Faith, Hope, and Love in Discipleship
Many churches in America struggle with healthy discipleship and instruction toward Christlikeness. The church today can glean an immense amount of wisdom by looking at some of the teachings of the ancient church. This is not because the past embodied the ideal of perfection. If we have the patience and humility to listen to the voices of tradition, however, we just might learn something. There are depths in scripture our forebears saw, but which modern society cannot mine. I believe by looking at the past we can find examples of well-rounded instruction that teaches doctrine, spiritual vitality, and practical love of God infused with faith, hope, and love.
History of Catechesis
The terms “catechesis” and “catechism” are often used in the Christian tradition for a comprehensive process of Christian instruction and formation. Our English word “catechesis” comes from the Greek katecheo, which is used multiple times in the NT. Two examples are Luke 1:4 and Acts 18:25. The word is used of Theophilus and what he has been taught, and of Apollos in Acts 18:25: “He had been instructed in the way of the Lord.” The Didache is one of the oldest Christian documents outside the NT and functions catechetistically. In the 400s we see catechesis as a process initiating newer believers into the Christian faith with an overview of scripture, doctrine, prayer, the Ten Commandments, and the sacraments. Augustine’s Enchiridion (meaning handbook) is meant to be a sort of catechism of basic Christianity. Augustine follows the rubric of the three theological virtues: faith, hope, and love. An explanation of the creed covers faith. Hope prays, and the Ten Commandments teach love. During the Middle Ages catechesis mostly waned, but it found new life in the Reformation and Post-Reformation eras. These catechisms also followed the pattern of creed, prayer, and the Ten Commandments (many added sacraments as well). The Roman Catholic Church renewed its commitment to catechesis in response to the growth of Protestant churches (see Grounded in the Gospel for a summary of the history of catechesis in Christianity).
Historic catechisms give a holistic structure for Christian discipleship which offers robust orthodoxy, spiritual vitality, and loving practice. When read in light of Augustine’s Enchiridion we can see in them the three theological virtues of faith, hope and love. Going over the creed offered doctrinal depth and shaped the mind in what to believe (faith). Teaching the Lord’s Prayer offered a pattern for Christian prayer and cultivated spirituality (hope). The exposition of the Ten Commandments gave instruction in the Christian love of God found in the first four commandments and love of neighbor found in the six latter commandments. In the expositions of the commandments care was taken to show that these involve both external actions and internal affections of the heart (love). There is so much one could say about this topic, but I want to hone in on the idea of a rightly balanced Christianity achieved through the interplay of doctrine, prayer, and practice, as well as the graces or virtues of faith, hope, and love.
Contemporary Imbalance
In his book Holiness, J.C Ryle said “truth distorted and exaggerated, can become the mother of the most dangerous heresies” (William Hunt and Company, 1887, 23). Ephesians 4:13 speaks of God’s will for the church to reach maturity, a telos that involves a properly proportioned Christianity, or the golden mean. Today some churches make the focal point of teaching proper intellectual and rationalistic doctrine but have little hope and love. They rightly emphasize truth but neglect love of neighbor and experiential love of God. Doctrines such as the Trinity and the nature of Christ are important and necessary, as is proper exegesis. A creed and faith with no hope and love, however, is much like the faith of demons who believe in God, but neither love him nor hope in him.
Theological inquiry not infused with hope or love can even be dangerous. In his First Theological Oration, Gregory of Nazianzus said “not to everyone, my friends, does it belong to philosophize about God…For the impure to touch the pure is, we may safely say, not safe, just as it is unsafe to fix weak eyes upon the sun’s rays” (Christology of the Later Father, Westminster John Knox Press, 2006, 129). A study of theology where arrogance, speculation, and autonomous rationalism replace wonder, worship, prayer, hope and love is corrupting to the soul. Those who focus on just doctrine should remember a proper theology is one “which brings a student to the feet of Christ” and leads to love, as 1 Corinthians 13 says. Doctrine does impact how we pray and worship, but we must also remember “Lex orandi lex credendi”: that is, the law of prayer determines the law of belief. This expresses the often-neglected interplay of how prayer and worship also impact our doctrine.
