What have Christians been known for in 2021? What has marked the church?

Jesus has commissioned his followers to represent him in this world. When nonbelievers look at our lives, we want them to see people distinguished by Christlike character. When they look at churches, we want them to see outposts of God’s heavenly kingdom, early installments of the new creation. And in particular, whether they look at individual Christians or churches, we want them to notice three dominant graces: faith, hope, and most of all, love.

The gospel creates people who are filled with faith in Christ, captivated by the hope of eternal life, and overflowing in love for God and neighbor. In fact, at least nine passages — scattered throughout the letters of Paul, Peter, and Hebrews — mention this trio of Christian graces (1 Corinthians 13:13; Galatians 5:5–6; Ephesians 4:2–5; Colossians 1:4–5; 1 Thessalonians 1:3; 5:8; Hebrews 6:10–12; 10:22–24; 1 Peter 1:21–22).

If you could travel back in time and ask New Testament believers how they live the Christian life, I expect that you would hear the same answer again and again: we aim to abound in faith, hope, and love.

Greatest of These

First Corinthians 13:13 is the most well-known passage that highlights this trio. Paul tells us, “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” His claim raises an important question: Why is love “the greatest” of these graces? After all, we are saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8), and we continue to grow as believers through faith in Christ and his promises. Likewise, as we look forward to Christ’s return with eager anticipation, hope fills us with joy and empowers us to persevere through suffering (Romans 12:12). Yet Paul tells us that love holds the highest place in this holy triad. So why is love the greatest?

Let’s answer that question by approaching 1 Corinthians 13:13 in three contexts. We’ll begin with the larger context of Paul’s letters, then focus more closely on this section of 1 Corinthians (chapters 12–14), and finally zero in on the immediate context in 1 Corinthians 13:8–13. As we do so, my hope is that our hearts will be stirred up to love one another, so that our homes, our churches, and our neighborhoods would be saturated with love that spreads the fame of Christ.

Faith and Hope Produce Love

Several passages in Paul’s letters show us that both faith and hope produce love. We can see this connection between faith and love in Galatians 5:6: “In Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.” Though we are justified by faith alone, the kind of faith that justifies never remains alone; it always works through love for others. God does not save us in order that we might remain indifferent to the needs of those around us. Rather, as the Holy Spirit begets faith in our hearts, he intends for that faith to produce countless deeds of love.

Similarly, the hope that is ours in Christ leads us to love one another. In Colossians 1:4–5, Paul tells the Colossian believers about his gratitude for them, “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.” The Colossian Christians loved their fellow believers, Paul says, because they knew they had a glorious hope awaiting them in heaven. They knew they would spend eternity in the presence of Christ, and this hope freed them to give of their time, their possessions, and perhaps even their lives to serve their fellow believers.

Faith and hope are, in one sense, means to an even greater end, without which they would be incomplete: they transform us so that our lives overflow with Christlike love.

Love Builds Up the Church

Now we’ll narrow our focus to the section of 1 Corinthians in which Paul says that “the greatest of these is love.” In 1 Corinthians 12–14, Paul is teaching the church about spiritual gifts. As he sorts through issues such as the variety of gifts in the church and the use of what we might call “miraculous gifts,” his great concern is for everything to be done for the building up of the church. When Christ’s people meet together for worship, everyone may bring something to contribute with this goal in mind: “Let all things be done for building up” (1 Corinthians 14:26).

“What makes the difference between fruitless religious activity and church-strengthening service? Love.”

When Christians worship God together, it’s possible for them to exercise their spiritual gifts in ways that do not build up the rest of the body. God has no desire for the church to be filled with exciting manifestations that glorify those with the gifts but fail to edify the church. And what makes the difference between fruitless religious activity and church-strengthening service? Love.

Earlier in the letter, Paul wrote that “love builds up” (1 Corinthians 8:1). In the context of 1 Corinthians 12–14, Paul’s famous words about love in chapter 13 reveal that love is what makes the difference between Christians whose gifts build up the body and those who are just “a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal” (1 Corinthians 13:1).

Because Jesus loves his church with a love “that surpasses knowledge” (Ephesians 3:19), he desires for the members of his body to build up one another — and in order to do that, we need not only faith, and not only hope, but love.

