Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Corinthians 13:13
And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these [is] charity.
13. And now abideth faith, hope, charity ] All these will remain in the life to come. Faith, the vision of the unseen (Heb 11:1), with its consequent trust in God; hope, which even in fruition remains as the desire of its continuance; and love, as the necessary condition of our dwelling in God and God in us. See note on ch. 1Co 12:31. ‘Now’ is not to be understood of time, but as equivalent to ‘so’, at the conclusion of the argument.
but the greatest of these is charity ] “Because faith and hope are our own: love is diffused among others.” Calvin.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And now abideth – Remains ( menei). The word means properly to remain, continue, abide; and is applied to persons remaining in a place, in a state or condition, in contradistinction from removing or changing their place, or passing away. Here it must be understood to be used to denote permanency, when the other things of which he had spoken had passed away; and the sense is, that faith, hope, and love would remain when the gift of tongues should cease, and the need of prophecy, etc.; that is, these should survive them all. And the connection certainly requires us to understand him as saying that faith, hope, and love would survive all those things of which he had been speaking, and must, therefore, include knowledge 1Co 13:8-9,, as well as miracles and the other endowments of the Holy Spirit. They would survive them all; would be valuable when they should cease; and should, therefore, be mainly sought; and of these the greatest and most important is love.
Most commentators have supposed that Paul is speaking here only of this life, and that he means to say that in this life these three exist; that faith, hope, and charity exist in this scene only, but that in the future world faith and hope will be done away, and therefore the greatest of these is charity – Bloomfield. See also Doddridge, Macknight, Rosenmuller, Clarke, etc. But to me it seems evident that Paul means to say that faith, hope, and love will survive all those other things of which he had been speaking; that they would vanish away, or be lost in superior attainments and endowments; that the time would come when they would be useless; but that faith, hope, and love would then remain; but of these, for important reasons, love was the most valuable. Not because it would endure the longest, for the apostle does not intimate that, but because it is more important to the welfare of others, and is a more eminent virtue than they are.
As the strain of the argument requires us to look to another state, to a world where prophecy shall cease and knowledge shall vanish away, so the same strain of argumentation requires us to understand him as saying that faith, and hope, and love will subsist there; and that there, as here, love will be of more importance than faith and hope. It cannot be objected to this view that there will be no occasion for faith and hope in heaven. That is assumed without evidence, and is not affirmed by Paul. He gives no such intimation. Faith is confidence in God and in Christ; and there will be as much necessity of confidence in heaven as on earth. Indeed, the great design of the plan of salvation is to restore confidence in God among alienated creatures; and heaven could not subsist a moment without confidence; and faith, therefore, must be eternal. No society – be it a family, a neighborhood, a church, or a nation; be it mercantile, professional, or a mere association of friendship – can subsist a moment without mutual confidence or faith, and in heaven such confidence in God must subsist forever.
And so of hope. It is true that many of the objects of hope will then be realized, and will be succeeded by possession. But will the Christian have nothing to hope for in heaven? Will it be nothing to expect and desire greatly augmented knowledge, eternal enjoyment; perfect peace in all coming ages, and the happy society of the blessed forever? All heaven cannot be enjoyed at once; and if there is anything future that is an object of desire, there will be hope. Hope is a compound emotion, made up of a desire for an object and an expectation of obtaining it. But both these will exist in heaven. It is folly to say that a redeemed saint will not desire there eternal happiness; it is equal folly to say that there will be no strong expectation of obtaining it. All that is said, therefore, about faith as about to cease, and hope as not having an existence in heaven, is said without the authority of the Bible, and in violation of what must be the truth, and is contrary to the whole scope of the reasoning of Paul here.
But the greatest of these is charity – Not because it is to endure the longest, but because it is the more important virtue; it exerts a wider influence; it is more necessary to the happiness of society; it overcomes more evils. It is the great principle which is to bind the universe in harmony, which unites God to his creatures, and his creatures to himself, and which binds and confederates all holy beings with each other. It is therefore more important, because it pertains to society to the great kingdom of which God is the head, and because it enters into the very conception of a holy and happy organization. Faith and hope rather pertain to individuals; love pertains to society, and is that without which the kingdom of God cannot stand. Individuals may be saved by faith and hope; but the whole immense kingdom of God depends on love. It is, therefore, of more importance than all other graces and endowments; more important than prophecy and miracles, and the gift of tongues and knowledge, because it will survive them all; more important than faith and hope, because, although it may co-exist with them, and though they all shall live forever, yet love enters into the very nature of the kingdom of God; binds society together; unites the Creator and the creature; and blends the interests of all the redeemed, and of the angels, and of God, into one.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
1Co 13:13
And now abideth faith, hope, charity.
Faith, hope, and charity
I. Faith, the fundamental principle of Christianity. It is not mere belief, but trust. It is faith that gives to Christianity its whole name, character, and nature. And faith gives a man a new relationship to God. It makes him son of God and joint-heir with Christ. Therefore, the man who has faith in Christ will be a good living man, showing his faith by his works.
II. Hope, the consequence of faith. If a man believes in the Son of God, he shall not perish, but have everlasting life. If we firmly believe this promise it will give us hope of its fulfilment. Hope is the anchor that sustains the Christian in all the storms of time, the chain that connects him with the future amid all its difficulties. What would life be without it, even in a worldly sense? The anticipation of something better bears us up amid many of the worlds trials. But even the best of our worldly hopes is of a transitory and uncertain character, but the heavenly hope is sure and steadfast. Hope is not only a privilege and a blessing; it is part of a Christians duty. A man who sits down and desponds loses the very anchor of his ship.
III. Charity. First, faith the root and trunk, then hope the branches, then charity the fruit, the highest development of the Christian character, the practical part of Christianity. Faith is the inward union of the soul with Christ; hope is the support which gives us strength to battle with the present; charity the outward manifestation of what we feel within. Only realise that the gospel is love, and then you realise its beauty and realise its glory. (J. J. S. Bird, B.A.)
Faith, hope, and charity
I. The nature or each or these graces.
1. Faith. Now faith means belief; and evangelical and saving faith is believing the gospel. The gospel contains an account of mans ruin by sin, and of his redemption by Christ, and these things, when believed, produce an important effect upon our state and character.
2. Hope is the desire, combined with the expectation, of some future good; and Christian hope is the desire and the expectation of all the good which is promised to believers in the Word of God.
(1) Its objects include all the blessings belonging to the kingdom of grace and of glory. As Christians we have much in possession, but more in prospect.
(2) Its foundation is the gospel of Christ. The reason which we have for the hope that is in us is derived from the exceeding great and precious promises which God has given to us in His Word, the fulfilment of which is secured to us by the blood of Christ, by the oath of God, and by the faithfulness of the Divine character. We hope therefore because we believe.
(3) Its influence. It encourages our prayers; for the hope of receiving inspires confidence in asking. It promotes our holiness; for every man that hath this hope in Him, purifieth himself, even as He is pare. And it is a source of peace and consolation and joy.
3. Charity or love.
(1) Love to God includes in it gratitude to Him for His goodness; approbation of His character; cheerful obedience to His commands; desire for the enjoyment of His favour, and for increasing conformity to His image.
(2) Love to our fellow-creatures in general is goodwill to men.
(3) Love to the brethren is love to Christians as such. It includes approbation of their characters as well as benevolence to their persons.
II. The union which subsists among the three. They are united.
1. In their source. Diversified as they are in their nature and operations, they have each their source in God. The heart of man, which is naturally deceitful above all things, etc., cannot be the fountain of streams, so pure and hallowed as these three. Faith, we are told, is the fruit of the Spirit and the gift of God. Hope has the same Divine origin, for it is the God of hope, who fills you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost. And love is equally of God, for God is love, and it is His love which is shed abroad in our hearts. And as these three are thus united in God, their source and giver, it is from God alone that you are to seek them, by earnest and by persevering prayer.
2. In their residence–the heart. The body, the soul, and the spirit are not more necessary to compose a living and a perfect man than are faith and hope and love to constitute a living and a perfect Christian; for were any one of these three wanting, there would be a fatal deficiency in the character. He therefore, by whom that character is formed, begins it by the gift of faith, but completes and perfects it by the addition of hope and love. There is not one of them with which a Christian can part. You cannot, e.g., part with faith; for we are saved by faith, and without faith it would be impossible to please God. You cannot part with hope; for without hope we should be of all men the most miserable. And you cannot part with love; for that would be to lose the very image of God; for he that loveth not knoweth not God. As therefore in an arch you cannot part either with the foundation-stones or with the key-stone in the centre, without ruin to the whole fabric, so you cannot part with any one of these three graces without becoming absolutely nothing.
3. In their influence.
(1) To purify the heart, for our hearts are purified by faith; every man that hath this hope in Him, purifieth himself, even as He is pure; no man can love God without becoming a partaker of His holiness.
(2) In prosperity, in supplying the Christian with sweeter pleasures than earthly things can yield, and in keeping him unspotted from the world. His faith beholds an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away; his hope seeks fruition in joy unspeakable and full of glory; and his love leads him to choose God as his invaluable portion, and to declare, whom have I in heaven but Thee? etc.
(3) In adversity, in bringing strength and consolation to the soul.
III. The superiority of charity to both faith and hope, The greatest of these is charity. The epithet of great belongs, to each, and they are far superior to natural talents and even to miraculous endowments. Love is the greatest of the three, because–
1. It is the only grace which is exercised by God Himself.
2. It is the grace for the sake of which faith and hope are produced and exercised. Love is the sacred temple which faith and hope are employed in building, and needful as their presence and exertions are now, whilst the temple is rising, yet when the topstone is brought forth, and when the cloud of glory has filled the holy place, their assistance will no longer be required, and they may rest from their labours.
3. It is capable of putting forth greater energies, and of performing greater achievements.
4. It is eminently and almost entirely a social grace. Faith and hope are in a great measure personal graces.
5. It alone is eternal in its duration. Faith, like the venerable lawgiver, ascends Mount Pisgah, views the promised land, and dies. Hope, bright and cheering as the morning star, grows dim, and fades, amidst the splendours of the rising and meridian sun. But Charity, immortal in her existence as the soul she inspires, and as the God from whom she came, ascends, like Elijah, in a charier, of fire, and is translated to the realms of life and joy. (T. Alexander.)
Faith, hope, and charity
Let us then inquire–
I. What faith, hope, and charity are.
1. Faith has respect to things either unseen or future.
2. Hope is desire and expectation of good.
3. Charity is love to God and love to man. There may be in our text a special reference to love to man, including the love of complacency towards the good, and a love of compassion towards even the vilest of the vile.
II. The excellence of faith and hope.
1. Faith is excellent contemplated–
(1) Intellectually. The power of realising existing objects and past and future events is a power of incalculable value, without which man would not be man. Most of our knowledge is obtained through the medium of books and oral instruction, which we have read and heard and have believed. Even common conversation owes much of its interest to the faith which we have in one another. In commerce the importance of a promise to pay and of believing that promise is most apparent. Trial by jury, on which the question of life or death often depends, would be useless were faith in civil society impossible.
(2) Morally.
(a) A man whose word is as good as his bond is universally and deservedly esteemed. He is a man who can be believed.
(b) But the moral excellence of faith is most of all apparent in its reference to God. Faithfulness as clearly belongs to God as either justice or mercy; and when we trust in Him without fear, we give to Him the glory due to His name.
(c) Faith exerts a beneficial interest on the entire character of man as exposed to temptation. For his conflict the moral soldier is furnished with the shield of faith. This is the victory that over-cometh the world, etc.
(d) It is essential to our salvation. It is to a Christian what grasping the hand of a friend would be to a drowning man.
2. Hope is excellent, because–
(1) It is the next best thing to actual possession (Rom 8:24). It is the earnest of heaven.
(2) It neutralises if not annihilates the misery which great affliction might otherwise create; these light afflictions, which are but for a moment, etc.
III. The surpassing excellence of charity.
1. It is more disinterested than either faith or hope.
2. It is the perfection of man.
3. It is eternal.
4. Although charity is before faith and hope in point of excellence, faith is first in order of time. (J. Burder, M.A.)
Faith, hope, charity
1. It is proof of the importance of this Divine trio that they are universally necessary. Excellent and wonderful are the gifts of healing, etc.; precious and indispensable are those more ordinary gifts through which the edification of Christs body is provided for; but they are not gifts of which it can be said that a man must possess them in order to be saved.
2. The practical value of these three gifts is enhanced by the fact that they are universally attainable. Miraculous gifts might, even in the age of miracles, be sought without success; and they were withdrawn long ago. But of the gifts of faith, hope, and love, we can say that every one that seeketh findeth, and it is a mans own fault if he has them not.
3. There is a remarkable pairing and grouping of these graces in the Scripture (1 the 1:14: Eph 6:23; Gal 5:6). Observe also the coupling of faith and hope (1Pe 1:21; Col 1:23). We also find them grouped all together (Col 1:3-5; 1Th 1:3).
4. The admirable nature of these graces is proclaimed by the functions assigned to them as part of the Christians heavenly armour (Eph 6:16). Consider them–
I. In a general way.
1. Love has the first place in point of time. There was a time when there was, and could be, no faith and no hope; but the gospel tells us of an everlasting love. What is declared of the Word is true of love (Joh 1:1).
2. While love can, and does, dwell wherever faith and hope find a home, it makes its chief abode in a quarter to which they have no access. But love takes a higher flight. God neither believes nor hopes; but God loves.
3. All three are springs of human action. But love is more; it is a spring of action on the part of God. Faith and hope beget great deeds; but they are only the deeds of men after all. Love awakens to action the powers of omnipotence, and God arises at its summons.
II. As graces which are found in every real Christians heart. When thus considered, love is the greatest of them all.
1. It excels in respect of its success and range. The Christians love is the companion of his faith and hope in all their exercises, and goes forth upon the object on which they lay hold: but it is also the companion and follower of Gods love, and makes for the objects of Divine regard.
2. It carries off the palm among the graces, because it imparts a likeness to God. God is love. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil.
3. The disinterestedness of love gives it pre-eminence. Loves office is to give. Faith and hope are exercised in the reception and anticipation of benefits. Love seeketh not her own.
4. The greatness of love may be estimated by its relation to holiness. Faith, indeed, is a holy principle, and holiness is the result of its influence and operation. So hope also is a holy principle, purging away the defilement of sin. Every man that hath it in him, purifieth himself, as Christ is pure. But love is holiness itself–the end for which these means and instruments are employed.
5. Love is greatest in respect of the ultimate importance of the part it has to act.
(1) There are various respects in which faith and hope are greater than love. Take the case of a man convinced of his guilt, and longing for pardon and acceptance with God. Love can do nothing there. When the jailer cried, What must I do to be saved? it was faith that was summoned to the rescue. Take the ordinary case of Gods people on earth, exposed to danger from the world. Love would be borne down and put to death, did not faith cover love with the buckler of its protection. Or take the case of one who is visited with protracted trials and afflictions. Is it love that will keep him from despair? No. That is the office of hope.
(2) But then the offices of faith and hope now glanced at do not last for ever. The time is coming when there will be no such work as we have spoken of for faith and hope to do. We do not say that faith and hope will then disappear. For the redeemed will always trust in God, and look to Jesus; and in viewing the eternity that stretches out before them, they shall be animated by a hope on which there will never be a cloud. But faith and hope will not continue in the front of the scene. They will then confess themselves to be but the handmaids of love, and will make way for love by withdrawing into the shade: Having nursed and defended love in her infancy, and watched over her ripening years, and having, at last, conducted her to the steps of her destined throne, their work is comparatively finished. Then will be the glorious reign of love. (A. Gray.)
Faith, hope, love
I. The specific nature of each.
1. Faith. As to its origin, it is the gift of God; as to its operation, it is the work of the Spirit; as to its object, it fastens on Christ; as to its exercise, it is the disciples own act the Scriptures make much of faith–Precious faith; Thy faith hath saved thee; Without faith it is impossible to please God. Faith is the first stone of the building, but it is not the, foundation. Our help is laid on One that is mighty. But beware how you come to Christ. Any work of yours, by way of recommending you, will be a non-conductor through which the light of life from the Saviour cannot run (Gal 5:2).
2. Hope is adapted to a transitory, imperfect state. Its office is to diminish the sorrows of the present by drawing on the stores of future joy. It is the tenant, not of a heart that was never broken, but of a heart that has been broken and healed again. A pure, bright star fixed in heaven, it reaches with its rays the uplifted eye of the weary pilgrim. But stars shine not in the day; the darkness brings them out. So grief summons hope to the aid of the sufferer. When the ransomed rise from the sleep of the grave, this gentle star, which had often soothed them in the night of their pilgrimage, will nowhere be found in all the upper firmament; for in presence of the Sun of Righteousness hope, no longer needed, no more appears.
3. Love. Some fragments of this heavenly thing survive the fall and flourish in our nature. It is beautiful even in ruins. We shall learn more about its nature when we are called to consider its magnitude.
II. The mutual relations of all. Hitherto we have spoken of them as three rings lying beside each other; now we speak of them as three links within each other, so as to constitute a chain.
1. The relation between faith and hope. Faith leans on Christ, and hope hangs by faith. There is, indeed, a species of hope which has no connection with faith. If in a place of danger you saw a chain whose uppermost link was surely fixed in the living rock, and whose lowest link–a goodly, iron ring–was vibrating invitingly near, you might be induced to venture your bodys weight upon its seeming strength. If that lowest link were not within the one above it, but only attached externally by some brittle twig, you would exchange the slippery place of danger for the plunge into inevitable death. It is like the fall of sinner who has risked his soul for the great day on a hope not linked to faith.
2. The relation between hope and love. Hope leans on faith, and love on hope. Love will languish unless blessed hope be underneath. Loves manifold efforts, stretching out in every direction and leaving no space unoccupied, are like the branches of a fruit tree. A single stem supports and supplies them all, while itself in turn is supported and supplied by the root. So hope, itself sustained by faith, sustains love in its turn. Hope in the heart of the Man of Sorrows bore Him through His labours of love (Heb 12:2). Hope is the mainspring of labouring love–hope in the Lord, first for yourself, and then for your neighbour.
III. The superior magnitude of the last.
1. In its work on earth. It is the only one of the three that reaches other men and directly acts upon them for their good.
(1) Thy faith hath saved thee, but what can it do for thy brother? It operates by sustaining and stimulating other graces–Faith worketh by love.
(2) Hope in like manner begins and ends in the heart of a disciple. The less that your hope, as such, protrudes itself on the notice of mankind, the better for its own health; but the more it swells within your breast, the more of love will it send forth to bless the world.
(3) On the contrary, it is the nature of love to come out. Unless it act on others it cannot be. Love teaches the ignorant, clothes the naked, feeds the hungry, and is the fulfilling of that law which came latest from the Lords own lips: Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel unto every creature.
2. In its performance in heaven. (W.Arnot, D.D.)
Faith, hope, love
1. What a happy grouping, so familiar now that nothing seems more commonplace; but what an inspiration it was when it first flamed out of the soul of the great apostle!
2. We cannot forget that he had the advantage of Greek culture, so it is natural to suppose that he was led to the conception by the three graces. But what a contrast between the Greek and the Christian graces! The one represented chiefly the charms of outward beauty, winsomeness, gleefulness; the other were not mere embellishments of life, but its central forces, the deep springs of all that was true and beautiful and noble in character. Was not that a most significant change? The word grace retains its Greek as well as its Christian meaning in our language. We often use it in the old sense, e.g., grace in every movement of the body, or done with a very good grace; but just think in what a different region of thought and life we are when we speak of grace in its profound Christian sense. There are those who have real grace in the heart, whose manners do but scant justice to that which is within them; and there are those who have succeeded in cultivating outward graces of manner, but are utterly devoid of grace within. Give us both the outward and the inward, if it be possible; but if it must be only one, let it be that which is real and deep and true.
3. But we must look at the triad of Christian graces. The apostle says that they abide while other good things pass away.
4. The contrast in regard to abiding is not between the graces among themselves, but between gifts and graces (1Co 13:8). This contrast between knowledge, as transitory, is especially interesting now that there is a disposition to speak of faith, etc., as the shadowy things which are rapidly vanishing away, while knowledge is the substantial thing which is sure to hold its ground. Is not faith giving way to agnosticism? Is not hope fading before pessimism? And is not the old idea that love is creations final law giving way to the new philosophy which resolves everything into matter and force?
5. Is there any way of testing which is right? If only we could project ourselves forward, say, for 2,000 years, how very satisfactorily we could settle the matter! Would a learned man of the nineteenth century pass for a learned man of the thirty-ninth? Or would he be only as a child? But will not faith, etc., be as powerful and healthful factors in life as they are now? But we must not prophesy. But what if we look 2,000 years back? Where would the wise man of the apostles time be alongside of our mighty men of science to-day? Imagine a conversation between Pliny, the elder, and Professor Huxley on biology. The great naturalist of the first century would have to go to school for twenty years before he was ready to begin. Would the apostle Paul have to go to school for twenty years before he could begin to talk with an advanced Christian of the nineteenth century on faith and hope and love? The learning of the time was not at all to be despised. Nor did the apostle at all despise it; only he recognises the fact that it is partial–that in course of time it will be obsolete. We may be sure that this would by no means please the gnostics of the day, as they called themselves. These learned men believed they had reached the ultimate truth. The apostle did not undertake to pronounce on the truth or falsehood of what they taught; only he plainly indicated that it would by and by be out of date, whereas the heavenly faith and hope and love which it was his high calling to set before men would last. Where are the gnostics now? I dont suppose there is one left in all the world. But faith, etc., inspire as many men now as they did then, and thousands of thousands more!
6. And many other knowledges have passed away besides that of St. Pauls day in the course of these nineteen centuries. A very striking illustration of this is to be found in the Paradiso of Dante. The science of his time is so completely out of date that, without a special study of it, it is impossible to understand what he means at all when he is trying to expound it; and after you do find what he means it is not of the slightest use or permanent value. Ah, but when he soars on the wings of faith and hope and love, we soar with him yet. And they were the same as the apostles, only they were not entangled with the errors of the times. A most signal token this of an inspiration far transcending that of Dante. And here we can go back far more than eighteen centuries. Look at Genesis. There is the very oldest book in all the world. Is it obsolete? Compare it with the work of Dante in this respect, and what a contrast! People talk of the conflict between science and faith. There is no such conflict. It is only the conflict between old science and new. All our troubles with scientific opinions have come from our leaving the lofty regions of faith, etc., and descending into the troubled area of shifting scientific knowledge the holy men of old who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, kept quite clear of all these questions. You dont find them pronouncing opinions on scientific subjects. They kept themselves to their own faith and hope and love.
7. The knowledge that many of us are ambitious, and rightly ambitious, to acquire will no doubt be of great service for many years to come; but faith, hope, and love are just as needful and serviceable for these years; and then their value by no means ends with these years, but lasts on and on for ever. They are the coin current in eternity. Without them we shall be paupers for eternity, however wise and learned and well-equipped for time. (J. Monro Gibson, D.D.)
Faith, hope, charity
These three graces form the essential elements of the Christian character. They are principles implanted in the heart of every true Christian by the Holy Spirit, and always exemplified in his outward walk and conversation.
I. The nature and effects of faith, hope, and charity.
1. Faith, in its general signification, is credit given to testimony. It is a principle upon which we are continually acting in the ordinary concerns of life. Now the faith spoken of in the text is precisely the same principle, only having a different object and resting upon higher testimony. We cannot penetrate the recesses of the Divine counsels. Faith is a cordial assent to the truth of all the declarations of Gods Word. Entering into the daily habits and experience of the Christian, this principle is the spring of his most holy tempers, exertions, attainments, and consolations. He lives–he walks–he stands–he perseveres–he fights–he conquers and triumphs, by faith.
2. Hope is a lively expectation of obtaining those things which we desire; and when we are led by faith to a knowledge of our real condition, we shall obviously desire nothing so much as deliverance from that condition. The principal object of hope will, therefore, be the attainment of eternal salvation through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Hope differs from presumption. When thus grounded upon the everlasting covenant which has been confirmed by the oath of Jehovah, it does afford strong consolation to the true Christian.
3. Charity, like faith and hope, is a stranger to the natural heart. And oh! what a splendid character does it present to us! How glorious is it as an emanation of Divine goodness when compared with the usual habits of men; when viewed in contrast with the habitually selfish doings of many men, who even profess and call themselves Christians! It is, at the same time, a character so elevated, that it needs a certain measure of Christian grace to perceive and to love its excellencies.
II. In what the superiority of charity consists.
1. It is more excellent in its nature. Perfect excellency can be found only in God Himself. It is by this grace, then, that the restoration of the Divine image takes place in our hearts.
2. It is more advanced in order. That is, it ranks higher in the scale of attainment. We must possess faith and hope before we can be actuated by the principle of love. They are the means; this is the end. It is the prize itself of which faith and hope must gradually put us in possession. A magnificent edifice cannot be erected without scaffolding; yet the building is greater than the scaffolding, being the sole end for which that is necessary: and when it is finished the scaffolding is removed as an useless encumbrance.
3. It is more expansive in its exercise. There is a degree of selfishness in faith and hope. They benefit him only who possesses them.
But love, like the sun in the firmament, diffuses its blessings far and wide, and sheds a kindly influence all around.
1. Let us, in conclusion, first, use these graces as a test of our state.
2. Let us seek to abound more in them. (R. Davies, M.A.)
Hope
1. Why should hope be placed on a level with faith and charity? We can understand why faith should be so singled out; it is the foundation of religion, the bond between the creature and God. Still more can we understand it of charity, for charity is the likeness of God. But hope is thought of at first sight as a self-regarding quality, and something delusive and treacherous.
2. But it is not really strange that St. Paul should raise hope to a Christian temper of the first order. St. Paul was a student of Scripture, and what is on the very surface of the Bible is the way in which, from first to last, it is one unbroken, persistent call to hope. Hope, never destroyed however overthrown; hope, never obscured amidst the storm and dust of ruin, is the paramount characteristic of the Old Testament, all leads back to hope; if ever it dies, it revives again larger and more confident than before.
I. Hope elevates and strengthens and inspires. This is why it is one of the greatest elements of the religious temper. There may be a faith almost without hope, a faith which believes though it can see nothing in Gods truth and goodness; Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him. But hope is the energy of vigorous faith, the strong self-awakening from discouragement and despair. What gives its moral value to hope, is that, in its higher form, it is a real act and striving of the will and moral nature. Like the highest forms of courage, it is a refusal to be borne down and cowed by evil, a refusal to dwell on the dark side of things. It is thus that hope plays so great a part in the spiritual life, that it fights with such power on the side of God; for it not only receives, welcomes, trusts in Gods promises, but it throws into them life and reality.
II. Hope is a great instrument of spiritual and moral discipline. We are saved by hope. Long waiting is Gods appointed order for the generations of men. All kinds of fortunes befall the Church, befall us all who are going through our trial time, and we often are tempted to be tired, and oppressed, and out of heart. There must often be much to distress and alarm us, evils which seem without remedy, defeats which seem final. To hope seems to us then like deluding ourselves. And yet how often has it happened in the upshot of things that, if in the very darkest times of history any one had been bold enough to hope, he would have been amply justified! We need not blind ourselves to facts; we have our part to do, and we must deal with it as we may, and as we ought. But the God of hope calls to us out of the darkness, and we are unfaithful to Him if in our wilfulness we shut our ears to His voice and dwell despondingly on the future which is in His hands.
III. But all that here invites and demands hope is but little to that which is to be when all here shall have been past and over.
1. We may dare to look forward to be sinless. Think of what you know of your own conscience, of your own temptations, of your own fall, of your own struggles for forgiveness and restoration, and then think what it will be to have left all that behind.
2. Then, whatever the function and employment of that perfect state may be, whatever work God may have for us to do, we shall have the will and the power to do it as the angels do. The divided service, the broken purpose, the double mind, the treacheries of the will, the blindness of sell-deceit, the laggard indolence, all that now mars and cripples our sincerest obedience, will then have been purged away, and in all the fulness of truth we shall know how to serve Him with our whole heart.
3. There, in infinite measure, will be all that calls for human affection, and there human affections will he raised to new powers and strength, transfigured, purified, glorified; and there, in ways we cannot dream of now, we shall be brought near to Christ, and be like unto Him, for we shall see Him as He is. (Dean Church.)
Hope
1. The root of the word in Anglo-Saxon means, to open the eyes wide and watch for what is to come, as we have seen children do when they expect to see some wonder or receive some gift. Indeed, there is another word closely akin–the word expect, watching for what is to come, the obverse of inspect, looking at what has come.
2. These meanings are the delicate dividing line between Faith and Hope. While Hope expects, Faith inspects; while Hope is like Mary, looking up-ward, Faith is like Martha, looking at-ward; while the light in the eyes of Hope is high, the light in the eyes of Faith is strong; while Hope trembles in expectation, Faith is quiet in possession. Hope leaps out toward what will be, Faith holds on to what is; Hope idealises, Faith realises; Faith sees, Hope foresees.
3. And so it comes that in religion faith is conservative, while hope is progressive. Passing on the Rhine through the fog and mist of Holland as through a stagnant sea, you stretch upward league after league; and as you go the country gradually changes, the air grows clearer, the prospect finer. But the higher you go, the harder is your going. So at last you come into Switzerland, where all about you is a vaster vision, and within you an intenser inspiration than can ever be felt on the foggy flats below. It is the difference between faith alone and faith and hope together.
4. Consider hope, however, as a positive matter. Why, you say, hope is the most intangible thing a man can entertain. Hope, says Owen Feltham, is the bladder a man will take wherewith to learn to swim; then he goes beyond return, and is lost. But what says Paul? He makes our life a battle, and every man a soldier, and it is not enough that the heart be protected by the shield of faith, the head must be guarded also by the helmet of hope: the one is as indispensable as the other. And a brief glance at the life about us will soon convince you that the man is right, that as Dr. Johnson said, our powers owe very much of their energy to our hope; and whatever enlarges hope exalts courage; and, where there is no hope, there is no endeavour. Here is Cyrus Field conceiving the idea of binding the Atlantic with a cord. In carrying out his idea, the man has two servants to help him–the faith that it can be done, and the hope that he shall do it. With these aids he goes to work. Faith steadies him; hope inspires him. Faith works; hope flies. Faith deliberates; hope anticipates. Faith lets the cable go, and it breaks, and is lost. Nay, not lost, cries hope, and fishes it up again. Here is Garibaldi conceiving the idea of a new Italy. He has faith and hope. Austria, Naples, and Rome are against him. But no man knows, or can know, what faith and hope together can do in a man of the pattern of Garibaldi. What they have done for Italy will go ringing down the ages. Very curiously, if you will again, you can see the power of faith without hope illustrated in China. When our ancestors were savages they had advanced about where they are now. But who shall say that China, with the noble qualities no doubt she has, might not have had a peerless place in the world, had she held herself hopeful and expectant, continually, toward every new idea and discovery?
5. And this fact of hope and its influence has some important applications.
(1) To religion. It is entirely essential to remember that, when this man tells his friends to take for a helmet the hope of salvation, he meant the hope he himself was rushing through the world to proclaim. In the England of John Wesley numbers of men were his peers in faith. But Wesley had more hopefulness in his little finger than any other man of them had in his whole body. And so wherever Wesley went men caught the contagion of his great hope, and then ran tirelessly as long as they lived, kindling over all the world.
(2) To life generally. Young men and women, with this life mainly before you, get this hope. Make sure that there is not a day but brings you nearer to some Divine surprise of blessing, some great unfolding of Gods wry glory. Men and women in middle life, with the bloom gone from some things that seemed very beautiful as they lay glistening in the dew of the morning, whatever you do, never let a painful inspection rob you of a great expectation. If, as you live, you try to live faithfully, then, as the Lord liveth, try to live hopefully, or you will miss the better half of your living. (R. Collyer, D.D.)
Love
1. In the text the word is translated charity. In Wickliffes time, however, love and charity were as nearly related as charity and benevolence are now. This can be understood if we will remember that charity and dear, in the sense of precious, belong to the one root. They spring from what was common enough when they were born–dearth or scarcity. Food was then precious, much esteemed, much loved. Then good bread was dear, not as it is now to us in money value merely, but in this primitive value of something to love, a small piece being given to the children sometimes on a Sunday, as a very precious thing.
2. What, then, is this love? It is a word traceable to many different roots. That could not be otherwise. Love would naturally be one of the very first things the most abject savages must find a name for, after getting a word to express each of the bare needs of life. The first time the man of the forest tried to win a maiden in some higher way than by carrying her off by force, he would need the word. The first time the mother had to tell of the mysterious glow in her heart toward her babe in its helplessness, she would need the word. And so love, in one root, is longing; in another, goodness; in another, preference; but, to me, the right rests at last in the Teutonic word leben–life. This is life, these children of nature said, when they first began to be conscious of this glowing wonder in their hearts. You are my life, the man said when he went to win the maiden; and the mother, when she caught her nursling to her heart. Love is to live; and not to love is not to live. And it was exactly the definition of John, when he wanted to tell of the nearest and dearest of all the relations the soul can hold to God.
3. And so, while faith is inreaching, and hope outlooking, love is inbeing. By faith I stand; by hope I soar, by love I am. Faith assures me, hope inspires me; love is me, at my best.
4. And it is only as we keep, close to this idea and fact that we can prevent love being confounded with other and baser things, that, getting mixed up with it in our own language, act like the baser metals mixed up in the coinage of a country, giving the real gold and silver a lower relative value, and debasing the whole fair standard of commonwealth. Love, for example, is not lust. Because love, for whatever may in itself be good, adds just so much as there is in what I love to life; while lust for that very thing exhausts life. When the young man, living in a room, eating in a restaurant, and troubled about more things than ever Martha was, feels at last how contracted and poor such a life is at the best, and says in his heart, This is not living: I must get me a wife, whatever may be his idea of the wife he wants, the word he uses to describe his condition reaches away into the truth. It is not living: it is just half living, and probably not that. His heart is crying out for the rest of his life. But there is that calling itself love which is lust–something that seeks not a life, but an appanage to life, and reaps for its sowing a harvest of gray ashes. Love informs life; lust exhausts it. Love is the shining sun, lust is the wandering star.
5. But, beside such special applications, there is no direction in which we can turn but this spirit meets us with its sweet, solemn face. Consider the lesson we have learned in our war. When we plunged into that red sea, the gentlemen of England were looking on. The few said we should hold our own; the multitude said we had gone under. What made this difference? The few loved us, so that Faith stood square, and Hope plumed her wings, and they became the glad ministers of their leader and guide. The many did not love us. They had no faith in us and no hope for us, because they had no love. When a man really loves, it piles great stores of love into his heart; so that he may even come to some dreadful pass where faith and hope fail him, and yet love shall carry him through. When the father wants to put his son on the way to success, if he is a wise man, he most anxiously tries to find out where the lads love lies; for there, he knows, he will have faith and hope, because the love will be a perpetual inspiration; while, to put him to what he can never love, will only exhaust and disgust him, until at last it is given up in despair. (R. Collyer, D.D.)
The three Divine sisters
When those three goddesses, say the poets, strove for the golden ball, Paris adjudged it to the queen of Love. Here are three celestial graces striving for the chiefdom; and our apostle gives it to love. Not that other daughters are black, but that Charity excels in beauty (Pro 31:29). All stars are bright, though one star may differ from another in glory. These are three strings often touched: faith, whereby we believe all Gods promises to be true, and ours; hope, whereby we wait for them with patience; charity, whereby we testify what we believe and hope. He that hath fallen cannot distrust; he that hath hope cannot be put from anchor; he that hath charity will not lead a licentious life, for love keeps the commandments. Let us treat them–
1. Comparatively.
1. Faith is that grace which makes Christ ours, and all His benefits. God gives it (1Co 12:9); by the Word preached (Rom 10:17); for Christs sake (Php 1:29). This virtue is no sooner given of God, but it gives God (Rom 8:32). Without this it is impossible to please God (Heb 11:6). Let us not otherwise dare to come into His presence.
2. Hope is the sweetest friend that ever kept a distressed soul company; it beguiles the tediousness of the way, all the miseries of our pilgrimage.
(1) It holds the head whilst it aches, and gives invisible drink to the thirsty conscience. It is a liberty to them that are in prison, and the sweetest physic to the sick. St. Paul calls it an anchor (Heb 6:19). Let the winds blow, and the storms beat, and the waves swell, yet the anchor stays the ship. It breaks through all difficulties, and makes way for the soul to follow it. It teacheth Abraham to expect fruit from a withered stock; and Joseph in a dungeon to look for the sun and stars obeisance. Though misery be present, comfort absent, though thou canst spy no deliverance, yet such is the nature of hope, that it speaks of future things as if they were present (Rom 8:24).
