People always hope for the best, even in the face of adversity. So says a guy named Alexander Pope, in a poem he wrote entitled “An Essay on Man,”
“Hope springs eternal in the human breast; Man never Is, but always To be blest. The soul, uneasy, and confin’d from home, rests and expatiates in a life to come.”
To be honest, I am probably the farthest thing from a poetic scholar or expert. I took American Lit in high school, and while I passed, barely, my friend Dean and I competed for who understood poetry the least.
Thus, I will not try to discuss the overall meaning or intention of Pope’s poem. However, in my truly uninformed opinion, Pope seemed to be arguing that while life seems pointless to one living in the middle of it, order can be found in God.
That said, I think very few people who have spoken the phrase “hope springs eternal” even realize it comes from a classic piece of literature, which serves as an affirmative poem on faith.
In the same way, many use other turns of phrase they don’t realize come from the Bible, “apple of my eye” (Deuteronomy 32:10; Psalm 17:8), “…a man after my own heart” (1Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22).
Very much like those verses, people have taken Pope’s phrase and turned it into a glib cliché or shallow saying. We might hear “Oh you know, hope springs eternal” when someone buys a lottery ticket or hoping your favorite team wins the championship despite several losing seasons.
People will keep on hoping regardless of the odds against them — and the phrase seems to be utilized when those odds are largely stacked against them, and the desired outcome is highly unlikely. The term “pipe dream” easily comes to mind. A wish made with little to no confidence that it will occur.
This raises what I believe are greater questions: what is the biblical viewpoint on “hope” and does it indeed “spring eternal?” When Paul writes about “the hope” that is part of the gospel message, is it the same “hope” we refer to today?
What Is Biblical Hope?
I have often said that when we attempt to translate words from other languages into English, we confront a challenge. So often, our words are so literal — lacking depth and meaning. So many requiring many more adjectives to convey the feeling or to leave the true impression intended.
It is why I believe we are at a loss when reading the Bible unless we are fluent in Hebrew or Greek. Greek has at least four different words for love, each with its own connotation — erotic love, love of friends or brothers, love of parents or children, and God’s love for mankind and that love returned. All different words in Greek — but one and the same in English.
In the Old Testament, we see the Hebrew word(s) for hope some 48 times. For very good reason, though, the term has a somewhat different connotation than that used in the New Testament. The words used refer much more to waiting and enduring.
Obviously, this is true because the Messiah was expected but had not yet come. While that is an important point, let’s put our focus on what hope means in the New Testament. In other words, what hope means to a disciple of Jesus Christ.
The word hope in the New Testament is from the Greek word elpis. According to Strong’s Concordance, elpis means expectation, trust, and confidence. It comes from the root word elpo, which means to anticipate (with pleasure) and to welcome. Elpis is an expectation of what is guaranteed.
What is guaranteed? That is worth repeating. Elpis refers to what is guaranteed. Elpis appears more than 50 times in the New Testament. Each time it is used to describe an anticipation of future events that are certain to come.
Hope, as used in the New Testament, means looking toward the future with confidence. With the assurance of trust in God’s promises, as fulfilled in Jesus Christ. It comes with a sense of joy, and it’s all related to Jesus Christ.
Not wishful thinking, as used today and implies so much doubt. On the contrary, it is a confidence that what we expect will happen, and we can wait for it with peace and joy. Such hope outweighs and overwhelms current circumstances, whatever they may be.
Putting it another way — “Christian hope is a confidence that something will come to pass because God has promised it will come to pass” (John Piper).
Biblical hope is based on faith and trust.
What Is the Difference Between Faith and Hope?
“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1).
Faith and hope go hand-in-hand — one cannot be had without the other. If we have no faith, then we also have no hope. Yet, when we have faith in God, that faith generates a hope that tells us what our future holds. We trust in his promises and know they will come to pass.
This article says it this way: “Faith and hope are complimentary. Faith is grounded in the reality of the past; hope is looking to the reality of the future. Without faith, there is no hope, and without hope, there is no true faith.”
Because we have experienced sunrises and sunsets, we have confidence they will occur again and again. Based on our experience with gravity, we know that if we drop something, it will fall to the ground.
Such is our faith and hope in God and in his Son, because of our knowledge and trust in the truth, we have absolute confidence in his promises for our future. Our faith produces our hope.
And so often, Christians need to have faith and hope. When the maze of life takes wrong or unexpected turns; when our lives are turned upside down by unexpected events; when death or illness darken our futures — we must have confidence in the light of hope. And that hope must be based on faith.
Seven Traits of Hope
1. Perseverance brings hope. “Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Romans 5:3-4).
2. Hope is always in the future and never seen. “For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we have hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently” (Romans 8:24-25)
3. Hope brings joy and peace. “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer” (Romans 12:12).
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13).
4. We have hope for a resurrection. “…we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him” (1Thessalonians 4:13-14).
5. Hope makes us bold. “Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold” (2 Corinthians 3:12).
6. Our hope is secure. “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure” (Hebrews 6:19).
7. Without Christ, there is no hope. “…remember that at that time you were separated from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God” (Ephesians 2:12).
Without Hope Is Without God
If you saw a deaf person on the tracks, and you heard the whistle of the train while they did not — wouldn’t you choose to save them?
Then what would prevent you from trying to save those without hope and without God?
Does not hope spring eternal? Indeed, it does!
For further reading:
What Is Hope and Why Do We Need it so Badly?
Christianity.com’s Top 10 Questions of Hope in 2020
5 Encouraging Psalms to Give Hope in Difficult Times
Photo Credit: ©Unsplash/lmtrochezz
Greg doesn’t pretend to be a pastor, a theologian, or a Bible expert, but offers the perspective of an everyday guy on the same journey as everyone else – in pursuit of truth.
Greg can be reached by email or on Facebook @ Greg Grandchamp - Author.