Love Will Be Greatest for Eternity

A third reason why love holds the highest place in the trio of Christian graces is found in the second half of 1 Corinthians 13. In verses 8–13, Paul says that spiritual gifts such as prophecy, tongues, and knowledge are temporary provisions for the present age. In contrast, when he writes in verse 13 that “faith, hope, and love abide, these three,” he shows us that these graces are superior to the gifts because they will endure forever. In the new creation, we will continue to have faith in God and his promises, and we will continue to look forward to the future with hope. But most of all, the life of the new creation will be characterized by love, flowing through us from the God who is love (1 John 4:16).

“As followers of Jesus, we rejoice in the hope of spending eternity in a world saturated with pure love.”

In 1738, Jonathan Edwards preached a sermon entitled “Heaven Is a World of Love.” He pointed out that since heaven is God’s dwelling place, “this renders heaven a world of love; for God is the fountain of love, as the sun is the fountain of light. And therefore the glorious presence of God in heaven fills heaven with love, as the sun placed in the midst of the hemisphere in a clear day fills the world with light” (Works, 8:369). Furthermore, “love reigns in every heart” in heaven, as the saints abound in love for God and for one another (8:373).

As followers of Jesus, we rejoice in the hope of spending eternity in a world saturated with pure love. And as our lives are filled increasingly with love here, we reflect the new creation in the present, and our churches fulfill their callings as outposts of the kingdom of heaven. Our lives and our churches spread the sweet aroma of heaven as we love God and one another, for “faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

Knowing God as Father
Knowing that God is our Father is one thing; understanding how we should relate to him as such is another. In this episode of Light + Truth, John Piper opens Malachi 1:6–14 to demonstrate how knowing God as Father should lead us to honor him.

Audio Transcript

Monday, we looked at doubt. Can we ever hope to experience a deepening joy in God during recurring seasons of doubt? And your answer, Pastor John, was yes. We can experience deepening joy in God during recurring seasons of doubt. And you explained how. And in the Monday episode, one of the battles you briefly mentioned was the battle when thoughts enter our minds that make us wonder whether something the Bible teaches is really true. That’s one form of doubt that we face as believers. And today we drill down into Bible-doubt.

So, how do we fight off this inner skeptic in our Bible reading? The frank and honest question comes from a listener named Kristen. “Pastor John, I am ashamed to say that my Bible reading is often hijacked by a sense of doubt. It sometimes even feels more like a spiritual battle than an intellectual battle, and it scares me because it attacks my faith at the foundations — the truth of the Bible. Do you have any advice for attacking a spirit of doubt and cynicism when reading the Scriptures?”

Tony, I stop and I pray over every one of these questions as I try to answer them so that in the hundreds of things you could say, the Lord will help me choose the things that might be most helpful. And this one felt like I needed to pray more, because when she conceded that it’s a spiritual battle and not just an intellectual one, I felt that’s really true — and not just for her, but for all of us. The intellectual things that rise up that make the Bible seem problematic are often covering a satanic attack. The devil really hates the Bible. He hates truth. He’s a deceiver from the beginning, and he can make things look merely intellectual when in fact some pretty heavy, heavy spiritual stuff is going on.

I’ll just tell Kristen now that the answer is yes, I do have some advice, and I based every one of these six counsels on Scripture, and I’ll mention the Scripture. So, I’m praying for Kristen and lots of people who, when they read the Bible, find stumbling blocks that get in the way of their enjoyment and their belief. And one of these maybe, if not all of them, might prove from the Lord for her.

1. Pray for help.

Pray that God would help you — that he would fight your doubts and cynicism with you and for you. In other words, cry out to God, “Fight for me. Help me. Defeat these obstacles.” And we all know where that’s coming from — Mark 9:24. To the father of the child who had this epileptic fit that nobody could heal, Jesus said, “Do you want me to do anything here?” And the man said, “If you can” (Mark 9:22). And he said, “What’s this ‘if’ stuff?” And then the man cried out, “I believe; help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24). That’s a strange way to say it. Help your unbelief do what? Die, that’s what.

So, this means that Kristen and I need to preface our Bible reading every day with prayer. God, help me with my unbelief — that is, kill it, destroy it, get out whatever is causing it.