(2) These are the comforts of hope. Now, that you may not be deceived, there is a thing like hope, which is not it. There is a bold and presumptuous hope, an ignorant security and ungrounded persuasion, the very illusion of the devil, that how wickedly soever a man shall live himself, yet still he hopes to be saved by the mercy of God. Against this hope we shut up the bosom of consolation.
3. Charity is an excellent virtue, and therefore rare. The proper and immediate object of our love is God. This is the great commandment, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, etc. The subordinate object is man, and his love is the effect of the former cause, and an actual demonstration of the other inward affection. Love is the abridgment of the law, the new precept of the gospel. Luther calls it the shortest and the longest divinity: short, for the form of words; long, yea, everlasting, for the use and practice; for charity shall never cease.
II. Comparatively.
1. The distinction between faith and hope is nice. I will reduce the differences into three respects.
(1) Of order: Paul gives faith the precedency (Heb 11:1-40.). Hope may in some sort be said to be the daughter of faith. For it is as impossible for a man to hope for that which he believes not, as for a painter to draw a picture in the air. Indeed, more is believed than is hoped for; but nothing is hoped for which is not believed.
(2) Of office: faith is the Christians logic; hope his rhetoric. Faith perceives what is to be done, hope gives alacrity to the doing it. The difference between faith and hope is that between wisdom and valour. Valour without wisdom is rashness, wisdom without valour is cowardice. Faith without hope is knowledge without valour to resist Satan; hope without faith is rash presumption and an indiscreet daring.
(3) Of object: faiths object is the absolute word and infallible promise of God: hopes object is the thing promised. Faith looks to the word of the thing, hope to the thing of the word. So that faith hath for its object the truth of God; hope, the goodness of God. Faith is of things both good and bad, hope of good things only. A man believes there is a hell as truly as he believes there is a heaven; but he fears the one, and hopes only for the other. In some sense hope excels faith. For there is a faith in the devils. Hope, a confident expectation of the mercy of God; this they can never have. This is the life of Christians, and the want makes devils (1Co 15:19).
2. Charity differs from them both. These three Divine graces are a created trinity; and as there the Son is begotten of the Father, and the Holy Ghost proceeds from them both; so a true faith begets a constant hope, and from them proceeds charity. Thus is Gods temple built in our hearts, saith Augustine: the foundation whereof is faith; hope the erection of the walls; charity the perfection of the roof. In the godly all these three are united. We believe in Gods mercy, we hope for His mercy, and we love Him for His mercy. Faith says, there are good things prepared: hope says, they are prepared for me: charity says, I endeavour to walk worthy of them.
III. Superlatively. The greatest of these is charity.
1. Objections.
(1) The principal promises are made to believers. So no less a promise is made to lovers (Rom 8:28). God, saith the Psalmist, is near to those that call upon Him, but He is within those that love Him (1Jn 4:17).
(2) If charity be greater than faith, then is not man justified by faith only. Inconsequentillation! St. Paul commends not love for the virtue of justification. A prince doth excel a peasant: shall any man therefore infer that he can plough better, or have more skill in tillage? A philosopher doth excel a mechanic, though he cannot grind so well as a miller, or limn so cunningly as a painter. Faith is able to justify of itself, not to work of itself (Gal 5:6). The hand alone can receive an alms, but cannot cut a piece of wood without an axe or some instrument. Faith is in the Christians hand: add love to it, and it worketh by love. So that the one is our justification before God, and the other our testification before men.
2. Wherein consisteth this high transcendency of charity?
(1) For latitude, love is the greatest. Faith and hope are restrained within the limits of our particular persons. The just man lives by his own faith, and hopes good to himself; but love is like the vine (Psa 80:8), or the sun in the sky, that throws his comfortable beams upon all, and forbears not to warm even that earth that beareth weeds.
(2) For perpetuity. Faith lays hold on Gods gracious promise for everlasting salvation; hope expects this with patience; but when God shall fulfil His word, and us with joy, then faith shall be at an end, hope at an end, but love shall remain between God and us an everlasting bond.
(3) For the honour and likeness it hath unto God. Faith and hope make not a man like God, but charity doth.
(4) In respect of its titles, charity excelleth. It is the new commandment: faith was never called so. It is the bond of perfection: faith is not so termed. It is the fulfilling of the law: where hath failed such a title?
(5) Charity is more noble, for it is a better thing to give than to receive. Faith and hope are all of the taking hand.
(6) For manifestation. Faith and hope are things unseen, and may be dissembled, but charity cannot be without visible fruits; therefore the only trial of faith and hope is by charity. Conclusion: Why speaks Paul of no more than three? St. Peter mentions eight (2Pe 1:6), and St. Paul in another place nine (Gal 5:22). Why are all these left out here? Because they are comprehended under these three: as to the trade of a stationer, some are required to print, some to correct, some to fold, others to bind, and others to garnish; yet all belongs to one trade There be many rays, and but one sun.
2. As these three fair sisters came down from heaven, so the devil sends up three foul fiends from hell: against faith, infidelity; against hope, desperation; against charity, malice. He that entertains the elder sister is already condemned (Joh 3:18). He that embraceth the second, bars up against himself the possibility of all comfort, because he offends the mercy of God, and tramples under foot that blood which is held out to his unaccepting hand. He that welcomes malice, welcomes the devil himself. (T. Adams.)
The three sisters
If I were to sketch a picture of these three sisters, I should not make–as is often done–three graceful figures, beautiful in countenance and expressive in form and attitude, twining their arms together. That may be very artistic and imaginative; it is not very practical. I should rather paint them as in one room together. Faith, bending over a book–the Book of God–her face all glowing with hallowed emotion, yet full of the deep calm of Divine, inward peace, as she reads the exceeding great and precious promises. Hope, sitting in the window-seat, and gazing, with earnest, dreaming eyes, and face serenely bright, upon the setting sun; watching intently, as the amber clouds open their gates, and, in fancy, admit her into the city of everlasting light. Love, turning her tender looks now on the one sister, and now on the other, and smiling a smile caught from Christ, as she thinks of the widow and the fatherless, cheered and comforted by the garments at which her hands are working. (R. Tuck, B. A.)
The three graces
I. Their excellence..
1. Faith. It unites to Christ. It secures our justification. It is the great power in our present life: The just shall live by faith.
2. Hope. It brightens the present by brightening the future.
3. Love. What a wilderness the world would be without love!
II. Their continuance. It is better to have lost the extraordinary gifts than these graces.
III. Their relative value. Love the greatest.
1. It has longer continuance.
2. It is more useful to others.
3. It makes men like God in character. (Clerical World.)
The triple graces
Things and beings appear, in many cases, by some law of universal power and faithfulness, in groups and clusters–stars, e.g., and flowers, animals, etc. The same law gives existence to villages and towns. It is a rare thing when people like to live far away from others. The same element runs through all in religion. People of the same views, motives, and feelings collect together for sympathy and assistance. The same law governs politics, science, commerce. You will find virtues and graces in groups. Consider–
I. These triple graces in themselves, and some things wherein they differ. They are in the mind; apart from the mind they can have no existence. In themselves they are abstractions, which can have no existence but as parts or actions of some other fit subjects.
1. Faith is the confiding attitude of the mind, relying on stone object or resource believed by itself, by evidence or experience sufficient to sustain or meet its wants and wishes. It is the power of uniting weakness with strength, need with plenty, misery with happiness, mans sinfulness and despair with Divine grace and merciful provision.
2. Hope is the soul turning its face to the good and happiness of the future. It is the vanguard of the soul, on its travel forward in the wilderness of life.
3. Charity is the attitude of the soul embracing the lovely and the pure. It is the cultivated state of the soil of the soul, like a well-weeded, pulverised garden, bearing rich and fragrant flowers. The soul in this state morally is both strong and happy; but to make it safe and broad it needs the light and evidence of faith, and the prophetic eye and encouragement of hope.
4. Though these graces belong to one system, they differ–
(1) In the way they view their objects. Faith seeks its object through the light of evidence, hope through the good and the happy, and charity through the beautiful and lovely.
(2) In the conscious sentiments they produce in the soul. Faith makes the soul strong and confident, hope sanguine and anxious, and charity satisfied and happy.
(3) In the soil they grow in, and the elements which feed and mature them. Faith grows in the soil of intelligence, and is fed by reason, evidence, and experience; hope grows in sympathy with the future, and a desire to know and possess its goodness, and is fed by its own intuitive faith and possession of the good and the happy; charity grows in tenderness, beneficence, and the social feeling of the soul for communion with the beautiful and lovely, and is fed by manifestation of love, faith, and hope.
(4) In their action, and the way they express themselves. Faith acts boldly, and expresses itself fearlessly; hope acts more timidly, and expresses itself with patience and submission; charity acts calmly, expressing itself with chastened sweetness and joyful exaltation.
(5) In the service they render to the soul. Faith educates its intelligence, and would perserve it from dull blindness and superstitious ignorance; hope sustains and encourages it in the dark day and weary night of its earthly abode; and charity educates it, in all its sentiments, into refinement and beauty, so as to make it a happy companion to itself and others.
II. In their union and necessity.
1. They are united,
(1) In their source. Every good gift finally must be traced to one common fountain of Divine goodness.
(2) In common sympathy and attachment. They are made for one another; they could not live apart.
(3) In their work and end. What one cannot do the other does; and what they cannot do separately they complete unitedly.
(4) In the means of their strength and advancement–the Spirit of God, through the provision of the economy of grace.
2. Their necessity in the system of Christian life. They are needful–
(1) As means by which the soul of man can apprehend the different sides in the economy of truth and Divine provision.
(2) To develop and perfect the soul in its various sides and powers.
(3) From the demands made upon man.
(a) For daily duty.
(b) For warfare and defence.
III. The pre-eminence of charity. It is the greatest–
1. In the quality of its nature. It has a refinement and purity which is not to be found in the same manner and degree in the others. God is love. Love is the Divine nature in man.
2. In the sway of its power. Faith is power, and has done mighty works; so is hope, and has long and far walked over arid and thorny lands to its Canaan of good; but when faith falters and hope faints, love supports and comforts still.
3. As a source of comfort and happiness to the soul. The company of love is always sweet.
4. As it approaches the nearest to God. God is in the hand of faith, He is in the eye of hope, but He is in the heart of love.
5. In useful results.
6. As the greatest advancing power. No one can advance in anything much unless he loves it.
7. In attraction and motive. Love drives no one away; it draws to itself even those who are void of any impelling motive in themselves.
IV. The abiding character of these graces. There is a prevalent belief that faith and hope are only transient. But what is the evidence of such a belief? It is said that faith and hope will be done away with, because all will be seen in heaven. But surely I need it as a power of confiding trust, when I see the object as well as when I do not see it. Is hope also not requisite relative to the continued safety and duration of the good we possess, as much as the possession of the unseen? But we cannot accept of the assertion that all will be seen and possessed at once in heaven. Can all the future be packed into one moment? Can all its objects and visions be contracted into one small point? It is again said, but all will be safe. But do I not want faith to comfort me as well as to defend me, to unite me with God, as well as to put me under His shield? Do I not also want hope in the enjoyment of the good, as well as in the search after it? Nothing good we have will be taken from us, but perfected. In order to sustain this view, note–
1. These powers are essentially united together, so as to make one system of power in the mind.
2. They are alike powers of the soul. Christianity has not created them; it has only directed them to higher objects, purified their quality, and given them new direction and impetus. If one of them were to be done away with, the soul would be incomplete, and would be unfit to do its work and enjoy its blessings. If the triangle were deprived of one of its sides, it would no longer be a triangle; so if one of these triangular sides of the soul were done away with, it would no longer be the rational and responsible identical soul which man has in this world; he would not only be a different being, but a smaller and a less perfect one than now he is.
3. Faith and hope are essential to dependent and limited beings. We cannot think it possible for finite beings to exist without them, for the source of their being, and the comprehension of their good, are all outside themselves.
4. The continuance of faith and hope is needful for the perpetuation of love. Could you love a person or an object in whom or in which you have no faith? And is not your hope for the good and the beautiful a part of your love towards them?
5. It is difficult to think that happiness is possible in the absence of faith and hope.
6. They are among the noblest of the gifts of God, and such things are not given to be recalled or destroyed. (T. Hughes.)
The three graces
Whatever may be the path of our future experience we shall need as much as ever, perhaps more, the abiding sense of the presence and help of this holy and beautiful sisterhood of Christian virtues.
I. Faith. Faith has wings; but unlike the wings that Solomon gives to riches, faith is busy in gathering instead of scattering her treasures. Faith has wings because she is a stranger and sojourner on the earth. But although without a home here she has a home, and mounting up with the wings of eagles, she lives in a congenial clime, seeing him who is invisible. Matthew Henry says, We cannot expect too little from man, nor too much from God. But in God we can have faith. His wisdom is without the admixture of error; His heart infinitely kind; His power without restraint.
II. Hope. Faith has wings, and like the wings of the cherubim in Ezekiels vision, they are full of eyes; and these eyes are full of sparkling hope. By a strange paradox, the castles built by sense are vapoury visions, while the buildings of faith are substantial and enduring. Hope builds on faith, and faith builds on God, that our faith and hope may be in God. Faith is the child in the house, who knows his filial relationship though the parent is absent. Hope is the child at the window, expecting the parents return. A prisoner, detained in his cell for some supposable reason, after he had received his pardon, would be saved both by faith and hope; faith, in the word that announced his pardon would assure him of salvation; the prospect of release from his prison cell would be his bright hope; at the hour of his departure he would receive the end of his faith–full deliverance.
III. Charity.
1. Love is greatest by reason of its dignity. Both faith and hope are receptive in their character; but love is communicative, therefore is it greatest, for it is more blessed to give than to receive!
2. Love is greatest by reason of age–it is the eldest. Love can say–before faith and hope were I am. It was the flower of Eden, but its first growth was not there, for it was transplanted from the garden of heaven, and blossomed in the bosom of God from everlasting.
3. Love is greatest by reason of its strength. Love is strong as death. How firm a hold does death take of its captives! This aspect of love has several relations.
(1) There is Gods love to us. When we see this we are taken captive by love at its will. It is a power magnetic. We love because first loved.
(2) There is our love to God. How weak, alas! the measure of it; but how potent its quality! No motive for service can be compared with it; nor anything in service sustain like it.
(3) Hence our power with men. As God commendeth His love to us by His love, and we by love commend our service to God, so must we commend ourselves to men. Love makes us kingly, and hearts are ever ready to do homage to all who rule with loves sceptre. (Anon)
The Christians abiding graces
I. The nature and use of these three graces.
1. Faith means a belief, on the testimony of God, of things which we do not perceive by our senses, and which we could not find out in any other way. It is directly opposed to sight, and signifies our looking to things invisible. It is the looking-out of the immortal spirit from its corporeal prisonhouse, to catch a glimpse of some nobler and happier form of existence. It is the commencement of spiritual life in the soul. It may be at first like the springing of seed sown, or like the movements of life in the newly breathing infant. But that, once commenced, is a momentous event; the birth of a principle which will continue to operate; the beginning of a life which will go on without end. Faith brings all the great truths and motives of the gospel so vividly before the mind, and keeps them so habitually present to the thoughts, as to prove a most powerful, practical, and purifying principle, carrying the views beyond things seen to things unseen, giving the soul a superiority over the power of this world, and so influencing effectually the whole conduct and course of life.
2. Hope means an expectation of those promised blessings as our eternal portion. Faith respects our belief of these blessings, as provided for all believers; hope respects our expectation of these blessings, as being ourselves believers. Faith gives our souls a connection with the Saviour, which secures our salvation, though our hope should be but low. Hope imparts to our souls a peace and support amidst the trials and duties of life, which, though not essential in any particular degree to our salvation, yet is requisite so far, as preventing despondency of mind under spiritual trials, as proving a source of the highest enjoyment to the heart of man in this world, and as supplying the strongest encouragement to steadfastness and diligence in Gods service. It is not a mere confident expectation of safety and happiness, which might be a mere delusion, and which is too often strongest where the grounds are weakest; but it is closely connected with a humble acceptance of Christs salvation, and a cordial obedience to His commandments.
3. Charity is the sovereign principle from which every active service to God or man must flow.
II. The peculiar excellence of charity or love, as the greatest of all these Christian graces. Here, however, we must beware of separating one part of the Christian character from another; and while we exalt one grace, must not overlook or undervalue the rest. Observe then distinctly, that all these three must exist together, otherwise none of them can be genuine, now abideth faith, hope, charity; these three. They must all be present, these three; all abide or dwell in company in our hearts, as heavenly principles, implanted there, and necessary to be there for our salvation. They are thus not only equally alike the work of Christs Spirit; but they derive much of their respective excellences and uses from one another, and from operating along with one another. As well might you think of taking any part of the body out of its place, and speaking of its beauty and use, when thus separated from the rest of that living frame, as to take any of these graces by itself, and then speak of its use or excellence without the others. When it is said, therefore, that the greatest of them is charity, it is, first of all, to be kept in mind that charity is nothing without the rest, and that from them it derives even much of its greatness. Charity is not the greatest, as if it could stand in the place of faith and hope. It is not great at all without them, and it cannot do their part; no more than the hand could do the office of the eye or the ear. It is nevertheless the greatest of all, as here declared.
1. Because it is the evidence of the rest, and the earnest of that salvation being begun in our souls, which they call us to seek and look for, as our portion.
2. Because it is the end, of which faith and hope are only the means. Faith and hope are the heavenly remedies, the health-giving streams, from which we must draw the reviving energy of Divine grace; but love is the spiritual soundness, that very state of health in the soul which is the end of these streams having been opened to us, and of our being invited to take freely their living waters. It is the celestial fruit, for the sake of which the root of faith is planted, and the blossoms of hope are cherished: it is the fruit of the Spirit of all grace.
3. Because it is more particularly the Spirit of God Himself, the peculiar excellence which we are called to imitate in Him as our Father.
4. Because it is the most permanent of all these graces, and forms the principal occupation and enjoyment of the heavenly state.
(1) Inquire how far these three are abiding in your hearts, or how far at least you are desiring to have them there.
(2) Follow after charity, as the fruit, the evidence, the ornament of them all. (J. Brewster.)
The greatness of faith and hope
Here are three great and good things–mans untroubled confidence in the wisdom, power, and lovingkindness of his Father in heaven; mans happy and confident expectation of all that which the Divine Word does describe and promise; and mans living likeness to the pity, patience, long-suffering, and graciousness of his God–faith, hope, and charity. These three great and good things have one attribute in common–they all abide. In many respects faith is unlike hope, and both of them essentially differ from charity. But in the permanence of their power and glory they are alike great. They are not transient things speedily rendering a little service, and then passing away for ever; they are not things which may be of value to-day, but will be of no use to-morrow. In this respect the apostle contrasts them with other things of worth and power mentioned in the preceding verses of the chapter, but which were designed only for special circumstances and for temporary service. Those which did not abide were the miraculous gifts possessed by the first preachers of the Cross and their immediate successors. In forcible contrast to those things which were only transient and which belonged only to the age of the Churchs infancy and feebleness, there are these three which abide–faith, hope, and charity. Their beauty is immortal, they are unfailing sources of power, and must be found in the Church militant as long as time shall last and the earth shall preserve its place amidst the circling worlds. Yes, prophets may fail, and miracles may cease, but the world will always need men who calmly trust in God, and steadfastly look for brighter days and better things, and whose hearts are being restored to the lost image of their Creator. Amidst all changes, and let perish what will perish, there must abide these three–faith, hope, charity. You are aware that it is not my purpose now to speak of the greatest of these essential and abiding graces. I am to speak only of the greatness of the first and second–faith and hope. The mistake is to disparage faith in order to extol charity; the mistake of thinking that because charity is supreme in its greatness and blessedness, faith must be a little matter and of little moment. It is a folly on our part to suppose we can magnify one virtue by depreciating another. If a man were to come to me and say, I do not think much of this belief, this faith, this trust, about which you speak so much, charity is the greatest thing, the reply is very obvious: Yes, charity is greater than faith, but if faith be the trifling thing you represent it, charity may be greater and yet not be a giant. He who dwarfs faith dwarfs charity also; he who magnifies faith and hope, does also magnify that charity which is greater than they. If I can show you how great faith in God is; how much it has to do with the peace of a mans conscience, with the joy of a mans heart, with the vigour of his spiritual life–how it arms and nerves a man for conflict with evil; how it shields him in temptation and sustains him in affliction; if I can show you how great a thing hope is, how it has power to make a dark present bright with a light borrowed from a far-off future; how it strengthens men for work, and puts courage into the fainting spirit, I shall have helped you to form a juster judgment of the greatness of the love which surpasses both these graces. It is not often that charity and hope, are spoken of as rivals. Men do not often slight hope in order to extol charity. Faith suffers most from this rivalry, and I shall now leave hope and confine my remarks entirely to faith, contenting myself with what I have said of the greatness of hope. In pursuing my task, I shall not attempt any metaphysical analysis or elaborate description of faith. The inspired apostle, with all his peerless gifts, did not adopt that difficult method of treating the subject. In the immortal chapter in the letter to the Hebrews, there is only one brief definition, and there is no description or analysis. Like a practical man of God as he was, the apostle showed faith at work, and left men to learn its worth and power from its labour and its results. I shall try to show you faith in action; and as we see what it can do, and what it enables men to do, we shall surely be persuaded that, though it is not so great as love, it is still very great, and blessed. I shall venture to take my first illustration from that tender and touching story told by our Lord, which never loses its freshness or force. A younger son was eager for freedom, and greedy of pleasure. In every scheme that he formed for his future felicity the central idea was that he should be free from all restraint–have nothing to do and everything to enjoy, acknowledge no law but his own devices, obey no lord but his own dominant passions. He demanded his patrimony, gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, where he wasted his substance in riotous living. One excess followed another till everything was gone, and revelry and luxury had to be exchanged for wretchedness and want. When his delusive dreams were ended, he awoke to seriousness and sadness. The madness of passion passed away and he came to himself. At once his thoughts reverted to the home he had forsaken, to the father against whom he had sinned. He determined to retrace his wandering steps, and revisit the bright and happy spot where he knew, by personal experience, that love ruled and plenty prevailed. But there was something deeper in the prodigals heart than his sense of shame, and something stronger than his consciousness of guilt; it was his confidence in his fathers lovingkindness. He doubted not, he did not mistrust. He was covered with shame and ignominy, in which his kinsfolk must participate. His hope was created and sustained by his faith in his fathers compassion. By his faith be was saved. If he had been destitute of that, he could not have begun the journey, or, beginning it, he could not have persevered in it. Doubtless, conscience and memory were busy, and sometimes they would suggest the question, Will you be accepted, will not the door be shut against you, will they acknowledge you for a kinsman, a brother, a son? And then would faith rise and subdue these fears, and would say, Take courage, poor fainting heart!–push on in thy homeward way, love waits for thee; there, love longs for thy coming, and will give thee pardon, peace, and dignity again. Was not his faith a great thing to the returning prodigal? Did not it render to him service which charity could not have rendered? Men and brethren, my companions in transgression, there are times when our most urgent want is, not charity to each other, but a living faith in a gracious God. Our own hearts condemn us, and we remember that God is greater than our hearts, and knoweth all things. In such seasons, the great thing to give us peace and hope is an unfaltering trust in the compassionate love of Him who has made provision for our pardon in the death of His own Son. Having seen the worth of faith in the heart of a penitent sinner, let us next glance at its importance to the great sufferer. The experience of St. Paul will furnish us with an illustration. There are some people who are so complaining, and who so parade their troubles that when first we know them we think them the most afflicted of mankind. There are others so bright and cheerful that their woes are much hidden from us. When we do realise the multitude and magnitude of his troubles, we are amazed that his contentment and joy could live through them all. The secret is found in his unfailing faith that God was supreme, and would ordain nothing which was not good, and would permit nothing which he could not overrule for good. Faith goes to the home where for years they have been vainly striving to cast out poverty; to the home where affliction has long had power, and where sorrow in some ghastly form has made its dwelling-place; she goes where the chamber is darkened, the hearth desolated, and the heart broken by the presence of death, and she is questioned as to the final outcome of all these labouring evils. What are they, and what are they doing? She answers in most emphatic tones, They are Gods workpeople. They are helping to weave robes of light for the glorified to wear, and to construct crowns for the redeemed to cast at the Redeemers feet, and to make joy-cups from which the dwellers in heaven shall drink! Reason responds, I cannot see that they are Gods servants, much less can I see that they are working for such ends as you affirm. Again faith replies, I know you are too dim-sighted to see this, but I am not too feeble to believe it. The faith which can contemplate the sorrows of life in this spirit may not be the greatest of the graces, and yet be able to serve as efficiently under circumstances in which charity could not meet our greatest necessity. It is of little direct use to preach long homilies about charity when troubles are many, and calamities are crushing. If we be wise we shall then urge the sufferer to cherish simple faith in the God of love. We shall say, Believe that He who gives is also He who takes away! He changes His methods of action sometimes; but He never changes His wisdom for folly, His love for unkindness. The faith in God by which temptation was defeated and the tempter was silenced, and by which the Son of Man came off more than a conqueror in that dread conflict, on whose issues the destinies of our race seemed to hang, cannot be a little thing! Thousands of Christs disciples have used the same shield with like happy issues. They have been in difficulty and poverty, and have been tempted to make their escape by sinful methods. By their trust in God they have triumphed. The faith in God and the Saviour which enables a man to look into the face of the King of Terrors must not be slighted or scorned. Blessed be the well-grounded Christian confidence which can meet death with this greeting: Thou art Gods faithful messenger to me. Thou canst not destroy me. I am sure that through darkness is the way to everlasting light, and through the anguish of mortality is the way to the glories of immortality. Thou art only come to make me begin to live. In the Word of God the origin and fruitfulness of religion are always associated with faith. Is religion called a life? The life we live is by faith in the Son of God, who loved us and gave Himself for us. Is religion called a pilgrimage? We walk by faith. Is the religious man assaulted? By faith we stand. Is he a warrior? He is told above all to take the shield of faith. Does he set his heart on complete triumph? This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. (C. Vince.)
The three stages
I. The threefold development of religion in the soul. Faith, hope, and charity are not absolutely distinct principles. In each there is a fusion of the other two. In dealing with the bold characteristics of religious advancement, we must seek, not differences, but stages.
1. Faith is the apprehension of the truth as the means of our salvation.
2. Hope is the apprehension of salvation by the truth.
3. Charity is the outflow of salvation from the heart. The stages are evident–faith finds the Saviour, hope delights in Him, but love desires to exhibit Him to others for their acceptance. We are justified by faith, delighted by hope, consecrated by love.
II. The last stage is greater than its forerunners.
1. Charity assimilates the heart to the life of Christ. Faith brings us to the Saviour, but love makes us like Him.
2. Love makes the Church a power for good. The generous heart is the power which brings the love of God to bear on mens stubborn hearts. There is no cross too heavy, and no sacrifice too great for love.
3. The influence of love is more abiding. Faith will be turned into sight, and hope into possession, but love will continue the ruling passion of the world. (Weekly Pulpit.)
The greatest grace
Charity is–
I. Intrinsically excellent. Faith and hope, however good and useful, derive their value from the limitation of our nature.
1. Faith is necessary because we have not personal knowledge of objects. What is beyond the range of our bodily organs and intuitive feelings is alone an object of faith.
2. And so there is implied in hope something more or better than we have; only those that are imperfectly blessed can hope. Faith implies something without, hope something beyond, us.
3. God cannot believe, for He fills immensity; He cannot hope, for He inhabits eternity. But He can love; and the more we have of this gracious disposition, the more we are assimilated to that glorious Being who giveth all things and needeth not anything, who has no necessity but that of doing good.
II. The most independent grace. Faith and hope, however rich and strong, are recipients, to a great extent. But it is the glorious distinction of charity that, instead of recognising a good that exists, it forms a plan of originating one that is not. This is its description: Charity suffereth long, and is kind; seeketh not her own. While faith and hope are the ample vessels of grace, charity is its free fountain; while they are its reverent worshippers, it is its self-denying missionary. They accept, but it dispenses; they regard self, it looks not on its own things, but on the things of others.
III. The end of which faith and hope are means. Whatever is imparted to us, in the form of present truth and prospective good, is with a view to some result. God can have no lower or other design than the sanctification of our entire nature: and what is that but the shedding of His love abroad in it by the Holy Ghost, constraining us to all good works? Love is the fulfilling of the law, and of the gospel. Faith is the nourishment of love, hope is its luxurious entertainment. Faith is the soil in which it grows, hope is the bright sunshine that quickens and beautifies it. Love cannot be intelligent unless it be taught of God, and cannot be free and cheerful unless He smile upon it.
IV. Permanent. In a sense doubtless we shall believe and hope in a future state; but in that state there will be the realised enjoyment of the main objects of present belief and pursuit. In that state will be fulfilled, not comparatively as here, but to a glorious extent of accomplishment, the strong representations of our context. We shall see face to face, we shall know even as we are known. But love will undergo no change of this sort: its change will be of another kind. The perfection that lessens the need and intensity of other graces will increase the power and enlarge the sphere of love. Conclusion:
1. If charity is the greatest, so manifestly let us beware of losing sight of its pre-eminent excellence. Many put faith before it. Forgetting the real nature and office of faith, they dishonour the charity that dwells in others, and suppress instead of cherishing it in themselves. No spectacle of Christian error is more painful than that of a man taking his stand on faith and violating charity. If we must err at all, let it be on the side of the greatest thing; and, erring or not, let us never forget that whatever is accurate in belief, and pleasant in hope, is far exceeded by love, and has its use and worth only in its promotion.
2. Ponder the emphatic words of verses 1-3. What a thought, for a man to be nothing! nothing, and yet gifted with spiritual faculties; speaking angelic tongues; though impoverishing himself to relieve his brethren; though yielding up His life in defence of faith! Oh, receive the love of God into your hearts, and that shall be in you a fountain of all charity; you shall love like God as well as rejoice in His love: and be something for ever! (A. J. Morris.)
The crowning grace
Do not mistake Paul, as though he derogated from faith and hope. He says they are great, though love is the greatest.
I. In point of rank. Faith and hope are of the operation of God, but love is from His heart: by love we are let into God. We are called to be strong in faith, to abound in hope, but to be perfect in love! We are to put on the shield of faith, the helmet of hope, but, above all, put on charity.
1. It decides the genuineness of faith and hope. Faith cannot work without love–it is the animation of faith. And hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. Faith some times has doubts, hope has fears, charity always hopes; yea, when faith and hope both stop, charity believeth, hopeth, does their work.
2. It is the end, of which faith and hope are but the means; the labour of love raises the top stone. Faith is the root, hope the buds, love is the fruit of the Christians tree.
3. Faith and hope are essential to man as a sinner, but love was his religion before he was a sinner, and it is now by love that he rises above his fall and forms alliance with heaven. Love is the religion of heaven 1 Wonder not, then, that love is the foremost fruit of the Spirit, the end of the commandment, the fulfilling of the law–the royal law–that it sits on the throne–the queen of graces.
II. In point of utility. Faith and hope are selfish graces–private props. Charity is to others like the sun in the firmament–goes about doing good. Personally, she visits the sick, feeds the hungry, clothes the naked; has a wise head, and attentive ear, a quick eye, a heart! makes others woes, etc.; has an eloquent tongue, an open hand: When the ear heard me, then it blessed me, and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me. Thus she pursues her way; if contradicted, is not easily provoked; whatever is said of her, she thinketh no evil; she overlooks not the temporal interests of man, but chiefly regards the spiritual, and such as take in the good of the world.
III. In point of duration–abideth for ever. Faith and hope are Moses. Love is Joshua. Faith and hope supply here the place of vision: We see through a glass darkly, etc. In an evangelical sense, faith and hope are not in heaven; we are to hope to the end; but no end in heaven. Learn–
1. Wherein real Christianity consists. In creeds? professions? No! but in Divine principles, holy tempers, benevolent actions. Orthodox opinions, etc., unaccompanied with faith, hope, and charity, are fruitless.
2. The excellency of real Christianity. It brings faith, it inspires hope, it fills with the love of God; and when this principle is universal in the world!
3. Is this religion ours? A man is better known by what he loves than by his faith and hope. Who loves strong drink, we know who he is. So, if man love God, we know who he is! Now we look for the effects of this love in his life and conversation. Does your faith work by love? (J. Summerfield, A.M.)
Crowning love
Crown pride, and cause it to walk through the chambers of the soul, and there are many faculties which hide themselves and say, I will not bow down to Pride, if it be king over me. Crown vanity, and there will be many parts of the soul that will not yield to this newly-crowned king, but will say, Nay, I am higher than thou, and I will never bow down to King Vanity. Crown the reason, and there are many feelings that will say, We will no more rise up before crowned Reason, and own it our king, than the flowers will rise up before an iceberg and call it summer. Crown beauty, and there will be commotion in all the soul; but there is not in all the soul one single faculty that, under stress of temptation, under provocation, or under trial, will call out, O King Beauty, save me! Crown the conscience, and although more of the faculties of the soul will follow that than any other of the leaders I have assumed, yet what will ensue? Crown conscience–its crown is of iron; its sceptre is relentless. If conscience be king, the soul has a despot on the throne; and often and often there be many members of a mans nature that reluct, and resist, and refuse to obey. Bring into the ascendancy love, and crown it, and there is not one part of reason that doth not before love say, It is my master. There is nothing in all the imagination that is not willing to twine round about love and say, Love rules; and it truly inspires. Pride and vanity, and all the ambitious forces of the soul, will bow down in the train of love; and if that stand king in the soul, all the fortuities can find their place, and harmoniously move round about the well-adjusted centre. It is the only feeling around which you can reconstruct the human character. (H. W. Beecher.)
The supremacy of love
Love is supreme because–
I. It was the exercise of this virtue that made possible our deliverance from sin. God so loved the world, etc. It was Christs love that constrained Him to do and suffer so much that the sinner might be restored. Of all the Divine attributes it is love that stands out in grandest outline.
II. There is no other virtue like it to inspire sacrifice. Love for God and for man inspired Grace Darling to imperil her life to rescue wrecked mariners from a watery grave. It moved an Elizabeth Fry to abandon home to find the criminal in his cell, and lead him to a higher life. It induces the minister of the Cross to endanger life, that he may save his heathen brother.
III. There is no other so effective for winning and maintaining the good-will of our fellow-men. The man of eminence, intelligence, or affluence is envied if not hated at times by those less fortunate; but a loving man unites all classes to him, and even conquers our enemies and compels their love in return. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and myself, says Napoleon, founded great empires; but upon what did the creations of our genius depend? Upon force. Jesus alone founded His empire upon love, and to this very day millions are ready to die for Him. William Penn, who lived for many years in the midst of six warring Indian tribes in harmony and peace, assured his dusky brethren of the forest, The great God of heaven has written His law of love upon our hearts, by which we are taught and commanded to love, to help, and to do good to each other; and to-day we meet you in the broad pathway of love and good-will, hoping no advantage may be taken on either side. While other colonists were building forts and displaying their arms, and hence involved in trouble and war, the flowers of prosperity and peace blossomed in the footprints of William Penn.
IV. There is no other virtue that so gladdens the heart and enriches the life. Love is to the heart what summer is to the year, maturing all the noblest and grandest fruits. The man in whose heart the spirit of love abides has a sort of music within to which he may march all the day long without exhaustion. His work, whether spiritual or manual, on Sunday or Monday, is no servitude, for duty becomes a delight. Love oils the complex machinery of his whole being, and thus prevents the daily friction that is such an enemy to human life. Where there is love for ones work there will be no reluctance or hanging back, for love is an impelling motive. (W. G. Thrall.)
The supremacy of love
Higher than morality, higher than philanthropy, higher than worship, comes love. That is the chiefest thing. When we have that, we reach the very thing for which the New Testament scheme was administered. Love! it is that which brings forth out of obscurity the hidden God which we seek. Send forth all the powers of the soul to search for God, and there is not one of them which, making inquisition according to its own nature, can find Him out and reveal Him, except this Divine Spirit of love! Put wings of imagination on Conscience, and let it fly forth. Say to it, Go, and find thy God! Flying through night and through day; above and beneath; among clouds and thunder; through darkness and through light; it would return at length, wing-tired, only to say, I have found marks of God, in law, in pain, and penalty; I have seen the traces of thunder, and the path of lightning, and the foundations of eternal power; but nowhere have I found the full God. Give the wings of faith to Reason, and send it, in turn, forth from east to west, around the earth, and through the heavens, to see if by searching it can find out God; and it shall say, I have seen the curious work of His hand, and have marked the treasures that He hath heaped up. The whole earth is full of His glory, and the heavens are unsearchable by us. What God hath done I have felt, but God Himself is hidden from my sight. Let Fear, equipped with faith, pursue the same errand. It would not even know which way to fly, and, turning downward, groping or flying directly amidst infernal things, it would rehearse a catalogue of terrors, of gloomy fears, or brooding superstitions; but the bright sun-clad God it could not see. Let Reverence go forth. But what there is in reverence can never interpret what there is in God. This feeling can touch the Divine orb but in a single point. And the Heavens would say to Reverence, Such an one as you seek is not in me; and Hell would say, He is not in me; and Earth and Time would repeat, He is not in us! It is only Love that can find out God without searching. Upon its eyes God dawns. Wherever it looks, and whatever it sees–that is God; for God is love. Love is that regent quality which was meant to reveal the Divine to us. It carries its own light, and, by its own secret nature, is drawn instantly toward God, and reflects the knowledge of Him back upon us. (H. W. Beecher.)
