Hope in this life is rooted in the belief that positive outcomes are possible, even amid uncertainty. It is a state of mind that nurtures resilience, strength, and openness to change. Hope does not deny reality; rather, it creates room for possibility and inner strength. It is a fundamental component of well-being, shaping life satisfaction, personal growth, and the ability to cope with stress and adversity. True Christians cannot abandon hope because they believe positive outcomes are possible, since God cannot lie.
“Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which God can’t lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek” (Hebrews 6:17–20 NIV).
Every achiever shares one common trait: hope. Without hope, a person is defeated and succumbs to failure. Twenty-seven years of unjust imprisonment is long enough to break an ordinary person. Only a rare individual keeps focus under such circumstances. This is what places Nelson Mandela among the iconic models of this world.
Helplessly watching a close relative endure debilitating malignant cancer can be devastating. In my case, more than forty years after losing a biological brother who died after enduring cancer, my emotional pain has not fully healed. What makes death from cancer peculiar, compared with other deadly diseases, is its impact on hope, affecting both sufferers and those closest to them.
However, credit is now due to the medical profession, because there is a glimmer of hope in the fight against cancer. Those with hope focus more on positive outcomes than on negative ones. People who can sustain hope are commonly far-sighted. They rejoice even while going through painful experiences in this world.
Hope is intertwined with faith. For Christians, faith is sustained by the hope of resurrection. One cannot have faith without hope, and it is impossible for a person without faith to have hope. Great achievers do not give up at the first attempt, because hope keeps them focused. Exceptional achievers often endure years of discouragement before finally realizing success.
Farmers are among the most hopeful people. They invest in farming inputs without considering the possibility of a devastating drought. They are ever ready to confront the worst droughts, hoping for the best in the face of adversity. This is what sustains the farming industry. They may endure several successive years of drought without giving up. Christianity is sustained by hope, especially the hope of the promised resurrection, when God’s promises are taken as authentic.
For those who believe in God’s existence, hope sustains everything about their existence. They have confidence in what they hope for, as long as they are assured of the reality of God’s existence. This differs from those who claim to believe while leaving God out of the picture. Therefore, the starting point is to establish the basis for believing in God’s existence. Abraham is alive today because of the hope he projected in his relationship with God.
Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living” (Matthew 22:29–32 NIV).
Nothing said by Jesus can be doubted by those who believe in Him. Physically, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are dead, since they are not seen by physical humans. However, Jesus said they are alive. The state of Abraham’s living condition was sustained by the hope he displayed. What kept Abraham alive, as Jesus implies, was the confidence Abraham conditioned himself to appreciate, so that his life remained even after his death.
“By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, ‘It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.’ Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead and, figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death” (Hebrews 11:17–19 NIV).
The assurance upheld by a hopeful person cannot be taken away. This is why Jesus said such a person is alive even when known to be dead. These are people whose happiness no one can take away. The confidence that sustained Abraham’s faith until his death was his hope in God’s promises. A Christian who does not doubt, like Abraham, would have received God’s promises. That person cannot be shaken by anything, exuding confidence without a shadow of doubt.
“So in Christ Jesus, you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:26–29 NIV).
Those who believe everything Jesus said and rely on His promises have no reason to doubt God. Hence, they are called God’s children. A person is not God’s child as long as he or she doubts being God’s child. Those who believe in God are alive, although known to be dead. This is what Jesus implied by saying God is not the God of the dead but of the living (Matthew 22:32). There is no confidence surpassing the assurance derived from Jesus.
Everything Jesus said is as certain as hoping for the rising sun tomorrow. Generally, everyone knows that the sun will rise from the east. That certainty grants a foregone conclusion. One goes to bed without doubting that the sun will rise from the east. A person may doubt being alive the next day, but that does not take away certainty that the sun will rise from the east.
This is why hope can be likened to life itself. When assured of the resurrection, how can a person be caught up and scared of dying? The answer lies in not being sure of what Jesus said. That person would therefore not be God’s child. One may declare being a Christian, but as long as one is still scared of death, that person would not be God’s child. Hope is displayed even at birth. After birth, a small baby can suck anything that resembles its mother’s breast.
The baby hopes to be fed, even without a clue where food will come from. The baby’s cry is an instinctive invitation for help, driven by hope. The life of Jesus is the prototype of hope, coming from someone who had full knowledge of life beyond physical existence. The pain of the crucifixion was excruciating, but He remained resilient to the end, aware of the futility of the temporary pain imposed on Him.
Without hope, there is no life to speak of; hence, some people easily assume suicide to be the easy way out. The unfortunate thing is that as the baby grows up, it is given wrong information. The child is led to believe false information from adults. It derives satisfaction from the idea that introversion is appealing and necessary for survival. The civilizations that perished are those that maintained self-centeredness rather than altruism.
Hope for survival is sustained in altruism, coupled with the knowledge of being God’s child. The starting point is appreciating that God’s greatest characteristic is love. Where there is love, there is God. This drives us to appreciate what love is and what love is not. Affinity can be mistaken for love when it is actually the opposite of love. Affinity is based on common agreements. In other words, I get along well with those who support the same football team I support. However, that does not necessarily mean I love such people.
There would be no love in that condition, only affinity, which can also be mistaken for love but is conditional. Criminals can have affinity with those engaged in similar activities. Prostitutes can share affinity. But that does not mean there is love among them, except the attachment caused by affinity. If one decides to break ranks with those hooked on prostitution, for whatever reason, the affinity is also broken.
