Some of the expressions Paul uses may seem rather strange. Active faith is more or less understandable: Paul himself repeatedly said that faith without works is merely empty words, and he was not alone in saying so; but...
Some of the expressions Paul uses may seem rather strange. Active faith is more or less understandable: Paul himself repeatedly said that faith without works is merely empty words, and he was not alone in saying so. But the 'hard labor of love'—not 'labor done with love,' but precisely 'labor of love'—as well as 'steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ' (what the Russian Synodal translation renders as 'patience of hope') may well raise questions and cause perplexity. Indeed, in our world love is usually associated with feelings and emotions: when we say we love something, we most often mean that we like it. Unfortunately, we often 'love' our neighbors in the same way—for as long as we find them likable. The authors of the biblical books generally understand love as an attitude in which we wish our neighbor well, regardless of whether or not we find that person likable. Still, an attitude is one thing, and hard labor is something else. Acts of love are understandable, but how can the attitude itself become work?
Perhaps in the circumstances of the untransfigured world this does indeed sound somewhat strange. Even here, however, relationships must be sustained, or they gradually fall apart. But in the Kingdom, sustaining relationships becomes especially important: here it is a distinct and very serious task. For it is relationships that form the structure of the Kingdom. Their depth and strength determine not only the fullness that will be revealed to the person building these relationships, but also the measure of the fullness of the Kingdom's revelation to the world, the depth of the Kingdom's spiritual influence on the untransfigured world.
Then the 'steadfastness of hope' also becomes more understandable. In ordinary circumstances, hope essentially means trusting someone who has made certain promises and being confident that the one who made them will not deceive us, whether that is God or another person. But in the Kingdom, trust alone is not enough: here confidence entails not simply an inward knowing, but an intention—the very intention that also underlies every relationship. And an intention is always an effort, even when, as in the case of steadfastness, it is directed toward preserving what external forces are trying to destroy. Paul, it seems, describes all relationships among Christians no longer as relationships among inhabitants of the untransfigured world, but as relationships among inhabitants of the Kingdom. For to him it was perfectly clear that Christianity is precisely life in the Kingdom that the Savior brought into the world.
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1:1 Paul - In this epistle St. Paul neither uses the title of an apostle, nor any other, as writing to pious and simple - hearted men, with the utmost familiarity.There is a peculiar sweetness in this epistle, unmixed with any sharpness or reproof: those evils which the apostles afterward reproved having not yet crept into the church.
1:3 Remembering in the sight of God - That is, praising him for it. Your work of faith - Your active, ever - working faith. And labour of love - Love continually labouring for the bodies or souls of men. They who do not thus labour, do not love. Faith works, love labours, hope patiently suffers all things.
1:4 Knowing your election - Which is through faith, by these plain proofs.
1:5 With power - Piercing the very heart with a sense ofsin and deeply convincing you of your want of a Saviour from guilt, misery, and eternal ruin. With the Holy Ghost - Bearing an outward testimony, by miracles, to the truth of what we preached, and you felt: also by his descent through laying on of hands. With much assurance - Literally, with full assurance, and much of it: the Spirit bearing witness by shedding the love of God abroad in your hearts, which is the highest testimony that can be given. And these signs, if not the miraculous gifts, always attend the preaching of the gospel, unless it be in vain: neither are the extraordinary operations of the Holy Ghost ever wholly withheld, where the gospel is preached with power, and men are alive to God. For your sake - Seeking your advantage, not our own.