Love the greatest power in mind
I. The correspondence between these three.
1. It is implied by the apostle that they are all great. He speaks of the greatest. Faith is a great thing. It implies reason, truth, and the investigation of evidence; it is a great thing in business, in science, in society, as well as religion; it is a power that removes mountains. See a record of its brilliant achievements in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews. Hope is a great thing too. It implies the recognition of good, a desire for good, and an expectation of good; it bears as an angel into the brightness of the future; it makes the greatest trials of the present bearable by bringing into the spirit the blessedness of the future.
2. It is implied by the apostle that they are all permanent. There abideth.
II. The superiority of one of the three. The greatest of these three is charity. Why is it the greatest?
1. It is a virtue in itself. There is no moral virtue in faith or hope. They are under certain conditions necessary states of mind; but love, disinterested, godly love, is in itself a virtue. It is in truth the substratum of all virtuous states.
2. It is that quality which alone gives virtue to all other states of mind. Where this love is not, faith and hope are morally worthless. They are trees without one leaf of virtue on their branches.
3. It is that state of mind by which the soul subordinates the universe to itself. The loving soul can alone interpret the universe. The loving soul alone appropriates the universe. All things work together for good to them that love God, etc.
4. It is that state of mind which links the spirit to all holy intelligences. Love is the attractive power that binds the holy universe together. Faith and hope are not so.
5. It is that state of mind which includes the highest faith and hope. Love implies the both.
6. It is that state of mind which is in itself happiness. Love is happiness. We cannot say so either of faith or hope.
7. Love is the most Godlike state of the soul. (D. Thomas, D.D.)
The greatness of charity
Charity has a greatness whether considered as a principle, a motive power, or a perfecting grace of character. And first of all, what is to be understood by charity? It is not that sentimental thing that often goes by its name, that has no appreciation for principles, sees no importance in doctrines, and imagines the world can be saved as well by error as by truth. I have four reasons why charity is the greatest of great things.
1. Its endurance. Prophecies fail when the thing prophesied takes place. Love has a continuous life. If there is anything destined to immortality that thing is love.
2. Hence the next reason for esteeming charity as the greatest of great things, and that is, the nothingness of all things without it. Prophetical insight, the profuse distribution of wealth, and the bravery of martyrdom its If, all–all are hollow where charity is not. So true it is that charity is the greatest of great things. It gives a Divine substance to human graces, and at its bidding that which otherwise were but perishing beauty starts, like Jairuss daughter, from its shroud, and moves to beautify the home and give happiness there as only the true daughter can.
3. But again, charity is the greatest of great things, because it sways the will. Duties that we love not are clogs. He that clings to the world rather than to Christ must look the solemn fact in the face–that he loved the world more than Christ, and that love sways his will. It is not inability–it is not natural or moral infirmity of the will that keeps us from becoming more godly. It is our loves–our affections that are more fed and strengthened by sinful desires than by angels food.
4. And this suggests the fourth reason why charity is to be esteemed the greatest of great things, and that is, it is the fulfilment of the law. He that wishes to do something as God does all things has only this to do–exercise a pure love–an enduring, an edifying, a will-swaying love. He who performs one act of disinterested benevolence, acts so far on the high plane of the Deity. (H. Bacon.)
The pre-eminence of charity
Before proceeding to examine some of the proofs of the :pre-eminence of charity let us for a few moments glance at the thing itself, for the more clearly we discern what this charity is, the more clearly we see its fulness and perfection, the more rightly we shall believe in its pre-eminence, the more ready we shall be to say, Faith does well, hope does well, the other graces of the Christian character do well, but this charity excels them all. Look at some of the proofs of the pre-eminence of charity. Faith must be immortal, because man can never dispense with his confidence in God. Heaven will not destroy the need for that, but will perfect the child-like trust. Hope can never die out, for a noble, blessed being, a child of the Infinite must always be aspiring to greater :perfection, and reaching to the days which are before.
1. Charity, to my view, is the greatest of the three graces, because it is the most God-like. Faith believes the Bible, hope rests upon it, charity enlarges the Bible. There is more light to break forth over Gods Word, and the loving heart will be the first to catch it. This helps to give charity the pre-eminence.
2. Charity is pre-eminent, inasmuch as it is the greatest stimulant to labour. The world is so fashioned, man is so placed that there is always a great and urgent need for work. It is work that turns the wilderness into a paradise, which levels mountains and fills up valleys. Hope is a great aid to diligence. The ploughman would not plough, by reason of the cold, if he were not encouraged by hope, and shown in anticipation the verdure of the next spring, the blossoms of the next summer, and the harvest of the next autumn. But ofttimes there is work to be done when faith is feeble and hope is ready to die, and then love alone can strengthen the labourer for the task. In the sick chamber there must be weary watchfulness and diligence, hope cannot sustain, nor can faith; but the care is as tender and the diligence is as great as ever, because love is present in the heart of the watcher and the worker, and love sustains when every other support has failed. We want men who will love the world, and who will work for its enlightenment, for its emancipation and its redemption, when difficulties are great, when progress is almost invisible, and when faith and hope are ready to die.
3. The way to obtain this charity is to live close to Him in whom this charity was perfectly exemplified. I must remind you of an old story concerning the tomb of Orpheus, who was so skilled in melody. It was said that the nightingale which built her nest nearest to the tomb had always the sweetest song. Here is a man, a Divine man; Divine pity was expressed in human tears, Divine love worked through human hands, Divine charity was exemplified in human love. He who lives nearest to Jesus will become the most perfect in this charity, and will win the brightest crown within his grasp. (C. Vince.)
The supremacy of love
1. The first thing that must strike every mind, apart from the exceeding beauty of the description, is the many-sidedness of the quality portrayed. It is not one virtue, such as that to which in common speech we have limited the name of charity, but all virtues in one that the apostle is here describing.
2. But the many-sidedness of love is not the only ground of its supremacy. St. Paul next draws attention to its permanence. Love never faileth, and in this respect he again contrasts it with those spiritual gifts which first occasioned the mention of it.
3. And this brings us to the last of the contrasts suggested in this marvellous chapter. Love is not only above all gifts, it is many-sided while they are single; it is permanent while they are fleeting; but it is chief also among the graces which abide, because while they are in their very nature incomplete, it is already stamped with the mark of perfection. Truth may change, or rather the opinions which passed for truth, but the blessed three, faith, hope, and love, shall abide; faith the evidence, hope the earnest, love the very foretaste of heaven. There is no putting of these away as childhood passes into manhood. They were born with our birth, they will follow us to the grave. They are, whether we will or no, the links which bind us to the invisible. And of these love is the greatest, greater than faith, which is trust in God; greater than hope, which is desire after Him. It is the source of them both. It is Gods own likeness already revealed in our hearts. Doubtless in this our present state, love is very far from perfect–God knows how weak it is, how partial, how selfish–but in so far as it is love, I say, it has upon it the stamp of perfection. It is the grace which brought Christ down to earth. It is the grace, the only grace that raises man to heaven. Is your life and mine in any sense an endeavour to follow after the pre-eminent grace of love? To decide the question, let us take St. Pauls description, and honestly try ourselves thereby. (E. M. Young, M.A.)
Charity suggestive of important lessons
I. In this single word Christianity sums up all social morality. There is no analogy to this in any other religion or philosophy. Did Greece or Rome, Egypt or Assyria, ever rear an altar to such a goddess? And who looks for any acknowledgment of her from heathenism now? And the vaunted philanthropy of socialistic philosophy, with all other modern substitutes for the gospel, is but a caricature of the Christian principle.
II. How strongly does this standard of character contrast with that of the world! Who is the man that the age delighteth to honour? Is it the gentle, loving disciple of Jesus? Nay, is it not the proud, selfish, and ambitious?
III. His account of charity sheds a reproving light upon national antipathies and war. Why should the geographical and political divisions of the globe sever the bonds of human brotherhood and limit the sphere of Christian benevolence? Can Christs followers be murderers? and what is war but wholesale murder?
IV. How severely does charity condemn the bigotry of sectarian prejudice and the bitterness of religious controversy! Why should some difference of opinion in matters not fundamental alienate from one another hearts that were else one in Christ? If we differ in many things, do we not agree in more? and are not those in which we agree much more important than those in which we differ?
V. In the light of our exposition, how are we to estimate the guilt of those who cause ruinous divisions in the household of faith? If it is so good and pleasant a thing for brethren to dwell together in unity, who shall measure the mischief done by breaking up the family? If charity is the bond of perfectness, the test of Christian character, the best recommendation of the gospel, and the condemnation of a discordant world, what words shall suffice to express the repugnance of every true disciple to that wicked schismatical spirit which often wounds it so recklessly or murders it outright? (J. Cross, D.D.)
Love
I. Charity is the love of God for Himself above all things, and of man for God and in God. It shows itself in outward acts of love to man, or labour for God. Acts of love strengthen the inward fire of love; and love, which puts itself not forth in deeds of love, would go out, as fire without fuel; but they do not first light it. In God, Love is Himself, and God who is Love, giveth His Spirit who is Love, to pour abroad love into our hearts. Love then is the source and end of all good. Without it, nothing avails; with it, thou hast all things. Love, says St. Laurence, is the beginning of all good, because it is from God, and moves to Him. Love is the means of all good, for it is according to God, and fashioneth our deeds aright. Love is also the end of all good; for it is for the sake of God, and directeth our works, and bringeth them to the right end. It is the end of sins, because it destroyeth them; the end of the commandments, because it perfecteth them; it is the end of all our toils, the end of all ends to us, for our rest is in life everlasting, but God is the end in whom we rest.
II. Whence hath love its birth? In the infinite love of God, charity is greater than faith and hope and any other grace, because it has its source in that which God is. Hence then it is love which gives the value to all deeds of faith, or devotion, or toil, or love, or martyrdom; because love is of God, and refers all to God. Noble self-denying deeds may be for mans praise or in self-complacency; chastity may be proud; alms-giving, vain-glorious. Active service may be its own reward; death itself may be undergone amid obstinacy. Love hath no end but God, seeketh nothing but Himself for Himself. All virtues are but forms of love, for she is the soul of all. Temperance, says Augustine, is love, keeping itself pure and undefiled for God. Fortitude is love, readily enduring all things for the sake of God. Justice is love which serveth God alone, and so hath command over all things subject to man. Prudence is love, distinguishing what helpeth it towards God, from what hindereth it; or, Love, kindled with entire holiness towards God, when it coveteth nothing out of God, is called temperance; when it willingly parteth with all, is called fortitude. The worldly, careless, covetous, hard-hearted, the lovers of pleasure, cannot love God, but neither do they desire to love Him.
III. Holy men have distinguished four stages of love.
1. The first state of fallen man is, alas! to love himself for himself. In this state, he rather fears God than loves Him.
2. Yet man needs God; and so he begins by faith to seek after and love God, because he needs Him. And so he is brought to a second stage of love, to love God for mans own sake. Much as a man might value the sun, because it warms him and ripens his corn, so man makes himself his centre, and loves God because he needs Him. Yet God so humbleth Himself, that He willeth even thus to be loved. Nay, He has therefore surrounded us with the blessings of nature, that all things around us may teach us to love God, because He made them very good. Yet in some such way might a heathen love. It is a Christian form of this love of God for mans own sake, if a man loves Him, because He has redeemed him, because, without Him, he cannot be saved, and he hopes to be saved by Him.
3. Next God becomes known to the soul, and consequently sweet to it; and so, having tasted that the Lord is good, he passes to the third degree, and loves God for His own sake. Yet even in beginning to love God for His own sake, there is a snare lest men should love God for sensible sweetnesses and the consolations which, when He sees good, He gives in prayer or the Holy Sacrament; and so He often withdraws these comforts, and leaves the soul in darkness, after showing her His light, and in dryness, after having bathed her in His sweetness, that He may prove the soul that she follows Him, not for the loaves and fishes, but for love of Himself alone. This is a pure chaste love, which loves God not for any gifts of His, not even for everlasting bliss as His gift. Pure love would not be contented with all the glories and brightness and beauty of heaven itself: it stops short of nothing, it could be satisfied with nothing, but the love of God Himself. It loves God because He is good ; and so it loves the will of God, and becomes conformed to it, and wills, or wills not, not for its own pleasure, but for the will of God.
4. And so the soul is formed towards that last stage of love, of which, blessed are they who have for a moment some faint glimpse in this life, but which is life eternal, that man should love himself only for the sake of God. In this the soul, borne out of itself with Divine love, losing itself in a manner, as though it were not, emptied of itself, goeth forth wholly into God, and cleaving to God, becometh one spirit with Him, so that it may say, My flesh and my heart faileth, but Thou art the God of my heart and God my portion for ever. For since God is the centre of all things, so the soul, when perfected, must will to be nothing but what God wills; to be, only that He may live in it; to be dissolved, as it were, and wholly transfused into the will of God. Of these stages of love, the love of God only for ones own sake, is blessed as a step towards that which is better; yet there is much danger lest, if God gives a man not what he wills, or what he wills not, he should lose what love he seemed to have. Thus people have become embittered or impatient through misfortunes, as though God had dealt hardly with them, and have thrown off the love of God.
IV. How, then, are we to know whether we have love; how gain it? The tests whereby we may know whether we have this love of God for Himself are also the means of gaining it, or of increasing it. How is it with those whom you dearly love on earth? Be this the proof of your love of God.
1. You gladly think of them, when absent. You are glad to turn from converse with others, to speak with them. One word or look of theirs is sweeter than all which is not they.
2. You are glad to hear of those you love; you are glad when others speak good of them.
3. You love anything which belongs to them
4. You gladly suffer for them.
5. You have no other will than theirs.
6. You are jealous for their honour.
7. For their sake you value not any outward things which others prize.
8. You do all things for their sake and count nothing too little, nothing too great to do for them. Conclusion: Faint not, any who would love Jesus, if ye find yourselves yet far short of what He Himself who is love saith of the love of Him. Perfect love is heaven. When ye are perfected in love, your work on earth is done. There is no short road to heaven or to love.
Do what in thee lies by the grace of God, and He will lead thee from strength to strength, and grace to grace, and love to love.
1. Be diligent by His grace to do no wilful sin; for sin, wilfully done, kills the soul, and casts out of it the love of God.
2. Seek to love nothing out of God. God re-makes a broken heart and fills it with love. He cannot fill a divided heart.
3. Think often of God. For how canst thou know or love God if thou fillest thy mind with thoughts of all things under the sun, and thy thoughts wander to the ends of the earth, and thou gatherest them not unto God?
4. Bring all things, as thou mayest, nigh to God; let not them hurry thee away from Him.
5. Be not held back by any thought of unworthiness or by failures from the childlike love of God.
6. Be diligent, after thy power, to do deeds of love. Think nothing too little, nothing too low, to do lovingly for the sake of God. Bear with infirmities, ungentle tempers, contradictions; visit the sick, relieve the poor, etc.
7. Where, above all, shouldest thou seek for His love but in the feast of His love? Without it, ye cannot have any true love. (E. B. Pusey, D.D.)
Christian love
I. Is the essential principle of all genuine religion. We love God because He first loved us. This affection is in every case called forth into its strength by the manifested affection of the Redeemer. Here, then, is a test for universal use in self-examination. It is love that makes the Christian. It is not talent (verse 1). It is not gifts (verse 2). It is not merit (verse 3).
II. Is the principle of all genuine social life. If God so loves us, we ought also to love one another. Christians–
1. Are the children of one Fathers household, and hence must love each other as kindred.
2. Are under equal exposures. The world drives up against them on the outside; they should therefore organise for mutual defence.
3. Have all the same work; and it is time we comforted each other with a comparison of tasks and of patience under them.
III. Is the principle of eminent zeal.
1. There is no comfort in work where there is not love as the motive of it. God loved the world; Christ loved the souls He died to redeem; Christians are moved by love for those around them; or else the work is drudgery, and can never claim blessing.
2. What will not love do and dare? With only an earthly object Love swam the Hellespont, and gave a name to every hero who holds out a torch. With no more than filial strength, it sent Coriolanus back from treason at the gates, and delivered Rome from downfall.
3. But then, how gentle this love is also! This is the only natural force that works by tenderness. It made Paul weep, it filled the eyes of Jesus with tears. Yet there is no effeminacy in it. John, who spoke most about it, was a son of thunder.
4. Such love is effective when everything else would fail. I came to break your head, once said a rough man to Whitefield, with a big stone in hand; but by the grace of God you have broken my heart.
IV. Is the principle of heavenly enjoyment. This wonderful charity issues in a completeness at the limit of life, that the life itself which it tenanted never knew nor even suspected: For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, etc. (C. S. Robinson, D.D.)
Greatest of these is charity.—
Other graces not to be disparaged
When the apostle speaks so highly of charity, he does not mean to disparage the other graces. They also are altogether beautiful, considered apart from charity; only charity has such a sun-like excellence, that in its presence all star-like beauty, and even all moon-like beauty, seem to grow dim and fade, as stars and moon do when the light of day comes to fill our sky. Compare the diamond with a common wayside stone, and we may not be greatly impressed by its beauty and superiority, for the contrast is too great. But set that diamond in a royal crown, encircle it with pearls, let it compare with other jewels, with ruby, and garnet, and emerald, then the depths of its crystal purity are so impressive, and the flashing of its light is so exquisite. Put charity alongside humbleness, bowels of mercies, long-suffering, or forgiving, and then it seems to gather up into itself their charms, and throw over them its charms, and shine forth in the wry midst of them the bond of perfectness. (R. Tuck, B.A.)
The greatness of charity in the width and extent of its sphere
Other graces have particular things with which they are more intimately connected and concerned–special parts of our lives on which they throw the light of their charms, special times in which they actively operate. They are like the winds that blow sometimes, or the rain that falls sometimes, or the snow that covers the earth sometimes, or the lightning that purifies sometimes. But charity is like the Divine sunlight, that shines on always, works always, tempers the winds, and warms the rains, and dissipates the mists, and melts the snow. Sometimes seen and felt, sometimes unseen, but never ceasing its influence, and recognising no earth-limits to its sphere. Charity covers the whole life and relationships of the Christian–his inner thoughts, his uttered feelings, his conduct and intercourse, the associations of the family and society, and also his relations with the dependent, the poor, and the suffering. (R. Tuck, B.A.)
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Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 13. And now [in this present life] abideth faith, hope, charity] These three supply the place of that direct vision which no human embodied spirit can have; these abide or remain for the present state. Faith, by which we apprehend spiritual blessings, and walk with God. Hope, by which we view and expect eternal blessedness, and pass through things temporal so as not to lose those which are eternal. Charity or love, by which we show forth the virtues of the grace which we receive by faith in living a life of obedience to God, and of good will and usefulness to man.
But the greatest of these is charity.] Without faith it is impossible to please God; and without it, we can not partake of the grace of our Lord Jesus: without hope we could not endure, as seeing him who is invisible; nor have any adequate notion of the eternal world; nor bear up under the afflictions and difficulties of life: but great and useful and indispensably necessary as these are, yet charity or love is greater: LOVE is the fulfilling of the law; but this is never said of faith or hope.
IT may be necessary to enter more particularly into a consideration of the conclusion of this very important chapter.
1. Love is properly the image of God in the soul; for God is LOVE. By faith we receive from our Maker; by hope we expect a future and eternal good; but by love we resemble God; and by it alone are we qualified to enjoy heaven, and be one with him throughout eternity. Faith, says one, is the foundation of the Christian life, and of good works; hope rears the superstructure; but love finishes, completes, and crowns it in a blessed eternity. Faith and hope respect ourselves alone; love takes in both GOD and MAN. Faith helps, and hope sustains us; but love to God and man makes us obedient and useful. This one consideration is sufficient to show that love is greater than either faith or hope.
2. Some say love is the greatest because it remains throughout eternity, whereas faith and hope proceed only through life; hence we say that there faith is lost in sight, and hope in fruition. But does the apostle say so? Or does any man inspired by God say so? I believe not. Faith and hope will as necessarily enter into eternal glory as love will. The perfections of God are absolute in their nature, infinite in number, and eternal in their duration. However high, glorious, or sublime the soul may be in that eternal state, it will ever, in respect to God, be limited in its powers, and must be improved and expanded by the communications of the supreme Being. Hence it will have infinite glories in the nature of God to apprehend by faith, to anticipate by hope, and enjoy by love.
3. From the nature of the Divine perfections there must be infinite glories in them which must be objects of faith to disembodied spirits; because it is impossible that they should be experimentally or possessively known by any creature. Even in the heaven of heavens we shall, in reference to the infinite and eternal excellences of God, walk by faith, and not by sight. We shall credit the existence of infinite and illimitable glories in him, which, from their absolute and infinite nature, must be incommunicable. And as the very nature of the soul shows it to be capable of eternal growth and improvement; so the communications from the Deity, which are to produce this growth, and effect this improvement, must be objects of faith to the pure spirit; and, if objects of faith, consequently objects of hope; for as hope is “the expectation of future good,” it is inseparable from the nature of the soul, to know of the existence of any attainable good without making it immediately the object of desire or hope. And is it not this that shall constitute the eternal and progressive happiness of the immortal spirit; viz. knowing, from what it has received, that there is infinitely more to be received; and desiring to be put in possession of every communicable good which it knows to exist?
4. As faith goes forward to view, so hope goes forward to desire; and God continues to communicate, every communication making way for another, by preparing the soul for greater enjoyment, and this enjoyment must produce love. To say that the soul can have neither faith nor hope in a future state is to say that, as soon as it enters heaven, it is as happy as it can possibly be; and this goes to exclude all growth in the eternal state, and all progressive manifestations and communications of God; and consequently to fix a spirit, which is a composition of infinite desires, in a state of eternal sameness, in which it must be greatly changed in its constitution to find endless gratification.
5. To sum up the reasoning on this subject I think it necessary to observe, 1. That the term faith is here to be taken in the general sense of the word, for that belief which a soul has of the infinite sufficiency and goodness of God, in consequence of the discoveries he has made of himself and his designs, either by revelation, or immediately by his Spirit. Now we know that God has revealed himself not only in reference to this world, but in reference to eternity; and much of our faith is employed in things pertaining to the eternal world, and the enjoyments in that state. 2. That hope is to be taken in its common acceptation, the expectation of future good; which expectation is necessarily founded on faith, as faith is founded on knowledge. God gives a revelation which concerns both worlds, containing exceeding great and precious promises relative to both. We believe what he has said on his own veracity; and we hope to enjoy the promised blessings in both worlds, because he is faithful who has promised. 3. As the promises stand in reference to both worlds, so also must the faith and hope to which these promises stand as objects. 4. The enjoyments in the eternal world are all spiritual, and must proceed immediately from God himself. 5. God, in the plenitude of his excellences, is as incomprehensible to a glorified spirit, as he is to a spirit resident in flesh and blood. 6. Every created, intellectual nature is capable of eternal improvement. 7. If seeing God as he is be essential to the eternal happiness of beatified spirits, then the discoveries which he makes of himself must be gradual; forasmuch as it is impossible that an infinite, eternal nature can be manifested to a created and limited nature in any other way. 8. As the perfections of God are infinite, they are capable of being eternally manifested, and, after all manifestations, there must be an infinitude of perfections still to be brought to view. 9. As every soul that has any just notion of God must know that he is possessed of all possible perfections, so these perfections, being objects of knowledge, must be objects of faith. 10. Every holy spirit feels itself possessed of unlimited desires for the enjoyment of spiritual good, and faith in the infinite goodness of God necessarily implies that he will satisfy every desire he has excited. 11. The power to gratify, in the Divine Being, and the capacity to be gratified, in the immortal spirit, will necessarily excite continual desires, which desires, on the evidence of faith, will as necessarily produce hope, which is the expectation of future good. 12. All possible perfections in God are the objects of faith; and the communication of all possible blessedness, the object of hope. 13. Faith goes forward to apprehend, and hope to anticipate, as God continues to discover his unbounded glories and perfections. 14. Thus discovered and desired, their influences become communicated, love possesses them, and is excited and increased by the communication. 15. With respect to those which are communicated, faith and hope cease, and go forward to new apprehensions and anticipations, while love continues to retain and enjoy the whole. 16. Thus an eternal interest is kept up, and infinite blessings, in endless succession, apprehended, anticipated and enjoyed.
6. My opinion that faith and hope, as well as love, will continue in a future state, will no doubt appear singular to many who have generally considered the two former as necessarily terminating in this lower world; but this arises from an improper notion of the beatified state, and from inattention to the state and capacity of the soul. If it have the same faculties there which it has here, howsoever improved they may be, it must acquire its happiness from the supreme Being in the way of communication, and this communication must necessarily be gradual for the reasons already alleged; and if gradual, then there must be (if in that state we have any knowledge at all of the Divine nature) faith that such things exist, and may be communicated; desire to possess them because they are good; and hope that these good things shall be communicated.
7. I conclude, therefore, from these and a multitude of other reasonings which might be brought to bear on this subject, that faith and hope will exist in the eternal world as well as love; and that there, as well as here, it may endlessly be said, the greatest of these is love. With great propriety therefore does the apostle exhort, Follow after love, it being so essential to our comfort and happiness here, and to our beatification in the eternal world; and how necessary faith and hope are to the same end we have already seen.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Take us according to our state in this life, we have, and shall have, the exercise of three graces: faith, to evidence unto us those things which we do not see, either by the eye of sense or reason;
hope, by which we wait for the receiving of them; and
love, by which we delight ourselves in God, and show obedience to the will of God. But of all these, love is
the greatest, either in respect of its use and profitableness unto men, or in respect of its duration and abiding (which last the apostle seemeth chiefly to intend).
Faith shall cease when we come to the vision of God; and hope, when we come to the fruition of God in glory; love also will cease, as to some acts, but never as to a pleasure and a delighting in God; that will be to eternity.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
13. And nowTranslate, “Butnow.” “In this present state” [HENDERSON].Or, “now” does not express time, but opposition, asin 1Co 5:11, “the casebeing so” [GROTIUS];whereas it is the case that the three gifts,”prophecy,” “tongues,” and “knowledge”(cited as specimens of the whole class of gifts) “fail”(1Co 13:8), there abidepermanently only these threefaith, hope, charity. In onesense faith and hope shall be done away, faith beingsuperseded by sight, and hope by actual fruition (Rom 8:24;2Co 5:7); and charity, or love,alone never faileth (1Co 13:8).But in another sense, “faith and hope,” as well as”charity,” ABIDE;namely, after the extraordinary gifts have ceased; for those threeare necessary and sufficient for salvation at all times,whereas the extraordinary gifts are not at all so; compare the use of”abide,” 1Co 3:14.Charity, or love, is connected specially with the Holy Spirit,who is the bond of the loving union between the brethren (Rom 15:30;Col 1:8). Faith is towardsGod. Hope is in behalf of ourselves. Charity is love toGod creating in us love towards our neighbor. In an unbeliever thereis more or less of the three oppositesunbelief, despair, hatred.Even hereafter faith in the sense of trust in God“abideth”; also “hope,” in relation to ever newjoys in prospect, and at the anticipation of ever increasingblessedness, sure never to be disappointed. But love alone in everysense “abideth”; it is therefore “the greatest”of the three, as also because it presupposes “faith,” whichwithout “love” and its consequent “works” is dead(Gal 5:6; Jas 2:17;Jas 2:20).
butrather, “and”;as there is not so strong opposition between charity and the othertwo, faith and hope, which like it also “abide.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three,…. Which are the principal graces of the Spirit of God: faith is to be understood, not of a faith of miracles, for that does not abide; nor of an historical one, or mere assent to truth; persons may have this faith, and believe but for a while; but of that faith, which is peculiar to God’s elect; is a fruit and effect of electing grace, and for that reason abides; is the gift of God, and one of those which are without repentance; is the work of God, and the operation of his Spirit, and therefore will be performed with power; it is the grace by which a soul sees Christ, goes unto him, lays hold on him, receives him, relies on him, and lives upon him: “hope” is also a gift of God’s grace, implanted in regeneration; has God and Christ, and not any worldly thing, or outward performance, for its object, ground, and foundation, to build upon; it is of things unseen, future, difficult, yet possible to be enjoyed; it is supported by the love of God, is encouraged by promises, and is sure, being fixed on Christ and his righteousness; it is that grace by which saints wait for things promised, and rejoice in the believing views of glory and happiness: charity designs love to God, Christ, and the saints, as has been explained, and a large account is given of it in this chapter: these are the three chief and leading graces in God’s people, and they abide and continue with them; they may fail sometimes, as to their lively exercise, but never as to their being and principle; faith may droop and hang its wing, hope may not be lively, and love may wax cold, but neither of them can be lost; Christ prays that faith fail not, hope on him is an anchor sure and steadfast, and nothing can separate from the love of Christ; as not from the love of Christ to his people, so not from theirs to him: these graces abide now, during the present life: he that has true faith in Christ, shall die in it; and he that has a good hope through grace, shall have it in his death; and love will outlive death, and be in its height and glory in the other world: for which reason it is added,
but the greatest of these is charity; and is said to be so, not that it is on every account the greatest; faith in many things exceeds that, as what is ascribed to it in Scripture shows; but because of the peculiar properties and effects of it before mentioned, it including faith and hope, as in 1Co 13:7 and besides many other things, and because, without this, faith and hope are nothing: and besides, its usefulness is more extensive than either of the other two; a man’s faith is only for himself; a just man lives by his own faith, and not another’s; one man’s faith will be of no service to another, and the same is true of hope; but by love saints serve one another, both in things temporal and spiritual, and chiefly it is said to be the greatest, because most durable; in the other world, faith will be changed for vision, and hope for enjoyment, but love will abide, and be in its full perfection and constant exercise, to all eternity. The Jews w say much the same of humility the apostle does here of charity;
“wisdom, fear, humility, they are alike,
, “but humility is greater than them all”.”
w Piske Toseph. in T. Bab. Yebamot, art. 196.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Abideth (). Singular, agreeing in number with (faith), first in list.
The greatest of these ( ). Predicative adjective and so no article. The form of is comparative, but it is used as superlative, for the superlative form had become rare in the Koine (Robertson, Grammar, pp. 667ff.). See this idiom in Matt 11:11; Matt 18:1; Matt 23:11. The other gifts pass away, but these abide forever. Love is necessary for both faith and hope. Does not love keep on growing? It is quite worth while to call attention to Henry Drummond’s famous sermon The Greatest Thing in the World and to Dr. J.D. Jones’s able book The Greatest of These. Greatest, Dr. Jones holds, because love is an attribute of God.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
And now [ ] . Rev., but; better than and, bringing out the contrast with the transient gifts. Now is logical and not temporal. Thus, as it is.
Abideth. Not merely in this life. The essential permanence of the three graces is asserted. In their nature they are eternal.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And now abideth” (nuni) The future, progressive, unending Greek now is here used meaning “now and henceforth forevermore, irrevocably, world without end.” (de menei) moreover remains, continues, or abides unceasingly” – Three specific charismatic gifts doled out to each and all children of God.
a) “Faith” (pistis) By it men may please God, be saved, justified, receive a pure heart, become a child of God, receive peace from God, Heb 11:6; Eph 2:8-9; Act 13:39; Gal 3:26; Rom 5:1. By it men must serve God to be recognized as justified before men Rom 4:1-5; Jas 2:14-24; Eph 2:10.
b) “Hope” (elpis) This hope is a lively hope that removes shame from the Christian conscience, and is an anchor stabilizer of the soul, sure, certain. 1Pe 1:3; Rom 5:5; Heb 6:18-19; Tit 2:13.
c) “Charity” (agape) It is more than a state of care, concern, and compassion for persons, principles, and things. Love involves unselfish, uncovetous giving of self, things, and service to God and men.
d) “These three” (ta tris tauta) “These three” or the trio” (of spiritual or charismatic gifts). Let it be recalled that the specific theme of 1Co 12:1 to 1Co 14:40 is CHARISMATIC GIFTS; and some were given to members for church edification of the church body for a limited time only, until the Bible was completed – thereafter only three gifts remained; any person who can count to or spell “three” should understand. Eph 4:11-13.
2) “But the greatest of these is charity.” (meizon de touton he agape) “But the supreme (greatest) one of these – the abiding two of spiritual gifts, remaining, continuing, and unceasingly abiding in the church (is, exists as) Love.” This gift bears one of the six primary attributes of the essence of God’s nature to every child of God – love, so noble, so divine -heavenly treasure for earthly use, for God’s glory. On it was suspended all the law and the prophets and in its exercise is the greatest good achieved – love for the church, the Word, and a lost world is the motor, the motivating source and origin of all that is honorably done. May each cultivate it in his life.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
13. But now remaineth faith, hope, love. This is a conclusion from what goes before — that love is more excellent than other gifts; but in place of the enumeration of gifts that he had previously made, he now puts faith and hope along with love, as all those gifts are comprehended under this summary. For what is the object of the entire ministry, but that we may be instructed as to these things? (805) Hence the term faith has a larger acceptation here, than in previous instances; for it is as though he had said — “There are, it is true, many and various gifts, but they all point to this object, and have an eye to it.”
To remain, then, conveys the idea, that, as in the reckoning up of an account, when everything has been deducted, this is the sum that remains For faith does not remain after death, inasmuch as the Apostle elsewhere contrasts it with sight, (2Co 5:7,) and declares that it remains only so long as we are absent from the Lord We are now in possession of what is meant by faith in this passage — that knowledge of God and of the divine will, which we obtain by the ministry of the Church; or, if you prefer it, faith universal, and taken in its proper acceptation. Hope is nothing else than perseverance in faith For when we have once believed the word of God, it remains that we persevere until the accomplishment of these things. Hence, as faith is the mother of hope, so it is kept up by it, so as not to give way.
The greatest of these is love. It is so, if we estimate its excellence by the effects which he has previously enumerated; and farther, if we take into view its perpetuity. For every one derives advantage from his own faith and hope, but love extends its benefits to others. Faith and hope belong to a state of imperfection: love will remain even in a state of perfection. For if we single out the particular effects of faith, and compare them, faith will be found to be in many respects superior. Nay, even love itself, according to the testimony of the same Apostle, (1Th 1:3,) is an effect of faith Now the effect is, undoubtedly, inferior to its cause.
Besides, there is bestowed upon faith a signal commendation, which does not apply to love, when John declares that it is our victory, which overcometh the world. (1Jo 5:4.) In fine, it is by faith that we are born against that we become the sons of God — that we obtain eternal life, and that Christ dwells in us. (Eph 3:17.) Innumerable other things I pass over; but these few are sufficient to prove what I have in view — that faith is, in many of its effects, superior to love. Hence it is evident, that it is declared here to be superior — not in every respect, but inasmuch as it will be perpetual, and holds at present the first place in the preservation of the Church.
It is, however, surprising how much pleasure Papists take in thundering forth these words. “If faith justifies,” say they, “then much more does love, which is declared to be greater.” A solution of this objection is already furnished from what I have stated, but let us grant that love is in every respect superior; what sort of reasoning is that — that because it is greater, therefore it is of more avail for justifying men! Then a king will plow the ground better than a husbandman, and he will make a shoe better than a shoemaker, because he is more noble than either! Then a man will run faster than a horse, and will carry a heavier burden than an elephant, because he is superior in dignity! Then angels will give light to the earth better than the sun and moon, because they are more excellent! If the power of justifying depended on the dignity or merit of faith they might perhaps be listened to; but we do not teach that faith justifies, on the ground of its having more worthiness, or occupying a higher station of honor, but because it receives the righteousness which is freely offered in the gospel. Greatness or dignity has nothing to do with this. Hence this passage gives Papists no more help, than if the Apostle had given the preference to faith above everything else.
