Continuing In Faith, Hope & Love
CONTINUING IN FAITH, HOPE AND LOVE
1 Corinthians 13:13 - Part 1
Yeow Chin Kiong
It should have been easier during the First Century A.D. to persuade the unconvinced of the Gospel plan of salvation. This was the Age of Miracles when works of signs and wonders accompanied the preaching and teaching of Jesus' apostles (Acts 5:12) and other disciples who had the apostles' hands laid upon them (Acts 8:14-19). As Mark 16:20 explains it, "... they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs ..." After all, "how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will?" (Hebrews 2:3-4).
However, after God's word had been thus confirmed [i.e. "... the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3)], the revelation needed not to be re-confirmed going onward, and the confirmatory signs, wonders and miracles ceased (1 Corinthians 13:8-12). With the availability of the "perfect" revelation, God's partial revelation of His power in the form of accompanying signs, wonders and miracles, "will be done away." (1 Corinthians 13:9-10). Beyond the Age of Miracles, and until Jesus comes again at our world's end, "... abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love." (1 Corinthians 13:13). This is the age within which we live,- the Christian Age after the cessation of miracles.
Miraculuos works accompanying the original declaration of God's word doubtlessly persuaded some unbelievers as much as they sustained Christians in their faith and trials of life. Today, in the absence of works of wonder happening at the pleasure of faithful Christians, we have in their place three distinct but interrelated dimensions of life which we experience, every day of our physical life, that we are conscious of and perceived to be in us by others around us: Faith (the dimension of our HEAD, our intellect, reason and conscience; our determination of what is TRUE); Hope (the dimension of our HEART, our emotions and goals, directed towards the future; our thoughts on the GOOD we desire and expect) and Love (the dimension of our HANDS, our behavior and conduct; geared towards the RIGHT we owe to others). Christians must be diligent to strenghten their faith, hope and love (as the Bible defines these characteristics) in order to convincingly preach Jesus' Gospel to unbelievers (Philippians 1:27-28; 1 Peter 2:11-12) and also to uphold brethren in their spiritual journey (Romans 1:12; 1 Thessalonians 5:11). God's word also instructs us how to cultivate increased faith, hope and love in ourselves as well as in those who hear us (1 Timothy 4:16).
FAITH is the translation of the Koine (or "common") Greek noun, PISTIS carrying the basic meaning of BELIEF, meaning that which is accepted as true or "faithful" to what corresponds to truth in the real world. Hebrews 11:6 states, "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." Earlier, in Hebrews 11:1-2, it is explained that, "Faith is the SUBSTANCE of things hoped for, the EVIDENCE of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony." Faith is therefore not blind "belief" without,- or in spite of,- evidence. Faith IS based on rational, logical evidence but not directly visible or observable evidence. Faith does not require SIGHT of what is believed but only non-visible evidence of what is believed to be true. 2 Corinthians 5:7 tells us that Christians "walk by faith and not by sight." Our Lord Jesus Himself said to His apostle Thomas (who only believed in the resurrected Savior after he had first-hand, or personal, evidence of his physical senses of the risen Jesus), "Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." (John 20:29). Unlike Thomas, who had proof of the resurrected Savior through his physical senses of touch and sight, we today are totally dependent upon the trustworthy record of eyewitnesses' testimony in the form of New Testament gospel accounts, histories and letters (Luke 1:1-4; John 20:30-31).
That we may have deep and true, evidence-based faith in the actual existence of things, persons or phenomena which we cannot personally see can be understood in our perception of the created universe, begging the question, "Who or what brought about the things we undeniably see around us into existence?" About the evidence of the existence of the Creator God who cannot Himself be seen directly by man, Romans 1:19-20 explains, " ... what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His INVISIBLE attributes are clearly SEEN, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead ..." In addition, there are trustworthy written records of the words and works of the incarnate Deity, Jesus Christ, Who had been seen directly by some men and women of the first century A.D. As John 1:18 explains how those who have not personally seen God can acquire faith or belief in His existence, "No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him." Jesus Himself made the same point, as recorded in John 14:6-14.
Christian faith or belief, far from being "blind" and baseless, is established by the application of reason upon the evidence of creation (i.e. God's works) and the evidence of the revealed scriptures (i.e. God's word). The necessary guiding star is the revealed word; in the words of Romans 10:17, "... faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God."