18TH DECEMBER, 2022
PASTOR OLUBI JOHNSON
UNDERSTANDING FAITH, HOPE AND LOVE
1Corinthians 13:12-13 (NKJV) And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Here, the Scripture tells us that love, hope and faith are eternal but the greatest of these is love.
Why is love the greatest?
Love is the greatest because God is love and God is the beginning of all things, and so love is the beginning of love, hope and faith.
1John 4:8, 16 NIV
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.
Moreover, the greatest of love, hope and faith is love, since it is love that is the beginning of all of them: love conceives hope, which grows to become faith when the time of fulfilment comes.
Faith released in words and actions then causes what love conceived to become an experiential reality.
Now love, hope and faith are all developed by the Word and the power of the Holy Spirit.
For love:
1John 2:5 NKJV
But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him.
For hope:
Romans 15:13 NKJV
Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
For faith:
Romans 10:17 NKJV
So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Jude 20 NKJV
But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit.
So faith works only when motivated by the purity of love, and the hope love conceives is only experienced by the creative power of faith:
Galatians 5:6 NKJV
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.
Therefore, every day prioritize the development and perfection of the love of God, because this will cause the ultimate hope of your salvation to become clearer. The hope of our salvation is the hope of manifesting His glory in this life (Col. 1:27).
When we see this hope clearly, we can have greater faith to receive it. And when we ultimately receive the reality of this hope, then the world will truly know that He has loved us as He loved His first Son, Jesus. This will trigger the mighty revival we are all expecting (Jn. 17:22-23)!
For more on today’s study visit:
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