What does it mean that faith, hope, and love remain (1 Corinthians 13:13)?

Thus, then, the apostle concludes from it all: "Faith, hope and love abide." He is not speaking here of eternity, but rather in contrast with such gifts as, in fact, will come to an end, having served their purpose. Love abides, for it is the divine nature. Faith, as the evidence of things unseen, necessarily passes away when all is seen with the perfect knowledge of which the apostle has spoken. Hope, too, implies the imperfection which counts upon God, but sees not. It too, therefore, must pass away in full fruition; but love abides. Therefore, the greatest of these three things which morally characterize the Christian, is love.

"But now abides faith, hope, love, these three; but [the] greater of these [is] love." The apostle speaks of the main moral principles characteristic of Christianity not of power in testimony; and here too love has the greater place, though all are great and abiding. But there is no intimation of faith and hope abiding throughout eternity. They remain, but to say that these three shall remain for ever is to interpolate rather than interpret. It is well known how some try to explain the continuance of faith and hope, where all is seen and enjoyed in glory: the one as anticipation certain to be fulfilled; the other as trust, entire and undoubting.

But scripture cannot be broken; and faith is the evidence or conviction of things not seen, as hope seen is not hope. (Rom. 8; Heb. 11) Faith and hope therefore refer only to the present state, love alone to eternity as well as to the present. Fruition supersedes the faith that looks at God's word for the object presented, and the hope that desires and waits for it; but love never fails. So it was laid down in verse 8, in contradistinction from the instruments or signs there given of God. Then, after the setting out of the intervening verses which explain or confirm, the apostle resumes with νυνὶ δέ μένει, "now however remains" not love only, nor first, but "faith, hope, love, these three; but the greater of these is love," which last is turned to grave account in the chapter following. They are the cardinal points of every Christian, as is attested right through the New Testament; and of the three love has the pre-eminent place, not because it contains in itself the root of the other two, but because they point and lead through Christ our Lord to it, as their end which has no end, that nature and activity of divine goodness which we share now by grace in a world of evil, and which will last everlastingly where there is no evil but only good in source and fruit.

283 "Faith, hope, and charity," or love, are not put accidentally here. They are the three things that are characteristic of the Christian state now, "putting on the breastplate of faith and charity [the same word], and for a helmet the hope of salvation," 1 Thess. 5:8. Some ten times in the New Testament faith, hope, and love are put together. They are positive elements, faith and hope referring to the present state I am in, and charity to the present and eternal state. Faith lays hold of an object, and hope desires it. The word "charity" is an ecclesiastical word. Love is really what God is. He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and this never fails. When we possess a thing, we have done with faith and hope as to it: they have passed into positive fruition, as we say. There will be love in heaven, but we shall not have faith there, because there will be sight; and we shall not have hope there, because we have got possession. "Now abideth" shews the three as present things, but charity never fails.

283 "Faith, hope, and charity," or love, are not put accidentally here. They are the three things that are characteristic of the Christian state now, "putting on the breastplate of faith and charity [the same word], and for a helmet the hope of salvation," 1 Thess. 5:8. Some ten times in the New Testament faith, hope, and love are put together. They are positive elements, faith and hope referring to the present state I am in, and charity to the present and eternal state. Faith lays hold of an object, and hope desires it. The word "charity" is an ecclesiastical word. Love is really what God is. He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and this never fails. When we possess a thing, we have done with faith and hope as to it: they have passed into positive fruition, as we say. There will be love in heaven, but we shall not have faith there, because there will be sight; and we shall not have hope there, because we have got possession. "Now abideth" shews the three as present things, but charity never fails.

Now abide faith, hope, love, these three, “and the greater of these is love”. In the perfect state faith will be changed to sight, and thus faith will have its end. Hope will end in fruition. Love alone will abide. Faith and hope make very good travelling companions, but we part company with them at the door of heaven. We go in with one thing, love. Nevertheless, the verse speaks of the present condition, and tells us that even now love is the greater quality. It must be so, for love is the very nature of God, and therefore love is eternal.

At present, faith, hope, and love are all essential in both practical life and in ministry. "But the greatest of these is love." It will of course abide in eternal beauty and fullness and sweetness, long after faith gives place to sight; and when hope has realized its precious, perfect fulfillment in eternal glory. For "God is love:" this is His very nature; and through knowing the love of Christ, we are "filled with all the fullness of God" (Eph. 2:19). We shall know Him in His full outflow of unhindered love, no longer through trial and sorrow and experiences that humble the heart, precious as these are too in our present conditions of learning by experience. But if His love has so proven its preciousness in His absence, what indeed will be its fullness in His blessed presence?

Lastly there are the three great Christian virtues extolled in 1 Corinthians 13:13, “And now abides faith, hope, charity [love], these three; but the greatest [here we get one of the three comparisons of the adjective] of these is charity [love]”—Faith, that gives the vision of things beyond the reach of the natural eye; Hope, that gives us quietness in waiting for the glorious future that lies before the believer; Love, that divine quality that will exist for ever; for faith will yield to glorified sight, and hope will pass into glad realization, but love, the very nature of God, will abide for ever. Hallelujah!

Verse 13. "And now abides," etc. Having set the temporal and adventitious gifts of the Spirit in their proper relation to the life which they adorn, he closes this episode of love with a summary of what is vital and essential, faith, hope, and love being the standing constituents and tokens of salvation in those who are elect of God. Faith justifies; the just man has a hope which makes not ashamed and, being born of God, the new man loves. But because this last outlives the other two, it is greater than them both. Faith ends in sight, hope in fruition, but love never.2 What we now hear of as laid up for us in heaven, we shall in the coming day both know and have. But it will be possessed and known in love. God, who is love, will be His children's prospect, and their rest. But if so, the chief aim of the saint, while waiting for his hope, should be to cultivate what is abiding; — to act here in the spirit of watchful and self-denying perseverance, as he will act spontaneously and without all hindrance in the life to come; to walk in that love with which Christ also has loved us — a sacrificial love — an odour of sweet smell to God.

Now love subsists already; there are faith and hope also. Not only shall these pass away, but even now, here below, that which is of the nature of God is more excellent than that which is connected with the capacity of human nature, even though enlightened by God, and having for its object the revealed glory of God.

In its permanence in heaven. Faith and hope are unspeakably precious to [those who were] sinners; but in their present form at least they are in their nature partial and temporary. If there hath been no sin they would not have been needed; and when sin has been completely removed, they will be needed no more. It is true that in faith and hope grow all the love which constitute the heaven of the redeemed; but it is equally true that when love is perfect, the faith and hope which bore it will disappear.