Other churches may focus disproportionately on spirituality. They have grasped that Christians have a living hope. There is an emphasis on emotional experiences, spiritual gifts, or encounters with God, but not on proper doctrine or practice. Such a Christianity is impoverished of practical love and a faith that lacks the beautiful substance and wisdom that doctrine and tradition can give. This may lead to a faith tossed about by every fad, every political hot take, and every self-help method. The experiential churches must take heed of God’s commands to love him with all the mind as well as all the heart. They may err by adopting the cultural norm of making love just a feeling or sentimentalism. Indeed, we must not quench the Spirit, but if we quench the God-given gift of teaching or administration we are quenching one manifestation of the Spirit’s work. When it comes to practical Christian love, James does not say pure and undefiled religion is ecstatic worship services or powerful altar calls. Rather, he says pure and undefiled religion is the care of orphans and widows and to keep oneself unpolluted from the world (James 1:27).
Still others may make Christianity only about “love” to the neglect of proper teaching about doctrine and the new birth. Yes, an orthodoxy devoid of Christian love is not true orthodoxy. 1 Corinthians 13 does say love (agapē) is the greatest gift, greater than faith and hope. Jesus also says the entire summary of the law is love of God and neighbor. Nonetheless, to say Christianity only needs love, to the neglect of doctrine and personal transformation, will not do. That is like saying since the most important part of a house is the foundation, then the house does not need a wall or roof.
Without proper doctrine our love aims at the wrong things. In the Bible we see examples of even agapē love being wrongly ordered. In the LXX Ammon is said to love (agapē) Tamar, yet he rapes her and then hates her. In the New Testament, the Pharisees loved (agapē) their seats of power (Luke 11:43). Our love and affections must be properly ordered and aimed. J. Gresham Machen, writing Christianity and Liberalism to confront the liberalism of the early twentieth century, says,“Help a drunkard to get rid of his evil habit, and you will soon come to distrust the modern interpretation of the Golden Rule. The trouble is that the drunkard’s companions apply the rule only too well; they do unto him exactly what they would have him do unto them—by buying him a drink” (Macmillan Company, 1923, 37). Think of the debates over euthanasia. Without proper doctrine, loving your neighbor can turn into building institutions to help to kill them. To rightly order our love we need a transformed heart. Once again Machen puts it well:
Strange indeed is the complacency with which modern men can say that the golden rule and the high ethical principles of Jesus are all they need, if the requirements for entrance into the kingdom of God are what Jesus declares them to be, we are all undone; we have not even attained to the external righteousness of the scribes and pharisees and how shall we attain to that righteousness of the heart which Jesus demands? (Macmillan Company, 1923, 38).
Without the new birth, the indwelling Spirit, and prayer we will not have the transformation, purity, or discernment to truly love. Without the forgiveness and reconciliation offered in Jesus, God’s command of “love your neighbor as yourself” leaves us all in a state of being hopelessly short of his standard.
A Properly Proportioned Christian Formation
Faith, hope, and love are mutually supportive and interconnected just as creed, prayer, and practice are all connected. Discipleship and formation cannot divorce these. Our doctrine impacts our prayer life and practice. Yet our prayer life also impacts our doctrine and practice. Christian practice too will shape doctrine and prayer. All three interplay with each other in what should be a harmonious whole.
Often in the modern era theological education and Christian instruction are considered an information transfer. Teaching disciples is often just an intellectual exercise. By contrast, some Christians are suspicious of doctrinal instruction. It is seen as head knowledge, speculative and impractical. In the premodern church, however, Christian instruction was meant to lead to a formation of the whole person. The Enchiridion and other catechechetical works offer a template of faith, hope, and love, all woven together in Christian discipleship and doctrinal instruction. The content of catechesis in the early church included right belief, right prayer, and right Christian life. Discipleship and catechesis were never meant to be merely intellectual or the theoretical checking of boxes. Rather they should involve formation toward Christlikeness. Many premodern traditions also wove truth, beauty, and goodness into their teaching. They weren’t just concerned with showing Christianity as true. They also wanted to show how it was good and beautiful. By learning the creed, understanding the Lord’s Prayer, and living out the Ten Commandments, Christians grew in faith, hope, and love and had their eyes opened to the way that is true, good, and beautiful.
Dallas Willard often said something to the effect of, we are all undergoing formation, it is just a matter of what is forming and shaping us. Our churches, families, and children are all being catechized, instructed and formed. It is just a matter of who is doing it? Is it a catechism of consumerism, secularism, moralism, nihilism, fundamentalism, or Marxism, or one of faith, hope and love towards Christlikeness?
Caleb Jordan currently lives in Arlington, TX , and does pulpit supply in the Christian and Missionary Alliance.