One of the tragedies of life is that so many of us spend too much time in pursuit of treasures that do not endure. This always leads to disappointment. Even if we attain the prizes we seek, they prove to be less satisfying than we thought when we viewed them from a distance. Health, vigor, beauty, and thunderous applause fade away. A crashing stock market, a bank failure, floods, drought, and finally death, can wrench these possessions out of our hands.
In light of the transiency of so much of life, we rejoice to read these words in I Corinthians 13:3: “Now abides faith, hope and love, these three. But the greatest of these is love.” Faith, hope, and love are permanent. They are qualities that add meaning and zest to life.
Faith: The Apostle Paul mentions the importance of faith in the following three verses: (1) “I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day” (II Tim. 1:12); (2) “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28); and (3) “We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building with God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (II Cor. 5:1).
Hope: Hope looks to the future with confidence and expectancy. If we get sick, we hope to get well. The opposite of hope is despair. Despair produces defeatism. Defeatism is contagious, debilitating, and often fatal. Hope is inspiring and energizing. Jesus knew the value of having hope. He saw the cross, but He also saw His resurrection three days beyond it. He saw hope for the church. It is always great to have hope.
Love: God sent His Son to “seek and to save that which was lost.” In Romans 5:8 Paul reminds us that “God commended His love toward us, in that while we were sinners, Christ died for us.” And God created us with the capability of loving Him in return. We love Him because He first loved us. In addition to that, we are also to love our neighbor as ourselves. When a lawyer asked Jesus, “Who am I to love?” He answered by sharing the story of the Good Samaritan. He even said that we are to love our enemies.
Christian love and fellowship is what makes the body of Christ a church. Josephus, the early historian said of the first century Christians, “See how they love one another.” Human love – the love of a man for a woman, and the love of a woman for a man – the love of parents for their children and children for their parents – is the most permanent and vital relationship on the earth.
You may ask, “How can I know and experience the power of God’s love in my life?” The answer is easy: you must respond affirmatively to God’s love in the way that it was revealed and expressed on the hill called Calvary. The words of the first and last stanza of a hymn Christians often sing expresses it well: “When I survey the wondrous cross, on which the Prince of Glory died, my richest gain I count but loss and pour contempt on all my pride. Were the whole realm of nature mine that were a present far too small; love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.”
Have you accepted Christ as your Savior yet? If not, there is no better time to do that than today.
The Paper Pulpit 
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