The Hope of the Christian is Not a Wish

“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.” Hebrews 10:23

If you’ve paid attention, you would realise that when the world uses the word “hope”, it’s only an expression of a wish which might or might not happen. Often, I receive an email or a text message from colleagues that begins with the sentence, “I hope you’re doing well?” Or well-meaning friends saying things like, “I hope you get well soon” or “I hope you get that job.” All these uses of the word “hope” are nothing more than an expression of a wish with no certainty or guarantee that it will ever come to pass.

The Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary defines hope as “to want something to happen and think that it is possible.” Two key concepts in that definition are wanting something and thinking it’s possible. One thing is obvious; there is no certainty at all in that definition. It’s all a matter of possibility. 

Unconsciously and unfortunately, some Christians use “hope” the same way the world does. However, that’s not how the writer of Hebrews uses that word. In chapter 10:23, he tells his readers to “hold fast the confession of [their] hope without wavering.” The first readers of this letter were not just people who were going for an interview and needed best wishes or colleagues in the office who were receiving an email of wishes of good health.

In chapter 10:32-34, we are given a glimpse into their circumstances. These were people who, after coming to faith, had “endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated…[they] joyfully accepted the plundering of [their] property.” It was amid much suffering, that the writer tells them to hold on to the confession of their hope, without being shaken by their struggles and trials.

If this hope was merely an expression of a wish, that would have been the emptiest of all encouragements. Imagine telling someone who has just been thrown into jail for their faith, “I wish you get released soon.” Or someone whose business has collapsed because of their stands against a certain anti-God societal practice, “I wish the government stops bothering you.”

That would be the most pitiful of all encouragements. The writer wasn’t just offering a wish to his readers; instead, he was telling them to hold fast to their hope. The hope he speaks of is a surety that their suffering is not in vain, and there is coming a day when God will right all wrongs and wipe every tear from their eyes. A day when their faith will be sight and they will see God face to face. 

In the second part of the text, he tells them the reason for encouraging them to hold on tightly to this hope: “for he who promised is faithful.”  The “hope” the world offers is just a wish because there is no guarantee it will come true. However, God stands behind the hope of the Christian to bring it to pass; it is rooted in his faithfulness. And the Bible tells us in Jeremiah 1:12 that God is “watching over [his] word to perform it.” That is the difference between the hope of the Christian and that of the world.

As Christians, we must also bear in mind what this hope is not. Many false teachers out there are promising Christians heaven on earth. It is important to expose this kind of false teaching, because it portrays God as unfaithful. These false teachers promise Christians what God has not promised. God has never promised us a bed of roses on this earth, therefore when we promise that to people, we are only harming their faith and making God out to be a liar. 

Some interpret the hope in Hebrews 10:23 to mean material blessings that must be realised on earth, but nothing is further from the truth. The hope the writer speaks of here is one that is beyond the grave. Yes, God has promised never to leave us nor forsake us; he will be with us even through the most difficult times (Hebrews 13:5). But this hope we speak of here has nothing to do with material blessings.

How do I know that? I know this because, in the last two verses of Hebrews 11, the writer inserts a very important comment about all the saints of old, from Abel to the apostles who held to the confession of their hope. He writes,

and all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.

These men and women didn’t receive what was promised because it was not meant for this earth. Other translations render the “confession of our hope” as “profession of our faith”; thus, we see quite clearly from the context that the hope the author speaks of is none other than the promise of eternal life and salvation, which God promises to those who place their faith in Him.

Like the first recipients of the letter of Hebrews, we are living in difficult times as Christians. Since the days of the early church, being a Christian has never been popular, and as Paul said in

2 Timothy 3:13, this is not going to change. “Evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse.”

Contrary to what many modern Christians would like to believe, the world is not going to get better. Things will get much worse as the day of the Lord approaches, which is why we are called to look forward to the world to come. Like the Hebrews, we can hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, because he who promised is faithful. What a great hope to hold on to!