Why is love the greatest in comparison with faith and hope?

I have often wondered from a theological standpoint why love is considered the greatest in comparison with faith and hope, and the faith-based conclusion of why this exists is actually very similar to the research-based reason. God is love, and love seems to be the essential building block of both faith and hope. Most of the problems that are addressed in 1 Corinthians require a certain amount of love to help resolve them. For example, the church is cautioned against their lack of unity in Chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians, and love for God and one another is definitely necessary for the church to come together as one.

Faith, hope, and love are key elements to one’s life, from a biblical perspective, and each of them plays their role in a healthy spiritual lifestyle. The importance of love is shown in many more important places, for example, the Holy Trinity: “Love is as necessary to the triune God as blood is to a living being. The interrelationship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is defined in terms of mutual love”. This statement shows how important love is down to the very crucial level where the Holy Trinity is divided equally by shared love. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are all very famous for their matrimonial connection, but the relationship between all three would not work if there was no real incomparable love. Love is as important to the Trinity as blood is to a human. This reveals that love is the integral part of the Trinity that makes it tick, and the absence of it would mean death for the trio

The biblical definitions of faith, hope, and love are useful tools that can be used to see the reason for love’s elevation over the other two. The bible definition of love is monumental: “The biblical ideas of love referred to: A desire for the best for another, even if it cost us something. A shorter way of saying this would be to say that biblical love is "Sacrificial Love". Obtaining the best for another, even an enemy, at our cost.” This statement shows the weight that the word “love” really carries. It takes a lot to want the best for someone else even if it costs you something, and a vast majority of people can’t honestly say they have ever loved someone under this condition. If it is already extremely hard to show sacrificial love for people in general, then it is a totally different accomplishment to have this love for an enemy.

In order to make sense of love’s superiority over faith and love, one must evaluate the relationship between the three focuses. Love is essential to the make-up of each of them, and it is the supreme sentiment in this trio: “Love is the greatest, because it is the root of the other two; "we believe only in that which we love; we hope only for that which we love. This statement acknowledges the fact that faith and hope are both centered around love. It makes sense that the one out of the three that is most significant is actually contemporaneous in all three. Without love, it is understood that faith and hope could not exist completely. Faith and hope both have the potential to waver, but one’s love is more foundationally stable and important to one’s spiritual make up. Love is the greatest and is essential to the existence of all three: “Yet love stands supreme; indeed, both faith and hope would perish without her”.

One can possess a great deal of love and lack faith and hope, but faith and hope can’t be present without love in the midst. Love is the equivalent of the bread in a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and faith and hope are the peanut butter and jelly. The love is indispensable and vital to the process of completing the sandwich as a whole.

The Message Bible translation of 1 Corinthians 13:13 gave a broader view of the scripture in its entirety. This translation declares, “1 Corinthians 13:13 (MSG) But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.” This transformation of the scripture helped me to further see that love is the foundation for hope and love. There is no way that one can trust steadily in God and unswervingly hope if they do not first love God. One is not going to seek to accomplish the first two tasks if the third task is not already present.                                                                                       

God is defined as the epitome of love, and naturally it makes sense for love the be the greatest in comparison to faith and hope. The base of God’s very being is rooted in love and God is eternal: “The contrast is not between love which is imperishable and faith and hope which are perishable, but between ephemeral gifts and enduring graces”. This passage identifies the everlasting trait of love, as opposed to faith and hope’s sketchy existence. Love is not defined as a characteristic of who God is. It is recorded as the foundation of all that He is made of. Characteristics are something we learn from our environment, religion, and family, but love was innately ingrained in who God is and is the staple of His existence. The biggest issue that some people have is their love for people, because it is hard to measure up to the love example that God has set forth.

