1 Corinthians 13:13 Now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Faith, Hope, and Love have been traditionally called the three “graces” or “virtues” of Christianity. A virtue is defined as behavior showing high moral standards. It is a good character quality that humans aspire to.

Faith
To have faith is to have complete trust or confidence in someone or something. The Bible tells us in Ephesians 2:8-9 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.

Hebrews 11:1 gives this clear definition of faith: Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.

In everyday life, we have faith in many things that we take for granted. For example, electricity, and gravity.

Questions:

1. Can you think of other examples where we believe or have faith in things we can’t see?
2. How important is faith in everyday life? Why?
3. What do you think is the most important thing about having faith? The fact that you have faith, or who/what you are placing your faith in?

Hope
Hope is a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.

Questions:

1. What hopes do you have for 2020?
   The Bible tells us in Psalm 42:5 that we can hope in God if we are sad or anxious:
   Why, my soul, are you downcast?
   Why so disturbed within me?
   Put your hope in God,
   for I will yet praise him,
   my Savior and my God…

2. Does it comfort you that we can hope in God when we are troubled or worried about the future?

3. What can you hope in God for?

Love
Love is described as the bond between two people, a feeling of deep affection.

Jesus says that He had this bond with the Father from the beginning. In John 17:24, He is praying to the Father, “You loved me before the creation of the world.” John 15:20 says “For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does.” The love between the Father and the Son is the beginning of all love relationships.

God loves the world He created, and He loves each one of us. But we turned away from God, and followed our own way of sin. Because God is holy, God sent His Son to save us. 1 Peter 2:24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross.
1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.

Questions:

1. Why do you think John 3:16 is such a famous verse? For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. What does this mean to you?
2. God’s love is the basis of all other loves. 1 John 4:19 We love because he first loved us. Can you think of an example where you love because God first loved you?
3. Do you agree that love is the greatest (among faith, hope and love)? Why, or why not?

This is a hymn written by Katharine Agnes May Kelly:

Give me a sight, O Savior,
Of Thy wondrous love to me,
Of the love that brought Thee down to earth,
To die on Calvary.

Oh, make me understand it,
Help me to take it in,
What it meant to Thee, the Holy One,
To bear away my sin.

Was it the nails, O Savior,
That bound Thee to the tree?
Nay, ’twas Thine everlasting love,
Thy love for me, for me.

Oh, wonder of all wonders,
That through Thy death for me,
My open sins, my secret sins,
Can all forgiven be.

Then melt my heart, O Savior,
Bend me, yea, break me down,
Until I own Thee Conqueror,
And Lord and Sov’reign crown.