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What are some Illustrations of Life?
Every promise can only be
received by faith and hope working together in Truth.
Only when faith and hope are working together (a positive action of the spirit
and soul, and the soul and body) does God move to fulfill His promises and thus
demonstrates His love toward us.
"What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have
faith
but has no deeds (hope)?
Can such faith save
him?
Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of
you says to him, 'Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,' but does nothing
about his physical needs, what good it it? In the same way, faith by
itself, if it is not accompanied by action (hope),
is dead.
But someone will say, 'You have
faith; I have deeds (hope).'
Show me your
faith
without deeds (hope),
and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe that there is one God.
Good! Even the demons
believe that - and shudder. You foolish man, do you want evidence that
faith
without deeds (hope)
is useless? Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son
Isaac on the altar? You see that his
faith and his actions (hope)
were working together, and his
faith
was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled
that says, 'Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,' and he was called God's friend. You see that
a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.
In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to
the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the body without the
spirit is dead, so faith
without deeds (hope) is
dead."
James 2:14-26 (James
expresses that
"Against all hope,
Abraham in hope
believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had
been said to him, 'So shall your offspring be.' "
Romans 4:18 (Paul
expresses that
"But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through
death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation
- if you continue in your
faith, established and firm,
not moved from the hope
held out in the gospel." Corinthians 1:22-23
(Paul expresses that
"...a faith
and knowledge resting on the
hope
of eternal life, which God,
who does not lie, promised
before the beginning of time,..."
Titus 1:2
(Paul expresses that
"We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in
order to make your hope
sure. We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who
through
faith
and patience
(hope) inherit what has been
promised."
Hebrews 6:11-12 (The author expresses that
"And without
faith
it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to
him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek
(hope in) him."
Hebrews 11:6 (The author
expresses that
"Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and
glorified him, and so your faith
and hope are in God."
1 Peter 1:21 (Peter
expresses that
"Love the Lord your God with all your
heart and with all your soul
and with all your
mind
and with all your strength."
Mark 12:30 (Jesus expands the original commandment in Deuteronomy
6:4-5 to the four aspects of man's being, one two-part set dealing with faith -
the positive action within our spirit and soul "with all your heart and with all
your soul" and one two-part dealing with hope - the positive action within our
soul and body "with all your mind and with all your strength."
Jesus understood the correlation between faith and hope and where this
correlation is experienced within man's being.)
"His divine
power has given us everything we need for
life
and godliness through our knowledge
of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
Through these he has given us his very great and precious
promises, so that through them you may participate in the
divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil
desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to
your faith, goodness; and to goodness, knowledge (truth);
and to
knowledge
(truth),
self-control; and to self-control,
perseverance
(hope); and to perseverance (hope),
godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness,
love. For if you possess these
qualities (faith, truth, hope,
and love) in increasing
measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your
knowledge
of our Lord Jesus Christ."
1 Peter 1:3-8 (Peter expresses
"And now these three remain, faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." 1 Corinthians 13:13 (Paul expresses that ) ("because God is Love", 1 John 4:8)