for us to be reconciled back unto God the Father is the greatest love act of all time. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Rom 5:8

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

There is no greater love than for a Man to lay down his life for his friends – as Jesus did for us!

Jhn 15:13

“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.

1Co 13:13

And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

We need to abide in all three – faith, hope and love. However, only Christ could have fulfilled the greatest love for us all!

Why?

Because, as Jesus said to John in Revelation:

Rev 1:8

“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

Rev 21:6

And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.

Praise His Holy Name!

Hat tip: Truth 2 Freedom

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