(805) “ En ces trois choses;” — “In these three things.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
Appleburys Comments
Text
1Co. 13:13. But now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
Commentary
Things That Abide (13)
But now abideth.There was no reason for the church at Corinth to feel insecure simply because they were in the childhood period of the church so far as spiritual gifts were concerned. While they were looking forward to the completed revelation of the Word of God, they were reminded that there were things that did abidefaith, hope, love.
faith.Faith as an abiding thing is not to be confused with faith which is listed as one of the spiritual gifts, for that was a thing that would be done away. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ whom God raised from the dead is an abiding faith. Paul said, I know him whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to guard that which I have committed unto him against that day (2Ti. 1:12).
hope.Hope that is based solidly on the fact of the resurrection will abide until He comes with the clouds and every eye shall see Him (Rev. 1:7).
love.This is the most excellent way; it was permanent; it was the greatest of the three abiding things. The apostles advice is: Follow after love.
Summary
In many ways, chapter thirteen is the high point in First Corinthians. Even taken alone, it is a wonderful message of practical value. The most excellent way should be followed by all Christians of all ages. But, like all Scripture, it should not be taken out of its context if it is to be understood. We should remember that chapters twelve, thirteen, and fourteen are a unit and should be studied together. This is seen in the closing statement of chapter twelve and the opening words of chapter fourteen. Paul closes the twelfth chapter by saying, And moreover a most excellent way show I unto you. Then in chapter thirteen he shows the importance, the meaning, and the abiding nature of love. This he does over against the wrangling that was going on in the church at Corinth over the possession of spiritual gifts, particularly, the gift of tongues. The climax of his appeal is: Follow after love.
In a series of conditional statements, Paul raises the question of the value of spiritual gifts such as speaking in tongues or possessing the gift of prophecy or having faith to remove mountains. He boldly declares that without love he is ineffective as a noisy gong; he is nothing; he gains nothing.
The description of love that follows is sufficient to show the church that this is the solution to their problem of strife, for love is long-suffering and kind. It possesses all those characteristics that nullify jealousy, arrogance, selfishness, irritability, and desire to repay evil for evil. It has no pleasure in wrongdoing; it rejoices with the truth. Love covers all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. This was the divine remedy for a church that was sick because of it was torn by strife and jealousy over possession of miraculous powers, disrupted by pride in their leaders, and discredited before the community because of unchristian conduct.
The apostle then presents an explanation of the transitory nature of prophecy, tongues, and knowledge in contrast to love that abides. Three of the nine spiritual gifts are used as examples of the whole group. These, although not complete in themselves, served to bring about the completed revelation of Gods willthe Bible. When the completed revelation came and was confirmed by the accompanying miraculous demonstration, the incomplete things were done away. They are likened to the things of childhood that are put away by the grown man. They were like seeing an imperfect reflection in a mirror in contrast to the complete revelation in the Bible that is like seeing face to face. They gave incomplete knowledge, but the completed revelation enables one to know all things that pertain to life and godliness with nothing more to be added, for God fully understands the needs of His people and has completely revealed His will in the Word.
As the church faced the fact that these things which were causing strife and division among them were, after all, only transitory, they were reminded that there are things that abide. Faith, hope, and love would abide long after the spiritual gifts had given way to the completed revelation of Gods Word. Therefore the apostle urged them to follow after love.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(13) And now abideth . . .Better, Thus there abide . . . The now is not here temporal, but logical. It is not now (i.e., this present life) contrasted with the future, but it is the conclusion of the whole argument. From all that has been urged in the previous verses it follows that these three gracesfaith, hope, loveremain imperishable and immortal. Gifts such as the Corinthian Church rejoiced in shall pass away when the perfect succeeds the imperfect; the graces of faith, hope, love shall remain in the next life, exalted and purified. But even in this trinity of graces there is an order, and love stands first. The contrast is not between love which is imperishable and faith and hope which are perishable, but between ephemeral gifts and enduring graces. It is strange how completely in popular thinking this has been lost sight of, and hence we find such words as these
Faith will vanish into sight,
Hope be emptied in delight,
Love in heaven will shine more bright,
Therefore give us love;
which express almost the opposite of what the Apostle really wrote.
There need be no difficulty in understanding that faith, in the sense of trust in Christ as our Saviour, may continue in the heavenly state; indeed, when we see Him face to face, and see actually how great a salvation He hath obtained for us, that faith may be expected to glow with a new and increasing fervour Hope, too, need never cease if that new life is to be progressive. If hope lives by feeding on the present as the promise of the future, surely it will have a more abundant sustenance in that life than in this. Yet love stands supreme; indeed, both faith and hope would perish without her. (See Mat. 26:35; Gal. 5:6.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
13. And now As the net result from all these premises.
Abideth In endless permanence.
Faith Not the transient charism of 1Co 13:12, (where see note,) but the sure reliance on God that will be ever sure in heaven.
Hope That even amid the highest good looks for a still higher. We cannot remember any other passage in the Bible that indicates the existence of progress for the soul in heaven than this word in this place.
These three In view of the many passages of Paul in which the trinity is shadowed without being fully expressed, we cannot quite reject the opinion of Grotius, that Paul means a trinity of graces.
Greatest is charity Love is not only an eternal grace, but the highest among the eternal. Faith is indeed the condition to our Christian life, but love is its completion. Faith but unlocks the door by which we enter into the blessedness of its superior, love. Other graces contribute to heaven; love constitutes heaven: for a heart of love in a world of love is heaven. If love is a happiness derived from the happiness of others, how rich must be that happiness where countless millions are as happy as the boundaries of their finite natures permit! And this love is but a continuance and enlargement of a grace here possessed. If a spark of God’s love beams now in our heart, it is of the nature of heaven. If not, then we have no true faith, no well-grounded hope, no godlike love. These three go hand in hand, and never can be separated; nor can one exist without the others.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘But now abides faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love.’
There are in fact three things that, unlike spiritual gifts, are permanent and enduring, continually abiding now and which will abide through the resurrection and beyond, faith, hope and love. Unlike prophecy and knowledge these have become essential parts of what we are ourselves. And unlike them they are abiding, so that we have them now and we will have them in eternity. Faith because it is the channel of our life in Christ and will continue ever more fully when we see Him, for then we will trust Him even more fully than we could ever now think possible; hope because it continually uplifts us now and will, when we see Him in eternity, continue on making the future ever more bright, for, as we hope on, eternity will continue to reveal more and more of what we can never now even begin to comprehend (compare 1Co 15:19); and love because of what love is, unchanging and eternal, revealed in God and experienced in our own hearts from the moment when we became His, which will reveal more and more to our hearts of what He truly is.
But faith and hope are our response to what God is and what God offers, while love we share with God Himself. Love alone is reciprocal. He too loves, for He is love (1Jn 4:8; 1Jn 4:16), and we love because He first loved us. So His love reaches out to us and our love reaches out to Him. Thereby do we know each other. Thereby we enter into the heart of God. Thus even of these three love is the greatest for thereby even now we know God in a fuller way than prophecy or knowledge can teach us, and as we continue to grow in love we will continue to know Him more and more. So let love prevail for it is over all and beyond all.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
1Co 13:13. And now abideth faith, &c. “There are, then, only these three things which last, in opposition to the spiritual gifts before spoken of, which were to be of short continuance in the church. Faith, hope, love, are the sum of perfection on earth; love alone is the sum of perfection in Heaven: nay, it is Heaven itself; for
In obedience to what Heaven decrees, Knowledge shall fail, and prophesy shall cease; But lasting charity’s more ample sway, Not bound by time, nor subject to decay, In happy triumph shall for ever live, And endless good diffuse, and endless praise receive.”
See Mr. Prior’s paraphrase of the whole chapter.
Inferences.How ambitious should we be of abounding in every exercise of so amiable a grace, as brotherly Christian love, which results from faith in Christ, and from love to him, and to God through him! What are all miraculous gifts of tongues, of prophesy, of immediate revelations, of working wonders, and of a firm assent to the great truths of the Gospel, whereby we might be fitted for service in the church? And what are all external acts of the most generous liberality to the poor, and suffering martyrdom itself for our profession of Christ’s name, without a principle of grace in the heart, and particularly the grace of love, to animate, spiritualize, and improve them for the glory of God, and our own and other’s good? They may appear with specious and noisy pomp; but, without love, will be of no saving advantage to us, and will leave us miserable creatures for ever. How admirable is evangelical love in its benevolent temper and behaviour, meekness, patience, humility, and forbearance; in its candour, and willingness to believe and hope the best; in its sympathy, disinterestedness, and generosity; and in its tender, touching, and friendly care, for the welfare of others! And of how much longer duration is this excellent grace in the faithful saints of God, than all spiritual gifts, which may be lost, even here below, and will have their period with this world at farthest, and be useless in the next; and which at best leave us very imperfect in our knowledge, like children in understanding, while we are here! And though faith and hope may abide with us, and are as necessary as love, during our continuance in this world; yet love is the most eminent of these graces, as on many other accounts, so especially, because it will abide, and be consummately perfected in the saints, together with their knowledge of divine things, in Heaven; where, not only all spiritual gifts, but faith and hope themselves, in their present use and exercise, as well as several other graces, that are suited to this state of warfare, shall cease; and they shall have no further occasion for them, to all eternity.
REFLECTIONS.1st, The more excellent way, which the Apostle had been recommending, he here describes; and that is love, which is the greatest of graces, shall endure for ever, when gifts are vanished away; and without which they are nothing worth.
1. Though I speak with the tongues of men, in all the various languages of the globe, or even of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal (so inharmonious), and a mere empty noise. Little reason, therefore, had the Corinthians to value themselves upon the gift of tongues, when, through their abuse of that excellent gift, it afforded them too much occasion for pride and contention. And,
2. Though I have the gift of prophesy, can foretel future events, and understand all mysteries, through divine illumination discovering the meaning of the most abstruse prophesies and figures; and have all knowledge, such as never mortal man attained before, and have not love, it signifies nothing to my salvation. Such light would only be sufficient to lead me into eternal darkness.
3. And though I had all faith, to work the most stupendous miracles, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing in God’s account, and utterly destitute of the spirit of vital Christianity.
4. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, it would be utterly unprofitable to myself, if divine love was not the principle from which my alms-giving proceeded. Note; Many give largely to the poor, who never did a truly charitable act in their lives.
5. And though I give my body to be burned for my profession of the Gospel, and have not love to God, and to men for his sake, it profiteth me nothing. The affectation of leaving a great name, or the conceit of the meritoriousness of such a sacrifice, may even lead a man to a stake. He may burn for Christ, and yet be disowned by him, if this genuine mark of discipleship be wanting.
2nd, We have the true properties of that most excellent of graces, love.
1. It suffereth long, patiently enduring provocation, unruffled with affronts, passing by offences, and suppressing every motion of resentment which would rise within the soul.
2. It is kind, courteous, affable, benevolent, and opens the lips, the hand, and heart, to every good word and work.
3. Love envieth not the superior gifts, graces, attainments, honours, or affluence, which others enjoy; but takes due pleasure in them as if they were her own.
4. Love vaunteth not itself, is not ostentatious of any excellencies or superior advantages; does not treat inferiors with contempt and insolence, nor rashly or perversely utter any thing to a brother’s disadvantage.
5. It is not puffed up, does not fill the mind with vain conceits of man’s importance, nor suffer us to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think.
6. It doth not behave itself unseemly, admits of no conduct unsuitable to the age, station, or circumstances, of the person; suffers nothing mean, indecent, or dishonourable, to enter the mind, or be carried into act.
7. Seeketh not her own, is influenced by no mercenary motives, nor pursues any private ends, inordinately craving honour, gain, or applause; but is generous, noble, and disinterested, sacrificing her own advantage for the good of others.
8. It is not provoked; but, under the most exasperating insults, can preserve a holy serenity; and even be angry, and not sin; displeased at the sin, yet pitying the sinner; always restraining just resentment within bounds, and ready to be reconciled.
9. It thinketh no evil, never seeking to pry into the conduct of others to discover faults, but ever ready to put the best construction on their words and actions; entertains no undue suspicions; and is willing to forget as well as forgive every injury.
10. It rejoiceth not in iniquity, looks not, but with grief and sorrow, on the sins, perverseness, and infirmities of others. But,
11. Rejoiceth in the truth, glad of the success of the Gospel; pleased with beholding its influence, wherever it appears; and ever delighting to bear testimony to the truth, and speaking from the heart.
12. It beareth all things; covers men’s faults with the mantle of love; pities their weakness, and suffers without the thought of retaliating their perverseness.
13. It believeth all things; willing to entertain the most favourable opinion of all, averse to every ungrounded suspicion, and candidly disposed to receive the excuse and explanation where any thing may have been mistaken.
14. It hopeth all things; where matters appear dark, and cannot but raise doubts, still Christian love will not despair but that they can yet be cleared up satisfactorily, or, where the evil is evident, that the fault will be repented of and amended.
15. It endureth all things, with unshaken fortitude bearing up under every affliction, temptation, and persecution, and for the sake of Christ and his people ready to undergo any sufferings.
Such is the transcendant grace of love: in the glass of which we should often look, compare our features with this perfect pattern, and daily seek that we may grow more like him whose nature and name is Love.
3rdly, The Apostle proceeds in his commendation of love, not only as superior to all gifts, but as the chief of all graces.
1. Love never faileth. All gifts must quickly have an end; whether there be prophesies, the gift of foretelling future events, or interpreting the Scriptures, they shall fail, and be of no farther use in the eternal world; whether there be tongues, they shall cease, when they have answered their present use of spreading the Gospel through the world; and in Heaven the faithful shall have but one language; whether there be knowledge, the extraordinary insight into divine truth, it shall vanish away; in glory this knowledge will be no longer needed; all will be intuitively clear.
2. All gifts are suited only to a state of imperfection; when we arrive to maturity in glory, we shall be above them. For we know in part, and prophesy in part, our greatest attainments are at present defective; but when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away; and the nature of the saints of God being exalted to the highest pitch of which it is capable, all imperfection will be swallowed up in the utmost perfection of knowledge and holiness, absolute and everlasting. Our present and future state differ as much as manhood does from infancy. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; and such he insinuates were all their highest present attainments, no better than the poor conceptions and lisping of babes: but when I became a man, I put away childish things; and in the heavenly state so low thoughts shall we entertain of all our present most esteemed acquisitions; we shall despise what in the days of childish folly we valued, and view everything, with a distinctness of spiritual vision as much above our present state, as the thoughts of manhood are superior to the fancies of infancy: for now we see through a glass darkly, the mirror reflecting the object indistinctly, and, like a riddle, the truth is enveloped with obscurity; but then face to face, clearly and fully, by intuition, without any darkening medium. Now know I in part, with all my singular gifts I know but in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known, comprehending heavenly objects with the most distinct knowledge, and in the same way that God who is a Spirit, and his angels, know me.
3. Love is the most excellent of graces, as well as above all gifts. And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three cardinal graces, inseparable from the Christian character, and which till death must be in constant exercise, if we be finally saved; but the greatest of these is love, the others being as means to this as the end. And when faith is swallowed up in sight, and hope in the fruition of eternal blessedness, love, the bright image of the Deity, shall glow towards the eternal Three, and towards the celestial hosts, in every bosom of the faithful, and continue to burn, with unextinguished ardour throughout the countless ages of eternity.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
1Co 13:13 . ] nunc autem, and thus , since, according to 1Co 13:8-12 , the present temporary charismata do not continue but cease in the future age, continue (into the everlasting life and onward in it) faith, hope, love . [2093] This explanation of in a conclusive sense, as 1Co 12:18 ; 1Co 12:20 , and of as meaning eternal continuance, [2094] has been rightly given by Irenaeus, Haer. ii. p. 47, iv. 25; Tertullian, de pat. 12; Photius in Oecumenius, p. 553; Grotius, Billroth, de Wette, Osiander, Lipsius ( Rechtfertigungsl. pp. 98, 210), Ewald, Maier, Hofmann. For, although the majority of interpreters since Chrysostom (including Flatt, Heydenreich, Rckert, David Schulz, Neander) have explained in a temporal sense: “but for the present, so long as that glorious state lies still far off from us” (Rckert), and of continuance in the present age (in the church), this is incorrect for the simple reason, that Paul, according to 1Co 13:8 ff., expected the charismata to cease only at the Parousia, and consequently could not have described merely the triad of faith, hope, and love as what was now remaining; the also, prophecy, etc., remain till the Parousia. Hence, too, it was an erroneous expedient to take in the sense of the sum total , which remains as the result of a reckoning (Calvin, Bengel, and others).
] here in the established sense of the fides salvifica . This remains, even in the world to come, the abiding causa apprehendens of blessedness; what keeps the glorified in continued possession of salvation is their abiding trust in the atonement which took place through the death of Christ. Not as if their everlasting glory might be lost by them, but it is their assured possession just through the fact, that to them as of Christ in the very beholding and sharing His glory the faith, through which they become blessed, must remain incapable of being lost . The everlasting fellowship with Christ in the future is not conceivable at all without the everlasting continuance of the living ground and bond of this fellowship, which is none other than faith .
] equally in its established N. T. sense, hope of the everlasting glory ; Rom 5:1 , and frequently. This abides for the glorified, with regard to the everlasting duration and continued development of their glory. How Paul conceived this continued development and that of the Messianic kingdom itself to proceed in detail, cannot indeed be proved. But the idea is not on that account unbiblical, but is necessarily presupposed by the continuance of hope, which is undoubtedly asserted in our text. Moreover, in 1Co 15:24 , steps in the development of the future are manifestly given, as indeed the everlasting generally, according to its essential character as , is not conceivable at all without development to ever higher perfection for the individual, and therefore also is not conceivable without the continuance of hope. The conception of this continued development is not excluded by the notion of the , 1Co 13:10 , but belongs thereto. [2095] Billroth is wrong in saying “faith and hope remain, in so far as their contents is eternal.” That is to confound the objective and subjective. De Wette (comp . Maier) holds that “faith and hope, which go directly to their object, remain by passing over into sight .” But in that way precisely they would not remain (Rom 8:24 ; Heb 11:1 ), and only love would remain. For all the three the must be meant in the same sense. Our interpretation, again, does not run counter either to 2Co 5:7 (where surely the future seeing of the salvation does not exclude the continuance of the fides salvifica ), or to Rom 8:24 , Heb 11:1 , since in our text also the hope meant is hope of something future not yet come to manifestation , while the fides salvifica has to all eternity a suprasensuous (Heb. loc. cit. ) object (the atoning power of the sacrifice of Jesus). Hofmann transforms it in his exposition to this, that it is asserted of the Christian who has believed, hoped, and loved that he brings thither with him what he is as such, so that he has an abiding heritage in these three things. But that is not what Paul says, but simply that even in the fixture aeon, into which the charismata will not continue, Christians will not cease to believe, to hope, to love.
] brings the whole attention, before anything further is said, earnestly to bear upon this triad.
] is not to be taken as , for must apply to the foregoing , but as: greater however (comp . 1Co 14:5 ) among these , i.e. of higher value (than the two others) among these three, is love . Regarding with the gen. partitivus , comp . Mat 23:11 . Hofmann has no warrant for desiderating the article; comp . Luk 9:46 . Why love holds this highest place, has been already explained, 1Co 13:1-7 ; [2096] because, namely, in relation to faith love, through which it works (comp . Gal 5:6 ), conditions its moral worth (1Co 13:1-3 ) and the moral fruitfulness of the life of Christian fellowship (1Co 13:4-7 ); consequently without love (which is divine life, 1Jn 4:8 ; 1Jn 4:16 ) faith would be something egotistical, and therefore spurious and only apparent, not even existing at all as regards its true ethical nature; [2097] from which it follows at the same time that in relation to hope also love must be the greater, because if love fails, the hope of future glory seeing that it can only be cherished by the true faith which works by love cannot with reason exist at all (comp . Mat 26:35 ff.)
[2093] The three so-called theological virtues. But faith and hope might also be called virtues , “quia sunt obedientia, quam postulat Deus praestari suo mandato,” Melanchthon.
[2094] If, again, it be assumed that the conception of differs in reference to its different subjects, this is nothing but arbitrary importation. Osiander (comp. Theophylact before him) holds that the has different degrees; in the case of faith and hope, it lasts on to the Parousia; in the case of love, it is absolute, onward beyond the Parousia. And as distinguished from the charismata, it denotes in the case of faith and hope the constant continuance as opposed to the sporadic . What accumulated arbitrariness! Lipsius is correct in substance, but does not define specifically enough the conception of the .
[2095] Comp. also Delitzsch, Psychol. p. 473. Comp. compare. “comp. on Mat 3:5 ” refers to Dr. Meyer’s own commentary on the passage. So also “See on Mat 3:5 .”
[2096] The interpreters who take to mean, but for the present , follow for the most part Chrysostom in stating it as the higher worth of love, that it alone continues in eternity, while faith and hope, as they assume, cease. According to de Wette, Paul seems darkly to indicate the truth that love is the root of faith and hope. But even apart from the fact that this is not a Pauline thought, the reader could not be expected after ver. 7 (where nothing of the kind is even indirectly indicated) to arrive at such a thought. Baur too imports what is not in the text when he says that Paul calls love the greatest, because it is what it is immediately, in an absolute way, and hence also remains always what it is.
[2097] Justification , however, would be by love, only if perfect satisfaction were rendered to its requirements, which is not possible (Rom 13:8 ). Hence the divine economy of salvation has connected justification with faith , the necessary fruit and evidence of which, however, is love. Comp. Melanchthon, “Aliud est causa justificationis, aliud est necessarium ut effectus sequens justificationem ut in vivente dicimus necessario motum esse, qui tamen non est vitae causa.” See also Form. Conc. p. 688 ff.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
DISCOURSE: 1988
FAITH, HOPE, AND CHARITY, COMPARED
1Co 13:13. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
THE scope of the whole chapter is, to shew the superiority of Christian love or charity to all the gifts that were so erroneously estimated, and so ostentatiously displayed, in the Church of Corinth. In the course of his argument, the Apostle enumerates the principal offices of charity, and marks with singular accuracy and minuteness its proper qualities. The last of the properties which he mentions is, that it never faileth; whilst all miraculous powers, of whatever kind they be, are but for the short period of this present life. They, he observes, will soon vanish; but this, instead of disappearing, will endure in uninterrupted exercise, and be continued in undeviating perfection for evermore. Thus incidentally he is led to speak of the whole experience of Christians in relation to the objects of their faith and hope: they view them all but indistinctly, and know them very imperfectly; having little better conception of them than of a riddle, or enigma [Note: See the original, and the marginal translation of ver. 12.], in which some leading particulars only are set forth; and the rest is left, as it were, as matter of conjecture. In short, Christians, not excepting the Apostle himself, are but children, in relation to the deep things of God; and, when they shall be exalted to heaven, they will discard all their puerile notions respecting them, just as they now do the weaknesses of childhood on their arrival at mans estate [Note: ver. 11.]. The Apostle having thus, unintentionally as it were, been drawn from the consideration of miraculous gifts to the mention of Christian graces, proceeds to assert the superiority of love among the sister graces of faith and hope, as he had before shewn its superiority to all the miraculous powers that ever were possessed: There now remain (for constant use and exercise) faith, hope, and charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
To confirm this declaration, we will shew,
I.
The distinguishing excellencies of faith and hope
These, with love, form the cardinal graces of a Christian: and they are indispensable to his happiness, both in this world and in the world to come. That we may know how to appreciate their value, we will distinctly notice the excellencies,
1.
Of faith
[This, when infused into the soul by the Spirit of God, and called forth into exercise according to the will of God, is a principle truly wonderful. It beholds things that are invisible; and presents to the eye of the mind all the perfections and purposes of God himself. It is conversant with all that God has ever revealed; and especially with that stupendous mystery, the redemption of the world by Gods only dear Son, and the restoration of men to the Divine image by the influence and operation of the Holy Ghost. It goes farther still; and apprehends all that God has ever promised, and appropriates to itself all the blessings of his everlasting covenant. It seizes by a holy violence [Note: Mat 11:12.] all that God is, and all that God has, even all his glory; and invests the soul with all of it, as its present and everlasting portion. It brings Christ himself down into the soul [Note: Eph 3:17.]; fills it with his love, and enriches it with all his fulness [Note: Eph 3:18-19.]. As for difficulties they all vanish, and are dispelled by the power of faith. There is a kind of omnipotence in this grace. No enemy can withstand it: All things are possible to him that believeth. The more dark our way is, the more scope there is for the exercise of this grace, and the more it triumphs. In this point of view, it, far beyond any other grace, reflects honour on God: it fixes on the Divine perfections, and calls every one of them to its aid: it presses even justice itself into its service; and never will let go its claims upon Gods mercy and truth: it finds quite sufficient encouragement in a single promise. See it in Abraham: he assured himself, that though Isaac should be slain and reduced to ashes, he should be raised again from the dead, and the promises should be fulfilled in him. And thus does faith operate in the hearts of all; and, in proportion as it operates, secures to us a victory over all the enemies of our salvation.]
2.
Of hope
[This is a less comprehensive grace than faith: for faith has respect to every thing that is revealed, whether past, present, or future; and to things evil, as well as good: whereas hope respects futurity only, and only that which is either really, or in its own conception, good. It is also a less honourable grace than faith: for its existence is derived from faith, and altogether dependent on it; and it has respect only to our own personal happiness, whilst faith rises above self, and seeks to advance the glory of God.
Still however it is a grace of vast importance; and the entire absence of it is the most striking character of hell, where all are immersed in darkness and despair. This is the grace which encourages and supports the soul in all its conflicts with sin and Satan. In the panoply of God it holds a most conspicuous place: it is the helmet that protects the head, and the breast-plate that defends the heart: so that, where hope is kept in exercise, Satan cannot inflict any deadly wound. True, he may raise storms and tempests around the soul, and menace it with instant destruction: but hope casts its anchor within the vail; and, deriving thence a sure and steadfast support, defies the utmost efforts of our great adversary [Note: Heb 6:19.]. How often would the strongest believer have failed, if he had not received succour from this grace! I should have fainted, says David, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living [Note: Psa 27:13.]. It was no less by this grace, than by faith itself, that the saints of old were enabled to endure the great fight of afflictions which they were called to sustain [Note: Heb 11:26; Heb 11:35.]. On this account hope is said to save us, no less than faith [Note: Rom 8:24-25.]: for though faith brings us into the way of salvation, it is hope that enables us to endure unto the end [Note: 1Co 15:58. Gal 6:9.].]
After such a view of faith and hope, it will almost be thought, that no higher commendation can be bestowed on any other grace: but there is abundant scope yet left for shewing,
II.
The superior excellence of charity
Of the three graces, the Apostle expressly asserts, that the greatest is charity. And its superiority will be found,
1.
In its nature
[Faith and hope, how excellent soever they be, derive all their value from the objects on which they terminate. If they had respect only to human testimony, and temporal objects, they would be of little worth: it is their connexion with God and with eternity, that so elevates them in the scale of Christian graces. But charity has an essential goodness in itself, irrespective of any objects toward whom it may be exercised. If we could suppose that the whole human race both in heaven and earth were swept away, so that we could never find a being towards whom the grace of charity could be exercised, still would the disposition itself be good. As God himself would have been good, even though no creature had ever existed towards whom his goodness should be displayed; so would the grace of charity be good, though there never should be found any scope for its exercise. It is the image of God upon the soul. God himself has no higher character than love: and, if in this character we resemble him, we have the highest excellence of which our nature is capable.
Only let us consider what the existence of charity in the soul supposes. It supposes the subjugation of all the evils that are opposed to love; as pride, envy, hatred, wrath, selfishness; and the presence of all the virtues which were in Christ Jesus. They were all comprehended in this single word, love; and consequently, the existence of this grace in the soul most assimilates us to Christ, in whom was no sin, and in whom dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
Nor should it be overlooked, that the production of love in the soul was the end for which all Gods other mercies were vouchsafed: for that even faith and hope were given; nor have they any value, any farther than they are conducive to this end: and consequently love, for which alone they are given, must be greater than they; just as health, for which alone medicine is given, is better than medicine, which is valuable only as it is subservient to the preservation, or re-establishment, of health. The end must of necessity be greater than the means.]
2.
In its duration
[Faith and hope must soon cease; the one terminating in sight, and the other being consummated in fruition. But not so the grace of love: that will endure to all eternity; the exercise of it being the one employment and blessedness of heaven. The other graces which have been instrumental to the formation of this, will be no longer wanted, when this is perfected in the soul: they will therefore be dismissed, as having no longer any scope for exercise.
But when the scaffolding is removed, the building will appear in all its glory, the most wonderful monument of the power and grace of Christ. Then indeed will Christ be glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that believe; for every one of them will then be fully like him, when they shall see him as he is.
Thus, how excellent soever the graces of faith and hope may be, that of charity far excels them both: for those will find no place in heaven; but this will remain an everlasting source of blessedness to man, and an eternal theme of honour to our God.]
Seeing, however, that during this present life these three remain, and are to be cultivated with incessant care, we will close the subject with some directions for the exercise of them:
1.
Keep them ever united in your hearts
[No one of them can be dispensed with: if one be wanting, we must perish. We must indeed keep each of them in its place, and assign to each its proper office. We must not think that faith can save us, if it do not work by love; or that hope can benefit us, if it do not purify us as Christ is pure; or that love can supersede the necessity of faith in the work of our justification before God. We can be justified by faith only: but by love we must prove the truth of our faith. We must not imagine, that, because love is greater than faith, we are therefore to be saved by love. The eye is more excellent than the ear; but it cannot on that account perform the office of the ear, nor supersede the necessity of hearing, in order to the perfection of our present state: faith, hope, and love, have all their distinct offices, and must all be exercised for their respective ends;faith, to justify our souls; hope, to keep us steadfast in our spiritual course; and love, to form our meetness for the heavenly inheritance. Let all then be sought, and all be exercised, that God may be glorified in all.]
2.
Let them all be held fast, whatever trials you may have to encounter in the exercise of them
[No one of them can be maintained without much difficulty. Your great adversary will assault them all in their turn. In Adam he succeeded to destroy them all: and he would succeed to root them out of our hearts also, if the Lord Jesus did not secure, by his continual intercession, the establishment of them in our souls [Note: Luk 22:31-32.]. Not that they can be maintained without strenuous and unintermitted exertions on our part. We must watch and pray that we enter not into temptation: and when temptation comes, we must not stagger at the promises through unbelief, but be strong in faith, giving glory to God. We must also hold fast the rejoicing of our hope firm unto the end [Note: Heb 3:6.]. Under the influence of love too, we must let patience have its perfect work, that we may be perfect and entire, lacking nothing. Thus shall we grow up into Christ as our living Head; thus shall we attain the full measure of the stature which he has ordained for us; and thus shall we be fitted for those regions of love, where we shall completely resemble Christ, and participate, with all the myriads of his redeemed, the glory and felicity of the God of love.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
REFLECTIONS
Who can read this sweet Chapter, in the relation of Charity, and in the many lovely qualities, with which the Apostle hath so beautifully set it forth, without having the mind at once directed to Jesus, who is all that is here said, and abundantly more, even Charity in the fall, complete, and finished representation of it. Yes! thou dear Lord! everything of love, lovely, and loving, shines in thee, in one rich constellation. What love, what charity, was that of thine, which prompted thine infinite mind, before all worlds, to set thine affections upon our nature; and at the call of God thy Father, to betroth thy Church to thyself forever! And, what charity, what love, passing all knowledge, when after creation-work had taken place in the earth, and thy Church had treacherously departed from thee, to assume our nature, and die the just for the unjust to bring us to God! And, what an everlasting, unwearied, boundless affection, of love and charity; in cleansing, sanctifying, washing in thy blood, cloathing in thy righteousness, making comely in thy comeliness, and bringing thy Church through all the time-state here below, until thou shalt bring her home to the eternal world above, to present her to thyself, a glorious Church, to her joy, and thy praise, forever! Oh! for grace, to contemplate the God – Man, in whom alone, all love and charity centers; and from whom alone, all the manifestations of both, must be derived.
Blessed Lord! let it be my happiness to learn, from the contemplation of thyself, and from what is said in this sweet Chapter; that the most splendid talents, and most showy services, no pompous language or head-knowledge of all mysteries, neither the largest display of alms-giving, no, nor the martyrdom of the body, can recommend to God: nothing short of the love of God in the heart, can profit the soul. Oh for that washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, shed upon us abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
Ver. 13. The greatest of these ] Because longest lasting. Gifts that suppose imperfection in us, as faith and hope, or misery in others, as pity, &c., shall be put away. Secondly, because it is diffusive of itself to the use of others; whereas faith and hope are private goods; they are confined to the person of the believer. That was a memorable saying of Elizabeth Folks, martyr, at the stake, “Farewell all the world, farewell faith, farewell hope;” and so taking the stake in her hand, she said, “Welcome love.”
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
13. ] Superiority of Love to the other great Christian graces . Some gifts shall pass away but these three great graces shall remain for ever FAITH, HOPE, LOVE. This is necessarily the meaning , and not that love alone shall abide for ever, and the other two merely during the present state . For (1) is not ‘but now ,’ i.e. in this present state, as opposed to what has just been said 1Co 13:12 , but ‘ rebus sic stantibus,’ ‘qu cum ita sint ,’ and the inference from it just the contrary of that implied in the other rendering: viz. that since tongues, prophesyings, knowledge, will all pass away , we have left but THESE THREE. (2) From the position of , it has a strong emphasis , and carries the weight of the clause, as opposed to the previously-mentioned things which . (3) From , a pre-eminence is obviously pointed out for faith, hope, and love , distinct from aught which has gone before. This being the plain sense of the words, how can faith and hope be said to endure to eternity, when faith will be lost in sight, and hope in fruition? With hope , there is but little difficulty: but one place has inscribed over its portals, “Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch’ entrate.” New glories, new treasures of knowledge and of love, will ever raise, and nourish, blessed hopes of yet more and higher, hopes which no disappointment will blight. But how can faith abide, faith, which is the evidence of things not seen, where all things once believed are seen? In the form of holy confidence and trust , faith will abide even there. The stay of all conscious created being, human or angelic, is dependence on God ; and where the faith which comes by hearing is out of the question, the faith which consists in trusting will be the only faith possible. Thus Hope will remain, as anticipation certain to be fulfilled: Faith will remain, as trust, entire and undoubting: the anchor of the soul, even where no tempest comes. See this expanded and further vindicated in my Quebec Chapel Sermons, Vol. i. Serm. viii.
. ] The greater of these , not ‘ greater than these.’ “The greater,” as De Wette beautifully remarks, “because it contains in itself the root of the other two: we believe only one whom we love, we hope only that which we love.” And thus the forms of Faith and Hope which will there for ever subsist, will be sustained in, and overshadowed by, the all-pervading superior element of eternal Love.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
1Co 13:13 . . . . final conclusion of the matter, being antithetical to . . . of the foregoing: “But as it is ( nunc autem ), there abides faith, hope, love these three l” they stay; the others pass (1Co 13:8 ff.). Faith and Hope are elements of the perfect and permanent state; new objects of trust and desire will come into sight in the widening visions of the life eternal. But Love, both now and then, surpasses its companions, being the character of God (1Co 8:3 , 1Jn 4:8 ; 1Jn 4:16 ); in Love is the fruition of Faith’s efforts (Gal 5:6 ) and Hope’s anticipations; it alone gives worth to every human power (1Co 13:1-3 ). The popular interpretation, since Cm [2010] , has read as temporal instead of logical, identifying it with the of 1Co 13:12 , as though the Ap. meant that for the present Faith and Hope “abide” with Love, but Love alone “abides” for ever. But P. puts the three on the same footing in respect of enduringness “ these three” in comparison with the other three of 1Co 13:8 pointedly adding Faith and Hope to share and support the “abiding” of Love; “love is greater among these,” not more lasting. For with partitive gen [2011] , cf. Mat 23:11 , and see Wr [2012] , p. 303. For the pregnant, absolute , cf , 1Co 3:14 , 1Jn 2:6 , 2Jn 1:2 .
[2010] John Chrysostom’s Homili ( 407).
[2011] genitive case.
[2012] Winer-Moulton’s Grammar of N.T. Greek (8th ed., 1877).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
1 Corinthians
WHAT LASTS
1Co 13:8
We discern the run of the Apostle’s thought best by thus omitting the intervening verses and connecting these two. The part omitted is but a buttress of what has been stated in the former of our two verses; and when we thus unite them there is disclosed plainly the Apostle’s intention of contrasting two sets of things, three in each set. The one set is ‘prophecies, tongues, knowledge’; the other, ‘faith, hope, charity.’ There also comes out distinctly that the point mainly intended by the contrast is the transiency of the one and the permanence of the other. Now, that contrast has been obscured and weakened by two mistakes, about which I must say a word.
