One of the most quoted and memorable of St. Paul’s writings comes in his first epistle to the Corinthian Church. In 1 Corinthians 13:13 we read: “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.“
This passage has been used in countless sermons, weddings and on other occasions by Christians from all countries of the world. For the faithful, it is a beautiful expression of the religion over 2 billion humans embrace.
Faith is the basis of our belief system. We believe in God, in the Christ of the Bible and in the Holy Spirit that lives in the lives Jesus’ followers. Faith means that we have confidence in God’s determinate powers in the world, in His help when we need it and in His comfort when we are in despair and peril.
Hope is the quality of the Christian to look to the future and see a better time for those who adhere to God’s commands. We have a “lively” hope according to 1 Peter 1:3, a hope rooted in the salvation God gives freely to the penitent. No matter how dark the day, we have that “living hope” that things will work out and get better. Christians are never without that hope.
Love is the overriding quality that Christians have in abundance. This was Jesus’ assertion in John 13:35: “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” Paul put it quite bluntly, “the greatest of these is love”. And love “covers a multitude of sins”, as Peter states in 1 Peter 4:8.
Christians have lived by these words for more than 20 centuries. From Jesus and Spirit inspired disciples of Jesus they are part of the core belief that guides the lives of those who love and obey the Scriptures.
That seems to be the beginning of a good sermon to deliver to the faithful, but those qualities can also be used to strengthen us in the secular world. According to our newly minted President, we are going to endure a “long, hard winter”, referring to the ongoing pandemic. And such it may be, but for the more than 75 million citizens who voted for a candidate other than Joe Biden, it looks harsh indeed.
Can those three qualities give us strength to endure what those many millions did not want? Let us know that God gives us the ability to rise above the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”, and using that formula (if that is correct to refer to 1 Corinthians 13:13 in that manner), we can endure and thrive.
Faith is defined in Hebrews 11:1 as: “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”. Yet faith is also reinforced by the past times when we needed help and God answered our prayers and became our strength. In our national life, we have endured and overcome much worse than what we see ahead of us, even though some pundits and politicians look on Biden’s presidency as a harbinger of Armageddon. A truncated look at some of those times bolsters our faith.
A Civil War that claimed over 600,000 American lives was endured and the Republic flourished. The world, and the United States, was at war in Europe in 1917-1918, followed by the Spanish flu, yet the nation came out of that conflict stronger than any other nation on the planet.
My parents and millions of Americans suffered through what we call the Great Depression, including a devasting drought that caused the infamous Dust Bowl. Yet we have emerged from that cataclysmic event stronger than ever. Following that we engaged in another World War, fought on four continents around the world, but we endured and overcame. Many thought the end was near with the disastrous domestic violence and carnage in the Vietnam War, but we have put that behind us.
Our faith has to be informed of the times we have been low, but still have persevered and triumphed over adversity and evil. On a personal basis, many Christians have felt the hand of God in their times of trial, and have come through. With our faith in God and the experience of the past, we can look at a “long, hard winter” and be confident of the survival of the nation, and of the will of God being done.
Hope sustains us as individual Christians. We hope in our salvation and a better place after this life is over. We also hope that our lives will improve, and if not, our God will be with us in all circumstances. The same is true of our national situation. Many millions despair of what will come of the change in government, but we hope that things will not get so bad that we will not survive as a nation or as individuals. We hope that reason, common sense and comity will prevail and that there is a better day coming. Although it is somewhat of a cliché, it is also true: this, too, will pass.
Love, though, gives us the best opportunity to come through what looks to be a tough time. For all of those 75 million plus Americans who are dismayed by the way the political landscape looks like, practicing love, not just mouthing the words, will give us a pathway to sanity and healing between competing world views. We need to look at those who disagree with us not as mortal enemies, but as humans whom God also loves.
Christians should follow Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:44,45: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor ◙and hate your enemy.’ 44◙ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, 45that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.“
Putting into practice the precepts of the Bible is not just for our own private lives. By living the words of Jesus and the writers of the New Testament, there is no “long, hard winter” we cannot endure. With faith in God, hope for the future and love for all mankind, even our enemies, the next four years can be overcome.