Jesse Medina

Is Christianity today what it is supposed to be?

Most of us would agree that it is not.  Regardless of what we believe about the specifics, most of us know that there is something wrong with the current state of Christianity in the Western world.  Such discontent inevitably results in change.

But not all change is good.

With enough change, even in very small increments, we are left with something that has the potential to be entirely different than what it began as.  This is a reality that we simply cannot avoid.  If Christianity is to be what it was meant to be, we need to change only that which has strayed from its original design and only to get it back to what it is supposed to be.

That is why the way we understand and practice faith, hope and love in the 21^st Century is so important.

Faith

There are two false extremes that Christians often fall prey to when it comes to understanding faith.  On one extreme, we treat faith as spiritual logic; debunking supposed threats to the intellectual integrity of the Christian faith, obsessing over apologetics, and attempting to convert others to Jesus Christ through the power of argument.  Under this extreme, we try to remove any shred of doubt that may exist.

The other extreme is to abandon logic altogether and, in pursuit of the mystery of God, give up on logic altogether.  This extreme is particularly seductive for those who are disillusioned with the arrogance characterizing the opposite extreme.  Those who have embraced this extreme refuse to acknowledge the possibility of one answer trumping another.  To them, such an audacious claim is oppressive.

Both contain elements of faith, but both fall short.  It should be noted that the answer isn’t to take a middle-of-the-road approach, though to do so would be better than either extreme.  Instead, we should endeavor to take the Biblical approach.

Faith, for those in the Bible, was neither a spiritual logic nor a cloud of complete unknowing. Rather, faith was the result of an experienced truth, even if only just in part.  Faith was that confidence of hope and certainty of the unseen that is born not out of mystery alone, but out of mystery revealed, promises made and kept, and the tension of knowing that there is still something more, something unexplainable but not altogether unfamiliar.

As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:12, right now we know in part.  That means we are forbidden from the arrogance that would claim to know it all and protected from the timidity of claiming to know nothing.

Hope

Hope, by itself, is not commendable.  It is quite possible for hope to be misplaced and, in fact, it often is.  In such cases, not only is hope not commendable, it is detestable…a form of idolatry.

We often think ourselves immune to idolatry since we do not bow to statues or build shrines in our homes, but idolatry isn’t an external sin so much as it is internal.  An idol is anything other than God that we are placing our hope in – whether good or bad.  And a good many of us have surrendered ourselves to “good” idols: the elimination of abortion, social justice, moral legislation, and various other pursuits.

We place our hope in these idols because we believe they will bring about the change the world needs. But they won’t.  They can’t.  But imagine how effective it would be for the enemy to convince us otherwise.  And effective it has been.

But if Christianity is to be what it is supposed to be, our hope must be grounded solely in the person of Jesus Christ and the salvation he offers.  This salvation, it should be noted, is not limited to what happens after death – it is also very much about this life, who we are and what we do right now.

And when that becomes our hope, when we put the Kingdom of God first, all other things will be given to us as well.  When our hope becomes changing the world, not only do we end up failing, we compromise the Kingdom as well.  What good would it be to gain the whole world and lose our soul?

Love

When Paul talks about faith, hope and love at the end of 1 Corinthians 13, he says that love is the greatest among the three.  That is not a mistake, nor is it just romanticism.

Love sums everything up.

It was through love that the world was created, because of love that God remained involved with his creation, and out of love that he made up for our lack by giving himself up on the cross.

Love is no small thing.  But neither is love what we always think it is.

We treat love as a get-out-of-jail-free card, handing favor out liberally without requesting anything in return.  We say that because of love, live and let live.  But we also browbeat others and subject them to a worldview they haven’t embraced, because we say we love them.

But this is not love.  Love is interested neither in unlimited license nor oppressive legalism.  Love understands both: liberty and rule, freedom and slavery, license and legalism.  But it also knows that both are wrong…and both are needed.

Thus for us to return to the kind of love that God is looking for and that characterized the life of Jesus himself, we must learn anew what it means to live fully and completely as free beings while recognizing that around every corner there is something else attempting to make us slaves.  To be fully free, then, is to make ourselves slaves to the giver of all freedom…God himself.

In so doing, we find that love – the kind of love Jesus had – is the only natural outcome.  But this love is now wholly different from our previous realities.  We no longer love out of selfishness, fear, or with some other ulterior motive.  Instead we are given the courage to love completely, for love’s sake.  Which means we do not grant license to sin or slavery.

Love always points to itself who is God. The very God who, in the ultimate act of love, died for those who loved him not.

This is love and it sums everything up.

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P.S. This is part of a synchronized blog where I had the opportunity to partner with other bloggers to all write about the same subject.  I encourage to do two things: read their blogs and then comment back here to share your own thoughts (or link to your own blog post on this subject).

Jeff Goins — Faith, Hope, and Love in the 21st Century: a Manifesto?

Matt Snyder — Faith, Hope, and Love: Expressed in Simplicity

Taylor Phillips – These Three Remain

Kiel Spelts – Faith, Hope and Live in the 21st Century

John Sylvest – I’ve Already Got Truth, Beauty, & Goodness! Why Bother with Faith, Hope & Love?

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