With regard to the former statement, ‘Whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease,’ that has been misunderstood as if it amounted to a declaration that the miraculous gifts in the early Church were intended to be of brief duration. However true that may be, it is not what Paul means here. The cessation to which he refers is their cessation in the light of the perfect Future. With regard to the other statement, the abiding of faith, hope, charity, that, too, has been misapprehended as if it indicated that faith and hope belonged to this state of things only, and that love was the greatest of the three, because it was permanent. The reason for that misconception has mainly lain in the misunderstanding of the force of ‘ Now ,’ which has been taken to mean ‘for the present,’ as an implied contrast to an unspoken ‘then’; just as in the previous verse we have, ‘ Now we see through a glass, then face to face.’ But the ‘now’ in this text is not, as the grammarians say, temporal, but logical. That is, it does not refer to time, but to the sequence of the Apostle’s thought, and is equivalent to ‘so then.’ ‘So then abideth faith, hope, charity.’
The scope of the whole, then, is to contrast the transient with the permanent, in Christian experience. If we firmly grasped the truth involved, our estimates would be rectified and our practice revolutionised.
I. I ask this question-What will drop away?
‘Knowledge, it shall cease,’ and as the Apostle goes on to explain, in the verses which I have passed over for my present purpose, it shall cease because the perfect will absorb into itself the imperfect, as the inrushing tide will obliterate the little pools in the rocks on the seashore. For another reason, the knowledge, the mode of apprehension belonging to the present, will pass-because here it is indirect, and there it will be immediate. ‘We shall know face to face,’ which is what philosophers mean by intuition. Here our knowledge ‘creeps from point to point,’ painfully amassing facts, and thence, with many hesitations and errors, groping its way towards principles and laws. Here it is imperfect, with many a gap in the circumference; or like the thin red line on a map which shows the traveller’s route across a prairie, or like the spider’s thread in the telescope, stretched athwart the blazing disc of the sun-’but then face to face.’ Incomplete knowledge shall be done away; and many of its objects will drop, and much of what makes the science of earth will be antiquated and effete. What would the hand-loom weaver’s knowledge of how to throw his shuttle be worth in a weaving-shed with a thousand looms? Just so much will the knowledges of earth be when we get yonder.
Modes of utterance will cease. With new experiences will come new methods of communication. As a man can speak, and a beast can only growl or bark, so a man in heaven, with new experiences, will have new methods of communication. The comparison between that mode of utterance which we now have, and that which we shall then possess, will be like the difference between the old-fashioned semaphore, that used to wave about clumsy wooden arms in order to convey intelligence, and the telegraph.
Think, then, of a man going into that future life, and saying ‘I knew more about Sanscrit than anybody that ever lived in Europe’; ‘I sang sweet songs’; ‘I was a past master in philology, grammars, and lexicons’; ‘I was a great orator.’ ‘Tongues shall cease’; and the modes of utterance that belonged to earth, and all that holds of them, will drop away, and be of no more use.
If these things are true, brethren, with regard even to the highest form of these high and noble things, how much more and more solemnly true are they with regard to the aims and objects which most of us have in view? They will all drop away, and we shall be left, stripped of what, for most of us, has made the whole interest and activity of our lives.
II. What will last?
Faith breeds Hope. There is the difference between earthly hopes and Christian people’s hopes. Our hopes, apart from the revelation of God in Jesus Christ, are but the balancing of probabilities, and the scale is often dragged down by the clutch of eager desires. But all is baseless and uncertain, unless our hopes are the outcome of our faith. Which, being translated into other words, is just this, that the one basis on which men can rest-ay! even for the immediate future, and the contingencies of life, as well as for the solemnities and certainties of heaven-any legitimate and substantial hope is trust in Jesus Christ, His word, His love, His power, and for the heavenly future, in His Resurrection and present glory. A man who believes these things, and only that man, has a rock foundation on which he can build his hope.
Faith, in like manner, is the parent of Love. Paul and John, diverse as they are in the whole cast of their minds, the one being speculative and the other mystical, the one argumentative and the other simply gazing and telling what he sees, are precisely agreed in regard to this matter. For, to the Apostle of Love, the foundation of all human love towards God is, ‘We have known and believed the love that God hath to us,’ and ‘We love Him because He first loved us,’ and to Paul the first step is the trusting reception of the love of God, ‘commended to us’ by the fact that ‘whilst we were yet sinners Christ died for us,’ and from that necessarily flows, if the faith be genuine, the love that answers the sacrifice and obeys the Beloved. So faith, hope, love, these three are a trinity in unity, and it abideth. That is the main point of our last text. Let me say a word or two about it.
I have said that the words have often been misunderstood as if the ‘now’ referred only to the present order of things, in which faith and hope are supposed to find their only appropriate sphere. But that is clearly not the Apostle’s meaning here, for many reasons with which I need not trouble you. The abiding of all three is eternal abiding, and there is a heavenly as well as an earthly form of faith and hope as well as of love. Just look at these points for a moment.
‘Faith abides,’ says Paul, yonder, as here. Now, there is a common saying, which I suppose ninety out of a hundred people think comes out of the Bible, about faith being lost in sight. There is no such teaching in Scripture. True, in one aspect, faith is the antithesis of sight. True, Paul does say ‘We walk by faith, not by sight.’ But that antithesis refers only to part of faith’s significance. In so far as it is the opposite of sight, of course it will cease to be in operation when ‘we shall know even as we are known’ and ‘see Him as He is.’ But the essence of faith is not in the absence of the person trusted, but the emotion of trust which goes out to the person, present or absent. And in its deepest meaning of absolute dependence and happy confidence, faith abides through all the glories and the lustres of the heavens, as it burns amidst the dimnesses and the darknesses of earth. For ever and ever, on through the irrevoluble ages of eternity, dependence on God in Christ will be the life of the glorified, as it was the life of the militant, Church. No millenniums of possession, and no imaginable increases in beauty and perfectness and enrichment with the wealth of God, will bring us one inch nearer to casting off the state of filial dependence which is, and ever will be, the condition of our receiving them all. Faith ‘abides.’
Hope ‘abides.’ For it is no more a Scriptural idea that hope is lost in fruition, than it is that faith is lost in sight. Rather that Future presents itself to us as the continual communication of an inexhaustible God to our progressively capacious and capable spirits. In that continual communication there is continual progress. Wherever there is progress there must be hope. And thus the fair form, which has so often danced before us elusive, and has led us into bogs and miry places and then faded away, will move before us through all the long avenues of an endless progress, and will ever and anon come back to tell us of the unseen glories that lie beyond the next turn, and to woo us further into the depths of heaven and the fulness of God. Hope ‘abides.’
Love ‘abides.’ I need not, I suppose, enlarge upon that thought which nobody denies, that love is the eternal form of the human relation to God. It, too, like the mercy which it clasps, ‘endureth for ever.’
But I may remind you of what the Apostle does not explain in our text, that it is greater than its linked sisters, because whilst faith and hope belong only to a creature, and are dependent and expectant of some good to come to themselves, and correspond to something which is in God in Christ, the love which springs from faith and hope not only corresponds to, but resembles, that from which it comes and by which it lives. The fire kindled is cognate with the fire that kindles; and the love that is in man is like the love that is in God. It is the climax of his nature; it is the fulfilling of all duty; it is the crown and jewelled clasp of all perfection. And so ‘abideth faith, hope, love, and the greatest of these is love.’
III. Lastly, what follows from all this?
Again, let us take this great thought of the permanence of faith, hope, and love as being the highest conception that we can form of our future condition. It is very easy to bewilder ourselves with speculations and theories of another life. I do not care much about them. The great gates keep their secret well. Few stray beams of light find their way through their crevices. The less we say the less likely we are to err. It is easy to let ourselves be led away, by turning rhetoric into revelation, and accepting the symbols of the New Testament as if they carried anything more than images of the realities. But far beyond golden pavements, and harps, and crowns, and white robes, lies this one great thought that the elements of the imperfect, Christlike life of earth are the essence of the perfect, Godlike life in heaven. ‘Now abide these three, faith, hope, love.’
Last of all, let us shape our lives in accordance with these certainties. The dropping away of the transient things is no argument for neglecting or despising them; for our handling of them makes our characters, and our characters abide. But it is a very excellent argument for shaping our lives so as to seek first the first things, and to secure the permanent qualities, and so to use the transient as that it shall all help us towards that which does not pass.
What will a Manchester man that knows nothing except goods and office work, and knows these only in their superficial aspect, and not as related to God, what, in the name of common-sense, will he do with himself when he gets into a world where there is not a single ledger, nor a desk, nor a yard of cloth of any sort? What will some of us do when, in like manner, we are stripped of all the things that we have cared about, and worked for, and have made our aims down here? Suppose that you knew that you were under sailing orders to go somewhere or other, and that at any moment a breathless messenger might appear and say, ‘Come along! we are all waiting for you’; and suppose that you never did a single thing towards getting your outfit ready, or preparing yourself in any way for that which might come at any moment, and could not but come before very long. Would you be a wise man? But that is what a great many of us are doing; doing every day, and all day long, and doing that only. ‘He shall leave them in the midst of his days,’ says a grim text, ‘and at his latter end shall be a fool.’
What will drop? Modes of apprehension, modes of utterance, occupations, duties, relationships, loves; and we shall be left standing naked, stripped, as it were, to the very quick, and only as much left as will keep our souls alive. But if we are clothed with faith, hope, love, we shall not be found naked. Cultivate the high things, the permanent things; then death will not wrench you violently from all that you have been and cared for; but it will usher you into the perfect form of all that you have been and done upon earth. All these things will pass, but faith, hope, love, ‘stay not behind nor in the grave are trod,’ but will last as long as Christ, their Object, lives, and as long as we in Him live also.
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
abideth. Greek. meno. See p. 1511.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
13.] Superiority of Love to the other great Christian graces. Some gifts shall pass away-but these three great graces shall remain for ever-FAITH, HOPE, LOVE. This is necessarily the meaning,-and not that love alone shall abide for ever, and the other two merely during the present state. For (1) is not but now, i.e. in this present state, as opposed to what has just been said 1Co 13:12,-but rebus sic stantibus, qu cum ita sint,-and the inference from it just the contrary of that implied in the other rendering: viz. that since tongues, prophesyings, knowledge, will all pass away, we have left but THESE THREE. (2) From the position of , it has a strong emphasis, and carries the weight of the clause, as opposed to the previously-mentioned things which . (3) From , a pre-eminence is obviously pointed out for faith, hope, and love, distinct from aught which has gone before. This being the plain sense of the words, how can faith and hope be said to endure to eternity, when faith will be lost in sight, and hope in fruition? With hope, there is but little difficulty: but one place has inscribed over its portals, Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch entrate. New glories, new treasures of knowledge and of love, will ever raise, and nourish, blessed hopes of yet more and higher,-hopes which no disappointment will blight. But how can faith abide,-faith, which is the evidence of things not seen,-where all things once believed are seen? In the form of holy confidence and trust, faith will abide even there. The stay of all conscious created being, human or angelic, is dependence on God; and where the faith which comes by hearing is out of the question, the faith which consists in trusting will be the only faith possible. Thus Hope will remain, as anticipation certain to be fulfilled: Faith will remain, as trust, entire and undoubting:-the anchor of the soul, even where no tempest comes. See this expanded and further vindicated in my Quebec Chapel Sermons, Vol. i. Serm. viii.
.] The greater of these,-not greater than these. The greater, as De Wette beautifully remarks, because it contains in itself the root of the other two: we believe only one whom we love,-we hope only that which we love. And thus the forms of Faith and Hope which will there for ever subsist, will be sustained in, and overshadowed by, the all-pervading superior element of eternal Love.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
1Co 13:13. , but now abideth) This is not strictly said of duration; for these three things do not meet in it; since faith is terminated in sight, and hope in joy, 2Co 5:7; Rom 8:24 : love alone continues, 1Co 13:8 : but it refers to their value, in antithesis to prophecy, etc., in this sense: On calculating accounts [on weighing the relative values] these three things are necessary and sufficient; let only these three stand; these exist; these abide, nothing more. A man may be a Christian without prophecy, etc., but not without faith, hope, love. Comp. on the verb, , I abide, Rom 9:11; 1Co 3:14; 2Co 3:11; Heb 13:1. Faith is directed to God; hope is in our own behalf; love is towards our neighbour. Faith is properly connected with the economy of the Father; Hope with the economy of the Son; Love with the economy of the Holy Ghost, Col 2:12; Col 1:27; Col 1:8. And this too is the very reason of the order in which these three things are enumerated. , now, has the effect of an epitasis[121] [and shows what are the especial duties of us travellers on the way to the heavenly city.-V. g.]-, three) only. Many are not necessary. Paul often refers to these three graces. Eph 1:15; Eph 1:18; Php 1:9-10; Col 1:4-5; Col 1:22, note; 1Th 1:3; 1Th 5:8; 2Th 1:3-4; Tit 1:1-2; Heb 6:10, etc. Sometimes he mentions both faith and love, sometimes faith [by itself] denoting by synecdoche the whole of Christianity, 1Th 3:6; 1Th 3:5. In a wicked man we find infidelity, hatred, despair.-, these) Heb. , i.e. are, viz. greater than prophecies, etc.-, greater) the greatest, of these, of the three. He not only prefers love to prophecy, but even to such things as excel prophecy. Love is of more advantage to our neighbour, than faith and hope by themselves: comp. greater, 1Co 14:5. And God is not called faith or hope absolutely, whereas He is called love.
[121] An emphatic addition augmenting the force.-Append.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
1Co 13:13
1Co 13:13
But now abideth faith, hope, love, these three;-While these miraculous gifts must pass away, faith, hope, and love remain as the permanent and abiding fruits of the word of God. Without these no one can be a child of God; with them and the perfect law of liberty, gifts are no longer needed. The word of God as the seed of the kingdom received into the heart produces faith. Faith, in the promises contained in the word of God, produces hope. The end of faith and hope is to bring man into perfect harmony with the will of God. Complete harmony with the will of God is perfect love to every being in the universe.
and the greatest of these is love.-Love is the filling of all requirements, duties, and obligations contained in the law of God toward God and to all the creatures of heaven and earth. Love is the great underlying and all-pervading principle of the universe. God is love, and the laws of the universe are the manifestations and outgrowth of his love; and to love is to conform to the laws of God, to bring ourselves into harmony with them, and through these to work good to every being in the universe. This love will only be perfected in the state of glory, when we shall see him as he is and be like him, and it will be eternal.
[Faith is not an end; it is faith in a Divine Deliverer and in his promise of salvation; it is the means toward eternal life. Hope is not an end; it is hope of final and eternal fellowship with God; it is the means to steadfastness and to heaven. But love is an end in itself. It is the bond of perfectness; beyond this even Christianity cannot carry us. As faith and hope realize their purpose when they produce love, it is obvious that the virtue which is their final purpose is greater than they. And this conviction is confirmed when we consider that, of all virtues, love is usually the most difficult and the last to be acquired. Love is the test and the crown of spiritual maturity. Society needs above all things to be penetrated with the spirit of love to God, sympathy and brotherly kindness to man. This is the radical cure for all its ills-this, and only this. Without it, all is disorder and chaos; with it, all is regularity and beauty. It represses hatred, malice, envy; and it cultivates considerateness, pity, gentleness, self-denial, and generous help.]
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
charity
i.e. love; and so in 1Co 13:2; 1Co 13:3; 1Co 13:4; 1Co 13:8; 1Co 13:13.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
These Three
But now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love.1Co 13:13.
1. If St. Paul had left us nothing but this exquisite hymn in praise of heavenly love, he would have established his claim to be a great religious genius. Happily it loses nothing in the English Version. The scholars who translated the Bible for James I.s government seldom failed to rise to a great occasion; and this chapter in the Authorized Version is one of the finest bits of prose poetry that have been written in our language. But the lyric rapture is St. Pauls own. He was not, perhaps, a poet by nature; and a Rabbinical education was enough to dry up any but a very copious spring of poetic talent. But every now and then he is carried quite out of himself, and his words glow with a white heat of fervour and emotion. To read the thirteenth chapter after the twelfth, in which he discusses the relative merits of speaking with tongues and prophesying, is almost startling. The more excellent way once mentioned, the tide of pure inspiration flows swift and strong.
2. But even more remarkable than the sublime poetry of this chapter is the concluding verse: Now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. In this verse St. Paul has found an absolutely complete and satisfactory formula for the Christian character. Faith, hope, and love, with love in the place of honouris not this Christianity in a nutshell? Within a few years after the Ascension, St. Paul has not only penetrated to the very heart of Christs teaching, but has given us the kernel of the whole Gospel in one of those illuminating phrases which are a necessity for every great movement. So at least the Church has always felt. The three emblematic figures of the theological virtues, as they were called, have been favourite themes of Christian art and Christian eloquence all over the world. What the cardinal virtues, Justice, Fortitude, Prudence, and Temperance were to pagan antiquity; what Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity were to the French Revolution; what the Rights of Man were to the founders of the American Republic; what the three stages in the spiritual ascentPurification, Illumination, Union with Godhave been to mystics of all ages and countries, that Faith, Hope, and Love have been and are to the Christian. The imitation of Christ means the life of Faith, the life of Hope, the life of Love.
Greek philosophy had proclaimed four cardinal virtuesjustice, prudence, temperance, fortitude. Christian philosophy, following St. Paul, has taught during nineteen centuries that there are three specifically Christian gracesthey are more than virtuesthree primary and fundamental spiritual dispositions, which must dominate and permeate all true Christian characterFaith and Hope and Love.
This is one of the greatest of the great texts of the Bible. Let us take it in six parts
Faith.
Hope.
Love.
These Three.
These Three Abide.
The Greatest of these Three.
FAITH
1. St. Paul has written as vigorously of faith, if not with as much seraphic eloquence, as he here writes of love. He penned the most intellectual and profound of all his Epistlesthat to the Romansto indicate the essential excellence, the justifying and soul-saving power of faith. We who have come to receive the truth which filled and fired the soul of the Apostle Paul have learned that by faith the just live. It is a rational and necessary spiritual ingredient of the truest manhood. We regard it as the channel through which Gods righteousness pours into the soul; as our gate of access into the kingdom of grace, standing like the Propyla at Athens before the Acropolis, and giving entrance to the temple not only of love, but also of wisdom. St. Paul went so far as to say that any moral activity into which this quality did not enter was vitiated and unworthy. In one of his letters he describes faith as the light by which the soul walks: A light that never was on sea or land, but which glows in the mind of man. To his thinking this virtue was so needful and important that the whole doctrine which he proclaimed he called by this name. He speaks of preaching the faith which he once persecuted, meaning by it both the Christian doctrine and the Christian Church. Our warfare he calls the fight of faith; so that in his thirteen letters, from the First Epistle to the Thessalonians to the letters addressed to Philemon, St. Paul sounds forth a thousand notes from this golden string.
2. What is the antithesis of faith? Is it Reason? Do I believe some things because I am convinced by evidence that they are true, and other things because the Church tells me to believe them, or because it is a meritorious act to force myself to believe them? Is faith an act of submission to authority? Is there any truth in the answer of the child, who, according to the story, said, Faith means believing what you know to be untrue? Look out some of the places where faith is mentioned in the New Testament, and see whether it is ever opposed to Reason. You will find that it never is: it is opposed to sight. Faith is not the acceptance of certain historical propositions on insufficient evidence. It is trust in God and goodness.
It is the resolution to stand or fall by the noblest and highest hypothesis that we can conceive. It is the spirit of Athanasius when he stood against the world; of Luther when he said, God help me, I can do no otherwise; of Job when he said, Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him; of the three children in the furnace when they said, He will deliver us out of thy hand, O King. But if not, we will not serve thy gods. It is the spirit which has given courage to all the martyrs to face death. Faith is the confidence that somehow or other the right must triumph, that God is stronger than Satan.
I resolved that at any rate I would act as if the Bible were true; that if it were not, at all events I should be no worse off than I was before; that I would believe in Christ, and take Him for my Master in whatever I did; that assuredly to disbelieve the Bible was quite as difficult as to believe it; that there were mysteries either way; and that the best mystery was that which gave me Christ for a Master. And when I had done this I fell asleep directly. When I rose in the morning the cold and cough were gone; and though I was still unwell, I felt a peace and spirit in me I had never known before, at least to the same extent; and the next day I was quite well, and everything has seemed to go right with me ever since, all discouragement and difficulties vanishing even in the smallest things.1 [Note: Letter from Ruskin to his father in E. T. Cooks Life of Ruskin, i. 271.]
(1) Faith is trust in the saving power of Christ.Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved would seem to be the simplest of all directions. Many, in Apostolic times, hesitated to believe, but none hesitated as to what belief was. A heathen or pagan never asks a missionary what is meant by faith. The very simplicity of the act prevents its definition. Like time and space, the more we think about faith, the less we understand it. It must be felt, not analysed. It cannot be analysed. Many a Christian life has been mournfully chequered by dark and cheerless seasons, from the habit of thinking about faith instead of the object of faith, about the acts of the mind instead of the truths of God, the manner of believing instead of the testimony to be believed. Faith leads the soul to act on what it credits. It includes not only the belief of what is true, and the desire of what is good, but the choice of what is right. We may believe many things which have no possible connection with our conduct. Many of the propositions of Scripture are not the proper objects of trust, though they are of belief. We believe on the ground of evidence, we trust on the ground of character. We believe a truth, we trust a person. I might believe and not trust, but I cannot trust and not believe. So the specific act of faith which unites to Christ terminates upon His person, an existing, living, loving personality. It is not a doctrine concerning Christ that saves me, but trust in the saving power of Christ. It is not a specific theory of faith, but the practical grasp of faith, that saves. Salvation is not the formation of a right creed in my understanding; it is the quickening of a spiritual life in my soul.
Faith is that strong buoyant confidence in God and in His love which gives energy and spirit to do right without doubt or despondency. Where God sees that, He sees the spring and fountain out of which all good springs: He sees, in short, the very life of Christ begun, and He reckons that to be righteousness; just as a small perennial fountain in Gloucestershire is the Thames, though it is as yet scarcely large enough to float a schoolboys boat; and just as you call a small seedling not bigger than a little almond peeping above the ground, an oak; for the word justify means not to be made righteous, but to reckon or account righteous.1 [Note: F. W. Robertson, in Life and Letters, 335.]
I am not sure that we are much the better for our attempted definitions of Faith. Baxter connects it with the doctrine of the mystical union; Lampe defines it as a willingness to be saved by Christ; Halyburton and Owen as a cordial acceptance of the offer; Sandeman as simple belief in simple testimony. Well, a man is sometimes very little the better for a definition, and all these perplex as well as enlighten. But none perish that Him trustnone perish that Him trust.2 [Note: Rabbi Duncan, in Memoir of John Duncan, 414.]
(2) Faith is also trust in God as a Father.If there is a word more expressive of Christian character than any other, it is this one: trusttrust in God. It is the secret source of all peace and serenity. It will comfort and sustain when nothing else can. It gives the child of God the delightful assurance that all his trials are disguised blessings, the appointment of a Fathers wisdom, and the infliction of a Fathers love. And death itself becomes the security and enlargement of life, a training for that holy intimacy with Himself which is to constitute the blessedness of the heavenly world. Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. The bringing of good out of evil is His grand prerogative. He permits the evil in order to produce the good. The Christians character is formed more from his trials than from his enjoyments. The picture would have no beauty or effect without shade.
Christs faith in His Father was as conspicuous as His faith in the mission He had to accomplish, of which He said on the cross, It is finished! His vindication He left entirely in His Fathers hands, when He yielded up His spirit, in a complete surrender of self, saying, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit! I am not forgetting that He was the everlasting Word, the only begotten of the Father, when I speak thus, but I wish to remind you that He really became manhaving limited Himself, having emptied Himself, as St. Paul said, that He might become the true Brother of humanity, the Son of Man, sharing with us, in everything save sin, the necessity and the blessedness of faith.1 [Note: A. Rowland, The Exchanged Crowns, 33.]
The faith of our time has had to pass through fiery furnaces of tribulation. It has survived the shock of losing its Infallible Church. It has survived the shock of losing its Infallible Book. It has surrendered, at the bidding of science, that latest voice of Godthe Garden of Eden, and the world made in six days, and the dream of mans primal innocence. It presumes no longer to penetrate dark mysteries. It cannot reconcile Foreknowledge and Free Will. It cannot reconcile the apparent cruelty of nature with the lovingness of God. It understands neither heaven nor hell. It has learnt to trust, humbly and without reserve, in Christ. Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. That surely is the truest faith of all the ages, to have lived in an atmosphere of unbelief, to have faced and endured all the assaults of modern doubt, and still to trust in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, by honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report, as dying, and behold we live, as chastened and not killedstill, with deeper intensity than ever, to believe in God and Christ and Eternal Life.
I little see, I little know,
Yet can I fear no ill;
He who hath guided me till now
Will be my leader still.
No burden yet was on me laid
Of trouble or of care,
But He my trembling step hath stayed,
And given me strength to bear.
I came not hither of my will
Or wisdom of mine own:
That Higher Power upholds me still,
And still must bear me on.
I knew not of this wondrous earth,
Nor dreamed what blessings lay
Beyond the gates of human birth
To glad my future way.
And what beyond this life may be
As little I divine
What love may wait to welcome me,
What fellowships be mine.
I know not what beyond may lie,
But look, in humble faith,
Into a larger life to die,
And find new birth in death.
He will not leave my soul forlorn;
I still must find Him true,
Whose mercies have been new each morn
And every evening new.
Upon His providence I lean,
As lean in faith I must:
The lesson of my life hath been
A heart of grateful trust.
And so my onward way I fare
With happy heart and calm,
And mingle with my daily care
The music of my Psalms 1 [Note: Frederick Lucian Hosmer.]
(3) It is enough to name one further aspect of faith: Faith is spiritual insight.This is the way in which the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews regards faith. He says it is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. These words impress upon our minds the thought that, corresponding to all the longings which possess the Christian soul, to all the desires and yearnings which spring up within the soul that is earnestly striving to attain to the Christlike and Divinecorresponding to all these are glorious realities; that the up-springing desires shall not be in vain; that the soul which remains steadfast in hope, which clings with brave perseverance to the hopeful yearnings which from time to time unfold themselves to consciousness within its inward recesses, begins by-and-by to feel by anticipation the very substance of what it has hoped for within its grasp, by-and-by attains to the power of seeing before it in mystic vision the glorious spiritual realities, the thoughts of which presented themselves at first only as dimly discerned but irrepressible desires. Faith then is spiritual insight. It has been called the eye of the soul. It is more than this; it is the soul seeing, the soul beholding, the things of heaven; the soul looking upon the things not seen by the bodily eyelooking upon the glories of the spiritual world, upon the wonders of that invisible world which is ever around us, ever underlying the natural world.
By the aid of that mental insight, which, because it is directed towards matters of a scientific import, has been called scientific imagination, men have been able to have within their minds a vivid representation of the marvellous vibratory movements of the mysterious ether, and their rapid transmission in one vast tide of light through the infinite space around us. By the aid of the same power of imagination, that other swiftly-acting vibratory motion which has only in recent times become obedient to mans control, that vibratory motion which enables us with magic speed to send tidings even to countries separated from us by ocean abysses and by wide-spreading continents,by the aid of the same imaginative power, the mind is able to discern the vibrations of the all-pervading ether with which we associate the term electricity. God who thus endows that part of our inner being which we call the mind with marvellous powers, also endows that which we speak of as the soulof which the mind is indeed but a facultywith corresponding powers. Within all souls longing after a fuller knowledge of Divine things God is ever breathing the breath of a diviner life; and as this sacred breaththis Holy Spiritabides with us to animate us, our enkindled spiritual imaginations discern more and more of the mystic glories of heaven towards which the longings of our souls have been directed. This spiritual imagination which enables us to see as in a vision the substantial realities which the soul has been possessed with longings for; which enables the soul to have a vivid conviction that it has entered upon the life of reconciliation with God, which enables it to discern the transcendent glory of the future life of ever-advancing union with the Divine, which enables it to discern the underlying import of such words as Atonement and Sacrament, to recognize the oneness of the life of the redeemed on earth and in heaven with the great life of God, to behold the unity which binds things seen with things unseen, the correspondence which exists between things natural and things spiritual,this spiritual imagination which has such potency within us, is the Divine gift of faith which is defined for us in the Epistle to the Hebrews in such suggestive words.1 [Note: H. N. Grimley.]
Canst thou discernbeneath all outward seeming,
The hidden meaning, oft concealed from sight?
The secrets wherewith natures heart is teeming,
The deep soul-vision of a clearer light?
Say, dost thou understand the whisperd token,
The promise breathd from every leaf and flower?
And dost thou hear the word ere it be spoken,
And apprehend loves presence by its power?
Canst thou discover in the lives around thee,
How small events to mighty issues lead?
And does the storms voice nevermore astound thee,
Since every God-sent message thou canst read?
Then, Heaven-gifted thou, to whom is broken
Th eternal revelation, calm and clear
As they to whom, long since the words were spoken,
He that hath ears to hearyea, let him hear.1 [Note: Una, In Lifes Garden, 93.]
HOPE
1. The question occurs to us sometimes, more or less consciously, why hope should be ranked so high, placed on a level with faith and love. We can understand why faith should be so singled out; it is the foundation of the whole structure of religion; it is the bond between the creature and his invisible Maker and God; it is the special title of his acceptance; it is the ground of his self-devotion and obedience, of his highest and noblest ventures. Still more can we understand it of love; for love brings us near, in the essential qualities of character, to Him whom we believe in and worship; love is the faint and distant likeness of Him who so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son to save it; love must last and live and increase, under whatever conditions the regenerate nature exists, the same in substance, however differing in degree, in the humblest penitent on earth and in adoring saint or seraph in the eternal world. But hope is thought of, at first sight, as a self-regarding quality; something which throws forward its desires into the future, and dwells on what it imagines of happiness for itself. And hope, of all things, is delusive and treacherous; it tempts to security and self-deceit; it tempts us to dreams which cannot be realized, which divert us from the necessary and wholesome realities which do concern us: it is the mother of half the mistakes, half the fruitless wanderings, half the unhappiness of the world. How comes it that such a quality is placed on a level with faith and love? What need of encouragement to what men are only too ready to do of themselves?
So far from being always considered a virtue, Hope has been stigmatized as a dangerous deceiver or as a luxury not to be indulged in by the weak. Hope, says the Athenian in Thucydides, the procuress of peril, cannot indeed destroy, though she may harm, those of her employers who have a reserve to fall back upon: but to those who risk their all upon the issue of her servicesand a costly servant she assuredly isshe unmasks herself only in the moment of their ruin, when her victims have no resource left to defend themselves against her recognized treachery. Poets in the same strain cry shame upon this delusive phantom, and protest that they are
tired of waiting for this chymick gold,
Which fools us young, and beggars us when old.
Hope, says Owen Feltham, is the bladder a man will take wherewith to learn to swim; then he goes beyond return, and is lost. And Lee,
Hope is the fawning traitor of the mind,
Which, while it cozens with a coloured friendship,
Robs us of our best virtue,resolution.
The twentieth century is as sad as Marcus Aurelius. Our music is sad. Our poetrywhen we get anyis sad. Our drama, when it is serious, is half-morbid. Our greatest writers of fiction are pessimists, and deem a good ending, not only bad art, but false to fact. Our preachersHeaven pardon them!seem somehow to have lost fire and hope, and preach as though Christ were indeed in the ship, but asleep. Our philosophy has culminated in the insane ravings against God and man of Nietzsche, or, for the more reverent, in the pathetic Epicureanism of Omar
One moment in Annihilations Waste,
One moment, of the Well of Life to taste,
The Stars are setting and the Caravan
Starts for the Dawn of Nothingoh, make haste.1 [Note: W. Hudson Shaw.]
2. But it is not really strange that St. Paul should raise hope to a Christian temper of the first order. St. Paul was a student of Scripture and of the history of his people and of religion in the world. And what is on the surface of the Bible is the way in which from first to last it is one unbroken, persistent call to hopeto look from the past and the present to the future. Its contents, we know, are manifold and various; the subjects which it treats are widely different, and it is different in different parts of it in its way of treating them; it is the record of enormous changes, of a great progressive advance in Gods dispensations and of mans light and character, of the long and wonderful education of the Law and the Prophets; its story of uninterrupted tendency is strangely chequered in fact; bright and dark succeed one another with the most unexpected turnslofty faith and the meanest disloyalty, great achievement and unexpected failure, lessons of the purest goodness and most heartfelt devotion with the falls and sins of saints, blessing and chastisement, the patience of God, and the incorrigible provocations of His people. In spite of all that is wonderful and glorious in it, it sounds like the most disastrous and unpromising of stories; and yet that is not its result. For amid the worst and most miserable conditions there is one element which is never allowed to disappearthe strength of a tenacious and unconquerable hope. Hope, never destroyed, however overthrown, never obscured even amid the storm and dust of ruin, is the prominent characteristic of the Old Testament. All leads back to hope, hope of the loftiest and most assured kind, even after the most fatal defeats, of changes which seem beyond remedy. The last word is always hope.
The whole Bible, from first to last, is one unbroken, persistent call to hope. Some of the most wonderful and soul-stirring words of revelation are those in which hope is spoken of. The God of hopeWe are saved by hopeJesus Christ who is our hopeChrist in you, the hope of gloryBegotten again into a living hopethese are expressions which only familiarity could deprive of their commanding power.
We call St. Paul the Apostle of Faith, and rightly. Equally the great teacher who, in a sudden moment of unique inspiration, recalling what Jesus was when He lived on earth, gave us the 13th chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, was the Apostle of Love. But just as truly, perhaps even more emphatically, was St. Paul, above all things else, an Apostle of Hope. It is impossible to mistake it; he was himself the very embodiment of the Christian grace he taught. He never defined it, but his whole life illustrated what he meant. Save in his argumentative passages, it is his characteristic word always when exhorting, trying his hardest to help. Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope. Sorrow not, even as the rest, which have no hope. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not vain in the Lord. That is the note which peals like a trumpet through all the Pauline Epistles.1 [Note: W. Hudson Shaw.]
3. Even the common sense of mankind tells us that life would be but a poor shrunken thing without hope; and even the poet who reviles its chymick gold, marvels at the fascination which it still imparts to the future in spite of our monotonous and oft-repeated experience of the flat unprofitable past
Strange cozenage! Who would live past days again?
Yet all hope pleasure from what still remain.
Surely the common sense of the world is right. While recognizing that hope may be an evil if it makes us careless or indolent, trustful to chance or to luck or to interpositions of Providence rather than to our own energies and skill, we cannot fail to see that hopelessness is a still greater evil, paralysing energy and neutralizing skill. No business in life, however purely intellectual, can dispense with hope as a stimulus to activity. That impulse which the immediate pressure of pleasure or pain gives to irrational animals, hope gives to human beings, who are endowed with the faculty or necessity of looking forward. Who could toil on through threescore years or more in hopelessness? Work without hope, says Coleridge, draws nectar in a sieve; and, indeed, what possibility is there that any human being, however richly endowed with genius, should ever produce the durable results that come from harmonious and continuous effort, or give birth to anything but the perishable expressions of a mere spasmodic outburst, if he had no durable hope of anything in heaven or earth?
Hope is the minister of strength. When I think of the virtue called Hope two pictures come to my mind. One is the work of a great living painter: it is a piece of symbolism, a gracious, frail, pathetic figure, the eyes blinded with a veil, the head bent and turned on one side with the intentness of a listener to catch the music sounded on the one unbroken chord of her lyre, on which all strings but this are gone. A touchingly beautiful conception; but this is human hope, not Divine. The other picture is the very familiar one which may have met your eye on many a church windowa figure not pathetic, weak, forlorn, but strong and brave as Fortitude; and in her hand not the lyre of broken strings, but the stout shaft and the iron grappling hooks of her mighty anchor; the anchor which entereth into that within the veil, the deeps of the world unseen, and from thence, whatever storm may swing their surface, holds the soul fast.1 [Note: J. H. Skrine, The Hearts Counsel, 118.]
To the quenchless hope in their souls all the strong heroes of the past, from Leonidas to King Alfred, from Alfred to Hildebrand, from Hildebrand to Cromwell and Lord Chatham and Washington and Mazzini, have owed their power. Without it, Religion, facing the stubborn mass of humanitys sin, is paralysed. To the Christian the shield of faith is no whit more essential than the helmet of hope. Only to men of undying hope, able contagiously to kindle courageousness in their fellows, will the dead weight of the insensate evil of this universe ever yield. There will be no great Day of the Lord until such leaders arise.
Then sound again the golden horn with promise ever new,
The princely doe will neer be caught by those that slack pursue,
Yes! sound again the horn of Hope, the golden horn!
