Why You Need Hope — More than You Realize
R. Herbert
“Hope is neither faith’s distant cousin nor love’s poor relation. Here’s what hope is and why you need it…
The words of the apostle Paul in the thirteenth chapter of 1st Corinthians are familiar to all of us: “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love…” (1 Corinthians 13:13). Paul goes on, of course, to stress that love is the greatest of this triad of spiritual qualities. Faith, too, is praised in the scriptures as of tremendous spiritual importance: “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6). So where does this leave hope, the third member of Paul’s trio of most important qualities? In the minds of most of us, hope comes in as a kind of distant third place winner. It is like a spiritual bronze medalist that does well, but is always eclipsed by the silver and gold placement of faith and love. But we should be careful not to think of hope this way.
When we put all of Paul’s words together, we find a very different picture and we realize that hope is of immense importance. It is true that faith and love are often juxtaposed in the scriptures, but we find hope filling an equally important role…”
(this article is an excerpt from the May–June 2014 edition of the Sabbath Sentinel)
To read the rest of this article, which starts on page 15, click this link:
The Sabbath Sentinel 