2. Long for a glimpse.

Seek in all your reading and praying in the Bible not just to know truth, but to see the glory of Christ. There is a spiritual light shining from Christ that is self-authenticating if you saw it. And I’m thinking here now of the doubting Thomas. I’m glad he exists and is in the Bible for Kristen and me. Remember, Thomas said, “Unless I . . . place my hand into his side, I will never believe” (John 20:25). And so, here, Jesus shows up and he says, “‘Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.’ Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’” (John 20:27–28). In other words, he did not touch him. He saw him.

“Seek in all your reading and praying in the Bible not just to know truth, but to see the glory of Christ.”

Something happened when he saw him. He thought that he would need to do more. He would need more evidence for a ghost — “He’s going to be a ghost. I’m going to be tricked.” And when Jesus showed up, he didn’t need any more. He didn’t have to push it to the limit of his evidential demands. And Jesus said, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29). And I think that means, “Blessed are those who have not seen the way you’ve seen, but who have believed by the seeing that comes through the word.”

So, I’m saying to Kristen that when she reads, ask the Lord for this kind of not physical but spiritual discernment — a spiritual sight of Christ that is different than an argument from evidences drawn with inferences.

3. Meditate on Jesus’s kindness.

Think much about the patience and mercy of God to doubters. Peter said, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water” (Matthew 14:28). He’s going to walk on water. And Jesus said, “Come” (Matthew 14:29). So, Peter got out of the boat, walked on the water, and came to Jesus. And then it says, “But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, ‘Lord, save me’” (Matthew 14:30). And Jesus did not say, “Tough, man. I don’t want to. What a jerk. I just told you that you could do this, and you were doing it.” No, that is not what Jesus said or did. “Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, ‘O you of little faith, why did you doubt?’” (Matthew 14:31).

So, meditate on the kindness and the patience of Jesus to doubters. Peter is doubting, and Jesus reaches out his hand. Maybe that’s what Kristen would feel as she reads this — he is reaching out his hand to me in my doubt.

4. Seek out the strong.

Seek out people of strong faith to read outside the Bible and to be around in person, and make them your heroes. “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:7–8). So, he explicitly wants us to look to people who are ahead of us in this battle of faith, and take heart from looking at the outcome of their faith. And here’s another one in Hebrews. Hebrews seems to be really big on this communal nature of fighting the fight of faith.

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving [you could say doubting] heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. (Hebrews 3:12–13)

In other words, we need to be in groups where people fight with us and help us and direct us to things that will give strength to our faith rather than weaken it.

5. Know your need of others.

Remember that the body has many members, and some are scholars who have thought long and hard about things that puzzle you, and have solved many of them. “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you,’ nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you’” (1 Corinthians 12:21). And vice versa. And it may be that, sometimes, those of us who are doing footwork at any given time might need to remember, “Hey, there are some heads.” (And don’t let this conflict with Jesus as the head.)

That’s what he says here in 1 Corinthians 12:21 — some are heads, and some are feet. And the feet should never say, “I don’t need you, head,” when the head has spent ten years solving the problem that you’re just stumbling over. No, no, no. The point of the body of Christ is that there’s an answer to our problems. God is a God of coherence; he’s not a God of contradiction. There are answers to the issues in the Bible and the issues of culture. And people have gone before us. And there’s a wealth of wisdom in books, and we should befriend those people.

6. Persevere.

Finally, don’t stop reading your Bible because of these doubts and because of a spirit of cynicism. One of Satan’s main aims in your doubt and your cynicism is to get you to stop reading, when, in fact, the Bible says, “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). And one last text:

Blessed is the man     who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,nor stands in the way of sinners,     nor sits in the seat of scoffers;but his delight is in the law of the Lord,     and on his law he meditates day and night.He is like a tree     planted by streams of waterthat yields its fruit in its season,     and its leaf does not wither.In all that he does, he prospers. (Psalm 1:1–3)

So, the seasons come, the dry desert winds blow, and those whose roots are not planted by the streams wither by cynicism and doubt. But the person whose roots have gone down, meditating day and night on the word of God, is like a tree that has roots way down by the water, so that they’re not killed by the droughts of doubt.