Faith – Hope – Love
We have probably heard many lessons about having faith, hope and love. They are very important to the Christian journey. In our reading today, 1 Thessalonians, Paul gives us great insight on how faith, hope and love all work together to help us press on in our walk with Jesus.
For we remember before our God and Father how you put your faith into practice, how your love motivates you to serve others, and how unrelenting is your hope-filled patience in our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Thessalonians 1:3
Paul is writing to the young church at Thessalonica. In this verse Paul makes three distinctions:
1) how to put your faith into practice
2) how love motivates you to serve and
3) how unrelenting is your hope-filled patience.
The first distinction that Paul makes is how to put your faith into practice. Where you put your faith determines what you do. If God is the focus of your life than that will show in what we do with your time.
The second connection that Paul makes is how love motivates us to serve. How much do you love Jesus? Love is what motivates us in the direction of our faith. If we truly love Jesus than that motivates us to serve Him through serving others.
The third point that Paul makes is how unrelenting is your hope-filled patience. According to Merriam-Webster, unrelenting means 1-“not softening or yielding in determination: hard, stern and 2- not letting up or weakening in vigor or pase: constant.” This refers to how we are to live out our life. We have to push on with endurance to the end, even in the most difficult times. How do you continue to push on when life is hard? Paul tells us that it is through hope.
The word hope in the Bible means a “joyful and confident expectation”. What we hope for is what we expect to happen. You have to have the right kind of hope to endure hard things. Hope is what keeps us going when the going gets tough.
Paul gives the church at Thessolonica a commendation of these three things. He praises them for putting their faith into practice, for letting their love motivate them to serve, and for having unrelenting hope-filled patience.
Could Paul give that same praise to you and I? Do I put my faith into practice daily? Do I let my love for Jesus motivate me to serve those around me? And, do I have unrelenting hope-filled patience as I endure daily hardships?
I must daily be in God’s Word to renew my mind and deepen my love for Him. My love for Him is what will motivate me to keep my faith, hope and love at the center of my life.