Paul speaks here of the love for each other and the faith in the Lord Jesus. How regrettably these two precious gifts to the Christians have been lost over the centuries!
Maybe we have grown tired of love and faithfulness because they have degenerated into human virtues, whereas they should have been fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). But the fruit of the Holy Spirit can only be there when the Spirit Himself is present. And if we have grieved the Holy Spirit and driven Him from the church - which should have been His temple - (2 Corinthians 6:16) how could the fruits of the Spirit still be revealed within the church?
Maybe we have expelled the Spirit of God by piling sin on top of sin, without having had ourselves cleansed by the blood of the Lamb. But if the fellowship in faith - which the church should be - is not focused on thoroughly getting to know ‘the good deposit that was entrusted to us’ - to His glory - how could such precious gifts as love and faithfulness still be revealed? If we, on the contrary, prefer to view each other critically and are only too eager to detect whatever is lacking in each other, how could love and faithfulness then still prosper?
No, let us thank God for all that still remains of love and faithfulness! And let it be our desire as a church to be a community of faith again, and to be actively involved in all that He in His grace wants to grant us. Then we will be amazed daily, and we will want nothing more than to preserve all the good that He entrusts us with, as the most valuable treasure in all the world.