Faith, Hope, and Love - 1 Corinthians 13
In this inaugural episode of the Faith, Hope, and Love podcast, host Michael Whitehouse dives deep into the iconic passage of 1 Corinthians 13. This passage, often quoted in weddings and known for its beautiful depiction of love, is explored to uncover its true meaning in the context of faith, hope, and love.
Michael begins by discussing the significance of these three virtues, using insights from the original Greek language to provide a richer understanding of the text. He explains the different Greek words for love—agape, philia, eros, storge, xenia, and philautia—and how each contributes to our understanding of Paul's message in 1 Corinthians 13.
Key Bible Verses Referenced:
- 1 Corinthians 13 (Entire Chapter):
- "If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal..." (1 Corinthians 13:1-13)
Highlights of the Episode:
- Introduction to the podcast's mission: dispelling myths and seeking truths in the Bible.
- Explanation of the context and deeper meanings of the words "faith," "hope," and "love" in 1 Corinthians 13.
- Exploration of different Greek words for love and their implications for understanding biblical texts.
- Discussion on the importance of approaching the Bible with a mindset of inclusion and understanding.
- Insight into how the misinterpretation of biblical texts can lead to exclusion and harm, particularly for marginalized communities.
Join Michael Whitehouse as he sets the stage for future episodes that will tackle more challenging topics and uncover the deeper truths of Christianity, beyond the rhetoric often found on social media.
Contact Information:
- Email: michael@guywhoknowsaguy.com
- Website: guywhoknowsaguy.com
Listen to this episode to embark on a journey of discovery and deeper understanding of the profound truths of Christianity.
Transcript
When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a
Speaker:child, I reasoned like a child.
Speaker:When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.
Speaker:For now, we see only a reflection as in the mirror.
Speaker:Then, we shall see face to face.
Speaker:Now, I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
Speaker:And now, these three remain.
Speaker:Faith, hope, and love.
Speaker:But the greatest of these, Welcome to the Faith, Hope, and Love podcast, dispelling
Speaker:myths and revealing truths in the Bible.
Speaker:I am your host, and I hope you consider me a guide, Michael Whitehouse.
Speaker:I am not a doctor of theology, I am not a practicing reverend or a pastor, but
Speaker:what I am is a Christian who is curious, a Christian who believes, Jesus teaches
Speaker:us faith hope and love and has heard a lot of things that didn't sound right
Speaker:and over the years I would hear things.
Speaker:It didn't sound right to me people talk judgment hate and sometimes self
Speaker:aggrandizement using the words of the Bible to support it and Sometimes I
Speaker:would look it up and find it, but I would be ill equipped to combat these
Speaker:misappropriations of biblical terms because I was not a biblical scholar.
Speaker:And then, recently, more tools became available to research the Bible,
Speaker:find the appropriate passages, and discover that yes, in fact, the Bible
Speaker:is based on faith, hope, and love.
Speaker:And I feel called to share my learnings with you here in this podcast
Speaker:form, and that is what I am doing.
Speaker:So I'm going to start with this passage right here.
Speaker:I was trying to think of a good name, and Faith, Hope, and Love seemed like
Speaker:a fantastic name, but then I thought, does it mean what we think it means?
Speaker:So the tools I use are artificial intelligence, because it will rapidly
Speaker:research, and The Bible, it has the original translations and can give me
Speaker:not only the words, but the connotations.
Speaker:And denotations, what used to take hours of research, finding scholarly articles,
Speaker:can, uh, now be retrieved in minutes.
Speaker:I do encourage you to do your own work as well.
Speaker:You can also use ChatGPT or other similar tools.
Speaker:And ask it and, uh, use perplexity, which will give you actual citations
Speaker:and refer you to other articles.
Speaker:I am not the be all and end all.
Speaker:I am not the authority on this.
Speaker:I am a man who has done some research based on my own beliefs
Speaker:and their beliefs that I believe to be true to the core of the Bible.
Speaker:But then again, those who I might be disagreeing with also
Speaker:believe their beliefs are core to the truth of the Bible.
