FAITH, HOPE AND LOVE: PART 2

 This post continues a brief summary of all those other places in the New Testament where these three are closely associated together, although one could argue that the conjunction of this triad is much closer in some passages than others.

Romans 5:1-5

“We are justified by faith and have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (v. 1)...we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God (v. 2)...character produces hope (v. 4) and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that was given us (v. 5).” Notice how the three members of the Trinity are woven into the concepts of faith, hope and love.

Romans 12:3-11

This appeal by Paul to believers begins with telling them “to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned them.” In v. 6 he reiterates that this is is a gift they have received from Him “in proportion to their faith.” We also have a two-fold mention of love in verses 9 and 10, first directed to what is good and secondly directed toward one another. The third member of the triad appears in v. 12 where they are told to rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, and persevere in in prayer. Those last two verbs are closely related to hope and can be said to arise out of it.

Romans 14-15

For the sake of completeness, I will include these two related chapters even though there is apparently no rhyme or reason attached to the order in which the triad appears: faith (14:4), love (14:15), faith (14:22), faith (2x in 14:23), hope (15:14), believing (15:13a), and hope (15:13b).

Galatians 5:5-6

“For through the Spirit, by faith, we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision not uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that counts is [faith working] through love.” Here Paul utilizes the most commonly recognized order of these three: faith-hope-love.

Galatians 5:22-23

By contrast, this passage reads, “The fruit of the Spirit is love...joy, peace, patience...faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” If one takes peace and patience as the natural consequences of our eternal hope, then this is basically the reverse order of the triad as found in verses 5-6, a common literary device used in the Scripture to encapsulate an extended passage.

Ephesians 3

Our familiar triad is found scattered throughout this chapter, beginning in v. 12 with its statement of our assurance to approach God in confidence through our faith in him. Skipping to v. 17, Paul prays that Christ might dwell in their hearts through faith, as they are grounded in love. Love again appears in v. 19 with his prayer that they know the love of Christ – another appearance of this ambiguous genitive form.

If we stretch a point a little and consider “the promise in Christ” mentioned in verse 6 to be very closely aligned to the hope of salvation we have in Him, then that would lead to the following order in this chapter: hope (2x) – faith (2x) – love (2x).

Ephesians 4:1-6

These verses express a familiar formulation of key Christian doctrines. The Ephesians are first exhorted to bear with one another in love. This is followed by a litany of onenesses such as one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all. Here the order is love, hope, and faith – the reverse of that in I Corinthians 13:13.

Colossians 1:1-8

This compact and organized passage begins with God and Christ (v. 1), repeats these two persons of the Trinity in the same order in vv. 6-7, and finishes with addition of the Spirit. At the same time, the other familiar triad appears as part of the following phrases: “your faith in Christ Jesus” (4a), “love that you have for all the saints (4b), “the hope laid up for you in heaven. You heard of this hope before” (5), “Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant” (7a), “He is a faithful minister of Christ” (7b), and “your love in the Spirit” (8).

The first six of these underlined words form a symmetrical pattern:

            faith

                        love

                                hope

                                hope

                        beloved

            faithful

Colossians 1:23; 2:2

Another such listing is found in the following section of the letter where faith and hope appear in 1:23, with the third member, love, in 2:2.

II Thessalonians 2:13-3:5

This passage is one extended prayer to God. Paul calls the Thessalonians “beloved by the Lord (2:13a) chosen through...belief in the truth (2:13b). He mentions that Christ and the Father “who loved us...gave us eternal comfort and good hope” (2:16). They are armed against those who do not have faith (3:2); the Lord is faithful and will guard them against the evil one (3:3) and will direct their hearts to the love of God...(3:5).

As in those cases where the ambiguous genitive form 'of God' appears in the context of 'love,' “steadfastness [i.e. faithfulness] of Christ could mean endurance in following Christ or, as is more likely, Christ's own steadfastness.” (A. Smith) However, Malherbe takes the genitives to mean, respectively, the love shown toward us by God and the steadfastness demonstrated by Christ. And splitting the difference between these two opinions, Morris suggests along with Lightfoot that the primary meaning is God's love for us with the secondary implication of our love toward him.

In any case, a study of this prayer seems to indicate a close correspondence between the faith, hope, and love coming from God/Christ and those same properties being reflected in believers' response to His initiatives.

I Timothy 6:11

Paul tells Timothy to pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. After faith and love we might expect to read 'hope,' but get endurance (hupomeno) instead. Vine notes that this word in Matthew 10:22; 24:13; Mark 13:13 is followed by the phrase 'unto the end.' Thus we can say that it alludes to the hope of heaven for those who persevere.

Titus 2:2

“Tell the older men to be temperate, serious, prudent, and sound in faith, in love, and in endurance.” That the last item in the list is equivalent to or arises from the hope of salvation is indicated by a consideration of 2:13, where Paul says, “...we wait for the blessed hope and manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savor, Jesus Christ.”

Titus 3

As a concrete example that Paul saw no conflict between faith and works, this chapter begins by him telling Titus to “be prepared for every good work” (v. 3); then he reminds us of God's loving kindness (4); stresses that it is not our works which save us (5); assures us of our hope of eternal life (7); and ends by telling Titus to insist that those who believe in God must devote themselves to good works (8).” So the familiar triad is, in fact, closely related to “works.”

Hebrews 10:22-24

Even the anonymous author of this epistle utilizes these three properties, listed in their most familiar order:

“Let us approach with...full assurance of faith.”

“Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope.”

“Let us consider how to provoke one another to love.”

Kittredge says, “For Hebrews, faith undergirds hope (see 2.6; 6.11,18; 7:19).” To this we could add: “and results in love.”

Hebrews 11:1-12:6

Hebrews 11 is the great dissertation on faith and in the first verse it is coupled with hope: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” And this main theme continues into the following chapter, ending problematically at 12:6 which mentions the Lord's love for us. This is the same order we also noted in Hebrews 10:22-24 above.

I Peter 1

In this chapter, faith appears in verses 7, 9, and 21a and belief in 8; the theme of hope of eternal life runs throughout the chapter; and in v. 22 we finally are reminded of love.