Faith, Hope, Love: the Spiritual Life;
Gal. 5:5-6
Galatians
5:5 NASB “For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the
hope of righteousness.
So when we look at these
three words the Holy Spirit represents the power dynamic for the spiritual
life. The faith-rest drill represents the second power dynamic which is the
focus on doctrine. It is never faith in faith, it is
faith in the promises of Scripture. Then hope looks forward to the ultimate
fulfilment.
But there is another key
word that is not found in verse 5 but it is found in the next verse. Galatians
5:6 NASB “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision [legal behaviour
or moral good] nor uncircumcision [lack of ritual] means anything, but faith
working through love.” Circumcision stands for the application of the law. It
was a sign of the Abrahamic covenant but the Galatians were particularly
associating it not only with the Abrahamic covenant but with all of the Mosaic
Law or legal obedience, or in a sense morality; that somehow their external
actions gain the approbation of God. We have a problem here in relation to the
translation of the text. The Greek word here is the present active indicative
of the verb ischuo [i)sxuw]. It
means to be able to do something, to accomplish something, to be strong, to be
able to overpower something, to overcome a problem. This word is used in
Philippians 4 where Paul says, “I can do all things through Christ who
strengthens me.” It reminds us of the power to overcome problems. This is a key
word of this section and what Paul is talking about. He is saying that in
Christ Jesus neither ritual nor religion nor the absence of it is able to
overcome anything. Then with “but” we have the contrast, the strong adversative
alla [a)lla], a strong conjunction of contrast, and he is
contrasting human viewpoint techniques for achieving spirituality and/or
achieving standing with God and for solving problems with the spiritual dynamic
that God has provided for us, which is translated “faith working through
love.” The verb there is energeo [e)nergew] which means to work, to produce, and it has to do
here with the conjunction of two critical elements together in overcoming any
problem, any situation in life.
The three key nouns that
break this open for us are faith, hope, and love. The verb that breaks it open
is ischuo because ischuo is talking about something that
is familiar to us when talking about overcoming problems. We need to look at
some passages where Paul looks at these three words to get a little insight.
1 Thessalonians 5:8 NASB
“But since we are of {the} day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate
of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation.” First we have to
define what he means by sober. The Greek word is nepho [nhfw]
which has both a literal meaning and a figurative meaning. The literal meaning
is sobriety which means the absence of the influence of alcohol. Most scholars
doubt that the word is ever used with that meaning anywhere in Scripture. nepho is a figurative extension of the
verb which means to be sober, not to be drunk, but it is used metaphorically to
mean to be in control of one’s thought processes and thus not to be in danger
of irrational thinking. It is possible that 1 Thessalonians 5:8 means lack of
drunkenness but most scholars interpret the use of nepho in the New Testament as applying to a broader range of
soberness or sobriety, namely restraint and moderation which avoids
emotionalism, rashness or confusion. It emphasises thinking, self-control, and
objectivity which comes only from the Word of God. It is the opposite of
emotionalism or rationalism—“let us think clearly and logically” is what is
being said in that verse. If we are faced with adversity we have to think
biblically and not react emotionally. “…, having put on the
breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation.” Again,
hope here means confidence, confident expectation. So Paul uses the metaphor
again of Roman armour as he does in Ephesians chapter six and must therefore be
talking about protection from the onslaught of attacks, about defence—the fortress
of the soul which we have described as the ten problem-solving devices. Faith
represents the basic stress-buster, the filling of the Holy Spirit; the entry
point is 1 John 1:9. The filling of the Holy Spirit, faith-rest drill, grace
orientation, and doctrinal orientation are all based upon the basic operation
of faith in the doctrines and promises of Scripture. Hope is that confident
expectation where we shift our attention from the present reality to future
reality. We have a personal sense of eternal destiny; this is hope. We begin to
realise that every decision we are making today determines who and what we will
be through all eternity. Once we begin to think beyond today and to focus on
eternity as the reason we are here and the reason everything is happening in
our life, and the reason we have to make the decisions we are faced with on a
daily basis, then we are beginning to realise why we are here and can begin to
focus on eternal priorities. This is comparable to spiritual adolescence. Love
represents the love triplex: personal love for God, impersonal love for all
mankind and occupation with Christ. This, then, is spiritual adulthood.
1 Corinthians
So when Paul utilises
these words as he does on many different occasions and strings them together they
are a sort of theological shorthand for all of the dynamics of the spiritual
life.
Galatians 5:5 NASB
“For we through the Spirit [utilisation of the filling], by faith [faith-rest
drill], are waiting [personal sense of eternal destiny] for the hope [confident
expectation] of righteousness.