Thanks Tony - enjoyed your little "mini series" on faith, love and hope.
You ask, "what about hope? Would we miss it, if it wasn’t in the Big Three?" Going on "I suspect many contemporary Christians wouldn’t particularly. And I suspect that this is because we under-appreciate just how future-focused the Christian gospel is. We tend to see the gospel as mainly about the forgiveness and salvation that we receive now by faith; and the blessed new life we start living now in love."
No doubt faith and love ARE big, very big, but I am intrigued by your comments about hope, that we might downplay it or under appreciate it. As I reflect on hope, for me, it is (almost) everything. Without hope, we have nothing. I would be lost without hope. Knowing my future is secure, in this sure hope I have peace and security and confidence now. It means it is much harder for me to be unsettled.
Would I miss hope? Yes! Big time.
And it is interesting that at my last church, so often it was the testimony of Christians, that hope sustained them. Hope gave them meaning. Hope gave them confidence.
I wonder, thinking about "faith, love and hope" if it is like my 3 children - do I have a favourite? Not at all, I love them all equally. I appreciate them all, but having said that they are all different, differences that make them all the more loveable. And would I miss one of them? 100%!
Bottom line I/We equally need all 3 and would be lost without any one of them.
Thanks Tony - enjoyed your little "mini series" on faith, love and hope.
You ask, "what about hope? Would we miss it, if it wasn’t in the Big Three?" Going on "I suspect many contemporary Christians wouldn’t particularly. And I suspect that this is because we under-appreciate just how future-focused the Christian gospel is. We tend to see the gospel as mainly about the forgiveness and salvation that we receive now by faith; and the blessed new life we start living now in love."
No doubt faith and love ARE big, very big, but I am intrigued by your comments about hope, that we might downplay it or under appreciate it. As I reflect on hope, for me, it is (almost) everything. Without hope, we have nothing. I would be lost without hope. Knowing my future is secure, in this sure hope I have peace and security and confidence now. It means it is much harder for me to be unsettled.
Would I miss hope? Yes! Big time.
And it is interesting that at my last church, so often it was the testimony of Christians, that hope sustained them. Hope gave them meaning. Hope gave them confidence.
I wonder, thinking about "faith, love and hope" if it is like my 3 children - do I have a favourite? Not at all, I love them all equally. I appreciate them all, but having said that they are all different, differences that make them all the more loveable. And would I miss one of them? 100%!
Bottom line I/We equally need all 3 and would be lost without any one of them.