Greatest of These
Love is the foundation of all things
“So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Co 13:13; ESV)
“Faith, hope, and love abide…” If you are Christian, you’ve seen this verse before. If you’re not a Christian, you’ve seen these words in script on distressed wood sold in department stores alongside other plaques that say, “Live, Laugh, Love.”
This verse has always intrigued me. Not because it is a list of virtues. There are plenty of lists in the Bible: names, genealogies, lists of sins, and virtues. But none that I recall highlights a specific item on the list. This one does, which makes it intriguing.
Of these three, faith, hope, and love, St. Paul says the “greatest of these is love.” This is surprising given that faith and hope are a big part of our Christian life.
We are told we are saved by faith, that the righteous will live by faith; faith without works is dead; and it is impossible to please God without faith. And yet, love is greater?
We are told to hope in his name, that those who hope will not be put to shame, Jesus’ second coming is our blessed hope. We sing, “Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.” And yet, love is greater?
Why is love greater?
Could it be that faith and hope will be no more in the age to come? The Church Father Chrysostom writes:
“Faith and hope will cease when the things believed in and hoped for appear. But love then becomes even greater and more ardent.”1
I don’t believe this is what Paul is saying. Paul gives a list of things that will “pass away…when the perfect comes…” Prophecies, tongues, words of knowledge, they will pass away because they are “partial”, and that which is perfect (full) comes all that is partial will pass away. Paul says that after all these things pass away, faith, hope and love remain. So, faith and hope will not pass away in the age to come.
Love is greater than faith and hope, because love is the source from which faith and hope springs. Here is William Barclay:
“Great as faith and hope are, love is still greater. Faith without love is cold, and hope without love is grim. Love is the fire which gives the spark to faith, and it is the light which turns hope into certainty.”2
Love is the spark and light that brings about faith and hope. Love is the foundation upon which our faith and hope stand; love, I would argue, is the foundation of all things.
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Gerald Lewis Bray, Ed., 1–2 Corinthians, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999), 137.
William Barclay, The Letters to the Corinthians, The New Daily Study Bible, 3rd ed., (Louisville, KY; London: Westminster John Knox Press, 2002), 148.