1. Christ is the object and foundation of all true faith.—He is so as the Divinely consecrated Deliverer of the race. The grandeur of His redeeming work and the dignity and glory of His character are suggested by the titles here given to Him. Man must believe in Christ, not as an abstract truth, not as a poetic conception, not as a dim impersonal force acting in the sphere of ideality, but as a Divine-human person—the anointed Saviour.
2. True faith is the root principle of the Christian life.—Without it neither love nor hope could exist. All the graces that strengthen and beautify the Christian character must grow out of faith.
3. True faith is ever manifest.—“Since we heard.” It is seen in the changed disposition and conduct of the individual believer. It is marked by the anxious Christian worker and becomes known to a wide circle of both friends and foes. Epaphras rejoiced to bear tidings of the fact; and the soul of the apostle, since he heard, glowed with grateful praise. Happy the people whose highest reputation is their faith in Jesus!
IV. This thanksgiving was grounded on their possession of an expansive Christian love.—“And of the love which ye have to all the saints” (ver. 4). Love to Christ is necessarily involved, for love to the saints is really a generous, unselfish affection for Christ’s image in them. Love is all-embracing. Peculiarities, defects, differences of opinion, distance, are no barriers to its penetrating ardour. It is the unanswerable evidence of moral transformation (1 John iii. 14). It is the grandest triumph over the natural enmity of the human heart. It is the indissoluble bond of choicest fellowship.
“While we walk with God in light,
God our hearts doth still unite;
Dearest fellowship we prove,
Fellowship in Jesu’s love.”
V. This thanksgiving was further grounded on their enjoyment of a well-sustained hope.—The grace of hope naturally springs out of and is properly associated with the preceding two. Not one member of the holy triad can be divorced from the other without irreparable damage; without, in fact, the loss of that which is the resultant of the three—viz. active religious life. “Faith rests on the past; love works in the present; hope looks to the future. They may be regarded as the efficient, material, and final causes respectively of the spiritual life” (Lightfoot).
1. The character of this hope.—“The hope which is laid up for you in heaven” (ver. 5). It is the prospect of future heavenly felicity. Hope is put for the object hoped for—the hope of possessing a spiritual inheritance whose wealth never diminishes, whose splendours never fade; the hope of seeing Christ in all His regal glory; of being like Him; of dwelling with Him for ever. A prospect like this lifts the soul above the meannesses, disappointments, and sufferings of the present limited life.
2. The security of this hope.—“Laid up.” This priceless inheritance is safely deposited as a precious jewel in God’s secret coffer. There no pilfering hands can touch it, no breath can tarnish, no rust corrode, no moth corrupt. Earthly treasures vanish, and sometimes, to God’s people, nothing but the treasure of hope remains. The saint’s enduring riches are in the future, locked up in the heavenly casket. Where the treasure is there the heart should ever be.
3. The source and foundation of this hope.—“Whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel” (ver. 5). The Gospel is based on unchangeable truth and is therefore worthy of universal credence. It alone unfolds the mysteries and glories of the future. The hope of heaven rests, not on the discoveries of human philosophy, but on the revelations of the true Gospel. In vain do men seek it elsewhere. By the preaching of the Gospel this hope is made known to man. How dismal the outlook where hope is unknown!
Lessons.—1. We should thank God for others more on account of their spiritual than temporal welfare. 2. Learn what are the essential elements of the Christian character—faith, love, hope. 3. The proclamation of the Gospel should be welcomed, and its message pondered.