Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love. 1 Cor 13:13 (NLT)
THE NATURE OF THINGS – PART 1 – FAITH
In this passage in 1st Corinthians, Paul is talking about love. It’s almost a rant… almost! But he’s driving home a powerful point about the absolute and divine nature of God. The Greek term used for love in this passage is Agape. The purest and most selfless form of love… but more on that in Part 3. I’m getting ahead of myself.
In verse 11 he says that we now see imperfectly, partially and incomplete. But soon we will see everything complete, just as God does. And the three most obvious things when that time comes will be faith, hope and love. The things that will supersede and override death are the intrinsic nature of God. Who He is will be all we see, care about and focus on.
So faith; the chasm between what we see and cannot see; the substance in which everything was created; the evidence of things not yet seen; the very element that we walk by when our limited and dimmed sight fails us, will permeate and infiltrate every part of who we are. It’s the transcendent substance that fills in the porous nature of our humanity and lifts us into the heavenly realm despite the pull of our earthly coils, trying to weigh us down.
The state of being called sin, like gravity, desperately tries to anchor us to what is temporal in this life.
But like enough hydrogen has the ability to supersede the law of gravity and lift what is naturally heavy, faith intervenes and fills in the eternal gap. And God has enough of it. His faith remains even when we are faithless.
That means that God sees you and me through the lens of faith, fulfilling our eternal potential. He fast-forwards the DVD to the end to see nothing but divine potential… and His 3D glasses are rose coloured and blood-stained but the greatest act of earthly love and faith ever displayed.
Of course, when all else dims and the temporary nature of this life reaches its limits, faith kicks into its own and takes us to a higher level. It will reveal without a doubt, the true nature of God and our true place with Him.