Faith, Hope, and Love

In June, Carol and I were honored to attend the wedding of Phillip Peek and Laura Worthington in Issaquah, WA. Laura, Phil, Carol and I spent several hours one evening talking about the spiritual, philosophical, and practical aspects of the marriage relationship.

How do you develop a happy, stable marriage?

As a basis for our discussion we used 1 Corinthians 13:13 which says, “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

If your relationship with God were a building, Faith would be the foundation, Hope would be the rooms you live in, and Love would be the roof that ties the structure together and protects it from all of the elements

All three of these terms are fundamental not only to your relationship to God but your relationship to each other.

Your faith relationship with God begins with your salvation and then supplies you with an ongoing trust that provides absolute security. We believe God and trust him to do all that he says he will do. Hebrews 13:5 “I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless or forsake or let [you] down (relax My hold on you). Your trust in God then becomes the model of the trust that should dominate our marriage relationship.

If Faith is the foundation, then hope is where you live. As you move through life you encounter new experiences and many of them will test your faith in God and in each other. Paul tells us in Romans 5:3-5 “because we know that trouble produces endurance, endurance brings God's approval, and his approval creates hope. This hope does not disappoint us, for God has poured out his love into our hearts by means of the Holy Spirit.” Trials and temptations will attack and frustrate you but as you endure and overcome them your hope for future victories will become stronger.

The final piece to an enduring marriage is love. Love is the greatest of the three. It is like the roof of the house holding everything together, giving it stability and protection. Love is always more powerful when used as a verb than as a noun. To quote the great theologian Clint Black, “Love isn’t something that we’re in, it’s something that we do.” Love ties our lives together because it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Faith then means that you trust in God and each other every minute of every day. Hope allows you to overcome obstacles knowing that you become stronger and grow closer with each victory. Love is the essential ingredient that makes us one and holds us together no matter what tries to separate us.



Love that Lasts

My love is longer than a day.
Longer than a week or year.
As long as I have life and breath,
My love will last and be sincere.

As I look into your eyes
It is your very soul I see
The wonder of the times to come
It is those times you’ll spend with me

As I look into your heart
The purity of youth I read
The purity of youth maintained
As planted in a simple seed

The seed is God and freely given
A tree of life from Him above
Bearing the fruit that keeps us one
A harvest of faith, and hope, and love.

- Bruce