Speaker:However, the key that I'm looking for is that I believe that God is
Speaker:about inclusion, that everyone is included and welcomed into God's
Speaker:house by whatever name they call God and whatever house they find him in.
Speaker:And there are others who would exclude God, exclude people from God's
Speaker:presence and from God's fellowship.
Speaker:And I do not believe that is appropriate.
Speaker:This episode, I'm going to go easy.
Speaker:I'm going to talk about just this passage about faith, hope, and love.
Speaker:Um, you know, be a little more mellow next week.
Speaker:We're going to be talking about Matthew 23, and that's when
Speaker:things are going to get real.
Speaker:But, let's talk about this passage, Faith, Hope, and Love.
Speaker:So, I looked at these three words, I said, I know what Faith, Hope, and Love
Speaker:means, but the Bible wasn't written in English, it was written in Greek.
Speaker:So, I wanted to see what these words originally meant.
Speaker:So, here's the thing, this phrase is often used in weddings, because
Speaker:it's got the word love in it, right?
Speaker:And, you know, love, weddings are all about love.
Speaker:So, it's appropriate!
Speaker:So we talk about, you know, love is patient, and all this.
Speaker:Uh, in fact, let me read the whole, the whole, uh, chapter this comes from.
Speaker:This is Corinthians 13, in which Paul says to the, the church of Corinth,
Speaker:If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only
Speaker:a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
Speaker:If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all
Speaker:knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but I
Speaker:do not have love, I I am nothing.
Speaker:If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship,
Speaker:then I may boast, but do not have love.
Speaker:I gain nothing.
Speaker:Love is patient.
Speaker:Love is kind.
Speaker:It does not envy.
Speaker:It does not boast.
Speaker:It is not proud.
Speaker:It does not dishonor others.
Speaker:It is not self seeking.
Speaker:It is not easily angered.
Speaker:It keeps no record of wrongs.
Speaker:Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with joy.
Speaker:The truth.
Speaker:It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Speaker:Love never fails, but where there are prophecies, they will cease.
Speaker:Where there are tongues, they will be stilled.
Speaker:Where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
Speaker:For we know in part, and we prophecy in part.
Speaker:But when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.
Speaker:When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a
Speaker:child, I reasoned like a child.
Speaker:When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me, for now we see only
Speaker:reflection as in a mirror, then we shall see face to face, now I know in part,
Speaker:then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known, and now these three remain.
Speaker:Faith, hope, and love.
Speaker:But the greatest of these is.
Speaker:Love.
Speaker:Well, we know what love is, right?
Speaker:And we think about this in the context of a marriage.
Speaker:We say, oh, we are patient with each other.
Speaker:We are kind.
Speaker:We do not envy.
Speaker:Do not boast.
Speaker:We're not proud.
Speaker:We don't argue.
Speaker:We're not easily angered.
Speaker:We work together.
Speaker:And that would be great, if that was what the word meant.
Speaker:But the word that you are thinking of in Greek would be eros.
Speaker:Eros refers to passionate romantic love, often associated with
Speaker:physical attraction and desire.
Speaker:But the word that Paul used was agape.
Speaker:Agape refers to the selfless, sacrificial, unconditional love often used to
Speaker:describe God's love for humanity and the kind of love that Christians are
Speaker:encouraged to have towards one another.
Speaker:Agape is love for the community.
Speaker:It is love for the people around you.
Speaker:Now consider the passage in that context.
Speaker:Love is patient.
Speaker:Love is kind.
Speaker:It does not envy.
Speaker:It does not boast.
Speaker:It is not proud.
Speaker:It does not dishonor others.
Speaker:It is not self seeking.
Speaker:It is not easily angered.
Speaker:It keeps no record of wrongs.
Speaker:Imagine that, but not for your husband or your wife, but for
Speaker:everyone in your community.
Speaker:Takes on a bit of a different flavor, doesn't it?
Speaker:It does not delight in evil, but rejoices in the truth.
Speaker:Always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Speaker:Imagine that.
Speaker:For your entire community.
Speaker:Your neighbors, your church, your company, your clubs, and your greater family.
Speaker:Changes the context a little bit, doesn't it?
