Hope

If you were asked to name what you thought were the three most important virtues or characteristics for a Christian to have, I guess not many of us would include our hope for the future. But this is what the apostle Paul consistently does with his famous triad of faith, hope and love, not only in the well-known verse at the end of 1 Corinthians 13, but also elsewhere (Colossians 1:3-5; 1 Thessalonians 1:3). So why is hope so important in the Christian life?

The English word 'hope' is quite weak - we frequently use it in the sense of 'I hope so', but not really expecting that something will happen. But in the New Testament the idea is very different. The writers are talking about a sure and certain hope, a confident looking forward to something which is certainly going to happen. The focus of this hope is the Second Coming in glory of the Lord Jesus Christ to judge the world, vindicate his people, and establish the new creation.

The reason that hope is so crucial is because there is so much that we experience now which is hard and difficult. Our present sufferings and the evil around us should make us look forward to a better world. It is not that we hide on a hilltop and give up on life now. Rather the hope that we have gives us perseverance, because our hope for the future gives us something to look forward to, so we find the strength to keep going even when life is hard. Many Christians in the world today are suffering quite intense persecution. For them especially, the hope of the Second Coming is a very real and precious thing. For those of us for whom life is quite comfortable on the whole, it is not surprising if we don't focus much on the future. After all, the present is pretty good! But we need to realise that from a New Testament perspective such an attitude is unhealthy. We are not meant to be seeking prosperity, success and fame in this life. Rather, we are to wish to be among those who, though they may not be well off now, are 'rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him' (James 2:5).

Of course, in all this we need to beware of thinking that since this world is under judgement, we don't need to be concerned about what happens now. Karl Marx famously saw religion as 'the opiate of the people", keeping them from rebelling against the exploitation they were experiencing. Some people do indeed give up on caring about justice in this life. But such an attitude is the opposite of the biblical viewpoint. As Tom Wright, the bishop of Durham, has put it, 'What we believe about life after death directly affects what we believe about life before death.' The fact that we believe that God plans to renew the world gives us a huge incentive to care for it now. This involves not only caring for the planet and for environmental issues, but also being concerned for social justice, good government and artistic creativity. In Revelation 21:26 we read that the people will bring into the city of God 'the glory and honour of the nations'. Nothing that has been good and beautiful and right in life here now will be wasted or forgotten. Everything will be renewed and redeemed, restored to its original purpose in a loving Creator's plan.

Someone may respond by saying, 'It's not easy to get involved in the messy issues of politics and getting things changed for the better. Isn't it wiser just to keep out of involvement in the community as much as we can and enjoy worshipping God in church and enjoying family life while we wait for the joys of heaven?' But this is not what God wants. The basis and guarantee that the renewal of creation is God's intention is the resurrection of Christ. To quote Tom Wright again, 'Jesus is raised, therefore God's new creation has begun and we've got a job to do'.

Again, someone may ask, 'Isn't it possible that we're just deceiving ourselves? How do we know that this is going to happen?' Well, the resurrection of Jesus happened in history. The future has already invaded the present. And there is also something more subjective which is important here. Paul writes that our 'hope does not (not "will not") disappoint us.' Why not? Because even now, in the midst of the trials and hassles of life we experience, 'God's love is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit' (Romans 5:5). This wonderful experience in being immersed in a sense of the love that God has for us is both a foretaste of the joys to come and also a guarantee that our hope now, despite all appearances to the contrary, is not in vain.