Modern marriages can be another example of affinity mistaken for love. Courts are filled with divorce cases because such marital unions are sustained by affinity rather than love. Affinity is often mistaken for love; hence there are accusations against one another. In short, while love carries hope, affinity carries no hope, because it can be violated at will. Affinity is sustained by a contractual agreement, which collapses when one party violates it. Hence, divorce cases are rampant. There would be no love in such marital arrangements.
Where love exists, divorce would be out of the question, as love is sustained by hope. One spouse may violate the marital vow. But as long as the other spouse maintains love that projects the hope of restoration, it becomes impossible to break that marriage. This is why Peter said that love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8). Jesus gave a factual description of marriage in the context of unconditional love. Due to deception in Christianity, divorces are also rampant among those identified as Christian believers. This is due to misinterpretation of what Jesus said when answering the Pharisees’ question.
Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?” “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” (Matthew 19:3–6 NIV).
Jesus was quoting Genesis 2:24, which was before Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden. Originally, marriage implied that it was impossible to separate a married couple, as it was sustained by love, suggesting that such couples cannot be separated because they form a unitary whole. Therefore, in our sinful condition, love has to be sustained by hope if one appreciates that it is impossible to divorce one’s spouse for any reason. Because the questioners lacked faith, they could not be satisfied by Jesus’ answer, which affects even our generations, considering humanity’s intractable sinful condition.
“Why then,” they asked, “did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?” Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery” (Matthew 19:7–9 NIV).
Because of humanity’s hardness of heart, what Jesus said has been twisted. “Except for marital unfaithfulness” is a wrong interpretation. The Authorized New King James Version states, “Except for reason of fornication.” The two sexual practices should be viewed as different. Fornication implies a sexual relationship between unmarried people, commonly committed by teenagers in youthful folly. It is different from adultery or marital unfaithfulness. A person who consensually has sexual relations with someone for the first time becomes a bona fide husband or wife of that person.
Such people would not be committing adultery, because in this view both would be married to each other. God recognizes that union as having authentic marital standing. Godly conduct requires an honest declaration before marriage to a different partner, stating why the fornicators did not go ahead with the marital union. Why was that love affair broken? It might have been an unreported rape, or sheer youthful folly. The most important thing is that everything should be clearly disclosed before the wedding.
Otherwise, a new spouse would be committing adultery by failing to address that previous fornication, since it suggests that the person is married to the one who first had sex with her or him. Failure to disclose one’s previous fornication makes it impossible to marry a new partner without addressing the previous sexual relationship that did not translate into marriage. When engaging in marriage after discovering such fornication, one would be committing adultery.
If a person had sexual relations with another man or woman during childhood, that anomaly ought to be disclosed to the new spouse, who then decides whether to agree to marry such a person depending on the merits of the case. Otherwise, a properly solemnized marriage cannot be violated by divorce, even if the other spouse is caught in adultery. God’s children understand forgiving as many times as may be necessary.
Hope serves to activate the love that compels partners to bear with one another’s weaknesses, including adultery. True Christian love cannot ignore a wife or husband who sincerely confesses having been seduced into adultery, for whatever reason. The only problem that Jesus referred to is when truthful disclosure was not made before marrying another person. Marrying such a person is prohibited, which explains the exception for divorce Jesus gave.
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, and it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres” (1 Corinthians 13:4–7 NIV).
In God there is no room for falsehood, but there is room for forgiveness when a partner is morally loose. The first time a woman’s virginity is broken, that act seals the marital relationship of those involved, if both were unmarried. If either of the two is married, that conduct would be adultery and not fornication. God solemnizes the marital union in the first sexual encounter between a man and a woman, an act known as fornication when they are unmarried.
A man or woman who tolerates an adulterous partner, on the condition that he or she repents from such behavior, applies the principle of love. That kind of love is different from affinity in that it is sustained in hope. This is not how marriage is commonly interpreted in traditional so-called white weddings displayed in Christian churches. Such declared “white weddings” are often a public show of chastity that may not even exist. True love is found in truthful disclosure of sins committed.
“Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, and I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now, we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:8–13).
True love is sustained by honest confession, not by pretending to be virtuous when the opposite is true. As Christians, in our humanity, it is important to confess our sins honestly to one another and to forgive as many times as we continue in our physical bodies, as long as God is pictured in such confession and forgiveness. It is impossible for any person to talk about love without faith, just as it would be impossible for one without hope to exercise love, all of which require truthfulness.
Affinity should not be mistaken for love among Christians if infidelity is to be eliminated. The principle of love is achievable where there is hope that the sinful person might change from sinful conduct. A free person forgives easily, not one who holds grudges and refuses to forgive. Many troubled marriages result from failure to understand the principle of marriage, which requires honest disclosure and mutual tolerance until death.
Andrew Masuku is the author of Dimensions of a New Civilisation, which lays out standards for lifting Zimbabwe out of its current economic depression and into a model for other nations worldwide. A decaying tree provides an opportunity for a blossoming sprout. Written from a Christian perspective, the book is a product of inspiration, offering relief to those who have witnessed the strings of unworkable solutions leading to the current economic and social decay. Most Zimbabweans should find the book to be a long-awaited providential oasis of hope, in a simple conversational tone.
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