Fearlessly Courageous

 Fearlessly CourageousDesk of Dennis Piller5 5 2023

Click for Audio Version  How does objective hope laid up in heaven produce love?

How does objective hope laid up in heaven produce love? Or ground the action of love towards the saints?  Let’s look at Col 1:3-8"We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 sincewe heard of your FAITH in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5 BECAUSE Of the HOPE laid up for you in heaven. "

  Let’s also look at Hebrews 11:24-26  “By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward”. How does that happen? How does someone who has it all… the wealth and pleasures of the palace, and decides, and desires to give it all up?  He recognized they were fleeting pleasures and turned them into a motive to do it! … WHY?  “because he was looking for the reward”… which is the same Hope Laid up for him in heaven…  in Col 1:5

This looking ahead for the reward and the“BECAUSE of the hope LAID UP IN HEAVEN”  means the same.

 That reward for Moses and because of the Objective truth of "our Hope being laid up in heaven" is the grounding scripturally of it all!  It's why Moses “chose to be mistreated with the children of God, rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin”. He chooses love!  (Objective means it’s based on factual data…God’s word!)

Moses led these grumbling people through the wilderness.Because he looked for the whole reward up in heaven.  Love was enabled through this hope. So how does one move from that hope to the act of love?  Hope must be embraced…it must be compelling… and satisfying… in order for it to produce FAITH. That active looking for Hope and being satisfied in itwas what Moses was looking for by faith!  He found it!

 In Hebrew 11:1 we see what faith is:  “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."  That is Moses’s reward.  Do you see that? 

We can have all of that!  It is right before us. 

Hope as an objective reality becomes potent in producing love.  But as I said, what must happen first is … I MUST love this hope … believe this hope… so it can bring me the power of joy, and this power that is laid up in heaven so that I can access it now. Hope will produce in me more of God's loveliness… that frees me from the lovelessness and selfishness in me.. and look in vs 4 “It frees me to love the saints!”

My spouse, my prodigal child, my unloving neighbor…the saints.

 So faith must become operative for me to embrace this. Hope Is a promise…Hope is not based subjectively on my truth or my sight, but objectively on what God has said to all of us.  An objective hope that “God has laid up for each of us in heaven”… and turns it into love . Hope is so much more than a feeling…It is a Truth!  Faith allows us to do that. Look at Galatians 5:6 for in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision, nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.” Look at 1 Timothy, 1: 5  “God, we pray for love for you with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Give us wholehearted love for you and selfless love for others. God, we pray for Christ-like love in us. And God, we pray for pure hearts.   love that issues from a pure heart, and a good conscience, and sincere faith are unstoppable. .

Don’t you know that Faith is one of the fruits of love?

King James: 2:18, “ I will show you my faith by works” which is Love!  Look at it this way…

Faith produces the tree, which produces the fruit of love in our lives….for families …for our fellow saints which includes the passion to evangelize and reach out and do the work God had called us to ….which is LOVE.

Faith is the tree that produces the fruit of work… and  love.

That “Because word”  supports all of this  Hope Awakens Faith and Faith Awakens Love Because for hope to become effective in producing love it must be a subjective taste…a glimpse …enjoyment…an embracing trust in my heart… and that’s what faith does. 

It is the substance of what is hoped for in Christ Jesus..  And love is produced.

Laid up hope, awakens faith…and faith bears the fruit of love.

  Waymakerhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsypFJ5mNw0 Taken from Jon Piper's lesson on “Hope Awakens Faith and Faith Awakens Love”