Hope and Love

Hope and Love.

“We are God’s house as long as we keep our courage and hold firm to the end our joyful and exultant confidence and sense of triumph in our hope in Christ.” (Hebrews 3:6).

Hope Described. “Hope moves the heart of God to come to our help with His grace.” (Cantalamessa).Various descriptions of hope might include: Hope is confidently expecting a positive outcome, as opposed to despair, which is fearfully expecting a negative outcome; hope is trusting God for one’s future, as opposed to doubt, which is distrustful of God for one’s future; hope is an optimistic assurance based on reality, as opposed to wishful thinking, which is based on uncertainty; hope is a patient waiting that keeps one actively moving forward, as opposed to a frustrating resignation which passively keeps one stuck; hope is the strong inner urge to work through a difficulty and do what one can to solve it, as opposed to the inclination to avoid a difficulty and thus not solve anything; hope is the positive conviction that there is something substantial to look forward to, as opposed to one’s pessimistic belief that the future holds nothing but a bleak emptiness; hope is the anticipation of a triumphant future in the long run, as opposed to someone who doesn’t even believe in the possibility of a long run of any kind. As the ancient Church Father put it, “Hope is the loving movement of one’s spirit towards that which it hopes for.” (St. Didacus). So hope is not only a deep assurance and steadfast conviction, but also includes the object of the hope itself, the hope in the flesh, Jesus Christ, “our blessed hope” (Titus 2:13).

“Love hopes all things.” (1 Corinthians 13:7). In other words, love is full of hope, or love is always hopeful, or love never stops hoping. But it seems that in this case, the hope isn’t based on one’s eternal salvation or one’s confident expectation of heaven in glory. In this verse, in fact in this entire chapter devoted to agape love, the context is one’s relationships with other people. So, one can easily take this to mean that love always hopes for the best for others. Love always desires what is best for the other. Love constantly believes that God is at work in someone, despite appearances. Love consistently sees the potential in someone, regardless of how often someone has disappointed you or failed you. Love trusts that the future of this person is full of good things and God’s grace. Love is confident that God’s purposes for that person will eventually be realized. Love takes the long view of someone’s life journey. Love looks at the big picture of someone’s life and doesn’t lock someone into his current or past failures. Love is always hoping for the best of a person. Love trusts that the Lord loves this person and has his future in His gracious hands. Hopeful love is faith in the future tense for each person one meets.

1. Love and Hope Produce the Good Eye. “… So if you have a ‘good eye’ your whole body will be full of light; but if you have an ‘evil eye’ your whole body will be full of darkness.” (Matthew 6:22). When someone had a ‘good eye’ in that biblical era, it referred to not only how generous a person was with his money and possessions, but also how generous a person was in how they looked at others around them… graciously, generously, favorably, positively. Jesus was highlighting the importance of giving others the benefit of the doubt. Don’t assume the worst motivation for someone’s questionable behavior. Believe the best about people, because only God knows the heart and can therefore judge rightly. Drop the critical spirit before becoming an incurable cynic. Don’t jump to conclusions about a suspicious action, but learn to make allowances. If we believe the worst about people, and judge them with contempt, we are acting as if we know what people are thinking and why they are thinking it. Instead, weight our scales of justice in that person’s favor, even if we think they might not “deserve” it. So Jesus agreed with the common rabbinic thought of “judging every person in favorable terms.”
2. The Evil Eye. When someone had an ‘evil eye’ during that time, it referred to a person who was not only stingy with one’s wealth but also with the amount of grace one demonstrated with those around them. The evil eye was quick to write someone off and consider someone a lost cause. The evil eye gave up on someone without mercy and expected the worst of someone. The evil eye judged others with the scales weighted against them. The evil eye rejected the ide of someone being able to change, or for god’s grace to work within someone to transform them. The evil eye was the opposite of the good eye… Instead of love and hope mingling together to someone elses’ benefit, it was hopeless rejection of the other.
3. Why should we value the ‘good eye’? Jesus supported that common Jewish idiom about the good eye vs. the bad eye, but he increased the challenge by focusing heavily on the main reasons for being magnanimous with others… Show mercy toward others because of God’s mercy towards each of us; give grace to others and allow them to have apparent weak moments, because God gives grace to us and allows each of us to show our humanity as well. We weight the scales in our neighbor’s favor, because God graciously weights the scales in our favor, despite our sinfulness. Judging others favorably doesn’t excuse sinful behavior, or pretend evil doesn’t exist, or remove any sense of moral accountability. Creator God did establish a moral universe, after all. The good eye instead graciously assumes a forgivable explanation for misbehavior. The good eye is always hopeful, seeking to understand others, loving the sinner while hating the sin. In terms of what’s truly going on in another’s heart of hearts, God only knows. Judgment is mine, says the Lord. 

