Apr 19, 2016

the interplay of faith, hope, love

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Translations vary from the Greek of the New (or 2nd) Testament verse, 1 Corinthians 13:13

νυνὶ δὲ μένει πίστις, ἐλπίς, ἀγάπη· τὰ τρία ταῦτα, μείζων δὲ τούτων ἡ ἀγάπη.
SBL Greek New Testament

faith =pistis, hope =elpis, love/charity =agapi
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
[New International Version] from biblegateway.com


But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.
[The Message] from biblegateway.com

So now, get three tings dat stay: we can trus God, an we can know everyting goin come out okay bumbye, an we get love an aloha. From da three tings, da love an aloha kine, dass da main ting, an da bestes way.
[Hawai‘i Pidgin] from biblegateway.com

But on the west wall of the First United Methodist Church (ZIP code 48879) the stained glass behind the altar gives the words Hope, Faith, and Charity, when reading from left to right. Looking at the visual representations we see anchor (hope), cross (faith), and Word of God (charity). By comparison, across the town square at the Congregational Church the south window shows an anchor with the text "hope" and on the opposite wall there is a cross with the text "faith," while at the altar there is a bare burnished cross with no words  printed. Perhaps the invisible "greatest of these" (love or charity) fills the space between the two wall; the place where the pews are lined up to face the altar.

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