TUESDAY February 22, 2022

Faith, Hope and Love

...since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints; because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel....
Colossians 1:4-5

Notice three important words mentioned in Colossians 1:4-5––faith, love and hope. You will find these three words often joined together throughout the Scriptures.

Faith, hope and love are three characteristics and essentials of the Christian life. We come to faith in Jesus Christ, trusting and believing in Him for our salvation. We hope in the coming of the Lord and His plans that He desires to do in our lives. We should never lose heart––never lose hope. What is the greatest hope that we have? It is the hope of eternal life––it is a hope that belongs to every believer in Jesus Christ.

Christians are to love Jesus and love others around them with His agape love. We all need to get along––that means having forgiveness in our hearts towards our brothers and sisters in Christ. That is what the Bible teaches: And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you (Ephesians 4:32).

We must love each other. Jesus gave us this commandment: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (John 13:34). Why is loving other believers so important? Consider what else Jesus said: “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” It is incredibly important to love one another; in doing so we are obeying Jesus, and the world will be able to see that we are His disciples.

The worst thing for those who do not know Christ is to see unloving Christians causing disunity in the church. It is a bad witness. We are to worship the Lord together and have the same love for all the saints, not part of the saints––all the saints––all believers in Christ.

And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
~1 Corinthians 13:13~

For more from Raul Ries, please visit SomebodyLovesYou.com!