Speaker:Here in the western world, we're very insular.
Speaker:We have the nuclear family.
Speaker:You got me and my spouse and my kids and maybe my parents and siblings?
Speaker:And other than that, screw them all!
Speaker:I care about people around me.
Speaker:My tribe.
Speaker:The rest of them, meh.
Speaker:But Jesus said, Your neighbor is everyone.
Speaker:The whole point of the Good Samaritan is Well, we think Good Samaritans
Speaker:are like, Oh, Samaritans are good.
Speaker:No, no, no, no.
Speaker:The reason he told that story the way he did was Samaritans were one
Speaker:of the most disdained, one of the most hated groups of people known
Speaker:to the Jews, who was his audience.
Speaker:Samaritans actually were Jews, but they were a different branch.
Speaker:And so his audience really, really, really didn't like them.
Speaker:Like, they were dirty, despicable, dishonest, awful people.
Speaker:They were people who would rob you and stab you as soon as
Speaker:they looked you in the eye.
Speaker:And so when Jesus talks about the good Samaritan, He means
Speaker:that everyone is your neighbor.
Speaker:We'll get into that one.
Speaker:I think we should dive into that one in another episode.
Speaker:But, there's actually six.
Speaker:Words for love.
Speaker:There's many more actually.
Speaker:Greek loved words for love.
Speaker:More next.
Speaker:Eskimos love words for snow.
Speaker:So, Sixthly, we got agape.
Speaker:Agape is love in the community sense.
Speaker:There's philia, as in Philadelphia, brotherly love, affectionate, friendly
Speaker:love, the love between friends characterized by mutual respect,
Speaker:shared values, and companionship.
Speaker:There's eros.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:That's what you're thinking of when you're thinking of a wedding.
Speaker:Passionate romantic love, physical attraction, and desire.
Speaker:But Eros gives way to Storgi.
Speaker:Storgi is familial love, the love a parent feels for their children,
Speaker:and vice versa, love among siblings.
Speaker:And also, I believe, the love among spouses over time.
Speaker:Eros transitions to Storgi.
Speaker:Now, while some couples do keep that flame alive and they are passionate after years,
Speaker:other couples Maybe you're no longer erotically engaged, erotic, eros, same
Speaker:root, but they have this storgy love, they have this comfort, and they are very happy
Speaker:together, and that can be so much more satisfying than the greatest erotic love.
Speaker:There's also xenia.
Speaker:Xenia.
Speaker:Uh, hospitality or guest friendship.
Speaker:The concept of hospitality and generosity shown towards those who are far from home.
Speaker:This is perhaps Perhaps.
Speaker:A form of love that we in the Western world might learn
Speaker:to appreciate a bit more.
Speaker:Because in that culture And in Biblical times, and basically every place the
Speaker:Bible applied to, the stranger, the traveler, there was a deep obligation
Speaker:to serve them, to take care of them.
Speaker:The idea of turning away a traveler and leaving them to
Speaker:starve was simply anathema.
Speaker:And the Bible, of course, does talk about this.
Speaker:We'll talk about that another time.
Speaker:Another one that's important is Philoutia.
Speaker:And I may be mispronouncing this Greek, I don't know, but phalautia means self love.
Speaker:Now this can have both positive and negative connotations.
Speaker:Self love, positive.
Speaker:Self respect, healthy boundaries.
Speaker:Seeing yourself as a child and creation of God.
Speaker:And it can also mean selfishness.
Speaker:It can also mean, yeah, I'm a pretty big deal.
Speaker:It can mean arrogance.
Speaker:So it can mean both of those.
Speaker:But this is important when Jesus says, love others as you love yourself.
Speaker:Philoutia is pretty powerful.
Speaker:There, if you don't have it, if you hate yourself, and then you love others that
Speaker:you love yourself, eh, not quite so good.
Speaker:But, the important thing is, this is common, right?
Speaker:Faith, hope, and love.
Speaker:We know what that means, right?
Speaker:But we don't, because we're thinking of a different kind of
Speaker:love, not the love for community.
Speaker:And if we use this in a wedding, well, no big deal.
Speaker:No harm.
