3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel,
- What is the motivation for faith and love?
- How did you come to know and realize that you could have hope?
- Where is the Christian's hope right now?
- What are the results of feeling hopeless?
- Why is does it seem so easy to become hopeless?
- How obvious is your hope to those around you; not optimism about life here, but hope in eternity?
Have you ever purchased something on layaway? Not on a credit card where you have instant gratification, but you put some money down and keep paying regularly until it is finally yours. You know the item is yours. You do not have it now, but you know you will someday if you keep doing your part. This illustration is not perfect, but I think it carries some aspects of this verse. Why do you have faith and love? Is your faith and love motivated by the hope or by some other reason? What do you think?
4 comments:
Having gone through a time in my life when I truly experienced hopelessness, I see now where hope and faith are so intertwined it's hard to see where one begins and the other ends. Without hope, faith becomes shallow, colorless, a shadow of what it should be. Without faith, we plant our hope in things that do not last.
Your question about how obvious is my hope to those around me is very penetrating. I don't always make it clear to people I'm around that my hope is securely "stored up" in heaven, like a treasure. Paul emphasizes that hope is the security of those who follow Christ. I try to share this, but I often fail to make others realize that I know my future salvation is secure.
Good point, though sometimes it's hard to arrive to definite conclusions
Post a Comment