How can you know that the gospel is at work in a church?

‘So now faith, hope and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love’ (1 Cor. 13:13).

Life as a Christian can be summed up in three words: faith, hope and love. They appear together time and again in the New Testament, and form the abiding shape of the Christian life. They provide the climax of Paul’s great chapter on love in 1 Corinthians 13. They define a church shaped by the gospel. How can you know that the gospel is at work in a church and bearing fruit? Because its members are marked by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, love for all the saints (other Christians), and hope in what God has stored up in heaven for us (Col. 1:4-6).

Sometimes Paul mentions just faith and love (e.g. Eph.6:23; 1 Thess.3:6; 1 Tim.1:14; 2 Tim.1:13). Occasionally he mentions faith and hope (Titus 1:1-2). But the three really belong together (1 Cor. 13:13; Col. 1:4-5; 1 Thess. 1:3). Can I encourage you to pick up a Bible and look up those references, by the way? It will do you far more good.