Speaker:It doesn't hurt the marriage.
Speaker:It doesn't damage anything, but this is the tip of the iceberg of the parts of
Speaker:the Bible that we don't understand because we're not going back to the original
Speaker:translation or the original context.
Speaker:And there's, there's three ways that we can fail to understand the Bible.
Speaker:Well, maybe four.
Speaker:One is taking out context.
Speaker:You take one line and don't read the line before it.
Speaker:To know what it actually means.
Speaker:Certain lines, without the line before them, mean something totally different.
Speaker:You could probably clip some word out of, or some phrase out of this podcast
Speaker:right here, and flip my opinion on its head by taking it out of context.
Speaker:The second way that we might misconstrue the Bible is misunderstanding what
Speaker:it means, what the words mean.
Speaker:What we're talking about here.
Speaker:And a third way would be the context.
Speaker:You have the words, you know what the words mean, but the culture the
Speaker:words are spoken in is different.
Speaker:And when we talk about homosexuality in the Bible, we're going to
Speaker:get into that quite a bit.
Speaker:And a lot of this comes from, Overlaying your own beliefs and then looking
Speaker:for things to back it up because many people who spout Bible verses left
Speaker:right and sideways Don't actually know the Bible beginning to end.
Speaker:They don't know the background of it they know the verses that back it up
Speaker:they have a ready bag a quiver of verses that they can pull out for different
Speaker:occasions a man shall not lie with a man as he does with a woman is an
Speaker:abomination right a go to verse but They don't understand the context.
Speaker:But it supports something they already believe, so there we go.
Speaker:We're having a good day.
Speaker:Now, to some degree, that's what I'm doing.
Speaker:I believe that the Bible is built, especially the New Testament,
Speaker:which is what Christians follow, on faith, hope, and love.
Speaker:And anything I hear that contravenes that, faith, hope, and love, doesn't
Speaker:sound right, and I'm gonna go check it.
Speaker:I'm gonna go find verses that back up my And we all come from that perspective,
Speaker:which I encourage you to do your own research and not like go Google
Speaker:it and you'll find your own thing.
Speaker:You may do your own research and find something different from mine.
Speaker:But you can do exactly what I'm doing.
Speaker:What I'm doing is I'm going into an AI platform.
Speaker:I'm using ChatGBT4 Omni at the moment.
Speaker:And I ask it, What does the Bible say about this topic?
Speaker:And then I'll see a word, and I'll know that word could be mistranslated, and
Speaker:I'll say, what is the original Greek or Hebrew of that word, and what does that
Speaker:mean, and what are the connotations?
Speaker:And that's where you find some of the meaning.
Speaker:You can also ask, for the, the, the context as well.
Speaker:And the thing is, ChatGBT is trained on public domain information,
Speaker:and there is a lot of biblical scholarship in the public domain.
Speaker:ChatGBT probably knows more about the Bible than any other topic,
Speaker:because there's so much of it that's so readily accessible.
Speaker:And, uh, if you want Perplexity, because that will give you the original
Speaker:materials you can go back and search to.
Speaker:So by all means, do that.
Speaker:But I did look up the other two words.
Speaker:Faith and hope, right?
Speaker:We know what faith and hope means, right?
Speaker:Faith means I believe in God.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And hope means that I, I, I hope for a better future.
Speaker:I can vision.
Speaker:I don't know if it's going to happen, but I hope, right?
Speaker:That's what it means, right?
Speaker:Sorry.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:So faith comes from the Greek pistis.
Speaker:And Pistis conveys a strong sense of trust, confident and reliability, a deep,
Speaker:unwavering trust in God and his promises.
Speaker:Faith isn't just like, oh, I'm faithful, I go to church every Sunday.
Speaker:Faith is, I do not fear death because when it comes, I know it is part of
Speaker:God's plan, so why would I fear it?
Speaker:That's faith.
Speaker:Faith is, I'm willing to go through hardship.
Speaker:If I believe it is God's plan, or I'm willing to read from that hardship that
Speaker:God is giving me the hardship to drive me in a different direction because I have
Speaker:faith in God and his plan and his power.
