Today’s Daily Light
Faith, Hope, and Love 

In reading the caption above, faith, hope, and love…it is natural to correlate these three words to a passage from the letter the apostle Paul wrote to the ‘church/believers’ in the city of Corinth.  1 Corinthians, chapter 13…often referred to as the ‘love’ chapter and in contemporary times is often used in weddings as poetic picture of what the couple-to-be hopes that their love type will be.  As my son and his friends would say.. “it is all good.” 😊

In the context of the letter…the theme of the letter to the church at Corinth…Paul is addressing serious issues in moral issues, and divisions and conflict among believers….and he seeks to call them to a higher standard of Christ like living and to the high standard of which the Body of Christ must be in unity ‘so that’ the ‘body’ is healthy and functions as it was intended to function ‘so that’ the world can see Christ in his people…in the life of the church.   So Paul reiterates to them that they are all a part of the body of Christ and they must understand that each has a different part and place and function and they must accept each other and learn to work in harmony so that they do not suffer and so that they can honor each other and thus rejoice.   And he says the way…the spirit in which to do this…the power in which to do this…comes through faith, hope, and love and the greatest of these is love.

Paul later writes another letter to the church/believers who live in Thessalonica.  The circumstances, context, and theme are different.  They are a church that is thriving while enduring persecution and his letter is to encourage them and to also remind them of the coming of the Lord.   In chapter 1 of 1st Thessalonians, Paul writes “We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers.  We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.”

He says ‘you work produced by faith…your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope… in our Lord Jesus Christ.’