Board index ‹ Specific Bible verses, texts, and passages ‹ 1 Corinthians

[Rogue One]

What is biblical 'hope' and how does this differ from regular 'hope'?

In the world when we talk about hope it's usually in the context of 'I hope [insert football team] wins their next match' or 'I hope [insert daughters name] passes her exam' and so on.

Hope seems a little frustrating yet the bible says 'these three things remain... Faith, hope and love, the greatest being love'.
What is different about the 'hope' in that context?

[jimwalton]

In the Bible hope is not just wishful thinking or a bright optimism. Paul uses the term to refer to confidence and certainty about the things we've been taught, and therefore believe. Our hope is in Jesus Christ, meaning He is the foundation of all we believe, and we know by evidence that He lived, died, and rose again. Therefore we can be confident and certain that our sins are forgiven, that Jesus was who He said He was, and the relationship with Him is real, and there is life after death with Him. This is our "hope". It's what we know. "Hope" has to do with the object of our faith (Jesus and his death and resurrection), the content of our faith (the Holy Spirit in us and the reality of new life), the means of our faith (salvation by faith through the blood of Christ), and the goal of our faith (eternity with Jesus and our ultimate deliverance from this world).

Our hope gives us the ability to look beyond our circumstances that otherwise appear hopeless. Hope is what we know to be true, what we know is our past life-change, our present situation as saved and filled, and our confidence that the future holds exactly what we've been promised.

[PJs]

Jim gave a great answer, I just want to add to it a bit.

Faith and hope are intrinsically connected. Paul actually uses hope to help define faith: "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see."

In Romans 8 he discusses hope a little more in-depth as well: "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience."

We have hope based on the promises of God, and we have faith that those hopes are are not without merit or validity because of who it is we have faith and hope in: God. Even when we cannot see what it is that we are hoping for (because "who hopes for what he sees?") we can have confidence that what we hope for will come about because God nothing is too hard for God.

[Rogue One]

Thanks. So to summarise, 'worldly hope' is not really hope at all, it is just wishful thinking, whereas 'spiritual hope' is more of an 'expectation' of the Bible's promises to come to fruition.

Assuming I have that right, does that expectation ever waiver in rhe same way that I guess faith can waiver? How are faith and hope different in that context?

Appreciate your time

[jimwalton]

"Worldly hope" is just wishful thinking, and sometimes reason to be optimistic (The Patriots hoped they would beat the Rams).

"Spiritual hope" is more than just expectation, though. It's our expectation based on the evidences we've been given that make our assumption of that expectation certain for us. I have a lunch appointment in a few minutes, and I'm going to drive to the restaurant meet my contact. In ways I'm just "hoping" (expecting) that the restaurant will be there, but in another sense I can be certain of it. I passed it yesterday; there haven't been any explosions, earthquakes, or fires.

So it's not just an expectation, but a certainty as much as anything about the future can be certain. I know that restaurant is there, and I'm leaving in 10 minutes. We can know that Jesus rose from the dead (past tense), death has been conquered (in the past() our salvation is secure (now), that the Holy Spirit is in us (now), as well as what I can expect to come to fruition in the future based on the Bible's promises.

[Rogue One]

Thank you for expanding. It is quite counter-intuitive to think of hope in the way you described because we only really associate the word with the wordly view of hope. I think you summarize the difference very succinctly and for that I am grateful.