Speaker:There's a, uh, a poster I have on my wall.
Speaker:It says, Faith is not believing that God can.
Speaker:It is knowing that God will.
Speaker:But God will follow God's will because God knows more than us.
Speaker:God is the captain and we are merely the crew.
Speaker:Not even like an officer.
Speaker:We're just the crew.
Speaker:It's the guy pulling a rope.
Speaker:God's the one who sees the big picture.
Speaker:He knows where the whole fleet is.
Speaker:He has the maps.
Speaker:We're just on the deck pulling a rope.
Speaker:And if God says pull the rope, you pull the rope.
Speaker:Because God knows the big picture.
Speaker:That is faith.
Speaker:So what is hope?
Speaker:Hope is another one that, you know, when I say like, I hope you have a good day.
Speaker:If you don't have a good day, well, you know, I'm not really invested in that.
Speaker:I didn't make you have a good day.
Speaker:It's kind of hope.
Speaker:I hope you have a good day.
Speaker:This is different.
Speaker:Help us.
Speaker:Elpis in Greek signifies a confident expectation and assurance of future good.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:Not hope.
Speaker:Hope is not a plan.
Speaker:Well, Elpis is a plan.
Speaker:I know it's going to happen.
Speaker:Active waiting and anticipation for God's fulfillment of his promises.
Speaker:I know it is coming.
Speaker:So when we say faith, hope, and love, we're Faith means absolute confidence
Speaker:that God is here for us, that we are part of his plan, that he knows all of
Speaker:our flaws, built us the way he meant to for his reasons, and will not abandon
Speaker:us because we are part of the plan that he needs for his plan to unfold.
Speaker:Hope means that we are confident that that time will come, that God's plan
Speaker:will unfold as it is meant to, and love means unconditional, complete.
Speaker:Love, support, embracing of every neighbor in the community, which
Speaker:is every person on this earth.
Speaker:These three remain, faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love.
Speaker:Now try to tell me God hates fags.
Speaker:The words of the Bible, in English, have come down to us through many translations.
Speaker:Often through multiple languages and many copying, simply handwritten,
Speaker:a piece of paper generally doesn't last for more than a hundred years.
Speaker:So the words we're seeing have been transcribed over and over and over again.
Speaker:Try this, try writing something, handwriting a page, and then
Speaker:every 30 days copied over.
Speaker:You know long enough, you've forgotten it.
Speaker:Copied over.
Speaker:Look at it After a year.
Speaker:Compare the first to the last, see how many slight things have changed,
Speaker:how many key words have changed.
Speaker:And in this innocuous phrase, Faith, hope, and love, but
Speaker:the greatest of these is love.
Speaker:Think about how we misunderstand that.
Speaker:And now imagine how we misunderstand the important ones.
Speaker:The ones that people have died for, the ones that people have been killed for,
Speaker:the ones that people's lives are ruined for, the ones that allow people, that
Speaker:cause people to close the gates of God and to close the doors of the house
Speaker:of God in the face of those seeking.
Speaker:Imagine how we've misunderstood those phrases.
Speaker:Because I believe, with all my heart, that there is not one word in the
Speaker:Bible That says that we should, or even can, close the doors to the house
Speaker:of God, to any of God's children.
Speaker:And if I sound a little bit passionate, a little bit upset about this, I am.
Speaker:Because I read stories of people, Who have had that door closed in their face.
Speaker:What inspired me, and I'm going to get into this in a, in future episodes.
Speaker:But what inspired me to finally do this, I've been thinking about this for a while.
Speaker:I didn't have the tools for a while.
Speaker:You know, it would have taken too long to do all the research,
Speaker:that's why I didn't do it.
Speaker:You know, it's not a job, I'm not getting paid for it.
Speaker:Um, I'm doing this because God's called me to do it.
Speaker:But, that's part of it.
Speaker:But the other thing is what told me this is the time, it is time to do it now.
Speaker:As two particular events happened.
Speaker:One was that a man who claims to speak for God acted in a way that
Speaker:did not seem consistent with that.
Speaker:And, uh, I'll share that story at another time.