Answer it, flutes and pipes, from valleys still and lorn;
Warders from your high towers, with trumps of silver scorn,
And harps in maidens bowers, with strings from deep hearts torn,
All answer to the horn of Hope, the golden horn!
4. Hope elevates and strengthens and inspires. This is why it is one of the great elements of the religious temper; this is why it ranks with faith and love. It is one of the great and necessary springs of full religious action. There may be a faith almost without hope; a faith which still believes, though it can see nothing; a faith which refuses to be comforted, which will not let the distant picture of better things rise before it, but yet trusts, even in the darkness, to Gods truth and goodness. It is the deep and awful faith of him who said, Though he slay me yet will I trust in him; of the cry, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? It is the touching and childlike confidence of the prophetAlthough the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls; yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. But the human spirit can hardly stand long the strain of a hopeless faith; one or other of the elements will assert its supremacy. And hope is the energy and effort of faith; the strong self-awakening from the spells of discouragement and listlessness and despair.
What gives its moral value to hope, what makes it a virtue and a duty, is that in its higher forms it is a real act and striving of the will and the moral nature; and if any one thinks that this is an easy process he has yet much to learn of the secrets of his own heart. It is an act, often a difficult act, of choice and will, like the highest forms of courage. It is a refusal to be borne down and cowed and depressed by evil; a refusal, because it is not right, to indulge in the melancholy pleasure, no unreal one, of looking on the dark side of things. It is so that hope plays so great a part in the spiritual life; that it fights with such power on the side of God.
Millions of men are digging and toiling twelve hours each day; and God hath sent forth hope to emancipate them from drudgery. The man digging with his pick hath a far-away look as he toils. Hope is drawing pictures of a cottage with vines over the doorway, with some one standing at the gate, a sweet voice singing over the cradle. Hope makes this home his; it rests the labourer and saves him from despair. Multitudes working the stithy and deep mines sweeten their labour and exalt their toil by aspiring thoughts. Thinking of his little ones at home, the miner says: My children shall not be as their father was; my drudgery is not for self, but for loves sake; the sweat of my brow is oil in the lamp of love; I will light it to-night on the sacred altar of home. Here is the secret of the rise and reign of the people. This explains all mans progress in knowledge and culture. As the fruits and flowers rise rank upon rank in response to the advancing summer, so all that is most refined and exalted in mans mind or heart bursts forth in new ideals, reforms, revolutions, in response to the revelation of that personal presence from whom all hope and aspiration incessantly proceed.1 [Note: N. D. Hillis, The Investment of Influence, 285.]
5. What is the use, it is asked, of bidding us hope without giving us first some certain or probable reality to hope about? The faculty of hope is like the faculty of reason so far as this, that both must have some foundation of facts whereon to work. Give us a permanent and reasonable object of hope and we shall be only too glad to hope; but without such an object we must be content to be hopeless. We cannot allow ourselves to be fooled, even though the fooling may lead us along a path of happiness. Better the hopeless path of truth than the fools paradise of comfortable delusions.
(1) The whole universe, when illuminated by the light that streams upon it from the Cross of Christ, furnishes us with a durable object of hope in the Fatherhood of the Maker of the world, who, in the course of many ages, is conforming man to the Divine image. The hope of the ultimate perfection of all things, based upon the sense of the Divine Fatherhood, is the source of all healthy activity in men. In the strength of this hope we can look all evil in the face without blenching, and beneath the abyss of sin discern the vaster abyss of the Divine love.
(2) But what shall we say to those who tell us that about the future we may reason but have no right to hope? Our reply will be that we cannot reason about the future without taking into account the evidence that the world was made by a good and wise Being who has given us many faculties tending to happiness and righteousness, which faculties He cannot have intended to fust in us unused; and among the highest of these faculties stands hope. Furthermore we may point out that healthy natural hope, though it may work through illusions, does not delude. There is no deception in the Divine Providence which leads the human soul from the cradle to the grave under the guidance of unfulfilled hopes. Hope, like faith, may be literally, but it is not spiritually, deceptive: the spirits of heaven are not like the fiends
That palter with us in a double sense,
That keep the word of promise to our ear
And break it to our hope.
Of the word of Gods promises we may assert the direct opposite. That word is never kept to our ear and never broken to our hope. Just as the faith or trust of the child in the father (who to him is as a God) is not a delusion but a truth enwrapped in illusion, so it is with the natural hopes of childhood and of every age; with the aspirations of a generous youth and the ambitions of a virtuous man. These neither fool us when young nor beggar us when old; but, on the contrary, each bright cloud of hope, breaking as the traveller is allured onward by it from one stage to another in his lifelong upward journey, reveals a brighter cloud within, to break in its turn and to disclose a still brighter interior splendour, till at last those heights are reached where all clouds shall vanish away, and the mind shall be prepared to receive the direct rays of the Sun of righteousness.
The characteristic of waning life is said to be disenchantment. Old men in general are inclined to check the zeal and damp the ardour of their younger followers. A shrewd observer of life has said that youth is an illusion, manhood a struggle, old age a regret. How many young men, says a great idealist, have I not hailed at the commencement of their career, glowing with enthusiasm, and full of the poetry of great enterprises, whom I see to-day precocious old men, with the wrinkles of cold calculation on their brow; calling themselves free from illusion when they are only disheartened; and practical when they are only commonplace. But believing men experience no disillusionment. The leaves of hope never wither on souls that are rooted in God. Joseph when dying looks forward with calm and perfect confidence, knowing that glorious things, and ever more glorious, must be, because God is. What is this Better, this flying Ideal, but the perpetual promise of the Creator? God lives though a hundred Josephs die. The two characteristics of the Hebrew mind were the upward and the forward look, the one directed to God in the present, the other to His coming in increasing power and grace in the future. Optimism was the distinction of the Hebrews. In the absence of Hope and of an ideal of progress, we strike upon one great difference between the classical Greeks and the Hebrews. Among the ancient races the Hebrew was like a watcher standing on a high mountain top, scanning the horizon and catching the first beams of coming day, while others were still hidden in darkness. The very heart-cry of the Hebrew race is heard in such words as these
My soul looketh for the Lord
More than watchmen look for the morning;
Yea, more than watchmen for the morning.1 [Note: J. Strachan, Hebrew Ideals, ii. 65.]
6. Our hope is for others and for ourselves.
(1) It is for ourselves here and now.There must often be much to distress and alarm us in the course of things which interest us nowevils which seem without remedy, defeats which seem final, perplexities through which we cannot see our way, dark and gloomy clouds rising in menace over our familiar world. To hope seems to us then like deluding ourselves; we call it optimism, and instinctive dislike to pain, a determination not to see the cruel truth. And yet how often has it appeared in the upshot of things that if in the darkest times any had been bold enough to hope he would have been amply justified?
What must have been the feelings of Christians in the fourth and fifth centuries, when, just as Christianity seemed to have won its way into the Roman Empire, they saw the fierce northern barbarians break into it, and the heathen triumph over religion and civil order? Which would then have seemed the judgment of sober good sensethe despondency which saw only the frightful mischief, or the bold hope which saw in the barbarians the seed of a great Christendom? Yet, who would have been right and who wrong?
It has come, wrote the soberest and also the loftiest of Christian thinkers in the last century, I know not how, to be taken for granted by many persons, that Christianity is not so much as a subject of inquiry; but that it is now at length discovered to be fictitious. The ominous symptom has certainly not grown less ominous; but could even the calm and large mind of Bishop Butler have embraced the thought that with this, not diminished, perhaps aggravated, there might also come a steady growth of energy and fervour and deepening practical purpose in the Church and religious men, such as he had certainly not seen, and could not look for?
Hope about ourselves should be encouraged. It is no proof of devoutness to be always shedding penitential tears, or to be so sensible of our own weaknesses as to be despondent about our future. Victory is generally the guerdon of those who expect it, confident in the Tightness of their cause, and the help of omnipotence on the side of right. When King Ramirez, in the year 909, vowed to deliver Castile from the shameful tribute imposed by the Moors of one hundred virgins delivered annually, he collected his troops and openly defied their King Abdelraman.
The king called God to witness, that come there weal or woe,
Thenceforth no maiden tribute from out Castile should go,
At least I will do battle on God our Saviours foe,
And die beneath my banner before I see it so.
He fought with courage but without hope of victory, and after a furious conflict was defeated on the plain of Clavijo. But that night (the legend says), while he was sleeping, St. Jago appeared to him in vision, and promised him the victory. Next morning he called his officers about him, and told them his dream; inspired them also with hope of heavenly aid; and that day the enemy was overwhelmed by the Christian warriors, and ever since the war-cry of Spain has been Santiago.1 [Note: A. Rowland.]
The worst of all the woes that trouble faithful hearts is despair of ever conquering our sins, of ever becoming what the Lord Christ would have us be. The modern man, Sir Oliver Lodge tells us, is not troubling much about his sins. I do not know about that. This I am sure of, that earnest Christians trouble about nothing so much. While we are young, while we are yet in the glad spring-time, the hope of victory is ever present. When we have entered upon the dull, dusty paths of middle age, there comes a horrible weariness of the conflict. Disappointment, disillusionment of ourselves, drag us down. Like the Celtic race, we are always setting forth to the war, always to return vanquished. Year by year our hearts grow harder and seem to ossify. The old sins we loathe are with us still; new sins that we never dreamt of assault us. Character seems not to advance, but to retrograde, and the enthusiastic impulses of youth have fled. What shall save us now, in the second critical period of life, but the grace of Christian hope, which is not temperament, is not human quality at all, but a blessed boon from God? By that gladdening spirit alone shall despair be quelled, demons exorcized, the old energy of youth recovered, the battle renewed.1 [Note: W. Hudson Shaw.]
Nowhere, perhaps, is Hope in relation to ones own future more beautifully illustrated than in the noontide scene in Pippa Passes. Phene, a Greek girl, has become the wife of Jules, a French sculptor. The union is the result of a cruel joke practised upon him by some students who owed him a grudge; and the sculptor finds, when it is too late, that the refined woman by whom he fancied himself loved is but an ignorant girl of the lowest class, of whom also his enemies have made a tool. Her remorse at seeing what man she had deceived disarms his anger, and marks the dawning of a moral sense in her. And this is what she says
You creature with the eyes!
If I could look for ever up to them,
As now you let me,I believe, all sin,
All memory of wrong done, suffering borne,
Would drop down, low and lower, to the earth
Whence all thats low comes, and there touch and stay
Never to overtake the rest of me.
All that, unspotted, reaches up to you,
Drawn by those eyes! What rises is myself,
Not me the shame and suffering; but they sink,
Are left, I rise above them. Keep me so,
Above the world!
Both he and she are saved.2 [Note: J. Flew, Studies in Browning, 119.]
(2) It is for ourselves in the hereafter.For it is simply the most literal fact that God has set before us, in another state of being, the most wonderful future, which is within the certain reach of every single one of us: as much, as certainly, within our reach, as anything that we know of, which we could obtain tomorrow. This is the plain, clear, certain promise, without which Christianity is a dream and a delusion. The life and destiny of each individual man runs up to this; this is what he was made for; for this he has been taught, and has received Gods grace, and has been tried, and has played his part in the years of time. It is the barest of commonplaces; and yet to any one who has tried to open his mind to its reality and certainty, it must have come with a strange and overpowering forcenew on every fresh occasion, like nothing else in the world. For it is one thing to look forward to some great general event, the triumph of the saints of God, the final glory of the great company of the redeemed; one thing to look at all this from the outside, as a spectator by the power of imagination and thought. It is quite another, when it comes into your mind that you yourself in the far-off ages, you yourself, the very person now on earth, are intended to have your placeyour certain and definite placein all that triumph, in all that blessedness, in all that glory; and yet surely, to any one that will, this is the prospect; this, and nothing less.
Just come from heaven, how bright and fair
The soft locks of the babys hair,
As if the unshut gates still shed
The shining halo round his head!
Just entering heaven, what sacred snows
Upon the old mans brow repose!
For there the opening gates have strown
The glory from the great white throne.1 [Note: Harriet Prescott Spofford.]
(3) It is for others.That ye may abound in hope, says St. Paul,hope for ourselves, hope for our neighbour, hope for the world. Be the sin of our heart what it may, and seventy times seven the falls of the past, in Christ we know that sin shall have no more dominion over us. Be the sin of our neighbour what it may, love hopeth all things, and without love we are nothing. Be the sin of the world what it may, we know who came to take it away. His arm is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither is His ear heavy, that it cannot hear the great and bitter cry that cometh up from earth to heaven. We may give up hope when the Saviour of the world confesses Himself defeated, and all-ruling Love retires for ever baffled from the battlefield of human wickedness: but until then Christ calls us to set our hope on Him, and to bear witness of it to the world.
In the England of John Wesley, numbers of men were his peers in faith. Butler, Toplady, Romaine, John Newton, had as firm a grip on what faith can reach as he, and said words as noble for it. But Wesley had more hopefulness in his little finger than any other man of them had in his whole body. And so it was, that, wherever Wesley went, men caught the contagion of his great hope, and then ran tirelessly as long as they lived, kindling over all the world. Macaulay does well to say that no man can write a history of England in the last century, who shall fail to take into account Wesleys vast influence in the common English life.1 [Note: R. Collyer, The Life That Now Is, 68.]
It is to be regretted that Edna Lyalls religious stories are being neglected. They are full, not only of artistic power, but likewise of rich Christian instruction. In one she describes one of her characters in this significant fashion: Carlo had the rare and enviable gift of seeing people as they might have been under happier circumstances, and the still rarer gift of treating them as such. The life of Christ was full of this enviable hopefulness. Read how He dealt with sinners, and you will rejoice to find that His compassion dwelt upon them in their sin.2 [Note: J. A. Clapperton, Culture of the Christian Heart, 117.]
Dr. Westcott has told uswhat those who are acquainted with the poets works will recognize as a statement of factthat Browning has dared to look on the darkest and meanest forms of action and passion, from which we commonly and rightly turn our eyes, and he has brought back for us, from this universal survey, a conviction of hope. As a single specimen of this, we may refer to the scene described in the brief poem bearing the title, Apparent Failure. It is a picture of the Morgue in Paris, into which the poet entered to gaze upon the ghastly spectacles that there presented themselvesthe bodies of men who hated life, or whose ideals were shattered, or whose hearts were broken. And, after plucking up courage to look fearlessly upon them all, trying to conceive what such a sight represented, how each victim came to meet with his terrible fate, he sums up his reflections thus
My own hope is, a sun will pierce
The thickest cloud earth ever stretched;
That, after Last, returns the First,
Though a wide compass round be fetched;
That what began best, cant end worst,
Nor what God blessed once, prove accurst.3 [Note: J. Flew, Studies in Browning, 121.]
LOVE
1. Now consider the greatest of the threecharity or Christian love. It is no use studying Greek or Latin to find out what Christian love is. The dictionaries to consult here are our own hearts in relation to our nearest and dearest, the thirteenth chapter of Pauls First Epistle to the Corinthians, and St. Johns pregnant phrase, God is love. Christian love is the feeling begotten in our hearts towards God and towards our fellow-men by the penetration into our hearts of the sense of the love of God to us when He gave His Son to die for us. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins we love, because he first loved us. That is at once the natural and the supernatural history of Christian love.
Nothing suggests better what Christian love is than Giottos drawing of Charity in Padua. It is a corrective to all that misconception of love which left room for such a phrase as cold as charity. This is how Ruskin describes the drawing: Usually Charity is nursing children or giving money. Giotto thinks there is little charity in nursing children: bears and wolves do that for their little ones; and less still in giving money. His Charity stands trampling upon bags of goldhas no use for them. She gives only corn and flowers (with her right hand); and Gods angel (to whom she looks) gives her, not even thesebut a Heart.1 [Note: R. J. Drummond, Faiths Certainties, 240.]
The great religions of the world are distinguishable from each other by some supreme characteristic. Thus, the genius of Hinduism is mysticism, that of Buddhism is asceticism, that of Parseeism is dualism, that of Mohammedanism is fanaticism, that of Confucianism is secularism,and that of our own faith is altruism, or love. No other inference than this is possible from the teachings of the New Testament. There God is represented as sending His Son to the earth because He loved, and He in this way commends His love; and then St. John, seeking to sum up His nature in a single word, exclaims: God is love!2 [Note: G. C. Lorimer, The Modern Crisis in Religion, 233.]
2. Note three things in the very conception of love.
(1) It is a personal relation.The word may, indeed, be used loosely of our mere liking for inanimate or impersonal objects; it may be degraded to express an animal passion. But all such uses of the word are either abuses of its meaning or are figurative. As the modern poet of chivalry has exquisitely expressed it: True loves the gift which God has given to man alone beneath the heaven; it is the tie, which heart to heart, and mind to mind, in body and in soul can bind. The discriminating genius of the Greek language has marked the absolute difference of this love from the lower forms of passion by assigning special words to each; and there are some who have regretted that no similar distinction has been maintained in our own language. But, we may perhaps be permitted to think, there is another point of view from which the absence of any such verbal distinction may appear prompted by a true instinct in a Christian nation. It was necessary for a Greek to recognize sensual passion as one form of human relationship. But the Christian best expresses the lofty ideal which is ever before his eyes, and best exemplifies that charity which thinketh no evil and which believeth all things, by refusing to contemplate men and women as united by any lower tie than that of love, or by refusing to contemplate our lower nature except in the light shed upon it by the higher.
(2) Love is the highest relation which one personal being can assume towards another.It seems necessary to insist upon this characteristic in it, because its true nature is often obscured by its association with mere abstractions. It is not with humanity but with human beings that love is concerned; and such mere intellectual abstractions are useful only so far as they assist us in placing ourselves in that individual relation to individuals in which love finds its existence and its sphere of action. That which the Apostle has in view in his glowing description of this virtue is not a vague emotion of the heart, but the self-sacrifice, the devotion, the patience which are evoked in one soul by the presence of another.
The degree in which this gracious virtue of love can be evoked in our nature must depend upon the personal relations in which we are placed. The relation, perhaps, may be sometimes and in some measure an ideal one; but the vision of a person must be brought before the soul, if its highest faculties are to be aroused and its noblest emotions drawn forth. We all know, and it is the privilege of a generous youth to feel with peculiar vividness, what an ennobling effect is produced upon our nature by love, in the true sense of the word, thus aroused towards a kindred soul; while we also know and feel how intimately and essentially this influence is dependent on the personal character of the relation. It was the favourite theme of our greatest poets in the most splendid period of our literature, and perhaps of our national life; and in Spensers lofty verse the vision of love and beauty, and the vision of heavenly love and beauty, are so closely associated that they seem to merge into one another. But poets of less spiritual flight, and more concerned with the ordinary passions of human nature, have similarly depicted their heroes as rising to their noblest heights under the inspiration of this generous passion. When St. Paul discerns in the true relation of husband and wife a picture of the relation of Christ to His Church, he justifies and sanctifies these transcripts from nature, and welds together in essential union the most human and the most Divine aspect of love. Where, indeed, even in the light of the Gospel, shall be found more touching illustrations of some of the excellencies which the Apostle ascribes to charity, than in the personal affections of a gracious family life? The love which suffers long and is kind, which envies not, which seeks not her own, which is not easily provoked, which thinks no evil, which bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things,is not this the love of mothers and of wives, the devotion of true sons and husbands? What an astonishing power there is in such love and such devotion to suppress the selfishness in a man or a woman, and to arouse all the faculties of our nature in the service of the person to whom we are devoted!1 [Note: Dean Wace.]
(3) It needs a perfect Person to satisfy its desires.For the question arises, whether all these stirrings of heart towards men like ourselves, all these quickenings of the moral and spiritual pulse can be more than the first awakenings of the human soul towards its true destinythat of communion and union with a perfect Person. With respect to all these emotions, even the truest and most beautiful, when viewed independently of higher relations, in how lamentable a degree is illusion blended with them! Those illusions are often the mockery, the cruel and unworthy mockery, of maturer years; and they are not less often the bitter disappointments of tender and faithful hearts. But suppose a love open to human nature which should be subject to no such illusion; imagine a Person revealed to men and women on whom they could lavish the inexhaustible stores of their affection, their admiration, their devotion, and be sure that all, and more than all, would fall short of what was due, and be a feeble response to the infinite reality: and what might not then be expected to be the influence produced upon our nature? We have the answer in this chapter, which was, in fact, the response elicited from the soul of St. Paul by the vision of the Lord Jesus Christ, by the love of the Saviour for him and his responsive love for the Saviour.
Perfection, or at least blessedness, in some form or other, has been proved by experience to be the ineradicable desire of the soul of man. That desire may, indeed, be dulled for a time, or chilled by despair. But such an acquiescence in imperfection brings with it, like the disappointed philosophy of the ancient world, a decay of energy, an abandonment of hope, in every sphere of life, and relaxes the spring of all noble thoughts and emotions. Be ye perfect is a command which is implied in all others, and is one of their main animating motives; and, in offering the means for this perfection, the Gospel possesses one of its deepest claims upon our spirits.1 [Note: Dean Wace.]
Gather us in, Thou Love that fillest all,
Gather our rival faiths within Thy fold,
Rend each mans temple veil and bid it fall,
That we may know that Thou hast been of old;
Gather us in.
Gather us in: we worship only Thee;
In varied names we stretch a common hand
In diverse forms a common soul we see;
In many ships we seek one spirit-land;
Gather us in.
Each sees one colour of Thy rainbow light;
Each looks upon one tint and calls it heaven
Thou art the fulness of our partial sight,
We are not perfect till we find the seven;
Gather us in.
3. To whom, then, is our love directed?
(1) It is love to God in Christ.The immediate and supreme object of love is the ever-blessed God. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind. This is the first commandment. And with God as the centre of the heart, all the faculties and all the powers have unbounded scope for their operation.
I spoke to Habout the worship of the Virgin, and he thought one reason for its prevalence is, that it puts before men the more affectionate side of truth; and he deplored the want of a more large appeal to the affections in Protestantism, saying that we worship Christ, but none of us love Him. I was silent, but the result of a scrutiny into my own mind was that, with an exception, I scarcely love any one, or anything else, and that not because of any reference to His love for me, which somehow or other never enters into my mind, but solely in consequence of what He is and was, according, at least, to my conception of Him and His mind and heart. I do not know that this consciousness pleased me, because it presented itself rather as a deficiency than as a powera lack of human sympathy, the existence of a continually increasing number of repellent poles in my constitution, which isolate me from my species, and make my antipathies more marked than my sympathies. Whereas St. Johns conception of genuine love for Him was that of an affection trained in love for beings who exhibit the same Humanity which was in Him, in weaker images, in the various relationships of life. If a man love not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? Through the visible as a school we rise up to the appreciation of the invisible. Now my nature forces me to reverse the order, or rather to skip the first steps, for I certainly have some sympathydreamy, perhaps uselesswith the invisibleinvisible personality, justice, right; but there they end, and almost never go on, or go back, to the visible and human. Those lines you have often quoted, of Burns
I saw thee eye the general weal
With boundless love
express a feeling which I can only imagine, not realize, except by a sort of analogy which is dreamy.1 [Note: F. W. Robertson, in Life and Letters, 341.]
The very blessed in Paradise, beholding the infinite Beauty of God, would faint and fail from longing to love Him more if His most Holy Will did not fill them with His own sweet Rest. But they love His sovereign Will so entirely that theirs is wholly merged in it, and they rest content in His Content, willing to submit to the limit Love puts to love. Were it not so, their love would be alike delicious and poignantdelicious in the possession of so great a gift, poignant in the intensity of desire for more. Thus God in His Wisdom sends perpetual shafts into the hearts of those who love Him, to teach them that they do not love Him nearly so much as He deserves to be loved. And be sure that the man who does not crave to love God more does not as yet love Him well enough. There is no enough; and he who would stop short in what he has attained, has attained but little, be sure.1 [Note: St. Francis de Sales.]
(2) It is love to man.We cannot love God without loving man. The love of God is the love of man expanded and purified. To love man is to love God. The testimony of St. John, the disciple of love, is decisive on this point. His love to God was unearthly, pure, spiritual; his religion had melted into love, and here is his account: He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? According to him, it is through the visible that we appreciate the invisible, through the love of our brother that we grow into the love of God. At the same time, true love for man must flow primarily from love to God. The love of God is the root, the love of man the fruit; the love of God is the fountain, the love of man is the stream in which it flows. Both are parts of one whole, links of one chain, threads of one cord which binds us to God, descending from Him to us, and lifting us up to His very being, which is love.2 [Note: J. Davies.]
I read the other day of a girl, a convert from heathenism in the Sandwich Islands, where Father Damien lived. She had a class of little children, and she wished to know which of them continued heathen and which had accepted Christianity. In her simplicity, uncontaminated by conventionalities and traditions which mislead us, she said to each child in her class, Do you love your enemies? If the child answered, Yes, the unsophisticated teacher said, Then you are a Christian; stand here. If the child answered, No, she said, with equal decision, Then you are a heathen; stand on the other side. Thus did the girl in the Sandwich Islands divide the sheep from the goats; and thus will her Saviour divide them on the last day.3 [Note: H. P. Hughes, The Philanthropy of God, 40.]
The Teacher earnestly desired to return to his post. I pled with him to remain at the Mission House till we felt more assured, but he replied,Missi, when I see them thirsting for my blood, I just see myself when the Missionary first came to my island. I desired to murder him, as they now desire to kill me. Had he stayed away for such danger, I would have remained Heathen; but he came, and continued coming to teach us, till, by the grace of God, I was changed to what I am. Now the same God that changed me to this can change these poor Tannese to love and serve Him. I cannot stay away from them; but I will sleep at the Mission House, and do all I can by day to bring them to Jesus.1 [Note: John G. Paton, i. 195.]
Have we got this love? Have we got it as a city, as a Church, and as individuals? Have we got it as a city? I suppose that many would answer that by an eulogium upon the charity of London. We should have flowing articles upon the generosity with which we support our hospitals and our asylums and our refuges. But I have during this last week come across certain facts which I feel it my duty to place before you this afternoon. As the Bishop of East London, it is, I think, natural that, considering for a thousand years the head of every hospital in Europe was Bishop of the place, the Bishop of East London should take a great interest in East London hospitals. I took first the London Hospital, that lifeboat, as it were, which goes up and down the sea of suffering humanity in East London, to cure it and to save it. I thought that the charity of London would, at any rate, be sufficient to support a great institution like the London Hospital. What do I find? I find that the love of London has allowed a deficit of 30,000 in the last two years; that so cramped are they that they have to build, and yet have no money to build with; and that to carry on their work efficiently at all they want 10,000 a year more. I pass to the Victoria Park Consumptive Hospital, and I pass with the memory of having seen at least fifty of my East-end friends die of consumption before my eyes in the last nine years. I go to the Consumptive Hospital, and what do I find? Out of 162 beds only 60 can be used for lack of funds. One hundred and two patients are passed as suitable, and yet of those 102 none can be taken in. Four women, passed a few weeks ago, have all died before their time to go in came. Those 102 beds are left vacant because the love of London is not sufficient for the purpose. I go to the Childrens Hospital. One would have thought that the charity of a great city would look after its children. But what do I find at the North-Eastern Hospital for children? I find the Hospital crammed with children, and another wing an urgent necessity, and yet the only 2000 which has been given was not given by some one who hates creeds and who goes in for the service of man without creeds, but was obtained from a distinctly Church charity as the first contribution to the new wing. I say, then, that as a city we have not risen yet to the true standard of love. Have we as a Church?1 [Note: Bishop Winnington Ingram, Banners of the Christian Faith, 43.]
O happy souls, O radiant souls, what songs are ye outpouring?
What passionate, pure prayers are these from earth to heaven soaring?
What mystic gifts of love and grace are these your words imploring
From God, for your neighbour and your enemy?
Our souls are all afire with lovewith love our hearts are glowing,
The mystic peace that Jesus gives our joyous strains are showing;
For lo! our love can not be hidour brimming love out-flowing
To God, and our neighbour and our enemy.
But what of those who sought your harmwho joyed at your mistaking,
What place have they in this your chantin these your prayers, partaking?
Are your pure soulsyour tender heartswith love and longing breaking
For God, and your neighbour and your enemy?
Our souls are filled with heavenly peaceour hearts with love untiring,
And Jesus with His radiant love our feeble love is firing,
Till nought we crave but love for all, in this our joyous choiring
From God, for our neighbour and our enemy.2 [Note: Margaret Blaikie, Songs by the Way, 54.]
(3) It is love to the brethren.The love of the brethren is often referred to as distinguished from love; the one having reference to moral character, the other to the race in general. Be kindly affectioned one to another. Be ye all of one mind, love as brethren.
Gibbon has discussed the reason of the wonderful expansion of Christianity at the outset of its career, and he has alleged five causes: the zeal of the primitive Christians, their doctrine of immortality, the miraculous powers of the Apostolic Church, her pure morality, and the union and discipline of the Christian republic. And these, no doubt, were efficient causes, but Gibbon has overlooked the strongest of all. The reason why Christianity spread over the world and won the nations, was that the Christians understood the blessed secret of love as the Lord had taught it. It is said by Tertullian that in those early days the heathen would often exclaim: See how they love one another! All this changed, and during the days of bitter controversy over the doctrine of the Person of Christ, when the Christians were wrangling and excommunicating and persecuting one another, it was said by a Latin historian that their hatred of each other exceeded the fury of savage beasts against mankind. It was then that Christianity lost its power, and if we would recover the ancient power, we must rediscover and practise the ancient secret.1 [Note: D. Smith.]
In Samoa, Stevenson had left his small hut and removed into a large house. There had not yet been time for Love to line it. Stevenson felt sad and weary, and had forgotten to bespeak his nightly coffee and cigars. Whilst he was thinking, the door quietly opened and the native boy entered carrying the tray with that on it for which he longed. Stevenson said in the native tongue, Great is your forethought. The boy corrected him and said, Great is the love.2 [Note: A. R. Simpson, These Three, 47.]
The writer remembers a curious expression used by a Mohammedan who had become a Christian and then relapsed, Un ki muhabbat dekhke, bhul gaya; un ki dushmani dekhke, yad aya, Their (the Christians) love made me forget my religion; their hostility made me remember it.3 [Note: C. Field, The Charm of India, xi.]
4. But God in Christ is the source as well as the object of love. Where are we to look for the inspiration that breathed into the idea of love that intense spiritualitythat perfect purity and almost infinite longing and desire, which demanded almost a new word to meet a new conception, as much in advance of all that the heathen world knew as the Gospel of St. John transcends all the Greek philosophies? The answer to this question is to be found, at least in the first instance, in the words of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, as reported to us in that very Gospelthe spiritual Gospel, as it has been well calledof the beloved Apostle; to the effect that God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
So kindly was His love to us,
(We had not heard of love before),
That all our life grew glorious
When He had halted at our door.
So meekly did He love us men,
Though blind we were with shameful sin,
He touched our eyes with tears, and then
Led Gods tall angels flaming in.
He dwelt with us a little space,
As mothers do in childhoods years,
And still we can discern His face
Wherever Joy or Love appears.
He made our virtues all His own,
And lent them grace we could not give,
And now our world seems His alone,
And while we live He seems to live.
He took our sorrows and our pain,
And hid their torture in His breast,
Till we received them back again,
To find on each His grief impressed.
He clasped our children in His arms,
And showed us where their beauty shone,
He took from us our grey alarms,
And put Deaths icy armour on.
So gentle were His ways with us,
That crippled souls had ceased to sigh,
On them He laid His hands, and thus
They gloried at His passing by.
Without reproof or word of blame,
As mothers do in childhoods years,
He kissed our lips in spite of shame,
And stayed the passage of our tears.
So tender was His love to us,
(We had not learned to love before),
That we grew like to Him, and thus
Men sought His grace in us once more.1 [Note: Coningsby William Dawson.]
When the Jubilee Singers first visited our shores in 1873, an old believer used to repeat constantly the refrain of one of their songs, Free grace and dying love. The love of Christ constrained her. Rabbi Duncan rose up from the Professors chair, and walked up and down the platform as he discoursed on the Crucifixion with his students. Ay, ay, dye know what it wasdying on the cross, forsaken by His Fatherdye know what it was? What? What? It was damnationand damnation taken lovingly. The love of Christ constrained him.2 [Note: A. R. Simpson, These Three, 45.]
It was for me that Jesus died, for me and a world of men
Just as sinful, and just as slow to give back His love again;
And He didnt wait till I came to Him, but He loved me at my worst;
He neednt ever have died for me if I could have loved Him first.3 [Note: Dora Greenwell.]
THESE THREE
We have looked at Faith, Hope, and Love separately. Now let us see them acting and re-acting the one on the other.
Now abideth faith, hope, love, these three. In thus speaking of these cardinal virtues of the Christian character, it is evident that St. Paul means to distinguish them from one another. He speaks of them as these three, and thereby represents them to us as three several virtues, each holding its own place, and serving its own purpose, to which it is peculiarly adapted, and in which the others are incapable of superseding it. Each one of that blessed triad of Christian graces has its own proper province in the spiritual life allotted to it. And each has important functions to discharge, which none but itself is capable of executing. Faith can be no substitute for love in the way of fulfilling the great duties of practical religion. And as little can love be any substitute for faith in the way of appropriating the merits of the Saviour, and thereby securing our justification in the sight of God. What St. Paul has elsewhere said of the several offices in the Christian Church is equally applicable to the leading graces of the Christian characterthat all of them are useful and needful in their respective spheres, like the various organs and members of the human body; and that no one among them can set aside another any more than the hand can dispense with the services of the foot, or the eye undertake to perform the functions of the ear.
But while in this statement faith, hope, and love are thus represented as numerically distinct, they are notwithstanding very intimately associated, as having the closest mutual affinity and dependence. All three must abide together, in order to the perfection of each other, as well as of the whole character into which they enter. God has joined them; and man must not attempt to sever them. Faith must animate the mind with hope, and work by love, in order to show its genuineness as that living and operative faith of which alone the Scriptures have approved. Hope, if it do not rest on the good foundation which faith has laid for it, is altogether visionary and unwarranted; and if it do not elevate the soul unto the unfeigned love of God and man, it is spurious or hypocritical. And love, if it be not originated by faith and sustained by hope, is merely an instinctive impulse of nature, accidental in its attachments, and limited to the sphere of visible things, and thus differing most essentially from that evangelical love of which it is written, that the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned.
1. Faith and Hope.Faith and hope are twin sisters, and hardly to be known apart; both as beautiful as they can be, and alike beautiful, and very often indeed mistaken each for the other. Yet this need never be; because between them there is this clear difference, that while hope expects, faith inspects; while hope is like Mary, looking up-ward, faith is like Martha, looking at-ward; while the light in the eyes of hope is high, the light in the eyes of faith is strong; while hope trembles in expectation, faith is quiet in possession. Hope leaps out toward what will be: faith holds on to what is; hope idealizes, faith realizes; faith sees, hope foresees.
The trouble with some men is, that, while they hold on to the faith, they have lost hold of the hope of their religion. And so they inspect but they do not expect; they believe in what has come, but not in what is coming. So they expire after they have ceased to inspire; they die, but they do not make many live. You get a grand lesson on this matter, as you go from the mouth to the springs of the Rhine. Passing through the fog and mist of Holland, as through a stagnant, grassy sea, you stretch upward, league after league; and, as you go, the country gradually changes. The air grows clearer, the prospect finer; everything that can stir the soul begins to reach down toward you, and touch you with its glory. But the higher you go, the harder is your going; only the deepening beauty never fails you. So at last you come into Switzerland, where the blue heavens bend over you with their infinite, tender light; and the mountains stand about you, in their white robes, glorious as the gates of heaven, with green valleys nestling between, which, but for sorrow and sin, are beautiful as Paradise. And all about you is a vaster vision, and within you an intenser inspiration than can ever be felt on the foggy flats below. It is the difference between faith alone, and faith and hope together.1 [Note: R. Collyer, The Life that Now Is, 64.]
By faith Jacob, when a-dying, leaves his children a legacy of hope in God. He looks upward in faith and forward in expectancy. His religion makes him sanguine and prophetic. Behold, he said, I die: but God shall be with you (Gen 48:21). The words are suggestive of infinite possibilities. The One remains while the many change and pass. When man dies, God lives on, and faith in the real presence of a living God is the spring of eternal hope. Faith is the power by which men grasp the future, the unseen, the Divine, by which they maintain their expectant look, by which they remain optimists in spite of all the evil of the world. Dying saints are enabled to bequeath messages of comfort to after ages, because they are sure that the God who has so greatly blessed themselves has greater blessings in store for their posterity. True religion bids them expect a brighter day to dawn and a happier society to come into being. Jacob, dying in Goshen, the proverbial land of plenty, sees something still better than Goshen. His conviction of the goodness of God kindles an ardent and unquenchable hope of the amelioration of the state of his people. The vision of God is always accompanied by the vision of a better and happier world.2 [Note: J. Strachan, Hebrew Ideals, ii. 150.]
