What is faith? Three Models

1 Corinthians 13:13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

I have been preaching from 1 Corinthians in weekday worship. I plan to start posting those messages soon. Before I do I want to suggest some thoughts on a way of spiritual living based on the words faith, hope, and love.

"Faith, hope, and love" is a way of life. To make this practical and personal; faith, hope, and love is the way I am facing the loss of my son.

But each of these words is abstract and open to many definitions. I was struck by this last night as my wife and I watched a TV series about a Catholic priest. As I saw his reverence in dealing with sacred objects, I remembered a certain way of faith. I thought about how that might have yielded a life that would proceed from that faith.

I know that my understanding of faith, hope, and love is different. The way I process loss or triumph is a different spirituality.

This is something you can feel when you visit a community of faith. It seems to me that it is worth examining with the mind and not just feeling with the heart. I have felt the spirituality of an Orthodox service in Romania. I have felt the spirituality of a Charismatic Evangelical service in America. I know the spirituality of the Calvinistic Presbyterian world that we are a part of in Exeter. Where do these three different feelings come from? Could it be that these different feelings begin with three different understandings of faith?

What is faith?

Option 1: Faith is repetitive-ritual-based. There is a certain comfort that comes from words that you have heard repeatedly, from sacred objects, sounds, aromas, etc. associated with being quiet in worship. For some this is their faith experience. Faith seeks to lay hold of the touch of the divine through ritual.

Option 2: Faith is holy-desire based. There are certain things that a person desires more than anything else, perhaps even outcomes that seems quite unattainable without the intervention of God. For some, this is their faith experience, asking for the unattainable, and expecting that God will give it to you. Here faith lays hold of your heartfelt desires, and trusts that God will provide.

Option 3: Faith is divinely-revealed-truth based. Here faith starts with the speech of God. For example, in Genesis 15:5 God said something to the patriarch Abraham. Abraham heard the words of God and he believed God. His faith was not based first on ritual experience, nor on his own desire, but on God's speech. Faith lays hold of truth, and truth is found in the speech of God.

Though I believe in liturgy, and though I have desires and I do cast my cares upon the Lord, it is this third option that defines my understanding of faith as it is used in 1 Corinthians 13:13. The next question is this: How then does God speak to me?

Tomorrow...