Faith, hope, and love

[Carbon]

Question. Are these three: "faith hope, and love" descriptive of a believer or prescriptive? Or perhaps both?
John writes, We love because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19

1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 13.



Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 1 John 4:7.

I think it is monergistic in a way; in other words, if someone is regenerated, love (especially loving brothers and sisters in Christ) naturally flows from the new heart.
So love (faith, hope, and love actually) is descriptive of the regenerated new heart a believer has in Christ, and prescriptive in that they are to be actively practiced, with love acting as the supreme motivator and the greatest of the three.

I'm curious about others' thoughts on this.

@Bruiser , here is monergism again.

 

[Bruiser]

Question. Are these three: "faith hope, and love" descriptive of a believer or prescriptive? Or perhaps both?
John writes, We love because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19

1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 13.



Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 1 John 4:7.

I think it is monergistic in a way; in other words, if someone is regenerated, love (especially loving brothers and sisters in Christ) naturally flows from the new heart.
So love (faith, hope, and love actually) is descriptive of the regenerated new heart a believer has in Christ, and prescriptive in that they are to be actively practiced, with love acting as the supreme motivator and the greatest of the three.

I'm curious about others' thoughts on this.

@Bruiser , here is monergism again.

I think they are mainly Descriptive, but are also Prescriptive. Take me for example. I LOVE Faith so much, it's as if it were the most important thing. But when I read that Verse, Faith is under Hope, and Hope is under Love. So it's Prescriptive as well, showing me I need to be more Hopeful and more Loving...

As far as it being Monergistic, the Heart is Monergistically Regenerated. From there, our Being consists of a Trichotomy; Body, heart (Spirit) and Soul. Our Body and Soul are Synergistically involved in what we do...

 

[Josheb]

Question. Are these three: "faith hope, and love" descriptive of a believer or prescriptive? Or perhaps both?
John writes, We love because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19

1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 13.



Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 1 John 4:7.

I think it is monergistic in a way; in other words, if someone is regenerated, love (especially loving brothers and sisters in Christ) naturally flows from the new heart.
So love (faith, hope, and love actually) is descriptive of the regenerated new heart a believer has in Christ, and prescriptive in that they are to be actively practiced, with love acting as the supreme motivator and the greatest of the three.

I'm curious about others' thoughts on this.

@Bruiser , here is monergism again.

Prescriptive of the new; descriptive and diagnostic of the old. I'm not sure it's correct to read that verse as saying those three are human characteristics. They abide, or remain, because God placed them here. Jesus left but his faith, hope, and love remain. If we're going to view the 1 Cor. 13 text through 1 Jn. 4, then we understand all the more love is something to be operationalized. The description provided in 1 Cor. 13:4-8a is a description of God. He is kind, patient, forbearing, not keeping the record of wrongs, ever-hopeful, ever-trusting, ever-loving; never failing. Us? Not so much.

 

[Josheb]

Didn't have time to post the content below before leaving for church this morning. I've posted this before but I'll repost it here since it works with the op. This is something I used to assign couples working on their marriage. First, read the text exactly as written...

1 Corinthians 13:4-8a
Love is patient, love is kind, it is not jealous; love does not brag, it is not arrogant. It does not act disgracefully, it does not seek its own benefit; it is not provoked, does not keep an account of a wrong suffered, it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; it keeps every confidence, it believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.

Contemplate how and how much scripture operationalizes love rather than treating it as an abstraction or a concept held as a function of the brain or the emotions. Then recall John's assertion God is love. Try a simple word substitution.

God is patient, God is kind, He is not jealous; God does not brag, He is not arrogant. He does not act disgracefully, He does not seek His own benefit; He is not provoked, does not keep an account of a wrong suffered, He does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; He keeps every confidence, He believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. God never fails.​

Is this God just described recognized? Is this the God in which we believe?

Now, knowing that we are to put into practice these things, do another simple word substitution.

Josh is patient, Josh is kind, he is not jealous; Josh does not brag, he is not arrogant. He does not act disgracefully, he does not seek his own benefit; he is not provoked, does not keep an account of a wrong suffered, he does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; he keeps every confidence, he believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Josh never fails.​

​

@Carbon is patient, Carb is kind, he is not jealous; Carb does not brag, he is not arrogant. He does not act disgracefully, he does not seek his own benefit; he is not provoked, does not keep an account of a wrong suffered, he does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; he keeps every confidence, he believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Carb never fails.​

How are we measuring up if that is the standard? Whether applied to our relationship with God, our spouse, ourselves, others in the body of Christ or outsiders this metric proves enormously motivating and simultaneously challenging, especially if it is to be inspired and empowered by the indwelling Spirit and not the flesh. I particularly like that part about not keeping a record on those occasions when asked, "When did I do that?"

Scripture can be quite inconvenient sometimes .

Thank God salvation is by grace .










Btw, @Carbon, if you get a chance to attend next year's Credo Conference, I think you'll enjoy it. Nearly all of the speakers were Lutheran and all the ones I heard favorably accommodated and readily affirmed Calvinism. In fact, more than once I heard them speak more about agreement with Calvin than they did with Luther! I'll see if I can post one or two of the lectures in the boards for discussion.
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