Answer: Hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, Whom He has given us, (verse 5).
MORE INFORMATION AND/OR OTHER SCRIPTURE REFERENCES:
"and hope does not disappoint us" means that our hope in Christ is NOT an illusion. It is not fake, false or "smoke and mirrors." One commentator has said that, "the believer's hope is not to be equated with unfounded optimism. On the contrary, it is the blessed assurance of our future destiny and is based on God's love, which is revealed to us by the Holy Spirit and objectively demonstrated to us in the death of Christ."
Again, the proof that hope does not disappoint us is "because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, Whom He has given us." God's love, in the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, holds a Christian's hope steady. Only by the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5)--being born of water and the Spirit (John 3:5)--can our hearts be filled with divine love. This is the ONLY way that we can enter God, Christ and the Holy Spirit (John 17:20-23) and take hold of the hope of eternal life with Them--that is, in, with and through Christ, Whose blood cleanses us and makes us perfect. We then receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
God, Christ and the Holy Spirit are all Truth. Truth is God's Word. This Word promises persevering Christians eternal life. And this is the hope that we cling to AS we persevere, developing a character that will not allow us to be deterred us from our goal. THIS is the hope that does not disappoint because God will not ever fail to keep this promise (and ALL of His promises) to His children.
In each of the following Scriptures, we see a character honed by perseverance, which is now filled with hope, AND that character exalts, boasts, and stands in awe and reverence, of the great love the Father has lavished on His children:
Philippians 1:20-21: "I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain."
Hebrews 3:6: "But Christ is faithful as a son over God's house. And we are His house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast."
1 John 3:1-3: "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as He is pure."
