Hope

Hope - (Easton's Bible Dictionary)

One of the three main elements of Christian character (1 Cor. 13:13). It is joined to faith and love, and is opposed to seeing or possessing (Rom. 8:24; 1 John 3:2). "Hope is an essential and fundamental element of Christian life, so essential indeed, that, like faith and love, it can itself designate the essence of Christianity (1 Pet. 3:15; Heb. 10:23). In it the whole glory of the Christian vocation is centred (Eph. 1:18; 4:4)." Unbelievers are without this hope (Eph. 2:12; 1 Thess. 4:13). Christ is the actual object of the believer's hope, because it is in his second coming that the hope of glory will be fulfilled (1 Tim. 1:1; Col. 1:27; Titus 2:13). It is spoken of as "lively", i.e., a living, hope, a hope not frail and perishable, but having a perennial life (1 Pet. 1:3). In Rom. 5:2 the "hope" spoken of is probably objective, i.e., "the hope set before us," namely, eternal life (comp. 12:12). In 1 John 3:3 the expression "hope in him" ought rather to be, as in the Revised Version, "hope on him," i.e., a hope based on God.

Hope - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

HOPE, n. [L. cupio.]

1. A desire of some good, accompanied with at least a slight expectation of obtaining it, or a belief that it is obtainable. Hope differs from wish and desire in this, that it implies some expectation of obtaining the good desired, or the possibility of possessing it. Hope therefore always gives pleasure or joy; whereas wish and desire may produce or be accompanied with pain and anxiety.

The hypocrite's hope shall perish. Job 8.

He wish'ed, but not with hope--

Sweet hope! kind cheat!

He that lives upon hope, will die fasting.

2. Confidence in a future event; the highest degree of well founded expectation of good; as a hope founded on God's gracious promises; a scriptural sense.

A well founded scriptural hope,is, in our religion, the source of ineffable happiness.

3. That which gives hope; he or that which furnishes ground of expectation, or promises desired good. The hope of Israel is the Messiah.

The Lord will be the hope of his people. Joel 3.

4. An opinion or belief not amounting to certainty, but grounded on substantial evidence. The christian indulges a hope, that his sins are pardoned.

HOPE, v.i.

1. To cherish a desire of food, with some expectation of obtaining it, or a belief that it is obtainable.

Hope for good success.

Be sober and hope to the end. 1 Pet 1.

Hope humbly then, with trembling pinions soar.

2. To place confidence in; to trust in with confident expectation of good.

Why art thou cast down, O my soul,and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God. Psa 43.

HOPE, v.t. To desire with expectation of good, or a belief that it may be obtained. But as a transitive verb, it is seldom used,and the phrases in which it is so used are elliptical, for being understood.

So stands the Thracian herdsman with his spear,

Full in the gap,and hopes the hunted bear.

HOPE, n. A sloping plain between ridges of mountains. [Not in use.]