Speaker:But Suffice it to say, that story could apply to quite a few
Speaker:people in quite a few situations.
Speaker:And then the other thing that really drove it home was I was sent a copy of a book.
Speaker:And that book is called Pride and Prejudice Healing Division in
Speaker:the Modern Family by Matt Salmon.
Speaker:And I was sent a copy of this book because Dr.
Speaker:Salmon had reached out to me to interview me about my Neurodiversity
Speaker:Superpowers podcast and concept.
Speaker:Because he was raised as a gay boy in the Church of Latter day Saints.
Speaker:He went through conversion therapy.
Speaker:Or conversion therapy abuse, more accurately called.
Speaker:He went through a lifetime of being told that he was having sinful
Speaker:thoughts put into his head and the thing that he was, was evil.
Speaker:At least the LDS church accepted that this was a challenge from Satan.
Speaker:He wasn't intrinsically bad, he was simply being tested by Satan with these
Speaker:thoughts and that, It was something to overcome, as opposed to many churches
Speaker:who are actually teaching that he is just bad, sinful, and could not
Speaker:enter heaven, which is even worse.
Speaker:But to read his story absolutely touched my heart.
Speaker:I've heard stories like this before.
Speaker:I know many people in the LGBT community.
Speaker:But to read his story in the same week that I saw the other thing told me,
Speaker:this is God tapping me on the shoulder.
Speaker:And what really drove it home was I was talking to my wife and saying, I'm doing
Speaker:all the right things in my business.
Speaker:It's not coming together.
Speaker:Why is that?
Speaker:And then I remembered.
Speaker:A time when this happened in the past, a number of years ago, when things
Speaker:weren't coming together, and I felt called to speak, to use my voice.
Speaker:And I, and in the first episode of that podcast, I said, I am called to speak,
Speaker:and I feel God is telling me he will not let things come together until I do
Speaker:what I am called to do, until I use the gifts to teach what I am meant to teach.
Speaker:And I believe that is happening again.
Speaker:And I believe I am called.
Speaker:I could be wrong.
Speaker:I could just think I'm special.
Speaker:And I could just be some guy.
Speaker:Who has some opinions and likes sharing it, likes talking in a loud voice, kind of
Speaker:fast, and, uh, sound like I know things.
Speaker:It could be that.
Speaker:I accept.
Speaker:I have the humility to accept that this may or may not be a calling
Speaker:from God, but I think it is.
Speaker:And that's why I'm here.
Speaker:And that's why I'm sharing what I'm sharing, and most
Speaker:importantly, I'm sharing this.
Speaker:The audience I most want to reach are people like a young Matt Salmon.
Speaker:The people who have been told that their church does not accept them as
Speaker:they are, the people who have been told by others who have misunderstood or
Speaker:intentionally misrepresented the word of God to suggest that they are not
Speaker:worthy, that they are not good enough.
Speaker:There's many reasons people do this, we'll talk about that in future episodes.
Speaker:But I want to share with them that these three remain.
Speaker:Faith.
Speaker:Hope and love, but the greatest of these is love and God's
Speaker:love is absolutely for them.
Speaker:And if that is you, then I want to share with you that God's love is for you.
Speaker:If you are human and hearing these words, then God's love is for you.
Speaker:Yes, even you, no matter what you've done, no matter who you
Speaker:are, God's love is for you.
Speaker:So I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Speaker:You can email me at michael at guy who knows a guy dot com.
Speaker:That's michael at guy who knows a guy dot com.
Speaker:Uh, that's my business website.
Speaker:Guy who knows a guy dot com.
Speaker:If you want to learn more about what I do as a, as a coach and entrepreneur, that's
Speaker:not what this podcast is about, of course, but if you're curious, you can certainly.
Speaker:Find me there and stick around because there's gonna be a lot more I'm recording
Speaker:at least the first two episodes right now in a run and said that second
Speaker:episode It's gonna be a little Little hotter and heavier than this first one.
Speaker:This first one's kind of calm compared to the second one So I will look
Speaker:forward to seeing you next week.
Speaker:And if I can support you in any way do feel free to reach out Thank
Speaker:you for listening and God bless you
