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The Christian interpretation of hope serves as an example of how unimportant the term can be in everyday speech.
On a deeper level, hope is a characteristic of all people.
True hope is far more than just a vague expectation that things will improve.
The nature of God serves as the foundation for Christian hope.
It is a hope based on God's love and fidelity.
The Christian hope is described as "an anchor for the soul, steadfast and secure" by the author of Hebrews.
We need to cultivate constancy in our own character as well as trusting God.
The resurrection of Jesus provides Christian hope with its assurance for the future.
Jesus' death and resurrection served as the catalyst for this for Christians.
Christian hope is the belief that God created the world with loving purposes in mind and that He is the source of all that is good in it.
It entails trusting that, ultimately, because of what Jesus accomplished, we are destined to partake in that goodness.
Both "sympathy" and "compassion" indicate more than just "feeling bad for" someone. They share many similarities.
To be compassionate, one must be humble and imaginative enough to partake in the lives of others.
Put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, he commands. (The Prodigal Son parable's father is not merely forgiving.
He is said to be overflowing with kindness.
Christians have always struggled to understand how a good God could let evil and suffering in the world.
God fully identified with human suffering in the life and death of Jesus and continues to work to transform the sufferings of the world through the work of the Holy Spirit.
In Christian theology, terms like "servant" and "service" are crucial.
Some of the most important prophecies in Isaiah speak of the coming of the 'Servant of the Lord' and his role as a 'suffering servant.'
That is why Jesus said that he 'came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.'.
At the Last Supper, Jesus cleaned his followers' feet.
Serving people entails serving God.
However, the Christian message is equally clear that service is not all about restrictions.
We achieve the highest level of freedom when we live lives of service.
Paul describes God as the God of peace, the Christian message is called the 'gospel of peace' and peace is one of the 'fruits of the Spirit'.
It seems that humankind has to learn and re-learn the message of peace.
Righteousness and justice are the foundations of peace.
Christians are called to share in Christ's work of restoring wholeness.
The Christian vision in this respect is far-reaching and challenging: harmony between people, harmony between people and God, and harmony between humans and the whole created order.
Humility has a central place in Christ's teaching.
Ultimately, pride seeks to compete with God, whereas humility acknowledges that God is God and that we should live in trusting dependence upon God.
The story of the Fall and the Tower of Babel are both about the potential of humanity to overreach itself, to want to be like God.
Jesus taught his followers that if they wished to enter the Kingdom of Heaven they must be like children.
Jesus is challenging people to become like those who have no legal or social standing, to become like servants.
The Christian doctrine of the Incarnation the Son of God taking human flesh is presented by Paul as the supreme act of humility in which Christ 'emptied himself' and took the form of a slave (Philippians 2:5-11).
The Christian message insists that it is through identifying with Christ's humble service and sacrifice that we rediscover that other truth about ourselves that we are sons and daughters of God and made in God's image.
The Bible makes it clear that God is on the side of the humble and against the proud.
In the parable of the Pharisee and the tax-collector, Jesus criticises those who are 'confident in their own righteousness' (Luke 18:9-14).
Christians are called to a humility that challenges the values of our surrounding culture.
Amos 5:24) Throughout the Bible, it is emphasised that justice is immensely important to God.
It is fundamental to God's character. '
Justice is not about a culture which encourages everyone to insist on their own rights at the expense of others.
It is about a community that knows that everyone's well-being is bound up with that of everyone else.
A commitment to justice leads to fierce opposition to injustice in whatever form it may be found.
Justice is a pre-requisite of peace: without justice there can be no peace.
Belief in God as creator is not merely a belief about how everything began; it is the perspective from which we are to view all life including our own.
It means that we place the highest value on this earth and see life as God's gift.
Now we are reaping the whirlwind: with climate change, crises over access to water and food, destruction of habitat and the rapid extinction of species.
We have been given the earth to look after by God and to hold it in trust for future generations.
Harvest and Rogation remind us of our dependence on the earth for our survival, and lead us to thank God as the ultimate source of all the earth's riches.
Although Genesis chapters 1 and 2 contain the most well-known accounts of Creation, it should be remembered that there are extended presentations of the wisdom and majesty of God the Creator in Job 38-41 and in Isaiah 40-45.
The New Testament comes to a close with a vision of a new heaven and a new earth where, in imagery that recalls the Garden of Eden, all are nourished by the spring of the water of life and all have access to the tree of life (Revelation 21).
Friends are not afraid to tell each other the truth and a friend's loving criticism is worth more than the empty compliments of someone who does not really care for you. '
The friendship of David and Jonathan is very strongly emphasised in the Bible, Abraham is described as the friend of God (James 2:23) and Jesus explicitly calls his disciples not servants but friends (John 15:14 15).
Trust, feeling comfortable in each other's company, being able to share joys and sorrows are all features of friendship and these are things of immense value.
Hymns like 'What a friend we have in Jesus' point to a relationship that is at the heart of Christian believing.
As Moses approached the presence of God in the burning bush, God said to him: 'Do not come any closer.
This scene captures something of the essence of 'reverence.'.
Reverence is the proper human response to what is holy and sacred.
It is related to awe and respect.
It is this profound respect that is expressed in the Biblical phrase 'the fear of the Lord'.
This profound respect for God is the spring from which true worship flows.
Although only God is truly worthy of reverence and worship, the Bible also contains the related concept of 'honouring'.
We are asked to honour one another and one of the ten commandments instructs us to honour our father and mother.
Forgiveness is fundamental to the character of God.
Throughout the Bible, God is described as slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin (Numbers 14:18).
Jesus was uncompromising in his command to forgive.
Forgiveness was at the heart of everything he did and is at the heart of the Lord's Prayer.
When Jesus declared a person's sins to be forgiven, it often aroused the anger of those who were less willing to forgive than he was and yet a prayer for the forgiveness of his persecutors was on Jesus' lips as he died.
Christian preaching has always put forgiveness at the centre.
We forgive because we are forgiven.
Paul says: 'Be compassionate and kind to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.' ( The parable of the Unjust Steward tells of a servant who was forgiven his large debt only to be condemned because he refused to forgive a small debt owed to him.
Forgiveness cannot be given or received unless it is asked for, and the asking must be genuine and from the heart.
The whole sacrificial system in the Law of Moses was based on the principle that forgiveness requires sacrifice.
Animal sacrifices are no longer offered, but the truth remains that forgiveness is costly to all involved.
Once we understand that, forgiveness can be truly liberating both for the person who is forgiven and for the person who forgives.