"And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love." (1 Cor. 13:13, NKJV)

Sometimes when life gets hard or hectic, the best thing to do is sit down and remember what life is all about. For the Christian, life is about Jesus Christ and how we may glorify Him. Paul stated that his purpose of life was Christ, and this must be the Christians purpose today as well.

Paul gives us another hint of the Christian life in 1 Corinthians 13. In the love chapter of the Bible, he emphasizes that without love we are nothing, what love is, and love brings maturity. He closes out the point by stressing the basics of the Christian lifefaith, hope and love.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. The NIV translates Hebrews 11:1 as Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. It is being sure of what we hope forbelieving in God, and that God will reward us if we seek Him first in our lives. It is being so sure of God and His love that we know He will do everything for our good, and everything will work out. We are assured of heaven, though none of us have seen it. We are assured of God, though we have not seen Him.

Hope is to wish for something with an earnest expectation of its fulfillment. In terms of Christianity, it is the theological virtue defined as the desire and search for a future good, difficult but not impossible to attain with God's help. We hope for heaven, believing and knowing that it is there! We can see that there is an element of faith in hope, and that is why belief is so important and BASIC to the Christian life.

Love is the consummate virtuethe crowning virtue of the Christian. It is the motive that encourages us all to obey the Lord, and to look out for the good of our brother and neighbor. It is the oil of human relations. If it is missing, we are not a Christian. If it is missing, the church is not a church. Our lives and works are worthless without love.

The crowning proof of Gods love for us is the cross. To follow God, Christians must in like manner show the same love for their fellow men, especially for other Christians. When love is absent, people will see it and judge our service and our relationship to God by its absence. In like manner, when it is there, it is evident as well.

Do we love one another? Honestly! God knows, we know! It is interesting that God addresses this subject in one way or another in every epistle written by Paul. Could it be that the first century Christians needed to be reminded of loveof one of the basics of lifeas well as we? Will we listen?

A religious group called 4Him has recently put out a song entitled The Basics of Life. The chorus reads as follows: We need to get back/To the basics of life/A heart that is pure/And a love that is blind/A faith that is fervently/grounded in Christ/The hope that endures for all times/These are the basics/we need to get back/To the basics of life.

These words are based on Paulslets get back to the basics.