Blog » “These Three Remain”  

Friday, June 7, 2013    Jeff Lampl



“When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.
When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor
reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I
shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. “

1 Corinthians 13:11-13 (NIV) 

 This passage tells us we don’t really know as much as we think we know. Most of us are probably a pretty messy mix of naivete' (childlike) and thinking we know it all (childish).  

The brilliance of this passage (at least as it seems to me today) is that it gives us three windows into reality, three ways to see through and past our temporary “all about us” worlds.  

Hope does not mean, “I hope so”. In the Bible Hope refers lives built on the solid reality that what God has done for Jesus in raising him from the dead, He is now doing and will have done for every believer and for  the entire planet. This is a reality that cannot be undone. On that Hope, on that unshakeable reality, we stand.  

Faith means believing. It means choosing to put all my eggs in God’s basket. Faith is confidence in God. God is good. God is for us. I have confidence that whatever happens God will turn it for good. Faith means I am a true believer, even when, especially when, I doubt. It is then that I choose through gritted teeth to believe . .  and never stop believing. 

Love throughout the Bible (‘agape’ in Greek, pronounced ah-gah’-pay) means caring about the highest good of the other and acting on it. It is not a feeling, even though loving feelings often follow acts of love. It is an act of the will. When I love another I am participating in what I was built for. I am growing up. I am becoming Christ-like.  

Question: Where does one learn these things? Where have you learned them . . . not just academically or as head knowledge, but as internalized realities which connect you with God? My guess is that church helps but that family, when working right, is God’s Plan A for passing on “these three that remain”. Is that your experience? How might you make your family’s experience in the near future?  

“Lord , please lead our family one step closer to becoming this kind of family. Lead us to You . . . together. Lord, please reveal the one next step in prayer or Bible Reading or worship or whatever, that you want for our family. Amen”