In the career of Columbus faith and hope supported each other. So sings the American poet, Maurice Francis Egan
Who doubts has met defeat ere blows can fall;
Who doubts must die with no palm in his hand:
Who doubts shall never be of that high band
Which clearly answerPresent! to Deaths call:
For Faith is life, and, though a funeral pall
Veil our fair Hope, and on our promised land
A mist malignant hang, if Faith but stand
Among our ruins, we shall conquer all.
O faithful soul, that knew no doubting low;
O Faith incarnate, lit by Hopes strong flame,
And led by Faiths own cross to dare all ill
And find our world!but more than this we owe
To thy true heart; thy pure and glorious name
Is one clear trumpet call to Faith and Will.
2. Faith and Love.Faith is energetic love. Divinely implanted love, spiritually inspired self-surrender increases every faculty of knowledge, deepens every impression made by truth, opens the eye which indifference or passion had blinded, purifies the gaze which prejudice or evil bias had corrupted and obscured, and so makes the trembling faith which can only cry, I believe; help thou mine unbelief, grow, burn, gleam with holy enthusiasm, until it cries, I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded.
I have been writing lately on the subject of Kebles lines (Hymn for Sunday next before Advent). I have little doubt that the Church of Borne has paid far more attention than we have to that which forms the subject of this hymnthe treatment of penitence. She has more power to soothe, because she dwells chiefly on that which is the most glorious element in the nature of GodLove. Whereas Protestantism fixes attention more on that which is the strongest principle in the bosom of manFaith.1 [Note: F. W. Robertson, in Life and Letters, 244.]
I ask not for Thy love, O Lord: the days
Can never come when anguish shall atone.
Enough for me were but Thy pity shown,
To me as to the stricken sheep that strays,
With ceaseless cry for unforgotten ways
O lead me back to pastures I have known,
Or find me in the wilderness alone,
And slay me, as the hand of mercy slays.
I ask not for Thy love; nor een so much,
As for a hope on Thy dear breast to lie;
But be Thou still my shepherdstill with such
Compassion as may melt to such a cry;
That so I hear Thy feet, and feel Thy touch,
And dimly see Thy face ere yet I die.1 [Note: George John Romanes, Life and Letters, 267.]
In 1836 James Field, of Cork, called for the third time on an unsaved woman to whom he had been introduced. She cried out to him, Oh, sir, I do not love God! He replied, What have you to do with loving God? How can you love until you apprehend His love to you? and this you cannot do until you believe. It is folly to think of loving God before you obtain pardon. Tears gushed from her eyes, and she said she had never understood it before. As the two prayed, God set her soul at liberty, and then she found she could love God, because He first loved her. It was the gift of pardon that filled her heart with the love of gratitude.2 [Note: J. A. Clapperton, Culture of the Christian Heart, 68.]
3. Hope and Love.Who has not experienced what he and others call Christian hope, but which on close analysis is found to be little better than a faint and feeble desire after better things, and a desponding cry of the soul for what is just a grade better than blank despair? This is not the hope that saves. Contrast it with the full evidence of things hoped for, which is imparted by living faith. Let desire be large, and expectation strong; let hope embrace all Divine promises, and it becomes a vast capacity for blessedness, and often bursts out in solitary places and on dark nights into songs of rejoicing. Then is revealed what the Apostles call patience, born of quiet waiting, with a smile upon its face, reflecting all the lustre of the Divine manifestation. Tribulation and sorrow are but the crucible in which this precious quality and energy of soul is refined. This hope maketh not ashamed, and can never be disappointed, because it is a veritable foretaste of its own objectit is the earnest and foretaste of the purchased possession. What leads the soul from hope to hope, from the faint uplifting of the wearied weeping eye to the hope full of immortality? St. Paul gives us the answer: Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit given to us.
Do you not think that the ordinary standpoint of so-called Christian teaching is undergoing a destruction, and that the devils travesty is waning? Terrorism is no real factor in Christianity. Surely Christianity is the response which follows the recognition of Love and its beneficent purpose of Universal beatitude. In that atmosphere the heart beats freely and fully, for it breathes the Hope which Love begets. We ought to breathe the Hope before we attempt to deal with the distresses of life; then should we be armed with the Sympathy that is powerful, and not merely with the sympathy that is the recognition of a common woe.1 [Note: R. W. Corbet, Letters from a Mystic of the Present Day, 150.]
Yesterday, after reading Romance of Rose, thought much of the destruction of all my higher power of sentiment by late sorrow; and considered how far it might be possible to make love, though hopeless, still a guide and strength.2 [Note: Ruskin in E. T. Cooks Life of Ruskin, ii. 267.]
Is any grieved or tired? Yea, by Gods will:
Surely Gods Will alone is good and best:
O weary man, in weariness take rest,
O hungry man, by hunger feast thy fill.
Discern thy good beneath a mask of ill,
Or build of loneliness thy secret nest:
At noon take heart, being mindful of the west;
At night wake hope, for dawn advances still.
At night wake hope. Poor soul, in such sore need
Of wakening and of girding up anew,
Hast thou that hope which fainting doth pursue?
No saint but hath pursued and hath been faint;
Bid love wake hope, for both thy steps shall speed,
Still faint yet still pursuing, O thou saint.3 [Note: Christina G. Rossetti, Poems, 164.]
4. Faith, Hope, Love.When St. Paul takes three words, and couples them with a verb in the singular, he is not making a slip of the pen, or committing a grammatical blunder which a child could correct. But there is a great truth in that piece of apparent grammatical irregularity; for the faith, the hope, and the love, for which he can afford only a singular verb, are thereby declared to be in their depth and essence one thing, and it, the triple star, abides, and continues to shine; the three primitive colours are unified in the white beam of light. Do not correct the grammar, and spoil the sense, but discern what he means when he says, Now abided faith, hope, love. For this is what he means, that the two latter come out of the former, and that without it they are naught, and that it without them is dead.
(1) Faith is the rightful attitude of self and our neighbour to God: Hope is the recognition and welcome of Gods purpose for self, and our neighbour: Love binds God, self, and our neighbour in the perfect bond of the Divinely purposed harmony.
You have seen that famous picture of the French artist Millet, The Angelus. You remember the scene which it depictsa very homely and, at the first glance, prosaic scene: a potato-field and two figures, a man and a woman, surrounded by the implements of their toil. It is a dull, bleak landscape, and away across the level tract you see a village with the church-spire rising above the lowly roofs. It is evening, and the bell has rung out its call to prayer. Its silvery chime has reached the ears of the two labourers, and after the devout manner of their country they have hearkened to its call. They have dropped their tools, and they are standing erect, with bowed heads and folded hands, in the attitude of prayer. I once heard an interpretation of this picture from my old teacher, the late Professor Henry Drummond. There, he said, are the three elements of a complete lifeWork, God, and Love. The field, the spade, the basket, and the barrowthere is Work; the bowed heads and the folded handsthere is Religion; the two, a man and a woman, whatever be their relationshipthere is Love. And this is precisely the idea of the saying of St. Paul in our text.1 [Note: D. Smith, Mans Need of God, 16.]
So Faith shall build the boundary wall,
And Hope shall plant the secret bower,
That both may show magnifical
With gem and flower.
While over all a dome must spread,
And Love shall be that dome above;
And deep foundations must be laid,
And these are Love.
(2) Though separated in the representation, faith, hope, and love are really inseparable companions, closely united, not only to every Christian, but also to each other. What, indeed, is faith without hope and love? A cold conviction of the intellect, but without life-awakening power in the heart, or mature fruit in the life. Without hope, faith would never behold heaven; but even if it could enter therein, heaven would lack its highest bliss. What is hope without faith and love? At most, an idle dream from which we soon shall sadly wake; a fragrant blossom in the garden, fading before it has brought forth fruit. And, lastly, what is love without hope or faith? The welling forth, perhaps, of natural feeling, but in no degree a spiritual principle of life. If love believes not, it must die; and if it hopes not in the same measure as it loves, it is then the source of unparalleled suffering. Thus, whichever of these three sisters we would separate from the others, in so doing we have subscribed her death-warrant; nay, even if two of them remain together, the brightness of their beauty is dimmed whenever the third has disappeared.
That the whole substance of religion was faith, hope, and love; by the practice of which we became united to the will of God; that all beside is indifferent, and to be used only as a means, that we may arrive at our end, and be swallowed up therein, by faith and love.
That all things are possible to him who believes, that they are less difficult to him who hopes, that they are easier to him who loves, and still more easy to him who perseveres in the practice of these three virtues.1 [Note: Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God, 23.]
I remember reading about an English barrister, of refined mind but speculative tendencies, who had reached such a depth of Pyrrhonism, alike in philosophy and religion, that he had lost all faith in positive truth. His Christian wife grieved over him all the more that she perceived about him symptoms of incipient consumption. One day, however, as he lay on the sofa, she saw him gazing upwards, as if on some object, with an expression of soft delight and almost rapture. Whats the matter? she asked. Do you know, I have begun to conceive hope. Hope of what? I dont know, but somehow I have hope. Ah! the haze was dissolving, phantoms were crystallizing into concrete realities and the transporting hope of finding solid footing on the rock of positive truth. Right speedily came that faith which overcometh the worlda childlike reception of the Gospel of Christterminating, and at no distant period, in a tranquil departure to the region of unclouded light.2 [Note: D. Brown, Memoir of John Duncan, 78.]
John Knox, in his History of the Reformation, has preserved a beautiful comparison of faith, hope, and charity by Patrick Hamilton, the Scottish martyr. Says Hamilton: Faith cometh of the Word of God, Hope cometh of Faith, and Charity springeth of them both. Faith believes the Word, Hope trusteth after that which is promised by the Word, and Charity doeth good unto her neighbour, through the love which she hath to God, and gladness that is within herself. Faith looketh to God and His word; Hope looketh unto His gift and reward; Charity looketh unto her neighbours profit. Faith receiveth God; Hope receiveth His reward; Charity looketh to her neighbour with a glad heart, and that without any respect of reward. Faith pertaineth to God only, Hope to His reward, and Charity to her neighbour.
Let love weep
It cometh, that day of the Lord divine;
And the morning star will surely shine
On the long death-night of sleep.
Let faith fear,
The unending light comes on apace;
The path leads homeward from this place;
Through the twilight home must appear.
Let hope despair,
Let death and the grave shout victory,
That flush of the morning yet shall be,
Which shall wake the slumberers there!
THESE THREE ABIDE
1. Amidst all that changes and is destined to pass away, three things there are, St. Paul tells us, that abide. Just as in a world of shadows and uncertainties we have learned to postulate as fundamental certainties three incontestable realities, God, self, and our neighbour; so amid the variety of external and transient manifestations of the religious life there remain unchangeably three activities or functions of the soul, which are perpetually concerned with these fundamental certainties. Much of the detail of religion is an accommodation to present necessities and will pass away when it has served its temporary purpose; but behind and beneath lie three essential and eternal principles of spiritual lifeFaith, Hope, and Love.
2. The popular interpretation reads now as temporal instead of logicalidentifying it with the now of 1Co 13:12, though the Greek words differas though the Apostle meant that for the present faith and hope abide with love, but love alone abides for ever. But St. Paul puts the three on the same footing in respect of enduringnessthese three in comparison with the other three of 1Co 13:8pointedly adding faith and hope to share and support the abiding of love; love is greater among these, not more lasting.
It is curious that this meaning has been so generally missed by readers of the passage. Learned readers, as well as unlearned, have failed to observe it. You may frequently see it assumed, in hymns and other religious literature, that faith and hope, instead of being associated with love in this quality of permanence, as St. Paul declares them to be, are contrasted with it, in that they are transitory, whilst love is eternal. Faith will vanish into sight; Hope be emptied in delight; Love in heaven will shine more bright. Such language is plausible enough to be generally accepted. But it is at variance with St. Pauls view. The passage we are considering is not one of doubtful meaning; no competent interpreter could question that St. Pauls purpose is to say that faith, hope, love, all three abide; and that by abide he means that they have not the changing and transitory character which belongs to other things of which he has been speaking. It is true that he is asserting the supreme glory of love; it is greater, he says, than faith and hope. But these two sister graces share with it the significant distinction that they all abide.
3. The chief point, then, to be noticed in this statement, is the permanence it ascribes to those graces of which it speaks. It represents faith, hope, and love, these three, as all alike abiding. Formerly the Apostle had said this of love in particular, declaring in the 8th verse that love never faileth. But now, in repeating the statement, he extends it to the other two, ascribing to them also the same durability that he had previously noticed as an attribute of love. No doubt it was the design of the Apostle to point out in this respect the very striking contrast between these three essential graces, by which at all times the Christian character must be distinguished, and those extraordinary gifts bestowed on the early Christian Church, which, however remarkable and useful while they endured, were only intended to continue for a season.
If, loving well the creatures that are like yourself, you feel that you would love still more dearly creatures better than yourselfwere they revealed to you;if striving with all your might to mend what is evil, near you and around, you would fain look for a day when some Judge of all the Earth shall wholly do right, and the little hills rejoice on every side; if, parting with the companions that have given you all the best joy you had on Earth, you desire ever to meet their eyes again and clasp their hands,where eyes shall no more be dim, nor hands fail;if, preparing yourselves to lie down beneath the grass in silence and loneliness, seeing no more beauty, and feeling no more gladnessyou would care for the promise to you of a time when you should see Gods light again, and know the things you have longed to know, and walk in the peace of everlasting Lovethen, the Hope of these things to you is religion, the Substance of them in your life is Faith. And in the power of them, it is promised us, that the kingdoms of this world shall yet become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.1 [Note: Ruskin, The Bible of Amiens (Works, xxxiii. 174).]
4. When we have looked backward and seen these three graces to be thus identical and unchanging in stages of human growth which are in mental conditions so far separated from each other, we shall have confidence in them as we look forward even beyond the grave. Are we to part with faith hereafter? Only if we give to the name Faith some narrow interpretation. Not, surely, if it is filial trust in the Father. It cannot be part of the reward of the future state that the children of God should cease to be filial, or to cherish that confiding trust in the Fatherly wisdom and goodness which was perfectly exhibited in the perfect Son of God. No; if childlike faith has continued from yesterday until to-day, we may know it to be of a nature to continue and abide for ever. But must not hope, as they say, be swallowed up in fruition? Not, it would seem, until the whole work of the Divine creation and government be brought to a standstill. Such an end is beyond the reach of our faculties to imagine. But the death of a Christian will not leave him without objects of hope. After each of us dies there will be plenty of evil still to be purged out of Gods world; there will be endless evolutions of the Divine purpose for the revealing of the Divine glory. Those that have gone before us, we may well believe, instead of having ceased to hope, are now hoping more earnestly, more continuously, more joyfully, more calmly, than we are. Of the continuance of love in the life to come one need say nothing, as it has not been possible to fall into the mistake of supposing that love could be stopped by death unless all conscious existence be believed to be stopped by it also.
We are very much accustomed to speak of faith as destined in the future world to give place to vision, and of hope as destined, in like manner, to end in full fruition. This view is taken in the last verses of our 49th Paraphrase, of which the chapter before us is the groundwork. And by frequently using that beautiful Paraphrase, we have probably been led, without much consideration, to assume that love alone shall exist in heaven, while faith and hope shall be altogether superseded. But is there any solid Scriptural ground for such an assumption? There is nothing in the text itself to warrant it. Nor am I aware of any other passage that has ever been formally brought forward to confirm it. No faith in heaven! What, then, are we to make of those texts which speak of the glorified saints as eating of the hidden manna, partaking of the fruit of the tree of life,following the Lamb of God whithersoever He may lead themand as guided by Himto living fountains of waters. Surely these expressions are as significant as words can be of a life of unceasing faith in the Redeemer. It is quite true that many of those things which are now objects of faith, shall hereafter be objects of sight. But it would be a very rash and sweeping conclusion thence to infer that in a future world there shall be no room and no occasion for faith at all. Unless, indeed, we are to be made absolutely omniscient at the very first moment of our entrance into the heavenly mansions, there must still remain a field, though not indeed the same field as that which we now have, for the exercise of faith. And then, in so far as faith can be held to consist in confidence towards God or dependence on the Saviour, we may surely venture to say that instead of ceasing in the world to come, it will be more fully developed and more perfectly maintained. With respect to hope, again, it is not to be questioned that many of those things to which it is for the present directed shall in our future state be actually possessed, so that they cannot then be hoped for any longer. But does it follow that, after this life is ended, the Christian will have absolutely nothing whatever to hope for? Will it be nothing for the departed spirits of the faithful to anticipate the resurrection of their bodies, and to look forward to the triumphant issues of the coming judgment? And even when these glorious events have been consummated, will there not still remain the animating prospect of continually augmenting knowledge, unceasingly advancing happiness, and progressively increasing spiritual excellence to all eternity? We must either suppose that all that heaven has to give is to be enjoyed at once by the spirits of the redeemed when first they are translated thither, and that there is no progress of any kind to be afterwards made by them from glory to glory; or else we must allow that there is still something in reserve for them, besides what they at first attain, as a fit and proper object of Hope.1 [Note: T. J. Crawford, The Preaching of the Cross, 349.]
5. Faith, hope, and love, these three represent the spiritual or Christian life, called also the eternal life, in the soul of man. It is this that has in its history and essential nature the witness of permanence. St. Paul found comfort in the evident progress from the more imperfect to the less imperfect which is to be traced in a part of our human nature. But he also derived comfort, and the more indispensable comfort, from contemplating the signs and working in man of the perfect and eternal Divine nature. And in order to realize that this which seemed to him best in man was really unchanging, he must have looked at it as he did at the changing forms of mental conception, in the stage of human childhood. In the childhe implies, if he does not fully affirmhe found the spiritual affections at least as admirable as in the man. These things, faith and hope and love, he perceived, manifest themselves with heavenly beauty in the young; they are also the signs of Gods truest presence in the instructed and experienced man, and they will stand the shock of death, and remain with us, in virtue of their imperishable and eternal nature, in the dimly imagined world that lies on the other side of the grave.
So with our youths. We once taught them to make Latin verses, and called them educated; now we teach them to leap and to row, to hit a ball with a bat, and call them educated. Can they plough, can they sow, can they plant at the right time, or build with a steady hand? Is it the effort of their lives to be chaste, knightly, faithful, holy in thought, lovely in word and deed? Indeed it is, with some, nay, with many, and the strength of England is in them, and the hope; but we have to turn their courage from the toil of war to the toil of mercy; and their intellect from dispute of words to discernment of things; and their knighthood from the errantry of adventure to the state and fidelity of a kingly power. And then, indeed, shall abide, for them and for us, an incorruptible felicity, and an infallible religion; shall abide for us Faith, no more to be assailed by temptation, no more to be defended by wrath and by fear;shall abide with us Hope, no more to be quenched by the years that overwhelm, or made ashamed by the shadows that betray:shall abide for us, and with us, the greatest of these; the abiding will, the abiding name of our Father. For the greatest of these is Charity.1 [Note: Ruskin, Sesame and Lilies (Works, xviii. 186).]
i. Faith Abides
1. There is a common saying, which ninety out of a hundred people think comes out of the Bible, that faith is lost in sight. There is no such teaching in Scripture. True, in one aspect, faith is the antithesis of sight. St. Paul does say, We walk by faith, not by sight. But that antithesis refers only to part of faiths significance. In so far as it is the opposite of sight, of course it will cease to be in operation when we shall know even as we are known, and see Him as He is. But the essence of faith is not the absence of the person trusted, but the emotion of trust which goes out to the person, present or absent. And in its deepest meaning of absolute dependence and happy confidence, faith abides through all the glories and the lustres of the heavens, as it burns amidst the dimnesses and the darknesses of earth. For ever and ever will dependence on God in Christ be the life of the glorified, as it was the life of the militant, Church. No millenniums of possession, and no imaginable increases in beauty and perfectness and enrichment with the wealth of God, will bring us one inch nearer to casting off the state of filial dependence which is, and ever will be, the condition of our receiving them all. Faith abides.
2. But how can faith, which is the evidence of things not seen, remain in the very presence of the realities themselves? There we shall see face to face. So it is clear that faith cannot be altogether the same as here. But in every essential point, it will be the same. For what is the ground of faith? What leads me to act on Gods word, though I have never seen God, have never heard His voice? Is it not that I trust God, that I am content to leave myself in His hands, that I have confidence in His doing all things well? Is not this the essence of faith in ordinary life? Is it not that we trust one another, and have confidence in men doing their duty, and so we leave important matters to be transacted for us by others, having faith in them, as we express it? And in this its ordinary sense, will not faith remain in our new and higher state of being? Will not entire and unwavering trust in God form a component of the character of the saints in glorya confidence compared to which the most perfect assurance ever attained here below is but doubt, an entire resting for the present and for the future on His wisdom and His love, of the perfect value of which we know nothing here?
Caesar Malans death-bed seemed to those who witnessed it the most surprising of all his achievements. Said the doctor to me one day on leaving him, I have just beheld what I have often heard of, but what I never saw before. Now I have seen it, as I see this stick I carry in my hand. And what have you seen? I asked. Faith, faith, he answered; not the faith of a theologian, but of a Christian! I have seen it with my eyes.1 [Note: The Life, Labour, and Writings of Caesar Malan, 459.]
3. It would be a most serious mistake to think that there ever was a time in the history of our creation in the past, that there is any part of the infinite creation now, that there ever will be a time in the history of any conceivable creation of the future, in regard to which it has been, is, or shall be true that the spiritual life of creatures made in the image of God is not lived by faith in God. For what is the life of faith but the living, not independently and with self-reliance, but by the receiving of the life of God? And how can it accord with the relation between the Creator and the creature, that there should ever be any other spiritual life than this?
I singularly moved
To love the lovely that are not beloved,
Of all the Seasons, most
Love Winter, and to trace
The sense of the Trophonian pallor on her face.
It is not death, but plenitude of peace;
And the dim cloud that does the world enfold
Hath less the characters of dark and cold
Than warmth and light asleep;
And correspondent breathing seems to keep
With the infant harvest, breathing soft below
Its eider coverlet of snow.
Nor is in field or garden anything
But, duly looked into, contains serene
The substance of things hoped for, in the Spring,
And evidence of Summer not yet seen.1 [Note: Coventry Patmore.]
ii. Hope Abides
1. Hope shares the prerogative and dignity of love, to stand on the wreck of worlds and gaze on the eternal Face which sinners may not see and live. The works of God shall pass away. The law of decay is not more plainly written on our mortal bodies than on the mightiest star that walks the frozen verge of heaven. Even spiritual gifts shall perish, unless faith and hope and love throw over them the asbestos robe of immortality. If prophecies there be, they shall be needed no more; if tongues there be, they shall cease; if knowledge there be, it shall be needed no more: but hope along with faith and love abideth evermore. There is room and work for hope even in the world where we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. If heaven is not poorer than earth, there must be unmeasured room for hope in revelations far beyond all that sinners can ask or thinkrevelations rising through the years of eternity, but always revelations of our Heavenly Fathers love in Christ.
2. It is no more a Scriptural idea that hope is lost in fruition than it is that faith is lost in sight. Rather that future presents itself to us as the continual communication of an inexhaustible God to our progressively capacious and capable spirits. In that continual communication there is continual progress. Wherever there is progress there must be hope. And thus the fair form which has so often danced before us elusive, and has led us into bogs and miry places and then faded away, will move before us through all the long avenues of an endless progress, and will ever and anon come back to tell us of the unseen glories that lie beyond the next turn, and to woo us farther into the depths of heaven and the fulness of God. Hope abides.
3. What is hope? The expectation of things to comegood things; brighter, better, fuller life. And the surer the expectation, the truer the hope. In the first dawn of the worlds history, was not this hope an inspiration? Indeed it is the very perversion of hope that we see exemplified so strikingly in the desire to be wise, to be as gods (Gen 3:5-6). And in our world to-day, is it not the glorious heritage of the sons of God, anticipated by hope, that makes the present not only bearable but instinct with strength, and fraught with victory? And can we conceive of any other world, or of any other state of life, where hope is not? where the goal is already reached, and only the dull monotony of existence is left? Nay, hope shines on the forehead of every happy world, as of our poor, sinful, struggling world. And in the immortal future shall hope cease? Nay, for that would be our doom. But rather, for ever and everor unto the ages of the ages, as implying the opening up of an ever-growing historythere shall be the joyous expectation of fuller, richer, and more glorious life.
We can imagine only one condition from which hope is for ever shut out; but one place over the portal of which is inscribed, All hope abandon, ye who enter here. But in heaven, where the spirit shall be refined and quickened and exalted to the utmost, shall the keenest of all its pleasures, the life of all its delights, the spur of all its exertions, be absent? Hope disappointed indeed there shall be none, for hope shall be based on certainty; the eye of the soul shall rest, not on the flitting visions of earthly bliss, but on the calm realities of perfect knowledge. Hope deferred there shall be none; no more sickness of heart at long waiting; for the state of trial will be over, the perfect work of patience will be accomplished, and the hand which here is often stretched out till it wearies and stiffens and cannot grasp the object which it has reached, will there have but to open and be filled. But hope in all its blessedness, in all its fulness of joy, shall abide for ever.1 [Note: 1 H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, i. 130.]
Bury Hope out of sight,
No book for it and no bell;
It never could bear the light
Even while growing and well:
Think if now it could bear
The light on its face of care
And grey scattered hair.
No grave for Hope in the earth,
But deep in that silent soul
Which rang no bell for its birth
And rings no funeral toll.
Cover its once bright head;
Nor odours nor tears be shed:
It lived once, it is dead.
Brief was the day of its power,
The day of its grace how brief
As the fading of a flower,
As the falling of a leaf,
So brief its day and its hour;
No bud more and no bower
Or hint of a flower.
Shall many wail it? not so:
Shall one bewail it? not one:
Thus it hath been from long ago,
Thus it shall be beneath the sun.
O fleet sun, make haste to flee;
O rivers, fill up the sea;
O Death, set the dying free.
The sun nor loiters nor speeds,
The rivers run as they ran,
Thro clouds or thro windy reeds
All run as when all began.
Only Death turns at our cries:
Lo the Hope we buried with sighs
Alive in Deaths eyes!1 [Note: Christina G. Rossetti, Poems, 137.]
iii. Love Abides
1. Love is the eternal form of the human relation to God. It, too, like the mercy which it clasps, endureth for ever. It is greater than its linked sisters, because, whilst faith and hope belong only to a creature, and are dependent and expectant of some good to come to themselves, and correspond to something which is in God in Christ, the love which springs from faith and hope not only corresponds to, but resembles, that from which it comes and by which it lives. The fire kindled is cognate with the fire that kindles; and the love that is in man is like the love that is in God. It is the climax of his nature; it is the fulfilling of all duty; it is the crown and jewelled clasp of all perfection. And so abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
Round among the quiet graves,
When the sun was low,
Love went grieving,Love who saves;
Did the sleepers know?
At his touch the flowers awoke,
At his tender call
Birds into sweet singing broke,
And it did befall
From the blooming, bursting sod
All Loves dead arose,
And went flying up to God
By a way Love knows.1 [Note: Louise Chandler Moulton.]
2. The first thing about love is that it is Godlike, the second follows from the first, and that is, it is indestructible
They sin who tell us love can die.
With life all other passions fly,
All others are but vanity.
In Heaven ambition cannot dwell,
Nor avarice in the vaults of Hell.
Of earth, these passions of the earth,
They perish where they have their birth,
But love is indestructible:
Its holy flame for ever burneth.
From Heaven it came, to Heaven returneth,
Full oft on earth, a troubled guest,
At times deceived, at times oppressed,
In Heaven it finds its perfect rest.
It soweth here in toil and care,
But the harvest-time of love is there.
When the last day is ended,
And the nights are through
When the last sun is buried
In its grave of blue;
When the stars are snuffed like candles,
And the seas no longer fret;
When the winds unlearn their cunning,
And the storms forget;
When the last lip is palsied
And the last prayer said
Love shall reign immortal
While the worlds lie dead!
THE GREATEST OF THESE THREE
St. Paul, when he assigns the pre-eminence to love, has no intention of depreciating the value, still less of dispensing with the necessity, of those other graces to which he prefers it. For it is remarkable that he who in this passage extols love in a strain which none of the other writers of the New Testament has ever reached is the same who has also dwelt more largely and more forcibly than all the others on the inestimable preciousness of faith and hope,attaching, indeed, to these two principles, and more particularly to faith, a measure of importance which men have objected to as, in their judgment, altogether inordinate and unwarranted.
Yet the first thing that strikes us is, that the whole civilized world has come roundat any rate, in theoryto the teaching of St. Paul. To an educated Roman of the time of St. Paul it would have seemed the most ridiculous assertion possible that the greatest of all virtues was love. To die with a smile on his face, to wrap himself up in the toga of his reserve, to be self-contained and absolutely self-controlled, that was his ideal, and a grand one, too, up to a certain point; but the attitude of Marcus Aurelius, for instance, towards Christianity, shows us that the educated Roman of the day would have heard with something like contempt that the greatest of these is love. And yet to-day take up any magazinethe most anti-Church magazine that you can findand look to see what is its teaching about social matters. What is it that the popular magazine puts before us as the greatest thing of all? Away with creeds! Away with dogmas! But what is important? The service of man; doing good to ones fellows! The verdict of the popular magazine of to-day is, that cleverness may be a great thing, and learning a great thing, but a greater than these is love. Or pick up a philosophical treatise on ethics, and, in a more cumbrous style, you will find the same thing said. What comes out as the ultimate basis of conduct in such books? Is it not Altruism? But Altruism after all is but a cumbrous name for love, and was taught to the world by Jesus Christ; and therefore the verdict of the ethical treatise is the verdict of St. Paul, that the greatest of these is love. Or, again, take practical life. Who is the villain that is hissed off the stage not only of the theatre but of real life? Is it the dishonest man? Is it the drunkard? No! It is the hard-hearted man; it is the man with no sympathy; it is the man with no kindness. Let a man be kind-hearted and generous, and there is nothing that he is not forgiven to-day. You will find his victims waiting round the corner to give him another chance. He may break every statute in the Statute Book, but if he is kind and affectionate everything is forgiven him. The popular verdict of the day is that sobriety is a great thing and honesty is a great thing, but a greater than these is love.
There are people who believe they could have improved this thirteenth verse of the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians. I have found one man who, if he had been acting as amanuensis, and St. Paul had said, And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three, and the greatest of these is love he would have held up his hands and said, No, Paul, that is a mistake; put compact organization of the visible church for the word love, and you will have it right. There are multitudes of people in the churches who believe that the outer form of the organization of the church has more to do with religion conquering the world than love. I have known a man who, if he had been there, would have insisted that the word beauty should be substituted for the word love. There are other men who would have substituted the word music, so that it would read: And now abideth faith, hope, music, these three; but the greatest of these is music. There is another class of men who would have said, Paul, you should substitute conscience for the word charity, so that it shall read: And now abideth faith, hope, conscience, these three; and the greatest of these is conscience. I suppose there are not fewer than twenty-five people here this morning who would have seconded the suggestion. There are others who would have substituted for this word love the word zeal: And now abideth faith, hope, zeal, these three; but the greatest of these is zeal. There are many who, if they had been there, would have substituted for the word love the phrase sound doctrine: Now abideth faith, hope, sound doctrine, these three; but the greatest of these is sound doctrine.1 [Note: J. R. Thompson, Burden Bearing, 152.]
Why is Love the greatest? There are many reasons.
1. Love is likest God.Faith and hope, from their nature, are recipients, while it is of the nature of love to be communicative, and thus to be possessed of that higher blessedness which the Lord Jesus ascribes to giving before receiving. Faith and hope, too, are necessarily expressive, in all who exercise them, of imperfection and dependence, and as such can be attributed only to subordinate creatures. We cannot ascribe to God anything that resembles them. He who knows all things, and can do all things of Himself, has no room for relying on the testimony or aid of others. And He who is infinitely blessed in the possession of a Divine fulness cannot be said to hope, or to lack anything that could be hoped for. But love, on the contrary, is the attribute of superior natures. It is held by the highest creatures in common with their Creator. It belongs to the character of Him in whom all fulness dwells. Indeed it is His pre-eminent and crowning attribute; and the more we attain of it, so much the more do we approach Him in His Divine excellence, so much the more are we fitted to share in His unutterable blessedness. Beloved, saith an Apostle, let us love one another; for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God; God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
Faith and hope belong to finite beings only, while love is not thus limited. It is an attribute of the Divine: nay, it is the very name of God. God is not faith, says the commentator Bengel in his epigrammatic way, and God is not hope, but God is love.
(1) It follows that love interprets God.The quickest, the truest, the fullest interpretation of God comes through love. How do you know a man? Do you know a man when you describe him by saying he is so many feet high, weighs so many pounds, his hair is of such a colour, his eyes are of such a hue, he is engaged in such a business, he lives in such a house? Is that a description of the man? Is that the way you interpret and analyse a man? We begin to know a man when we find out the master passion of his nature, and we never know anything about him until we understand that. You may know ever so much about a man externally, you may know ever so much about him intellectually, but until you know what quickens it all, and colours it all, and directs it all, until you have followed the subtle windings of his soul, and know in what dispositions and purposes the man has his hidden life, you will never know him.
(2) And it makes us like God.For to all the extent we possess and cherish it, we are like God, and partakers of a Divine nature. The possessor of it is not merely a passive recipient of good, a shrivelled, sordid abject, turning all his thoughts and desires inward on his own littleness; he becomes, like his Maker, a pattern, a source of good; a centre of diffusive benevolence; a fountain whose streams irrigate the earth; a sun whose light and heat dissipate the rigours of night and winter, and dispense the blessings of day and summer.
2. Love is greatest because it is the end of redemption.Love, we are told, is the end of the commandment. It is so, whether by the commandment we understand the Law or the Gospel. As for the Moral Law, what is its sum or substance but love to God and love to man? And as for the Gospel, what is its grand design but to rescue men from a state of enmity against God and against one another, to restore them, not only to the Divine favour, but to the Divine image, of which Love is certainly the characteristic and prevailing feature; and by writing upon their hearts that great law of Love, in which all the Divine statutes are summarily comprehended, to bring them into cordial submission to the will of God, and to win from them a cheerful and thorough obedience to His commandments? This is unquestionably the ultimate design of the Gospel. Finding men without hope and without God in the world, living in enmity, distraction, and alienation, it aims at raising them from their sin and selfishness to the love of God and of the brethren. As necessary means for the accomplishment of this purpose, faith and hope are of inestimable importance, bringing as they do the Gospel to bear upon us, with all its sanctifying and love-inspiring influences. But still, as being mainly means, they are subordinate to the end or final result to which they are conducive; just as the scaffolding, though necessary, is less valuable than the finished building that is erected by the use of it, or as the sowing of the seed, however indispensable, is of less consideration in itself than the reaping of the precious and abundant grain. Faith is the leaf, hope is the blossom, but love is the fruit of the tree of righteousness; and here, too, the leaf and the blossom are for the sake of the fruit. Only we must think of these, not as giving place to each other in time, but as flourishing together on the same eternal stem. Faith may rely on the mercies and promises of God, and hope may anticipate their full and final enjoyment; but love is that actual consummation of blessedness, begun on earth and to be perfected in heaven, to which these other excellent graces are subsidiary, and from their subservience to which they derive their chief importance.
True religion is a radical thing, that is, it goes to the root of matters. Paul tells us that great and needful for a complete life as faith and hope may be, it is Lovesupreme, absolute Love, which is the one essential. Love is the only religion; there is no true religion which is loveless. You may have everything elseorthodoxy, intelligence, faith, whatever you like, but if you have not got love you are as a lantern without light, and as a man without a soul.1 [Note: Quintin Hogg, 302.]
(1) It is therefore most beautiful.God has revealed His benevolence in the beautiful, and the beautiful is the image of His benevolence. Real affection always tries to express itself similarly. In Divine Worship we bring the tribute of our music, or our flowers,even one poor flower may mean muchand seek to make everything attractive in the sanctuary. So in our human relations, love tries to make everything beautiful. It adorns the home, adds a touch of colour here and there, the presence of some garden trophies. When a wife professes it for a husband, or a mother for her child, and is willing to leave everything untidy, gloomy, neglected, or when a father is harsh and glum and never thinks of helping, something is radically wrong. In impoverished homes we see the differencein one the pathetic endeavour to make all charming, in the other, the disposition to leave everything unclean and hideous.
