Praise the Lord that Through Him We Have the Certain Hope of Eternal Life!

Faith, hope and love are the fundamental, enduring qualities of a Christian. Notice that Paul addresses his thanksgiving to God, recognizing that He is the one responsible for these traits. Their faith was in Jesus Christ - not in themselves, the church or their good works, but faith and trust in Christ who is the source as well as the object of our faith.


This faith “in” Christ showed itself by love for all fellow believers, not just their personal friends.

There are three types of love in Greek:

Eros
The passionate, lustful kind of love - the word erotic comes from that. This word is never used in the Bible.
Phileo
Friendship, brotherly kind of love - often used.
Agape
Genuine concern care consideration and compassion for another in spite of who or what they are. Desiring the best for them and being willing to help them achieve it.

Christians need to major in agape love. If we don’t love fellow believers, how will we love God? If we don’t love God, how will we love fellow believers?

Faith is the soul looking upward to God; Love looks outward to others – the hope we have looks forward to the future.

We have hope because Christ conquered death. He arose!  He ascended to heaven!. Without Christ’s ascension and His present intercession there on behalf of believers, they would have no hope.

“For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men” (l Corinthians 15:16-19).

So the great good news of the gospel is the fact that Christ died for our sins, was buried but rose again.  Praise God we have the certain hope of eternal life.