Faith, hope, love—the traditional triad of the virtues known in the Middle Ages as “theological,” which were believed to be characteristic only of Christians, in contrast to the “pagan” virtues which, according to the same medieval ideas, were common to all people, including...
Faith, hope, love—the traditional triad of the virtues known in the Middle Ages as “theological,” which were believed to be characteristic only of Christians, in contrast to the “pagan” virtues which, according to the same medieval ideas, were common to all people, including virtuous pagans. Paul, it seems, singles out love among the three, without, however, denying that faith and hope are inseparably connected with it.
So what does the apostle mean? One could, of course, explain everything solely in terms of the particular spiritual constitution of the human person. Indeed, both trust and hope are always connected in one way or another with the relationships that bind a person to God and to one’s neighbors. Love, understood as the authors of the biblical books understand the word, is the relationship itself around which everything else is built. All trust is founded precisely on love, and love alone enables one to hope for anything at all, whether it concerns God or another person.
But probably that is not all. All Christian hopes are in one way or another connected with the Kingdom, with the coming day of its full and final triumph, the day of the Last Judgment and the Savior’s return. And every Christian’s faith is likewise connected with the Kingdom and with the One who brought it into the world.
When the day awaited by all Christians—the completion of the present stage in the history of the Kingdom—comes, love will cease to be merely a relationship and will become the spiritual environment in which all its inhabitants will henceforth exist. For in the Kingdom love is the spiritual environment within which all the relationships that form its foundation are built: the relationships of its inhabitants with one another, with God and with Jesus, and Jesus’ relationship with His Heavenly Father. And if faith and hope in their present form still belong partly to the untransformed world, which to some extent determines their form, then the love revealed by the Savior Himself, the love He left to His disciples, already belongs to the Kingdom. Wholly and completely.
13 The necessity of love is shown, Co1 13:1-3.
The nature and properties, Co1 13:4-7.
The duration of it, Co1 13:8-13
13:8 Love never faileth - It accompanies to, and adorns us in, eternity; it prepares us for, and constitutes, heaven. But whether there be prophecies, they shall fail - When all things are fulfilled, and God is all in all. Whether there be tongues, they shall cease - One language shall prevail among all the inhabitants of heaven, and the low and imperfect languages of earth be forgotten. The knowledge likewise which we now so eagerly pursue, shall then vanish away - As starlight is lost in that of the midday sun, so our present knowledge in the light of eternity.
13:9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part - The wisest of men have here but short, narrow, imperfect conceptions, even of the things round about them, and much more of the deep things of God. And even the prophecies which men deliver from God are far from taking in the whole of future events, or of that wisdom and knowledge of God which is treasured up in the scripture revelation.
13:10 But when that which is perfect is come - At death and in the last day. That which is in part shall vanish away - Both that poor, low, imperfect, glimmering light, which is all the knowledge we now can attain to; and these slow and unsatisfactory methods of attaining, as well as of imparting it to others.
13:11 In our present state we are mere infants in point of knowledge, compared to what we shall be hereafter. I put away childish things - Of my own accord, willingly, without trouble.
13:12 Now we see - Even the things that surround us. But by means of a glass - Or mirror, which reflects only their imperfect forms, in a dim, faint, obscure manner; so that our thoughts about them are puzzling and intricate, and everything is a kind of riddle to us. But then - We shall see, not a faint reflection, but the objects themselves. Face to face - Distinctly. Now I know in part - Even when God himself reveals things to me, great part of them is still kept under the veil. But then I shall know even as also I am known - In a clear, full, comprehensive manner; in some measure like God, who penetrates the centre of every object, and sees at one glance through my soul and all things.
13:13 Faith, hope, love - Are the sum of perfection on earth; love alone is the sum of perfection in heaven.