Hope and Love are Braided Together. “What incredible joy bursts forth within us as we keep celebrating our hope of experiencing God’s glory! But that’s not all… Even in times of trouble we have a joyful confidence, knowing that suffering will develop in us patient endurance. And patient endurance will refine our character, and proven character leads us back to hope. And this hope is not a disappointing fantasy that will come back to shame us, because we can now experience the endless love of God cascading into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who lives in us!” (Romans 5:2-5).

1. The Holy Spirit Pours Love into our hearts. “ekkechytai” = to pour out in abundance; a lavish outpouring to the point of super abundance; a pouring out that began at some point earlier (the Cross, or perhaps one’s conversion), and continues to the present time; a continuous pouring out that floods the heart and is immeasurable; an ongoing soaking stream that is never withdrawn. Can we not clearly imagine the fingers of God picking up a silver pitcher of love that was just filled by the Father and the Son as we move from suffering to endurance to character to hope. The Trinity always has more love to offer, they never run out. We can see the hand of Christ guiding those fingers of God as the pitcher of love is tipped and pours out that love into the heart of every believer. We can then envision God’s love gushing out extravagantly from the heavenly container into our hearts of flesh. It has been said that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Love shared by the Father and the Son, that the love between the Father and the Son is literally the Holy Spirit. So we can see the Godhead joyfully pour this living Spirit of Love, God’s love, into the pitcher till it is full to overflowing, then the hand of Christ splashing that love into our hearts, the Spirit pouring Himself into our lives.
2. The Mystery of Hope and Love. Somehow we can see in this passage that love is a quality of hope, and hope is a quality of love. Each of those facets of God’s character produces the other in the oneness that is God Himself. Love is a fruit of hope, and hope is a fruit of love. These are eternal virtues that are somehow inside each other, divine qualities that are woven together in such a way that one can’t see where one starts and the other ends. Hope and love, love and hope, braided together by the Holy Spirit to strengthen our trust in God.

Hope is a Springboard for Love (Colossians 1:5). Once again, Scripture talks about hope. Paul says that love springs from the hope that is stored up for us in heaven. “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your trusting faithfulness in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the fellow believers, your faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven.” (Col. 1:3-5, NIV). Hope is a springboard for love. When we confidently embrace the future with hope, when we expect God’s hand on whatever is around each corner of our life, we are able to embrace the present with love. Love jumps out of hope. Hope propels love from our hearts to our neighbors, friends and enemies. Love arises out of hope, love proceeds from hope. If we can imagine a diving board at the swimming pool… Imagine love timidly approaching that board, a little unsure of what is to come. And imagine then that love gathers the trusting courage to walk out on the diving board of hope and boldly leap into the water with confidence and assurance. Hope is that diving board for love. Confidence in the future because of God’s goodness produces love, eagerly and joyfully anticipating good things from Him. So if we want to keep our love alive, then we need to keep your hope alive. Hope is like a resurrection of the heart of love. Hope is a love’s springboard.