In conclusion, the research I did on this blog is instrumental in my understanding the “why” behind the prominence of love over faith and hope. There are many scriptures in the Bible that convey the importance of love and how it should look, but there is a lack of information on the reason why love is held in such high esteem. Love is the basis for faith and hope; therefore, love is elevated to a higher level than them. There are many important instances where love plays an immense role, such as the Holy Trinity. Love balances each level of the Holy Trinity out through equal and reciprocated love. The greatest of the three is love because God is just that.

 

Why did Paul include the section about the strong and the weak in Romans 14?

The question that caused me to have the greatest curiosity concerns the beginning of Romans 14, where Paul teaches the church in Rome how to treat the weak. He expresses that there is no clear and concise distinction between the strong and the weak because all will be arbitrated at their appointed time by God. All people, no matter what level of faith, strength, weakness, love, etc., are equally liable for their actions and beliefs, and no person can judge another who is in the same position as they are. Paul sums Chapter 14 of Romans up in one verse: “Who are you to judge another's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for Elohim is able to make him stand.” There is no way that a servant is able to judge another servant, and this is the classification of all men. He assures the church that they should be judged only by the master that they serve and pay homage to, God.

In Romans 14 Paul expresses that although we as men make a difference in people because of the food they eat and the customs they keep, that everyone will have to stand before the Lord and be judged. Paul is addressing the church in Rome, and he is critiquing their judgmental nature concerning each other. One can never judge another’s worth by their strengths or weaknesses concerning their knowledge and execution of the Christian guidelines, because every man has the chance to answer for all that they have done and all that they know and be forgiven. I researched who Paul meant the strong and the weak people were, and it has nothing to do with the physical attributes of a person. The individuals with more understanding were considered stronger in faith: “The stronger (more knowledgeable) faith, for example, perceives that certain meats, formally “unclean” under the Mosaic economy (Leviticus 11), no longer are forbidden to those in Christ. These saints understood that certain “days,” formerly esteemed as “holy,” henceforth are not to be viewed as such under the law of Christ. The apostle Paul informs the reader that whether strong or weak, knowledgeable or unknowledgeable, that we all have a chance to be purified by the forgiveness of the Lord. He tells the church that no person has the right to judge any human being, because they still have to prepare for the verdict that will be passed according to their own actions.

There were many other idols who were popularly worshipped during the time Paul wrote his letter to the church in Rome. It was custom to offer up a meat sacrifice to those idols; therefore, some of the meat during that time was considered unclean. No one, let alone God who is supremely powerful, would ever want His people to consume something that was intended for a sham of a god who received underserved glory. People had different opinions about the clean or unclean nature of the meat that was sacrificed: “Some thought there was nothing wrong with eating meat that had been offered to idols because idols were worthless and phony. Others carefully checked the source of their meat or gave up meat altogether, in order to avoid a guilty conscience.” It was thought by some to be a slap in God’s face to eat meat that had been technically given as sacrament to an idol that did not hold half the power that He did. Many believers during that time made a conscious effort to avoid eating meat that had been tainted by idol worship. Some of the members of the church chose to eat vegetables only, in order to ensure that they did not violate themselves by consuming meat spiritually contaminated meats. There were a few very clever persons who avoiding eating altogether by fasting. Romans 14 is Paul’s assurance that all of these things do not matter, when it comes to being judged equally in the eyes of God.

In conclusion, I was unclear about who Paul meant the strong and the weak were considered to be, but it is clear that he was referring to those who had strong faith and those who did not. He is conveying to the church in Rome the ignorance that comes from allowing non-essential customs, doctrine, and traditions to determine who was subject to the judgement of the Lord. Romans 14 shows that Paul wanted the people to understand that whatever condition they were in did not dictate whether they would be held to the same standards. He conveyed to the church that the frivolous things that they chose to judge one another on did not mean a thing to God. All were to be held accountable at their given time for their lives, and no individual had the right to evaluate another because they all had the same master. The lesson taken from Romans 14 is that we are all attempting to do our very best in this life, and the worst thing that we can do to each other is judge each other where we have absolutely no room to do so.