I once read of a school where there was a very plain girl. Somewhat cruelly her companions would remind her of her lack of attractions. The school-teacher saw the depressing effect on her of this treatment. One day she handed her a coarse lump covered with black earth, and said: This is like yourself; only plant it. The schoolgirl took it home and obeyed, not understanding. Out of it grew a Japanese lily. Then she perceived. And in the progress of time love in her soul imparted a heavenly charm to her character and to her face as well.1 [Note: G. C. Lorimer, The Modern Crisis in Religion, 249.]
As to other points, said John Milton, what God may have determined for me I know not, but this I knowthat if He ever instilled an intense love of moral beauty into the breast of any man, He has instilled it into mine. Ceres, in the fable, pursued not her daughter with a greater keenness of inquiry than I, day and night, the idea of perfection.2 [Note: N. D. Hillis, The Investment of Influence, 261.]
(2) It is most peaceful.There is a majesty of Divine serenity in love. We always associate a holy calm with God. When it is said that a thousand years with Him are as one day, we immediately think of Him as moving reposefully. Our Saviour in all the strain of His tempted and tempestuous life invited the world to come to Him for rest. Wherever there is hate there must be agitation, uncertainty, and possible anarchy. Peace comes when we are at peace with the God of peace, and with our fellow-beings.
Columba renounced the warlike frenzy of his youth and became a leader in the creative arts of peace and the preacher of supernatural hopes. He made Iona a centre of light and loveliness. And when he came to die his end was full of holy quietness. He sent this message to his spiritual children: Let peace and charity, a charity mutual and sincere, reign always among you. St. Cuthbert also was gentle and composed. During his wanderings when his followers were sad, he would say: Never did man hunger who served God faithfully; and beholding the eagle above, he would add: by it even food can come. When a snow-storm in Fife hedged him in, one said to him: The snow closes the road along the shore to us; another added: The storm bars our way over the sea. St. Cuthbert answered: There is still the way of heaven that lies open.1 [Note: G. C. Lorimer.]
3. Love is greatest in influence.Love is described in the context as seeking not her own. Equally boundless with the others in its views, it looks constantly abroad, without any regard to self, opens the heart and hand to all whom it can benefit, and makes it its sole aim and never-ceasing vocation to promote the glory of God and the welfare of all mankind. Unlike the two kindred graces here compared with it, it leads the Christian to regard himself not as an isolated being, whose chief concern is to secure his own spiritual interests, but as a member of that great family of which God is the Father and all men are brethren, and in which the members ought ever to be linked together by the sacred bonds of amity and peace.
Love is more than pity. Pity stands in the porch, its eyes watching the poor wayfarer who comes wearied and footsore, ragged and perishing. And pity bids the servant search if there is any scrap of meat and any cast-off clothing that can be spared. But look again, pity stands and watches more intently; the face is changed; the tears gather; the man is stirred; he runs. In spite of rags and wretchedness, he falls upon the wanderers neck. He kisses him and presses him to his heart. The wondering servant comes forth with a crust or two of bread, and an old coat. No indeed, that might do for pity, but this is love. Bring forth the best robe and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet; and bring hither the fatted calf and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. That is love. Pity saw the wants, and would give what it could spare; but love saw the son, and could not give enough.
Love found upon the battles edge
A coward fleeing from the strife;
And sent him forth his heart in pledge,
Valiant thro life.
Love touched dumb lips that could not pray,
And lo, they uttered prayer and song;
Love hath so subtle sweet a way,
Love is so strong.
It is because love is the first fact of all facts in the Gospel of Christ that the Gospel is fitted to be a universal Gospel. All men have hearts, and love is the same thing to every heart. An idea is not the same thing to every mind, but love is the same thing to every heart. A loving smile on the face of a Christian woman in China does not require to be translated into Chinese in order to be understood by a Chinaman. A child can perfectly interpret the sweetness in its mothers face long before it can translate into thoughts of its own the words she utters. If thought is the souls prose, love is its music, and we know that music will steal easily into many a spot to which words stiffly articulated would be coldly refused admittance.
(1) It secures obedience.If ye love me, keep my commandments. In this exhortation, love to Christ is the mighty energy that produces holy obedience. The loving eye is quick to discern the will, the wish of the beloved. The heart which truly loves cannot break one of the least of these commandments. Even if the commandment seem arbitrary, it is enough that He who is supremely loved has said, This do in remembrance of me. That is enough. Such motive is sufficient. It is simple, clear, and explicit. The obedience which is the witness, the pledge, the consequence of love, and is neither formal nor perfunctory, but the outcome of a self-sacrificing affection, is alone well-pleasing.
(2) It is the source of knowledge.He that loveth not, knoweth not God. This is true of other objects of both love and knowledge, as certainly as it is true of the love and knowledge of the Lord God. We do not know any thing, any person, any science, until we love it. The dry light needed for scientific pursuit is the eye unbleared by prejudice, unfilled with tears of foolish and inappropriate emotion, not an eye which does not flash with love. It is sometimes said that love is blind. Cupid has been imaged with shaded eyes. No greater mistake can be made. Love has microscopic eyes to see both the faults and excellences of the beloved objects. What a world this would be if mothers could see in all children the Divine attractions and worth which they do see in their first-born; and if lovers could see in all persons the wonderful lovableness they easily discern in one another! It is only the lover of truths, of persons, of countries, of great causes and principles, who really and veritably knows them.
Love seeks not to limit its devotion but to find opportunities of expressing it. Would you know God? I say to you, discover what true love means. Get your heart so full of it that it will send you forth in Gods Spirit seeking to save the lost, yearning to redeem the erring and sinful, binding up the broken-hearted, drying streaming eyes, and comforting them that mourn; get such a love as that into your soul, and you need look no further for an image of God. Moreover, not only is it true that every one that loveth knoweth God, but it is equally true that you will know God just to the extent that you really love and no more.1 [Note: Quintin Hogg, 304.]
4. Love is the greatest because it embraces and harmonizes the rest.It is love that gives faith and hope their very life. How can we truly trust where we love not? In that case faith is but a selfish grasping after ones own good. But, inspired by love, it is the grateful acceptance of the love of God, as in itself the best gift, and the pledge of all good gifts besides. Hope likewise, without love, is but the selfish anticipation of ones own joy. But, as inspired by love, it is the glad expectancy that God will work all things according to His good pleasure.
But Love an everlasting crown receiveth;
For She is Hope, and Fortitude, and Faith,
Who all things hopeth, beareth, and believeth.2 [Note: Ruskin.]
These Three
Literature
Abbott (E. A.), Oxford Sermons, 86.
Alexander (S. A.), The Christianity of St. Paul, 50.
Bevan (LI. D.), in Welshmen in English Pulpits, 266.
Bigg (C.), The Spirit of Christ in Common Life, 260.
Bryant (S.), The Teaching of Christ, 98.
Campbell (L.), The Christian Ideal, 175.
Church (R. W.), Advent Sermons, 89; Village Sermons, iii. 74.
Clifford (J.), Typical Christian Leaders, 153.
Collyer (R.), Nature and Life, 62, 72.
Cross (J.), Pauline Charity, 239, 254.
Daplyn (E.), One with the Eternal, 62.
Davies (J.), The Kingdom without Observation, 103.
Davies (J. LI.), Spiritual Apprehension, 26.
Drummond (H.), The Greatest Thing in the World, 1.
Drummond (R. J.), Faiths Certainties, 235.
Gairdner (W. T.), The Three Things that Abide, 72.
Gibson (J. M.), A Strong City, 53.
Grimley (H. N.), Tremadoc Sermons, 261.
Gwatkin (H. M.), The Eye for Spiritual Things, 81.
Henson (H. H.), Christ and the Nation, 296.
Hughes (H. P.), The Philanthropy of God, 29.
Inge (W. R.), All Saints Sermons, 20.
Ingram (A. F. W.), Banners of the Christian Faith, 32.
Jerdan (C.), For the Lambs of the Flock, 221.
Lockyer (T. F.), Inspirations of the Christian Life, 35.
Lorimer (G. C.), The Modern Crisis in Religion, 230.
Maclaren (A.), Greed and Conduct, 26.
Matheson (G.), Thoughts for Lifes Journey, 19.
Parkhurst (C. H.), A Little Lower than the Angels, 146.
Parkhurst (C. H.), The Sunny Side of Christianity, 1.
Pearse (M. G.), Parables and Pictures, 243.
Reynolds (H. R.), Light and Peace, 116.
Robinson (J. A.), Unity in Christ, 181.
Rowland (A.), The Exchanged Crowns, 29.
Salmon (G.), Gnosticism and Agnosticism, 205.
Sanderson (T.), Unfulfilled Designs, 100.
Simpson (A. R.), These Three, 39, 53.
Skrine (J. H.), The Hearts Counsel, 115.
Smith (D.), Mans Need of God, 13.
Thorn (J. H.), A Spiritual Faith, 124.
Wilson (J. M.), Clifton College Sermons, ii. 111.
Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible
abideth: 1Co 3:14, 1Pe 1:21, 1Jo 2:14, 1Jo 2:24, 1Jo 3:9
faith: Luk 8:13-15, Luk 22:32, Gal 5:6, Heb 10:35, Heb 10:39, Heb 11:1-7, 1Jo 5:1-5
hope: Psa 42:11, Psa 43:5, Psa 146:5, Lam 3:21-26, Rom 5:4, Rom 5:5, Rom 8:24, Rom 8:25, Rom 15:13, Col 1:5, Col 1:27, 1Th 5:8, Heb 6:11, Heb 6:19, 1Pe 1:21, 1Jo 3:3
charity: 1Co 13:1-8, 1Co 8:1, 1Co 8:3, 2Co 5:10, 2Co 5:15, Gal 5:6, 1Jo 2:10, 1Jo 4:7-18
the greatest: 1Co 13:8, 1Co 14:1, 1Co 16:14, Mar 12:29-31, Luk 10:27, Gal 5:13-22, Phi 1:9, Col 3:14, 1Ti 1:5, 2Ti 1:7, 1Jo 4:7-9, 2Jo 1:4-6
Reciprocal: Mat 9:16 – for Rom 12:12 – Rejoicing 2Co 9:9 – his Gal 5:22 – faith Eph 4:16 – edifying 1Th 1:3 – and patience 1Th 3:6 – faith Jam 2:17 – so 1Pe 1:3 – unto 1Pe 1:13 – hope 1Jo 4:12 – and his
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE SUPREMACY OF LOVE
And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
1Co 13:13
The message to which we listen in this chapter is this: that, in religion, love is supreme. That lesson would, if it stood alone, have a commanding importance. But it does not stand alone, though it stands out in undisputed supremacy. The great transfiguration of the Christian character which passes before our eyes is the third in the series of scenes that have displayed to us the increasing purpose of the great scheme of God. Established in Faith, and cheered by Hope, we come under the spell of a yet greater grace, and a yet more exalted principle. We come, as on this day, to listen to the highest lesson the Bible teaches; we come to its crowning doctrine; we come to the moral glory, within whose light all other glories hide themselves. We are caught up into Paradise and strengthened to see, through the eyes of St. Paul, to what heights in the power of the Holy Spirit our nature may rise. Caught up out of ambition and strife, out of the region of wrangle and jar, out of the atmosphere of malice and envy, out of the reach of proud self-vaunting.
I. In such a revealing moment a man sees, in the light of Divine Love, that the highest gifts may be put to basest uses, and convicted of utter worthlessness in the moment of their most triumphant display. Large doles may be given, without the consecrating principle that lifts almsgiving to charity; self-worship may wear the garb of self-sacrifice; yea, the case is conceivable where life itself may be unprofitably surrendered without love. Thus doubly taught: taught by the failure of lovelessness, however highly endowed; taught by the blessedness of victories which Love wins in and for Him in Whom Love dwells, the Spirit of God leads us back into the world again. But we have seen things that we cannot forget. We have learned lessons we ought never to learn in vain.
II. The world is more than ever Gods world to us.He made it, and He hates putting it away. That is our faith, and it is unmovable. It is, too, more and more a place of hopeful effort; a place in which good can be done, in which we can serve one another with certain hope of blessing. God loved the world, and gave His only begotten Son to redeem it; to the eye of God it was lovable, though to His eye alone was all its evil naked and open. In His Love and pity He redeemed it, and sent His Son to reveal the fulness of that Love. And when the Lord came, though He said little of His own love to menfor He came to reveal the Fathersyet once at least He spoke of it in words which will never be forgotten: This is My commandment, that ye love one another as I have loved you. As truly then as Christ is with us, love abides. It takes its place among the things which cannot be removed. It takes the most exalted place, for it has more of the Divine nature. Now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
The loving temper is the believing temper, the temper of patient courage; faith and hope abide in it. It helped St. Paul, and it will help us, alike in the struggles and perplexities of life; so will love work in us, and we shall live and love and labour in faith, in hope, in charity, till our task is done.
Rev. Chancellor Edmonds.
(SECOND OUTLINE)
SPIRITUAL ASSETS
Faith, hope, charity. There is our investment, there is our capital; can we not spend it to greater advantage than we have been doing?
I. Faith.There is that wonderful and splendid asset which we have in faith. I want you to think of your faith in God and what it means. Recall, as you look into your account, what faith has done in the past in your life. Remember the days of thy youth. What a real part faith played in making you say your prayers, read your Bible, and go to church. Recall your confirmation, when you asserted yourself in your faith and took up your individual position. You also recall as you think of faith those days of sorrow which you have had, and you see what a wonderful thing faith was. Or you recall the time of your marriage, when in faith you took the woman you loved and dedicated yourself and her you loved to God. Or you recall some fervent Holy Communion at which you were present and realised what faith could do for you. You have called upon faith again and again in your life, and it has never failed you. Increase your faith, your works of faith, your life of faith; increase it, not by simple memories, but by using it, by putting it out, by getting better interest for it.
II. Hope.Another asset which we have, and for which we have a splendid security, is hope. Hope is natural to all of us. It is ours by nature. The future is full of it. We cannot face the future without hope. While there is life, we say, there is hope. We live in hope and die in hope. It is indeed the gift of God. It is the saving grace in many peoples lives, it is the mother of thoroughness and perseverance, and it is essential if we are to have a high aim and a holy end before us as we enter the great spiritual season. There is abundant hope in your capital account. Aim at high things, hope great things, and the season will be to your advantage and the advantage of all others about you.
III. Charity.Charity is the greatest asset that men can have or handle. Because it is the bond of perfectness, or as our Collect so beautifully puts it, the very bond of all virtues, without which whosever liveth is counted dead before Thee. Charity must be called upon if our spiritual concerns are to prosper, that charity which is spoken of and drawn out so magnificently in this Epistle, that charity which is the motive power of Gods actions towards us, that charity which should give a motive to us and be behind us in all our actions, that charity which binds us to God, that charity which spends itself and wants to spend itself on man. Therefore let charity and love regulate, direct, and influence all our acts of self-discipline, all our spiritual exercises, all our resolutions to benefit our neighbours. The more you call upon it the better your investment will prove.
Rev. Prebendary de Salis.
Illustrations
(1) It has been said that with the single exception of Shakespeare, Cowper is the English poet who has given the greatest happiness to the greatest number. Then he was, together with John Newton, the author of those wonderful Olney Hymns, which have been sung all over the world. Faber mentions that even Roman Catholics are said to be sometimes poring with a devout and unsuspecting delight over the verses of those hymns, while for himself he confesses that they came back from time to time unbidden into his mind. Why do I say all this? For these reasons. Cowper was a hopeless invalid, and it was a saintly lady named Mary Unwin who became a ministering angel to him; it was Mary Unwin who sweetened his life; it was Mary Unwin who suggested the first volume of his poems; it was Mary Unwin who nursed him for nearly twenty years; it is to Mary Unwin that the Church owes a debt of gratitude which never can be forgotten. If you want to read something, I will not say pathetic, but pathos itselfand outside the Bible I think there is no pathos so touchingread Cowpers lines addressed To Mary. What constrained Mary Unwin to do all she did? She was not the most distant relative. Why did she sacrifice her own life to brighten Cowpers? There is only this answer. It was love.
(2) One of our most brilliant of modern story-tellers writes the story of that Frenchwoman who gave up every hope in life, sacrificed her youth, her beauty, her prospects, and immured herself in a lonely cottage in Cornwall, that she might alleviate, by a lifelong ministry, the sorrows of her sister, who was a leper Why? Her sacrifice was loves necessity.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
1Co 13:13. Now abideth signifies that after the complete New Testament has been produced after the spiritual gifts have ceased, there will still be faith, hope and charity (or love). That is because the Christian life will always need such graces. Faith (which is produced by hearing the word of God) will be necessary to guide the disciple of the Lord aright, and hope will be needed to urge him that through perseverance he may gain the reward at last. Charity is the greatest of these three, because faith will be changed to sight, and hope will give place to actual possession, after this life is ended. But love is eternal and will exist on into the life with God in Heaven.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
1Co 13:13. And now abideth faith, love, hope, these three; but the greatest of these (Gr. greater than these) is love. Most modern interpreters take abideth here to mean are of equal durationeternal. Some (as De Wette, Stanley, Alford) understand faith and hope as eternally abiding, inasmuch as they pass in the future world into sight. But in that sense (as Meyer replies) it should rather be said that they disappear than abide. See Rom 8:24; Heb 11:1. The only other sense in which these graces could be said to abide eternally is, that since the whole of the unseen future can never be taken in at once, there must ever be room for faith in a coming future, and hope of what bliss will then be disclosed and experienced. But though there is a truth in this, it seems to us a more metaphysical thought than the apostle was likely to mean here; and he who wrote Rom 8:24What a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?would scarcely have put faith and hope in the same category with so very different a grace as love, as having a common independent existence and eternal duration. A far simpler and more natural interpretation, we think, may be given to this verse. The instincts of some of the early interpreters (as Chrysostom) guided them rightly, we believe, to put the emphasis upon the first word Nowin contrasting the supernatural gifts, which were soon to disappear from the Church, with the permanent graces of faith and hope and love: All these supernatural gifts were designed only for the first starting of the Church, and are gradually to cease; but the cardinal graces of faith and hope and love, without which the Christian character cannot exist, will abide on earth as long as the Church itself is left there. In this view concur some modern expositors (as Neander). But whatit may be askedis to become of faith and hope hereafter? A reasonable enough question in itself, but one on which no light is cast by this verse, as we understand it; the one object being to affirm that those three graces will outlive all mere gifts. As to the future of those graces, the truth would seem to be that since faith and hope will certainly pass into sight, and so be lost in any distinctive sense, they are to be viewed as, in their very nature, temporary means towards something else into which they are destined to pass; while love, from its very nature, though admitting of indefinite increase, can never pass into anything else and higher, and so is necessarily eternal.
Note.When one surveys the ethics of Paganism, even at its best, and observes how fragmentary it is, and how halting, how it glorified revenge as sweet and noble, while the patient endurance of wrong was regarded as unmanly and pusillanimous, in how Divine a light does that Religion stand forth which gives such a view of Love as we have in this chapter! In every other Religion and Ethical system, the true foundation of such a character is wanting, and the true source of the power to realise and exemplify it is unknown. Those Jewish scholars who refuse to accept Christians may produce from their rabbinical writings single passages embodying maxims akin to those of the New Testament; and wonderful indeed it would be if their writings should contain no such passages with the Old Testament in their hands, and those read in their synagogues every sabbath day, not to speak of the light of the New Testament reflected on them and insensibly influencing them. But the two have only to be put together to shew which alone has the stamp of Heaven upon it. Whoever will read this chapter with a simple mind will be unable to resist the conviction that the true secret of what alone unites all hearts was in possession of the writer of it, that he felt himself commissioned to open this secret to others, and that he even exulted in doing it. Christians in the first ages of the Gospel were proverbial for their love one to another. Now, alas, many would think them proverbial rather for the reverse. In view of this may we not hear the apostolic inference as verified in ourselves, Whereas there is among you jealousies and strife, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
The design of the apostle in these words is,
1. To inform the Corinthians, that the sanctifying graces of faith, hope, and charity, are far to be preferred before all the fore -mentioned extraordinary gifts of prophecy, miracles, tongues, healing the sick, and raising the dead, not excepted. The least degree of sanctifying grace from the Holy Spirit, is to be preferred, with respect to ourselves, before the largest measure of extraordinary gifts which are wholly for the good and benefit of others.
2. As our apostle had compared gifts and graces together before, so he compares graces amongst themselves now. Faith, hope, and charity, are set in competition, and the preference given to the last; partly with respect to its present excellency, for charity is the end, to which faith and hope are but the means; and partly with respect to its future duration. Faith and hope will vanish with this life; faith will end in sight, and hope in enjoyment; but charity will never be outdated, but last and flourish when we come to heaven, and be a special ingredient in, and a considerable part of, our happiness there, which consists in the rapturous contemplation of divine love; in living, praising, admiring, and adoring God, our great Creator, and in loving all whom he loves, and that eternally.
Learn, 1. That faith, hope, and love, are abiding graces; they do and must keep house, not only in the church-militant in general, but in the soul of every member of the church-militant in particular.
Learn, 2. That of all these graces, charity is the greatest and most excellent,
1. In regard of its extent, reaching to God, angels, and men.
2. In regard of its use, extending to the good of others; whereas faith and hope are particular and private graces.
3. In regard of perfection, as rendering us more like to God.
4. In regard of duration: farewell faith and hope, when we come to heaven; but welcome love.
Therefore the greatest of these is charity.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
1Co 13:13. And now In the present world; abideth In the hearts of holy persons, and influencing their lives, even all their tempers, words, and works; faith, hope, love, these three The principal and radical saving graces, of most frequent use in the Christian life, and productive of all the others. 1st, Faith, whereby we receive as infallibly true, and infinitely important, the testimony of God, contained in his word concerning things past, present, and to come; especially all the truths of his holy gospel; whereby being penitent, and believing on Jesus with our heart unto righteousness, we are persuaded of Gods love to us in Christ, rely on his promises, and stand in awe of his threatenings; faith, , the evidence, conviction, or persuasion of things not seen; , the confidence, namely, of receiving, (so the latter word is rendered Heb 3:14,) or the anticipation, of things hoped for; giving them a present subsistence, as the word also signifies, in the heart. 2d, Hope, namely, of eternal life, Tit 1:2; of an incorruptible inheritance, 1Pe 1:3; an exceeding great and eternal weight of glory, 2Co 4:17; hope, founded on our being heirs of these blessings, in consequence of our being children of God by adoption and regeneration, Joh 1:12-13; Rom 8:17 : hope, productive of gratitude, joy, patience, purity, and all good works: see 1Pe 1:3; Rom 5:2; 1Th 1:3; 1Jn 3:3; 1Co 15:58. 3d, Love, namely, to God and man, described in this chapter. It is justly observed by Dr. Macknight here, that the clause, now abideth, &c., implies, that the graces spoken of are not always to abide; at least the graces of faith and hope. For faith, by which we walk, that is, are directed and governed, while we are at home in the body and absent from the Lord, is (2Co 5:7) opposed to sight, by which we shall walk, when, being present with him, we shall see him as he is; (Mat 5:8; 1Jn 3:2;) and as it is a confidence, or persuasion, of receiving things hoped for, when those things are actually seen and received, it must cease of course. Hope, likewise, that is seen, as the apostle observes, or the hope of blessings already possessed, is not hope: therefore, when the eternal life, the heavenly inheritance, &c., which were the objects of our hope, (the true and only Christian hope,) are enjoyed by us, the hope we entertained of them can have place in us no more, its object being attained. It is, however, far otherwise with love. The objects of this grace exist in the greatest perfection in heaven, and will exist there to all eternity, in a degree of fervour and purity of which we can now form no adequate idea.
Thus constant faith and holy hope shall die, One lost in certainty, and one in joy:
While thou, more happy power, fair charity,
Triumphant sister, greatest of the three,
Thy office and thy nature still the same,
Lasting thy lamp, and unconsumed thy flame,
Shalt still survive;
Shalt stand before the host of heaven confessd,
For ever blessing, and for ever blest. PRIOR.
The greatest of these, therefore, is love The greatest, because the most durable, and also for divers other reasons: as, 1st, Faith and hope are graces chiefly suited to our fallen state, and intended to raise us from our fall: love was in man in his state of innocence and perfection, and was then his chief excellence, as it now is, and ever has been, the chief excellence of angels. 2d, Faith and hope are only means of salvation: love is the end to which these means are intended to bring us. 3d, Faith and hope may be termed selfish graces; particularly the latter is such, having our own interest in view: love is generous, disinterested, noble, and carries us out beyond ourselves. 4th, Faith and hope are human: love is divine; it exists, always has existed, and ever will exist, in God himself, in whom the former graces can have no place, and is in him his highest glory.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Vv. 13. But now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
As Paul so often does (1Th 1:3; 2Th 1:3-4; Col 1:4-5), he here sums up the Christian life in the three dispositions: faith, which takes salvation as already accomplished, Christ come; hope, which goes out to the part of salvation yet to be accomplished, Christ coming again; finally, charity, which embraces the ever-abiding Christ, and in Him all beings, and which is already salvation itself realized in the individual. Such are the three elements of the Christian life which will not pass away with the coming of the perfect state. Holsten has asked, with good right, why Paul here brings in the comparison of charity with those other two virtues, whereas, considering the passage as a whole, he was not called to compare it with anything but gifts; and he gives himself up to a rather subtle lucubration to show that faith was to replace, throughout the present era, the knowledge of the early days, and hope the prophecies of the apostolic epoch. There is not in the text the least trace of this idea, which is besides excluded by the true meaning of the word abide. The answer seems to me simple. To exalt charity supremely, Paul contrasts it not only with gifts which pass away, but also with the virtues which remain as well as it, and declares its superiority even over them.
The particle , but now, might be taken in the temporal sense, as it is sometimes, perhaps, in Paul’s writings (see Rckert on 1Co 5:11). In that case we must explain thus: But at the present time there abide faith, hope, charity. This meaning is inadmissible for the following reason: The three virtues are contrasted with the three preceding gifts, which are to cease with the future era, and not to enter into the perfect state. Now, if these three virtues also only belonged to the present epoch, there would be no contrast to set up in respect of duration between them and gifts. We must therefore give the particle a logical sense; comparison of charity with the two other virtues contains the indication of a new element, of the true state of things. In reality, this is what abides, and by no means what you suppose. The contrast between virtues and gifts is likewise emphasized by the apposition , that is to say: these three, and not the three gifts of which we have been speaking. What has only an intellectual, oratorical, or lyrical character is transient; what edifies, what produces self-renunciation, the giving oneself to God and men, this is what abides.
How are we to understand the expression abide? At the first glance one is disposed to give it, in contrast to the abolition of gifts, the most absolute sense: abide eternally. Gifts will be done away at the coming of the perfect state; but these three virtues will remain in the perfect state itself. But against this idea there rises an objection which from the earliest times has struck all commentators. It is, that according to St. Paul, faith, in the perfect state, must give place to sight (2Co 5:7), and hope to possession (Rom 8:24). According to this, faith and hope would pass away as well as gifts. Various ways have been sought of solving this difficulty. Osiander imagines he can distinguish two epochs in the perfect state, the one embracing the thousand years’ reign, the other beginning at the end of this reign and belonging to eternity. Gifts cease, according to him, on the threshold of the first of these epochs; faith and hope only at the beginning of the second. But the text presents not the slightest indication of this distinction; the perfect state is represented in it as one single era from which gifts only are excluded. Some, like Beza, Bengel, Rckert, refer the term , abide, to the entire duration of the present economy. But what becomes in that case of the contrast between the three virtues which remain to the end of the present period and the three gifts which are to cease at the coming of the perfect state?
Several commentators, such as Calvin, Holsten, Heinrici, are thus led to take the word abide in a logical sense. These three things, says Holsten, remain in full value, while gifts lose theirs, knowledge is replaced by faith, and prophecy by hope. But if this explanation is to give a clear meaning, it always amounts to making Paul say that gifts were to cease with the first ages, while faith and hope were to preserve their value to the present day, and until the end of this economy. How can any one help seeing that by this contrast the notion of time still remains attached to the word abide, from which indeed it is inseparable in the context? For it springs from the evident antithesis between the word abide and the preceding verbs: shall cease, shall be done away, I put away. This has been felt by most commentators, while fully acknowledging the difficulty of harmonizing the permanence of faith and hope with Paul’s other sayings in which their transformation and, consequently, their future cessation are taught. Grotius observes that faith and hope, while formally transformed, will abide in their fruits. According to Hofmann, likewise, Paul’s expression is justified by the fact that believing remains in seeing, as hoping in possessing; for sight has come through faith, and possession through hope. But is not this to do violence to the meaning of the word abide? And might not the same be said of gifts?
Meyer, nearly to the same effect: These virtues will remain in the salvation we have obtained through their means, and moreover in this sense: that faith remains eternally the means of our communion with Christ, and that hope will never cease to catch new perspectives of glory, even in the perfect state. Kling (in Lange’s Bible) says better still, as it appears to me: While love is the real possession of the Divine, faith and hope belong to its acquisition; now is this acquisition a fact which can ever cease? Indeed, eternal blessings are not like a bag of gold pieces, which are received once for all. The permanent essence of the creature is to have nothing of its own, to be eternally helpless and poor; every instant it must take possession of God by faith, which grasps the manifestations which He has already given, and by hope, which prepares to lay hold of His new manifestations. It is not once for all, it is continually that in eternity faith changes into vision and hope into possession. These two virtues, therefore, abide to live again unceasingly.
But notwithstanding this permanence of faith and hope, the palm belongs to charity, as the greatest of the three. The apostle does not say the most durable, for the duration of all three is absolute. The might refer to the other two virtues only; would then have its regular comparative sense: greater than they two. But as necessarily refers to , we must give to the superlative meaning: the greatest of the three; comp. Mat 18:4. This superiority of charity has been variously explained. Some, like Calvin, say: Greater in virtue of its eternal duration; but this duration belongs also, as we have just seen, to the other two. Others: Because faith and hope belong only to the individual’s inward life, while charity exercises a salutary influence beyond him (Meyer, Heinrici, Holsten). But is not faith also an active force outwardly? De Wette: Because love is, according to 1Co 13:7, the true principle of faith and hope. But in 1Co 13:7 faith and hope referred solely to conduct toward our neighbour, and not to the appropriation of salvation and our relation to God. According to Paul, it is, on the contrary, faith which is the principle both of hope and of true love (Gal 5:6).
We have just seen that faith and hope abide continually, but undergoing incessant transformation, the one into sight, the other into possession. It is not so with charity. Love does not see, does not acquire, it is the Divine. God does not believe nor hope, but He loves. Love belongs to His essence. Like God Himself, it could not change its nature except for the worse. Love is the end in relation to which the two other virtues are only means, and this relation remains even in the state of perfection. Hence it is the greatest, and hence also the apostle called charity and the work of charity: The way par excellence. So he resumes, 1Co 14:1, by saying: Follow after charity. In this verse the apostle returns, as we have said, from the digression on charity to his subject strictly so called: the exercise of spiritual gifts. He has now placed them under the aegis of the one principle which can render their exercise truly beneficial and make up for them, if they should ever come to an end.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
But now [in this present state] abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love. [If we give the phrase “but now” its other sense, as though the apostle said “But to sum things up, to give the net results,” then we have him saying that faith, hope and love are eternal. While it is true that faith in the sense of trust and confidence, and hope in the sense of unclouded expectation, shall abide in heaven, yet, in their large, general meaning, faith shall be lost in sight, and hope in fruition (Rom 8:24-25). It therefore seems more consistent to understand the apostle as asserting that the three graces shall abide while the earth stands; in contrast with miraculous gifts, which, according to his own prophetic statement, have ceased. He does not explain the superior excellence of love when compared with faith and hope, but the points of superiority are not hard to find. 1. If all three are eternal, the other two shall be greatly diminished as graces by the Lord’s coming, while love shall be infinitely enlarged. 2. Love is the basis of faith and hope, for we only fully believe in and hope for that which we love. 3. Faith and hope are human, but God himself is love. 4. Faith and hope can only properly work by love, and are worthless without it. But here the superiority is not so clear, for the three graces go hand in hand.]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
13. Now faith, hope, love, these three: but the greater of these is love. The poet says, faith is lost in sight, and hope in full fruition dies; but I would rather believe the inspired Paul, who here certifies the eternal survival of faith and hope, as well as love; while this Divine love, constituting the essence of the Divine nature, will fill the celestial universe, perfectly interpenetrating celestial beings, human and angelic, constituting the very atmosphere of Heaven, inundating the universe with unfathomable oceans of pure, holy love, in which saints and angels will flood and bask forever. Faith is the umbilical cord identifying the Heavenly universe with the Almighty, the ineffable Source of all life, spiritual and material, and constituting the bond of universal loyalty to the Heavenly Theocracy, and at the same time effecting constant connection with the omnipotence of the Almighty adequate to every enterprise within the range of finite beings. What will be the province of hope when we shall have glory and immortality forever? One must remember that Heaven is not a place of inactivity, but infinite and illimitable progress. Hope is the pioneer and faith the engine of power in conception and execution of Heavenly as well as earthly enterprises. Here our aspirations are awfully chilled by the limitations of mortality, constantly cutting down our aspirations by the certainty of speedy removal out of this world. Not so in the glorified state, where we can deliberately embark in enterprises requiring a million of years to consummate, and that inconceivable period will be but a little interval in the flight of eternal ages. With the wonderful facilities of the Heavenly universe, countless and illimitable solar systems revealing millions of immortal worlds through the interminable ethereal void, how infinitely delectable the privilege of flying from world to world and system to system and exploring the wonders of the boundless universe, and cultivating the acquaintances of the multiplied millions of unfallen intelligences who wing their flight to the celestial capital, and with adoring wonder contemplate the ineffable glories of Omnipotence Inconceivable are the possibilities of the Heavenly enterprises which await us in the evolution of imperishable intelligence and culture amid the boundless facilities of the eternal development, available under the leadership of the Almighty, and through instructions of glorified patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, saints, angels, archangels, cherubim and seraphim, in the fruition of that immortality that will fly with the velocity of lightning, never grow weary and never sleep. Hopes eagle eye will eternally conceive to explore new fields of immortal interest, and flood the soul with new and illimitable enterprises, while faith, fast hold of the Omnipotent arm, will command and utilize the power and availability commensurate with eternal aspiration.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 13
And now abideth, &c.; are permanent. The idea is, that the only spiritual gifts which are of permanent and lasting value, axe those moral graces which adorn the inward character.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
13:13 {7} And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these [is] charity.
(7) The conclusion: as if the apostle should say, “Such therefore will be our condition then: but now we have three things, and they remain sure if we are Christ’s, without which, true religion cannot consist, that is, faith, hope, and charity. And among these, charity is the chiefest because it ceases not in the life to come as the rest do, but is perfected and accomplished. For seeing that faith and hope tend to things which are promised and are to come, when we have presently gotten them, to what purpose would we have faith and hope? But yet there at length we will truly and perfectly love both God and one another.”
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
"Now" resumes Paul’s original thought about the supremacy of love. It does not carry on the contrast between what is now and what will be later. In contrast to what will pass away-namely, knowledge, tongues, and prophecy-faith, hope, and love will endure (cf. Rom 5:1-5; Gal 5:5-6; Eph 4:2-5; 1Th 1:3; 1Th 5:8; Heb 6:10-12; Heb 10:22-24; 1Pe 1:3-8; 1Pe 1:21-22). Faith here is not the gift of faith (1Co 13:2; cf. 1Co 12:9) but the trust in God that characterizes all His children.
Among the enduring virtues love is the greatest because it will only increase when we see the Lord rather than decreasing in us, as faith and hope will. In the future we will continue to trust God and hope in Him, but the reality of His presence will make it easier for us to do so then than it is now.
Apparently Paul introduced faith and hope at this point to show that love is not only superior to the gifts, but it is superior even to other great virtues. Faith and hope are gifts, and they are also Christian virtues of the same type as love. Yet love even outstrips the other major Christian virtues because it will outlast them.
"Love is a property of God himself. . . . But God does not himself trust (in the sense of placing his whole confidence in and committing himself to some other being); if he did, he would not be God. . . . If God hoped he would not be God. But if God did not love he would not be God. Love is an activity, the essential activity, of God himself, and when men love either him or their fellow-men they are doing (however imperfectly) what God does." [Note: Barrett, p. 311.]
The point of this beautiful classic exposition of love is this. We should value and give attention to the cultivation and practice of love even more than to that of the spiritual gifts (cf. 1Co 12:31). The gifts, as important as they are, are only partial and temporary. As love is the greatest of the virtues that will endure forever, so the gift of tongues is the least of the gifts. It will last only a short time.