“Faith”, “hope”, and “love” are important biblical words which we tend to understand only vaguely. We define them according to modern definitions, not biblical definitions. We think of “faith”, “hope”, and “love” as feelings or psychological states:

We think of “faith” as “believing in something you don’t see”.

We think of “hope” as a kind of optimism that things will turn out well.

We think of “love” as an emotional attachment to another person or thing.

But in scripture, “faith”, “hope”, and “love” are objective realities. They are real things that do not change based on what we are experiencing or feeling.

Many pastors preach “You need to have more faith, hope, and love!” So, Christians feel bad about not having enough “faith”, “hope”, and “love”. As a result, they work harder to exert their wills to do better in these areas.

But “faith”, “hope”, and “love” are gifts from God that do not change. They are part of the “easy yoke” of the Lord, which he gives to us.

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

Throughout scripture and Christian history, “faith”, “hope”, and “love” are the basic Christian virtues, the main gifts from the Lord upon which the Christian witness is founded.

 In Luke 18:8, Jesus asks, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” He does not ask, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find Christian values on earth?” Jesus is concerned with whether we are stewarding the gifts of “faith”, “hope”, and “love” he has given us.

“Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:1-2)

What is true of the gospel is true of “faith”, “hope”, and “love”. They are things that the Lord has given to us, which we steward carefully.

“We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel,” (Colossians 1:3-5)

We should note here that receiving “faith”, “hope”, and “love” is connected with hearing the gospel. And, interestingly, here hope and love do not come from faith, but faith and love come from hope.

Paul says that hope is “laid up for you in heaven”. But Paul is not talking about rewards we get when we die. Paul tells us in Titus 2:13 what he means by hope:

 “…while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,” (Titus 2:13)

There is only one “hope” that the New Testament talks about: the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. To say that this “hope” is stored up in heaven is to say that Jesus is currently enthroned and reigning in heaven but will come again soon to judge the living and the dead. It is the same as what Paul says in Colossians 3:1-4:

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” (Colossians 3:1-4)

Scripturally, our hope is not that we will go to heaven when we die. Our hope is always in Christ’s soon return. Even if we die before he returns, he will take us to himself and bring him with when he comes again to bring the new heavens and new earth.

If “hope” is hope in Christ’s return, and “faith” and “love” come from hope, we cannot have faith or love if we omit Christ’s return from our proclamation of the gospel.

This is why, in the Gospels, Jesus’ main activity on earth was not telling people that God loves them, that he would die for their sins, or that heaven is a great place to live after dying. Jesus main activity was to preach about the day of the Lord, the judgment, hell, the eternal destruction of God’s enemies, the bodily resurrection of the righteous, and the new heavens and new earth. 

Jesus comes with a final offer of mercy before that judgment and seals that offer of mercy in His own blood. He gives the disciples the gift of Himself and the promise of His return in the Lord’s Supper and tells them to watch for Him.

Hope in Jesus’ return is the anchor of the Christian life. It is what holds everything else in place. When other people do wrong to us, we don’t take revenge on them. Instead, we anchor ourselves in the blessed hope, knowing that at Christ’s return every wrong that was done against us will be made right.

When we are ill, we pray for healing. But we never lose hope even when we are not healed because we know that, on the day of the return of the Lord, that…

“in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.” (1 Corinthians 15:52-53).

If this is hope, then what is faith?

Hebrews 11:1 tells us.

“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1)

Faith is the substance of hope. Most of the things that we will receive when hope is realized are things that we do not have now. But some things we do receive now. Scripture calls these a “deposit” or “guarantee”. They are gifts of faith–the substance of hope.

When we are baptized in Christ in faith, we receive the forgiveness of sins, the Holy Spirit, the direct teaching of Christ, relationship with the Father, and much more…even though such things are still “unseen” to us. 

“And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.” (Ephesians 1:13-14)

“Faith” is a deposit on our future “hope”. This is why “hope” comes before “faith” and why “faith” grows from “hope”. “Faith” is the part of “hope” that we get to receive and hold tightly to in this lifetime.

Paul says that “love” is also rooted in “hope”. “Love” is our using the gifts we receive in “faith” to the benefit of other members of Christ’s body.

In the story of Simon Magus in Acts 8, a magician named Simon tried to give money to the apostles so that he could have the gift of giving other people the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands. He was trying to use the gift of faith for his own benefit. This is not “love”. “Love” is when we use the gifts of “faith” for other believers.

 Now we understand “faith”, “hope”, and “love”, and why “faith” and “love” spring forth from “hope”.

The Lord’s Supper is the gift of faith that we receive in this present age as a deposit—a guarantee—of our invitation to the wedding supper of the Lamb that will happen at Christ’s return, which is our “blessed hope”.

In 1 Corinthians 11:20-21, Paul rebukes the Corinthian church, saying: “When you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, for as you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk.”

When we eat the Lord’s Supper focused only on our own needs and benefits, we are like Simon the magician: we do not have love. So as you partake of the Lord’s Supper, pray for the person who is in front of you in the line. Pray that as they receive the Lord’s Supper, that the Lord anchors them into the blessed hope of his return. Pray that they receive the fullness of the gifts of faith available to us believers in this lifetime, including the blessings of this bread and cup.

That is the prayer that comes from true Christian love.